Dawn had not changed much in ten years. She was taller. Her hair was longer. Her facial geometries were less exaggerated; sharper, more adult-like. But those characteristics were secondary to the fire in her eyes, the passion that only seemed to burn brighter since I'd last seen her.
The dinner, before I'd seen Dawn, had been a slow one. I talked about research with Rowan and the visiting professor from the Johto region. I explained some of my studies on Burmy's evolution to an uninterested man near the refreshment table. Et cetera. The host claimed it to be the most expensive dinner ever held in Veilstone, and whether or not he was right, it was by far the most lavish I'd ever been to. The room was divided into two halves. The right side was the dining area, designated by tables dressed in red and gold tablecloths and topped with unique silver centerpieces. On the left, a battleground, marked with a gold Poké Ball symbol in the center. The left side was off-limits for now, as a referee in a striped shirt talked to a group of men in suits I identified as the event organizers by the emblems on their jackets. I felt like an imposter. I was never much of a city person, and this was my first time in Veilstone. On top of that, most of the people around me were significantly and visibly richer than I was. I couldn't help but feel like people noticed how out-of-place I felt.
"Lucas? Oh my god, is that you?" Dawn approached me, her salmon-pink gown shimmering under the massive, crystalline chandelier. She wore a string of pearls around her neck. Her bluish-black hair was pulled into a complex up-do, with wavy strands falling to either side of her face. In her hand, she gripped a wineglass like a tennis racket.
I laughed. "Yeah, it is," I said more quietly.
She dropped her voice to my level. "How long has it been? Five years?"
"Six, I think. How have you been?"
"I've been tearing it up since we last saw each other." She sat down across from me and set her wineglass in front of her. She rummaged around in her purse and removed something like a wallet with a Poké Ball symbol on it. She held it up, and it unfurled to reveal four different sets of badges. I recognized Sinnoh's eight, but couldn't identify the others. The bottom-most set was missing the last three badges.
I smiled. "How's your Pokédex coming along? Rowan asks me about it all the time." I imitated his voice, "'Is she finished that damn thing yet?'"
"It's…" Dawn twirled a strand of her hair around her finger, "… coming along. I've been kind of preoccupied with other stuff, anyway. I just got back from the Sevii Islands."
"Did you say hi to my parents?" I asked.
She smiled and rolled her eyes. "I thought about it, but I couldn't remember which one you were from. Also they have no idea who I am."
"Understandable. It's Six, by the way."
"Oh, right! You're Bugs McCool!"
"Speaking of which, do you love Bug Pokémon yet? Have all of your travels expanded your mind?"
Dawn knit her eyebrows. "I'm still not a hundred percent sure if I like Bug Pokémon all that much. Not because I'm creeped out by them, I just think they're kind of weird and not very strong, a lot of the time." She paused. "Sorry."
"Oh, no, I'm not hurt or anything. You're just insulting a part of my soul. It only cuts deeper than any blade ever could."
"Shut up," Dawn laughed.
"But hold on. You like Psychic types, and you think Bug types are too weird?"
Dawn tilted her head. "You don't like Psychic types?"
"I don't trust anything that can read my mind."
Dawn took a sip of her wine, waving her other hand dismissively. "Anyways, how's old Fort Sandgem holding up? Sounds like Professor Rowan misses me really bad."
"Well, I think he's slowly losing his mind. Unlocking the secrets of evolution must be taking a toll on him. But other than that, it's peaceful. Sometimes it's even a little warm outside."
"I don't know how you managed to live in the Sevii Islands. It's ridiculously hot there."
"Dawn?" The unmistakably gruff voice of Professor Rowan came from over my shoulder. I turned to see him towering above me. Despite having worked for the man for the better part of a decade, hearing him without warning made me flinch.
"Professor!" Dawn stood and hugged Rowan, who offered no reaction. Maybe a smile flickered under his white mustache.
"How has your journey treated you?" he asked when Dawn released him.
"It's been so much fun! I've been to Hoenn and Kanto and just, all over the place. I'd show you some of the Pokémon I've caught, but I don't think this is the place to do that."
"And how is your Pokédex coming along?"
"I told you," I murmured. Rowan glared at me.
"Well, it's not… awful," Dawn replied. "I have info for a hundred and seventy-six Pokémon nationally."
"Hm," Rowan said.
"'Hm' as in I'm-proud-of-you-Dawn or 'Hm' as in unsatisfactory?" She deepened her voice, attempting to imitate the professor.
"Hm," he repeated.
Dawn looked at me, as if I were somehow more capable of translating. I shrugged.
"I do hope to see more Pokédex entries from you. It was nice seeing you, Dawn, but I was in the middle of a very interesting discussion. I hope to see more Pokédex entries from you." He gave a curt nod, then turned and walked towards a table seated by other professors, including the one from Johto, who almost cowered in Rowan's shadow as he approached the table.
"So," Dawn said. "Is Missy here?"
"No, shes's back in Sandgem," I lamented. "I thought about bringing her, but the Professor says she makes people nervous. I figured I should play it safe." I drank some of my wine. "So, how did you end up getting invited?"
"Huh? Oh. I didn't. I hustled the security guards. I told them if I could beat one of them in a battle, they had to let me in… And then, when that didn't work, I just had Professor Elm vouch for me."
"Ladies, gentlemen." The sound of silverware on glass shushed all conversation. "It is an honor to be dining among the sharpest minds in the world." The host stood at the front of the room, in a silver tuxedo bearing the yellow 'G' of his organization on the breast of the jacket. Cyrus.
Cyrus was a human automaton. His spiky, blue hair was so neatly-combed it almost looked like a wig. He moved with a reserved, calculated grace as he slowly navigated the room and continued his speech. "Team Galactic is dedicating the profits made during tonight's fundraiser to creating a cleaner, better future for mankind and Pokémon alike." The dinner hall filled with muted, respectful applause. Cyrus's face remained stony, unflinching as he waited for his audience to quiet down. "We will be pouring the majority of tonight's donations into our new solar energy research facility in Eterna City. The perfect future can only be achieved with help from generous donors such as yourselves. Please enjoy the rest of the dinner. Exhibition battles will be opening soon, for those interested. Thank you all."
The room applauded again, and Dawn turned to look at me. "There's just something about him," she said.
My face contorted into something ugly. "Please don't tell me you think he's hot."
Dawn wrinkled her nose. "What? No way! It's more like… I think he's cool, and I admire what he's doing."
"Ehh." I leaned towards Dawn on my elbows and murmured, "I don't trust men like him. He talks so much about the perfect future, but he says so little about it. He tells the scholars and the media exactly what they want to hear, but nothing else. What exactly is he researching, and what is it for? Call me crazy, but I can't help but be a little wary of him."
"Yeah, when you talk like that, it's kind of hard to not call you crazy… Or at least, paranoid."
"Tape your webcam," I joked. "He's spying on all of us."
"Attention, dinner-goers!" called a man in a striped shirt, standing next to the battleground. "Exhibition matches are now open! Any trainers interested may now step forward!"
"Oop, that's me." Dawn hopped up, hurrying to one side of the battleground. Opposite her stood a man with dark, graying hair and a turquoise bowtie. Dawn sifted through her purse. She pulled out a Poké Ball, which expanded in her grip. She tossed it and unleashed a brown Pokémon with red, round fists like a kickboxer's gloves. Hitmonchan. Had I not grown up in the Sevii Islands, a region often visited by Kanto citizens, I might not have recognized it. The Pokémon bounced on the tips of its feet and glared, determined, from behind raised fists.
The man with the graying hair sent out a Luxray. Static sparks jumped between the dark spikes of its mane, as it pawed eagerly at the floor. Its tail whipped around in the air behind it.
The trainers and their Pokémon stared one another down, searching for cracks and weak points. Most of the eyes in the dinner hall were now turned to the impending battle, silent save for a few explanatory whispers and murmurings of "What's that brown Pokémon?"
It was Dawn's opponent who made the first move.
"Use Discharge!" he shouted, jabbing his finger forward.
Luxray ran in a circle. Its fur puffed out, bursting with a wave of electricity. Hitmonchan raised his fists, flinching and twitching as the electricity coursed through him, but remaining on its feet. Dawn's hair began to frizz.
Dawn clenched her fists at her sides. "Ice Punch!"
Hitmonchan raised his fists again and charged. Luxray started to run, but it was clear that Hitmonchan was faster. He pulled his fist back as he closed the distance, coating it in frost and jagged ice crystals before slamming it into Luxray's side. The ice crashed to pieces, scattering in shards on the floor as Luxray tumbled to its trainer's feet. It stood a moment later, shaking off the injury and sending sparks flying like a mini fireworks display.
A shadow loomed over me as I watched my old friend battle. I looked up, expecting Rowan but finding Cyrus, his scrutinous gaze on the battle, a glass of white wine between his fingers.
I don't know why I spoke to him, and after all that's happened I wonder if I should have never done so in the first place. "I taught her how to catch Pokémon, you know."
Cyrus turned his head slowly to look down at me. "Do you know who she is?" he asked me. "I don't recall inviting her."
"I do. She's one of the best trainers in the region. She has all of the badges in three regions, and she's working on a fourth." I don't know if I was trying to be her hype man, or challenge Cyrus for her, or what. I couldn't tell how he was taking it. It was impossible to read his facial expression because it didn't change.
After a moment of watching a barrage of Comet Punches from Hitmonchan, Cyrus said, in his frigid voice, "How unfulfilling is it? Battling when victory is the only thing at stake?" I didn't realize he'd been looking for an answer until he stared down at me again.
"Oh. Uhh, I wouldn't really know," I replied. "I'm not a trainer. But there's more to it than victory. There's personal improvement and reputation, too."
"What meaning does reputation have?" He asked the question as if he were genuinely analyzing my statement, combing it for logic. "Dawn will die one day. She will be survived by those who knew her. When they die, she'll be survived by those who know her stories. But they will die, and she will be forgotten."
"What human achievement isn't temporary? Kings built huge palaces in their own honor, and now we dig them out of the sand. People like to think they're important, and that they'll be remembered forever, but no one really will be."
"Then does our existence even matter, in the history of time and space?"
"I don't think the history of time and space matters to us," I said. "We're barely a notch in that timeline."
I finally saw a twinge of something in Cyrus' unrelenting stoicism. Scorn. "What a morbid philosophy." He turned his gaze back to the battleground. "I am not resigned to transience. When my dreams are realized, I will be impossible to forget."