Author's Note: I'm sorry for all the confusion! I should've made my first author's note more informative. I've updated my profile with answers to questions about the fic that I got from PMs and reviews. If you were confused, check it out, please! However, please note that I only wrote about things that will not be explained directly in the story.

I hope a little bit of confusion can been alleviated with that. Some of your questions may be answered in this chapter, so read on, and remember to review! Also, there is a bit of bad language and violence in this chapter. Nothing that would send nuns into a coma, though. ;D

Enjoy, folks!


"Enough already!" My feet caught a thick root on the ground, helping me jam myself to a full stop. In the abruptness, Paul's hand slid off of mine. "If you don't explain to me what's going on right now, I'm calling the police,"

For a long moment, Paul stood there on the other side of the root, panting, his coal eyes flaming as they watched me toggle my cell phone. I folded my arms and raised an eyebrow in inquiry at his seemed defeat. That was just too easy.

All of a sudden, he shrugged, breaking his rigid stance to throw me a heartstopping smirk.

I gulped. "What are you looking at me like that for- hey!" In a flash, he swatted the phone from my hand and snatched me off of my feet and over his shoulder. "NO! Not again! Put me down!"

It was just like in one of those cheap comedies, where I was graced with the role of butt monkey. Buizel and Croagunk were in Reggie's house, my phone was in Paul's pocket, and I was too cold and fatigued to put up a fight. My words flew out like gunfire.

"I swear, the second you drop me, I will kick your ASS! Do you hear me?"

Paul shrugged sharply for added measure. "Yeah, I hear you. Can you shut up, actually? Do you realize the kind of trouble you're in?"

I allowed myself to slump miserably on his shoulder and muttered, "Not as much as you're going to be,"

"I really doubt that, Dawn," Knowing flatness seeped into his tone.

I frowned. "Prove it. Tell me who those guys were, right now, and you can take me to Hoenn, if you want to,"

His pace stopped immediately, throwing my whole body forward with the halt. A severe quietness engulfed the forest as he thought, and for the first time I noticed how dead and twisted the branches were, supporting the buckets of snow piled on top of them from the blizzard. Suddenly I was dragged from my stupor by the sensation of slipping from his shoulder, before finally I collapsed into the snowy ground, flat on my face.

"Thanks," Snow was crammed into my mouth from the face plant, garbling my sarcasm. "Ew. Pokémon probably pee in this stuff, Paul,"

Paul's black eyes glittered with dark humor. "You wanted to me to let you go,"

"You act like such a jerk, you know that?" I deadpanned, picking myself up onto my feet. For a moment I realized that what I'd said was me acknowledging that I knew that he wasn't a bad person at all.

He pondered my statement. "I know. I kind of am,"

That struck me for a moment. "Exactly what do you mean?"

A moment of silence settled over the snow dressed woods before he answered me. "I mean not everything I've done is honorable,"

"That holds the same for everyone," I said matter-of-factly. "Can you explain what you did that was so terrible?"

Staring intently at me, he leaned back against a snowy tree and began.

… … … … … … … … … … … …

"Do you know about Team Galactic?" He said casually.

Images of malicious-looking people in glamorized spacesuits floated through my head. "Yup. They were the reason my mom wouldn't let me start training until I was 14,"

"Well, I spent a couple of months helping the police arrest Team Galactic's 89th division of grunts. Those guys were-"

There was a chorus of crunching that stopped his words. After a confirming look over his shoulder, he grabbed me by the arm and practically towed me through the snow, into a thicker bank of underbrush and conifer trees. I didn't dare try to struggle away as the sound of feet plodding through snow marched on; from where I was positioned behind Paul, I could make out a multitude of shoes, mostly thin old ones layered with dirt, pass by where we crouched. My heart galloped in riotous patterns in the haunted silence. At last, the sound of human movement vanished.

Then I did something unimaginably stupid. Something I would regret forever.

I coughed.

There was not an ounce of ambiguity to the sound, nothing to pass it off as a generic sound of the woods, like a pokémon scrambling through the trees. It was entirely human. Our heartbeats were suspended in midair for less than a second.

An angry male voice growled. "Over there!"

Paul and I instantly leapt to our feet and sped in opposite directions, and the ambush began. Panic and horror built in my throat as one grunt's ugly paw slapped down on my shoulder mid-sprint, forcing me to make an awkward twist sideways in order to escape his grip. In a split second he slid his foot beneath my imbalanced structure, yanking my legs from beneath me and throwing me to the ground back first. Despite the thick layer of snow on the ground, I could feel my spine rebound against the solidness of the forest floor beneath, snatching the scream from my mouth. Before I could jump back up and lunge for the tree's shadows, I was flipped forward onto my stomach, crushed beneath the weight of my attacker with a huge hand clamped over my mouth to strangle my screams. No matter which way or how violently I kicked, my foot wouldn't connect right with his body.

On the other side of the small clearing, three grunts were working to subdue Paul- one pressing on his back trying to keep him from getting onto his knees, with the other two pinning down his arms with their own bodies. Animalistic fury lit the black of Paul's eyes as he thrashed beneath all of them, nearly bucking off the guy straddling his back.

A grunt hissed at a man who was standing idly by a tree. "Will you help me get him down?"

The lazy looking man came barreling at Paul with a truly terrifying smirk on his mouth, jerking his foot up and into his face. Another anguished shriek burst from my throat as Paul's head snapped backward with the impact. As punishment for the outburst, the grunt trapping me gave me a hard slap in the face and clenched his hand tighter over my mouth. I could taste blood where my lips were smashed against my teeth.

"I guess we got extra lucky, huh, Paul?"

The voice was dripping with evil, coming from the one who had kicked Paul in the face.

As he backed away to get a broad view of the two people he'd attacked, I could make out the entirety of his features. He was broad and thick-bodied; his eyes were murky green with a layer of icy coldness to them, with matted black-brown hair grown to his shoulders. Deviant, evil aura radiated from where he stood.

I held deathly still under the grunt's hold on me.

Paul looked nearly unfazed while being incapacitated, except for the painful looking gash ground opened by the man's shoe on his cheek.

The speaking grunt, supposedly their leader, rubbed his chin. "We killed two birds with one stone. So what do you think would be suitable payback, boys?"

From the unanimous leer on all of their faces, I could tell they all had ideas. Terror washed over me, more ferociously then anything I'd ever felt. I only had one grunt near me, right? If I could position my arms properly, I might be able to throw him off me. But then again, that required a good deal of power- something my frozen muscles were incapable of right now. In order to prepare, I clenched my arms around my stomach to warm them up faster.

Suddenly, I could hear Paul's deep, pain-marred voice. "Are you sure you want to try anything? Did you notice how close we are to Solaceon? If you hurt us, you would get caught easily,"

"On the contrary, buddy, by the time anybody shows up we'll be long gone,"

Explosive fury finally took over my body. I allowed my teeth sank into the grunt's hand, followed by his cuss as he whipped his hand from my mouth. The moment I could speak, I sucked in a huge gust of air and screeched, "Will somebody tell me why you're doing this! Please!"

It was then that I saw little red drops drip from my chin and spot the kicked up tufts of snow before me. His roughness had quite literally crushed my mouth; my split lips stung in the still potent cold as I waited.

As if the leader hadn't realized that I wasn't an object and was capable of speech, he raised an eyebrow. "Shut up, will you? I'm trying to negotiate here,"

"I don't care," I hissed. My bravery was fueled by rage; I didn't know how long it would last. "I want to know what's going on-"

"Dawn!" A vicious growl interrupted me. It was Paul's. "Just calm down for a minute,"

Dismayed, I allowed myself to sink into silence. Luck was with me, though. Warmth had finally enveloped my arms, giving me full feeling of them. I planted my hands on the ground.

"Do whatever the hell you want with me, but she has nothing to do with this. Just let her go,"

Green-eyes didn't seem to consider this. "She wanted to know what's going on, so how about ya tell her, Paul? Besides, I like reminding myself of why I want to kill you right now,"

For a few long moments, perfect silence lay over the clearing. There was threat seeping through the man's voice as he walked over and bent down to Paul's level.

"I said to tell her. Out loud," he snarled.

Paul tore his head in the opposite direction, scowling. Finally, he dropped his head in defeat.

"Get your fucking face away from me, and I will,"

Slowly, he complied. Backing away from Paul to watch my reaction. Practiced apathy fell over my face as I glared up at him, rousing a condescending chuckle from him.

Paul's eyes stayed glued on mine as he began again, from where we started before the attack.

"Team Galactic is a mafia that was once composed of 90 divisions of grunts, all under one boss named Cyrus. A little less than a year ago I returned from Hoenn and started defeating Sinnoh gym leaders. I was about 3 badges in when I got a call from the police asking me to help them divide and arrest Team Galactic. I agreed to do it. Meanwhile the grunts of Team Galactic were getting restless for their end of their deal with Cyrus. He'd promised all of them cash rewards to be given to them when his plan was complete. It had been 3 years, and the plan wasn't close to getting anywhere.

"One division was particularly restless. This was the 89th one, or Galactic co. #89. I made a deal with them to give them a portion of my winnings from gym battles if they defected from Team Galactic, until whatever Cyrus had promised them was paid off. In order for me to prove my trustworthiness, I kicked all of their asses in a 1 against 5 battle. They agreed to leave Galactic, and I held up my end of the deal,"

"You sure had us fooled, Paul," Green-eyes interrupted with a bout of laughter. "You were like our icon. I'm sure Dawn would love to hear what you did after that, huh, old buddy?"

"Will you shut up?" Paul snapped. "Anyway, after my 7th gym badge, I told them to go to an empty building in Snowpoint City-"

"And the cops were waiting for us," the man said darkly, pulling something smooth and metal from his pocket. "We spent 9 months rotting in jail because of you,"

"It couldn't hold us long though," this came from directly above me, where the grunt was holding me down.

I rolled my eyes, but the gesture froze in my skull as my gaze settled on the object that Green-eyes had yanked out. He slid the thing over his fingers. It was metal, brass by the looks of it.

"Well, you only have yourself to blame for this," He advanced on Paul with the fist holding the metal device clenched.

The moment I realized what the thing was, I extended my arms to their full length and used the momentum of the shove to fling my head back into the grunt's chin. His grip vanished immediately with a shout of pain, and I wheeled around and kicked him over.

The head grunt's eyes grew huge as I ground the heel of my boot into my attacker's nose. "What the- somebody stop that bitch!"

Two of the guys holding Paul suddenly left their positions to rush at me. Darnit. I hadn't thought this far in advance. My heart stampeded ahead of my head as I ducked beneath them and flung myself at full-speed in Paul's direction, whose wide eyes and mouth held agape made him look like there was a bulldozer plowing toward him instead of me.

"Come on!" I shrieked, throwing up my knee to smash the face of the last grunt holding him down. Paul dazedly obeyed, lunging to his feet and speeding alongside me into the safety of the trees lining Solaceon.

Our escape was dovetailed with the furious shouts of the grunts we'd left behind. Actually, by now, I ought to address them by the closest thing I could use to identify them by. Division 89.

"Paul, are you alright?" I puffed as we ran into the sunlight of the little town.

His answer was not words, but something much more effective. He rested his hands on his knees and turned to look fiercely at me. I gasped, for in the woods I hadn't gotten quite as good a look at the damage he'd taken from that kick. Blood flowed freely from his nose and over his lips, down to his chin. The gash on his cheek was deep red.

My chest compressed around a gust of air, choking me. "Oh, God. How close are we to a Pokémon Center?"

Paul shook his head in defiance. "That's not necessary. I'll be fine,"

His obstinacy astounded me, even after what we'd just run from. Twisting my argument, I realized, would be the only way I would ever get him to listen.

"Think about it this way," I brushed some snow off my arms casually. "Those guys might come around any moment, and we'd be safer if we're in the Center,"

My words floated in the air unheard. I watched angrily as he walked speechlessly up the dirt of the road with his hands crammed in his pockets. Heat began to swell on my face as I was dismissed, and I instantly dashed up behind him.

"Where are you going?"

He replied without glancing at me. "I think you would be safer if you just stayed away from me,"

I froze in my tracks, staring after him as he continued on. "But, I-"

"We got lucky this time. They had worse things in mind for you, Dawn. Just for now, go on with your life, alright?"

Something, some sort of a combination of emotions, was welling in my throat. Dissent, frustration. We were both in a mess. We're more likely to overpower them if we're together.

"Listen, Paul. They're after both of us now, and what happened back there wouldn't have worked had it been one of us against all of them. I may be wrong, but I think that we have no choice but to stick together,"

Paul suddenly burst out in a rage. "You are wrong!"

I was unfazed by his anger, and unthinkingly, I took his hand in my own and held it tight. I knew that he was only in his own weird state of panic, or at least as panicked as someone as stoic as Paul ever got. "Relax. We'll be fine,"

Amazingly, his hand went slack in mine. In favor of breaking the curious silence, I laughed.

"Did I ever thank you for getting me out of that blizzard?"

"Not that I remember," he mumbled.

"Oh. Well, thank you,"

Paul rolled his eyes. "So I guess that makes us traveling partners then?"

I feigned a look of disapproval as I backed away and dropped his hand. "What? I was thinking 'Partners in avoiding a vengeful group of psychotic ex-cons',"

"That too," for a moment, a bit of his good humor showed through. The faintest fraction of a smile graced the corner of his lips, bringing an incredulous blink to my own eyes. Then I looked again; it was only an illusion. But somehow, the usual glassiness of his gaze had seemed to vanish, leaving behind a domestic, welcoming form. Strange.


We sat down on a bench in front of the Pokemart, as Paul continued to refuse any sort of medical attention. As the clouds of fear began to clear from me, I realized how many question had been buried beneath, and how many had been simultaneously answered.

"So how many badges do you have now, anyway?" That battle of ours was overwhelming- at least to me. That was not a battle with a trainer at the same level of skill as I was.

Paul relaxed his rigid posture on the bench. "24, including Hoenn, Kanto, and Sinnoh,"

That was all of the gyms, in 3 regions. Suddenly, I fumed. How could he not tell me that before letting me make a fool of myself battling him?

"Thanks for leaving out that little detail when I challenged you," I grumbled.

"If I'd told you, you wouldn't have battled. I needed a little practice match,"

Practice match. Humph. I twiddled my thumbs. "Um… do you do anything besides training and battling?"

"What, like coordinating?" he burst into laughter- a curious action for someone like Paul. "Yeah, I love shoving my team into dresses and making them dance for judges,"

Embarrassed laughter spilled from my mouth. "Same here. It feels like a waste of talent to me, and a bit degrading, depending on the pokémon. I know Croagunk would hate it…" I thought of my Poison-Fighting type with mourning.

Since the 89th company had met up with us in the woods, that probably meant they never went into Reggie's house and thus never saw Croagunk or Buizel. Odds are, my pokémon were perfectly safe.

Then the idea of coordinating relapsed in my mind. "Well, I've been considering trying out a contest, just to see if I like it,"

"Do I have to show up?" he groaned.

"Uh… erm… no, I guess not. Not if you don't want to," Red blush overtook my cold, numb face. "I am a trainer, though, first and foremost, and one of these days I'm gonna beat you, Paul,"

Paul chuckled under the heat of my resolve.

"Good luck with that," He stood up and began down the road again, and I instinctively left my seat follow him as he looked back at me over his shoulder. "We should get out of town first. I don't know how long it'll be before they get here,"

Fear suddenly struck me like a cannonball. We had literally no pokémon, no supplies to catch any, nothing. I grimaced.

Paul's eyebrows knit at my expression. "What's wrong?"

"Um, we need some pokémon if we're going to get out of here any time fast," I said.

He nodded, reaching for something along his belt. He pulled out a pokeball. When he caught my disbelieving gaze, he chuckled. "I snatched one guys' Piplup while we were escaping. I have a Salamence in the Day Care center. We can ride him to Hearthome City,"

I stared at him, still in disbelief. If we were headed to Hearthome, I could try the Contest there and challenge Fantina at the same time. I had skipped Pastoria's gym, but what would the difference be, besides a few higher levels?

Paul suddenly frowned, which morphed into a grimace of embarrassment as he handed me the pokeball he held. He ran a hand through his hair awkwardly.

"I have a starter, so, um…"

I took the ball from him and clutched it with both of my hands. He'd given me a Piplup. Sure, the only reason he had it was because he'd stolen it, but still. "Thank you," I said, sincerity welling inside me as we continued on toward the Day Care center.