"So the four of us started our way through the forest." Lucario, tired of just sitting on the ground, got up and slowly paced back and forth. "Then, after about a month of walking and sailing, we made it to where Jet..."

Arceus interrupted him before he could finish. "Woah, woah, woah! Don't just skip ahead like that."

"Why not? This way I finish my story quicker," replied Atheos, not wanting to be stuck here as a narrator for any longer than necessary. "Besides, not much of importance happened in those weeks." It was a lie. Almost every day with his old cohorts had been important to him, but for Arceus to understand his life, it wasn't imperative that he recounted them.

Arceus replied with a slightly lighter tone than usual. "That wouldn't be as fun." Oddly enough, the regal tone that had once dominated his voice was waning. Be this as it may, his deep voice still dominated Atheos's attention, and with a sigh, he picked up where he left off. "Come on, its not like it matters how long we take."

Atheos grumbled, but seeing as he had no choice, he continued. "So the four of us started our way through the forest." After receiving a slight nod of approval from the Alpha Pokemon, he continued. "For the most part, the day was uneventful. We walked south of the main route that led between Jubilife and Canalave, 'cause Sammy wasn't a huge fan of swamplands. She says they're too stuffy. Anyways, while walking we didn't really make much conversation. I felt like the other three were kinda uncomfortable around me. Not because I did anything, just because, well, they didn't really know me that well. Occasionally Jet or Bisharp would whisper something to the other, but for the most part it was just, well, you know..."

"Awkward silence?"

"Yeah. One time I even tried starting up a conversation to break the silence."

"How'd that work out?"

"Not well, not well. I asked them why they were going to Johto, to which Bisharp bluntly replied, 'My reasons do not concern you. Don't make them.' Jet also replied, telling me that his reasons were a long story and that he'd tell me later, but also informed me that they were actually headed to Johto's conjoined region, Kanto. The only straight answer I got was from Sammy, who replied with a smile, 'I'm just along for the fun of it.' Jet then turned to me and asked why I was going to Johto. I told him that I didn't really have a reason. It seemed to be enough for him."

Arceus narrowed his eyes, and tilted his head ever so slightly to the left. "What were your real reasons for going? You never really told me."

Atheos jumped at the question, as it took him by surprise, and sighed. "Didn't I already tell you at the beginning of my story? You know, sightseeing: Mt. Silver, Goldenrod City, Lake of Rage. So anyways, we walked until the cover of night fell upon the forest..."

Arceus chuckled slightly, as he sensed a defensive tone in the jackal's voice. "Slow down there. You told me that you would go to those places in Johto at the beginning of of your story, but you still never gave me a reason for leaving Sinnoh."

Atheos cursed inside his head. I can't tell him why I left, even if he is freakin' Arceus. If he found out, he would never let me go back to the living, which is all that really matters at this point. But I can't lie either. Or can I? Maybe, but if he finds out later… well I'm already dead. There can't be anything worse than that that he can do to me. While these worried thoughts passed through Atheos's head, Arceus continued. "I mean, just cause another region has different places, you don't just up and leave."

An idea appeared in his mind; one that would not be a lie, nor tell him his true reason. While it seemed to simple to work, his lack of alternatives forced him to go with it. With great hesitation, he said, "I'll get to that later." He paused for a few moments, expecting Arceus to call him out for further explanation, but when nothing happened, the procrastinator in him jumped for joy, as he continued his story. "So anyways, we walked until the cover of night fell upon the forest…

The sun was setting over the tree-filled horizon as the four decided it was time to find somewhere to spend the night. Jet had flown up above the forest's canopy to see if there were any particularly attractive spots they could settle in. The other three were leaning back against the rough bark of some nearby trees.

Suddenly, a small rustle came from the foliage of one of the trees as Jet swooped down and landed on the grass. Sammy seemed preoccupied by her own thoughts as she took little notice of her comrade's descent, but Atheos and Bisharp walked over to him, the latter asking, "Did you see anywhere good or are we just going to crash here?"

Jet directed his head to the left. "There's a huge lake pretty close over that way if you guys want. Other than that the forest is pretty much the same."

As Bisharp took a moment to think about if they really wanted to bother going on a little while longer for a nice lakeside scene, it occurred to Atheos that he had been to a lake in this general location before. In fact, judging by the distance they had traveled, he was almost certain that it was Lake Verity.

"We should head to the lake," said Atheos. Bisharp glared at him as though this were not his decision, but decided not to argue. Rather, he motioned for his crew to follow. Jet, who appeared worn by the day's travel, walked behind, as did Sammy, who had now come to full awareness of the situation.

"So how far exactly did you say 'pretty close was again?" asked Sammy as she held a claw up to her face to cover a yawn.

"About five minutes, tops. In fact, I'm surprised we can't see it now." He squinted ahead, wondering if in fact he could see it by now, but as he expected, nothing stood out. As they continued on, however, a reflective lining appeared on the horizon, which, as they neared it, presented itself as the lake which they were looking for.

As they walked toward the shore, Atheos took off his satchel and let it fall to the ground. He proceeded to lean over and pull out an Oran berry, but after remembering he wasn't traveling alone anymore, he pulled out three more and called out to the others.

"Anyone want a quick snack before going to sleep?" The darkness made it difficult to discern their nods, but after getting the sense that they all accepted his offer, he tossed the three extra berries their way. Sammy caught her's on one of her sharp claws, and then scraped it off into her mouth, making a terrible screech with her claw and tooth. Jet caught his in the soft of his wing, and gently tossed it into his mouth. Bisharp effortlessly caught his in his mouth.

"Thanks!" exclaimed Sammy cheerfully. While smiling, Jet made an 'mmh' sound, although the tone didn't tell if it were a sound of agreement or just a grunt. Bisharp said nothing, but just swallowed and lay down, ready to go to sleep. Sammy and Atheos followed suit. Jet, however, seeming particularly tired, just fell down to the ground and immediately slipped into unconsciousness. An obnoxious snore escaped his mouth.

Ugh. This is going to be a long night... Jet let loose another snore. Gyah so freaking loud. A voice came from behind him, and he tilted his head back to confirm that the deep voice was that of Bisharp.

"Don't worry kid," he whispered. "You learn to deal with it."

It occurred to him that this was the first time since they had started traveling together that Bisharp had really talked to him. It made him smile. "Thanks, but I don't think I'm ever going to learn to live with that."

"Heh. I said deal with it, not live with it. Here, watch." He extended a metallic leg, until the flat of it kicked Jet, who slowly rolled over to look at Bisharp. "Psst, Jet. I think I heard something. Can you go stand watch on top of one of those trees? If you don't see anything in ten minutes, come back down."

After groggily muttering something obscene about flying types having to do all the work, he ascended to the top of trees. Bisharp turned back to Atheos and whispered, "See how it's done?"

"Isn't that kinda douchey?"

"You want him back here?"

He already knew the answer, but still paused before saying, "good night."

It was dark. Everywhere. Except in the center of it all there was blue. Just a speck, but there was definitely blue. And it was getting bigger, getting closer. It not blue. It was blue and white and red and black and him. And in front of him was a mirror. But he was not in it. Instead, it was all white, despite no source of light. Except in the middle, it wasn't white. In the very middle, there was an infinitesimal dot. It was some other color. And maybe it wasn't even a color. It was just something else.

Then he heard the voice. But it didn't come from him, nor did it come from the mirror, it came from above and below and around and nowhere, and it read Your destiny is beginning and now you grow. You will rise or fall and both and find who and what you are.

And then his Guardian appeared to him, amongst some characters from his childhood. They circled around him, although they weren't moving he was. But he didn't want to move so he stayed still and they stopped circling, leaving him eye to eye with his Guardian. He looked at her. And she looked at him. And then she said "Go."

Plunk! A noise woke the Lucario from his slumber. As he opened his eyes, he noticed it was still dark. He sat up, and looked off into the distance, still figuring out what had been a dream and what was reality. When he had sorted all that out, not wanting to get up, he opened his mind to search if there were any unfamiliar aura's around that he should be concerned of. Nearby, he felt two familiar auras, although he was unable to determine which two of his companions they were, due to the fact that they had not known them long enough to know their auras. Wondering where the third one was, he extended the reaches of his mind. Soon, he found a third aura off into the direction of the lake. Curious, he rose and started walking to it.

He could see the shadowy figure near the lake from where he had been sleeping, which had been only about 100 feet from the shore of the lake, but couldn't quite make out exactly who it was until they were within ten feet of each other. At that point, he saw that the figure was airborne. Jet.

"Who's there," he asked, turning around to see Atheos. "Oh, just you. What're you doing up?"

"I heard a noise." He noticed a small rock on Jet's left wing. "Skipping stones?"

"Mmhm. Couldn't sleep."

"Bad dreams?"

"No, it's just I'm a little stressed out. Have you ever felt things are going too fast?"

This took Lucario by surprise. He had no clue what Jet meant by this, nor did he ever really feel like this. "What makes you say that?"

Jet hesitated, still not completely comfortable sharing that much with this newcomer. But it was the dead of night, and he really needed to talk to someone. "Do you remember earlier today when you asked why we were headed to Kanto?"

"You said that you would tell me later. Why do you bring it up? Care to tell me now?"

Jet threw the rock from his wing across the lake. It bounced up three times before submerging itself in water. "I'm too tired to go into detail, but if you want I can tell you.

"Ever since I was a little Togepi, I was a slave for a criminal organization known as Team Rocket. Bunch of greedy immoral humans, the lot of them. Forced me to do a lot of stuff I'm not proud of. Put a shock anklet and RFID chip in me so I really had no choice. Early on in my youth, they even forced my evolution into a Togekiss. Not fun. After years of this, however, I had come to know this as life. I had made some friends with some of the other Pokemon who were forced to work with them. Hell, there was even this one girl...

"Anyways, one day I was given an assignment. Go with this one grunt to Sinnoh for some reason or another. Well before he could get to where he was going, he ran into these two Pokemon that were known to be particularly strong. He figured they were worth catching. So he threw me out of my ball, along with another Pokemon. A Poliwrath. Now apparently these two didn't take too kindly to trainers or even captives. The two..." he paused for a second. "stabbed the Poliwrath. Effortlessly. Without remorse. They went for me next, but I flew into the sky. One of them, a Weaville, shot a couple of Ice Shards at me. I managed to dodge most of them, but one nicked my wing and I crashed down to the ground. The other one, a Bisharp, started closing in on me, ready to do what he did to the Poliwrath to me. As he closed in on me, I shot a nasty Hyper Beam, which, enhanced by the Normal Gem, knocked him back a little bit. Then the Weaville came, baring her claws. I was too exhausted from the Hyper Beam to do anything. Almost at once she was upon me, holding up one of her claws ready to bring it down.

"But she didn't. At the moment, I didn't quite know why, but she looked away and didn't kill me. Instead, she walked over to the grunt stabbed him. As he was bleeding out, she spat on him, saying "human scum." After that, they helped get the anklet off me and the chip out of me, and, at my request, we mourned the Poliwrath. Didn't bury him though. Didn't seem right.

"After that, we started hanging out together, and became pretty close friends. After about a month, me and Bisharp decided we had to go to Kanto. I had some... unfinished business with Team Rocket, and, well, no one really knows his reason. Then, earlier today we ran into this one Lucario, and the rest, well, you know."

Lucario hesitated before speaking, still digesting what he had just heard. So he wants to get back at Team Rocket somehow? Sammy said something about how he would need four people if he were to succeed, meaning he already has a plan. And he feels things are going too fast...

"So, you feel things are going too fast because you aren't quite ready to do this 'unfinished business'?"

Jet turned around to face the lake. "No. Part of it's you. Not you, you, I mean, you seem kinda cool. Just, having a fourth person already. It's just, I miss just hanging out with the other two."

There wasn't really much to say at this point. He was in no position to offer advice, as he felt he hadn't exactly known him long enough. Nor could he really say 'sorry', for he did nothing wrong. Then an old cliche popped into his head that he thought would be appropriate, if not a little cheesy. "You know, my Guardian always used to tell me The sands of time flow continuously. Honor each grain.'"

Jet turned back around to face Atheos. What he had said didn't help a whole lot, but it helped some, and not much other than sleep could provide solace to him now. "Thanks." And with that, he flew silently over to the others and lay down. To the Lucario's liking, Jet didn't fall asleep immediately and start snoring, giving him enough time to go to sleep peacefully.

A cold feeling on part of his arm woke him. As he rolled over to see what it was, he saw the claws of Sammy lightly tapping him on the arm. "Wake up kid. We're going."

He rubbed his eyes and jumped up hurrying over to the rst of the group, who had already gone a significant distance away from the lake. "We're not going to have a quick bite to eat?"

Bisharp turned around to answer. "Not yet. We're going to hurry to Canalave, get there by noon, and then feast!"

And hurry they did. But despite the increased pace, things seemed more relaxed today. The four talked a lot about what they wanted to do for the five days they were in Canalave before the boat took off. Ideas varied from hanging out at local taverns to visiting the library to even taking a quick trip to Iron Island (although this was quickly shut down).

And right as the sun reached its zenith above their heads, Jet caught sight of the skyline, which was mostly dominated by the gym, but also included a couple other tall buildings. They walked closer, until the forest was no longer around them, and they were engulfed in the port city of Canalave.

A/N: And now for the first authors note of the series! Sorry this chapter took a month to post. I've been a little preoccupied with school stuff. This chapter was kind of hard to write, as it was more or less character development/ point a to point b. Next chapter will be fun though. I get to introduce the main love interest for the first half of the story, they get to have some fun at the library, and they leave Sinnoh. Oh and yeah, I always forget this part... whoops.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.