A/N: Woah, I'm sorry. This has been finished ages ago and actually posted on another site, but I've been busy and forgot to post it here. N'ways. Here it is. Please forgive me.

EDITED (29/09/08)

III

THE FACTS UNSEEN

Keegan ached.

Her face was chilled by the night air, her legs hurt from being clasped around Firefoot's belly and the chafing of her jeans, her hands were stiff from clutching his mane and her butt felt like it was made of lead. She was exhausted, she was hungry, and right then and there she would have kissed Miriam's feet if she could just use her old bed for a night.

Getting hit by electricity always makes people feel tired, she thought wearily, her mind rambling to different topics because she was just too far gone to concentrate. Electricity was just one of the subjects she'd gone over—twice—in God-knows-how-long. I wasn't hit, exactly, but I was damned… damned close quite a few times there.

The mere thought of it made her stomach want to rebel, so she swallowed hard and leaned over Firefoot's back, half trying to keep a grip on herself and half wishing the arcanine's constant, flowing movement wasn't keeping her from sleeping.

Well, technically it wasn't, except she knew she'd fall off if she fell asleep, since she'd never ridden an arcanine before and Firefoot had never carried someone, so neither of them would be able to keep her balance.

It was a testament to how tired she was that she hadn't even noticed they'd entered Ecruteak until Firefoot stopped in front of the Pokémon Centre's sliding glass doors, almost making her fall anyway from the unexpected halt. For a moment she stared at the darkened windows, but then Firefoot gave her a little jolt and she slid off his back with a groan at her aching muscles and the burning in her thighs, feeling bowlegged and unsteady on the unmoving ground.

After their confrontation with that lightning pokémon Firefoot had headed straight for the city without stopping, even though it was further away than the Tin Tower seemed to suggest and by the time they got there—Keegan checked her pokégear clock blearily—it was 3:30am in the morning. Which meant she'd been riding for the better part of thirteen hours. No wonder her butt was sore.

But Keegan, once her mind had caught up on the events and she'd managed to stop shaking long enough to think straight, hadn't wanted to risk staying the night in the woods with that… thing… around, so she wasn't going to complain. Much. There was also the fact that Firefoot hadn't shown any inclination at stopping—despite the fact that he was now panting like a steam engine—so he must've known something she didn't and agreed it would be a bad idea.

For the moment she put aside the question of why the hell the pokémon had attacked her straight after saving her, and focussed only on getting to a nice, warm bed in a nice, safe room.

Although, she did feel guilty for waking Nurse Joy up at this hour, but when she saw the lights flicker on inside the timber-built Centre and the pink-haired woman coming to answer her hammering, Keegan couldn't help feeling a surge of sweet and utter relief.

"Wha—" Joy started, stifling a yawn, as the doors slid open, and then her eyes widened as she caught sight of Keegan. "My goodness!" she exclaimed, stepping out of the way to let Keegan stumble inside, Firefoot nearby in case she needed to lean on him.

I must really look a mess, Keegan thought with strange bemusement as Nurse Joy tugged her gently towards one of the orange-cushioned couches, gesturing to a sleepy-eyed chansey who had just emerged from the back room with her nurse's cap askew.

"What happened?" Joy asked anxiously, sitting Keegan down and snatching up a folded cloth that another of the round pink pokémon had just held out to her, pressing it to Keegan's arm. It was only then that the girl realized she'd scraped herself on a rock somewhere, leaving a long red graze almost from her elbow to her shoulder.

"Got mobbed by pokémon," Keegan answered slightly dazedly, absently scratching Firefoot's huge head when he tried to climb onto the couch with her, whining encouragingly.

"Must have been a lot of pokémon!" Joy commented sympathetically.

For some strange reason Keegan found that incredibly funny. She started laughing and couldn't stop, even though the sound grew hysterical within moments and soon turned to tears. "Shock," Joy murmured to herself, steadying the girl as she was wracked with giggles, struggling to breathe.

Keegan wasn't aware of much after that. All she really knew is that somehow she'd been cleaned up, her injuries tended to, Firefoot was at some point returned to his pokéball and then taken for a rest, and she was firmly led up the stairs and to a spare room where she sank down into a completely exhausted sleep hardly before her head had hit the pillow.

Keegan stood at the base of the cobblestone steps, staring up the path towards the many-tiered Tin Tower, half obscured by the tall wooden blockade around it aside from the open, canopied gates at the height of the stairs. The path and fence were surrounded on all sides by lofty trees, obstructing her view of Ecruteak, and the clear sky was already beginning to dim slightly.

Latias, but the night comes in quickly in these parts.

It was early evening, more than a week after Keegan had gotten into the city. Although Keegan was a fairly active girl, there was only so much she could take before she just wanted to lie in bed for the rest of her life. She thought it had been bad for the first week of her journey when her feet and legs burned every time she moved, unused to the constant exertion of walking; this was so much worse.

The ride had left her inner thighs chafed to bleeding point, although she hadn't realised it until the morning (or rather, afternoon) after when she peeled off her pyjama pants and almost torn off one of the bandages when it got stuck to the material. It had been humiliating to realise that Nurse Joy had taken care of her while she was out of it—it had taken her two days to stop blushing every time she saw the woman—but it was probably better than being awake for it.

Not that she'd escaped from that fate either. Nurse Joy had come up to check on her and promptly given her a stern talking to about riding for so long when she was so inexperienced. Then she'd sat her down, helped her change the bandages, given her a crash course on what was in a first-aid kit (as well as recommending a store from which to buy one) and confined her to the Pokémon Centre for at least four days.

Keegan had felt too horrible to complain, although her heart clenched with excitement every time she remembered that she was in Ecruteak, that she was where she wanted to be, and that here was a man who might just be able to tell her something about how she'd come to be in Alto Mare in the first place.

On the other hand, it had also given her plenty of time to think about the strange lightning pokémon who had attacked her. In the aftermath, she knew that incident had been even more frightening than that night in the construction yard.

She could truly have died. It had wanted her to die.

And that scared her, more than anything, made her feel panicky, until she resorted to simply pushing the memory away and trying to pretend it didn't exist.

By the time she felt well enough to get up and around, she was so jittery that she just wanted to talk to Morty and get out of the city, the city so close to where that thing had been.

So she'd decided to take a walk around town to test her muscles, but also to get the chain of her pendant repaired and buy a treat for Firefoot for his evolution. She hadn't wanted to get a first-aid kit at first, simply because it was a reminder of how stupid she was, but the storekeeper had been helpful and she had reluctantly purchased a small portable bag which she'd been able to clip to her belt until she got back to the Centre.

After that she had headed for the gym, but when she found it, it was to discover that Morty wasn't there. One of the students told her he was often at the Tin Tower, an area sacred to Ecruteak, and by then Keegan was so wound up that she decided she'd go check it out anyway. She wanted—needed—to do something, and it felt soothing to be wandering around an old-world city such as Ecruteak, so filled with timber buildings, with such beautiful architecture.

And more… there were people around, wandering in marketplaces, around houses, on the footpaths and working in gardens. She felt safe out in the open, in the daylight, where there were others around—like no pokémon would dare touch her there, nor any black-uniformed men waiting to steal back what she had taken.

All that meant that hours had passed, which meant it was getting later and Morty probably wouldn't help her out anyway, at least not until morning. Still, Keegan didn't want to go back to the Pokémon Centre just yet. She'd just found the way to the Tin Tower, maybe she could look around a bit first? She needed something to lift her spirits, so if she couldn't find Morty, maybe a bit of exploring would do.

It looks so old… and the view at the top is probably amazing!

She needed a distraction right now.

So she gathered herself, walking cautiously up the steps, her ponytailed hair caught by the slight breeze that sailed through the forest avenue. When she reached the top there was no one around the small courtyard before the entrance, and no one answered when she called. She approached the high wooden doors and opened them guardedly, peeking into a large room with a smooth wooden floor and absolutely no decorations whatsoever.

Or at least that's what she thought until she saw the quartet of brass bells, tethered with red cord to an ornate metal frame in each corner. Still, they were the only things the room boasted, aside from broad windows and a staircase opposite the entrance. So that's where Keegan went, following the consecutives steps up, taking deep breaths of the musty, wood-scented air, rubbing the smooth, polished timber of the rail. Each room was the same, with bare wooden walls and the huge, shining bells, and vaguely she hoped that the pinnacle would be slightly different.

When she did find a room that differed from the others, it wasn't by much and it wasn't the highest point; there was still one last staircase.

The room was as empty as the others but instead of brass bells they were silver. For a moment Keegan stared at them, wondering whether they were real silver or not, and when she touched one gently she was slightly surprised to find the smooth metal cool in the warmth of the Tower.

Then she heard soft, near-inaudible footsteps and, heart lurching guiltily, whirled around just in time to catch someone coming down the staircase.

They saw each other at virtually the same time. The first expression to pass over the young man's features was surprise, while the first thing to go through Keegan's mind was appreciation, taking in his appearance in a second: medium height, slender, with sky-blue eyes and a sculpted face.

It was only a moment. Then both of them recovered and Keegan opened her mouth to apologise or explain, her cheeks pink with embarrassment at being caught out where she wasn't sure she was meant to be by someone she definitely would have preferred to view from afar to avoid making a fool of herself—especially considering that she was wearing her ratty track pants and still looked like someone had taken a stick to her.

She hadn't even managed to say anything, however, before his eyes flashed angrily behind the lock of brown hair falling across his face and a pokéball was in his hand, gleaming in the rays of the setting sun through the slitted windows.

"Who are you?" he demanded aggressively, moving down the stairs with a billow of the white cape over his shoulders, the pokéball expanded between his fingers.

Nice to look at, but damn he's intimidating—

"I'm Keegan, I was just looking for the gym leader and one of the students said he might be up here," the girl blurted out hurriedly, backing away from his piercing glare and barely keeping herself from responding by going for her own pokémon. "I didn't mean to intrude."

"Morty's not here," the young man said shortly, still eyeing her suspiciously, fingering his pokéball. "And neither should you be. This is private property."

"I'm sorry," Keegan said quickly, her cheeks flushing with guilty embarrassment at the chastisement. "I just—there was no one at the gates, and no one answered when I called, so I thought—"

"Then you thought wrong," the young man interrupted, but to Keegan's relief he minimized the pokéball and tucked it back away somewhere into his purple suit.

And that was when Keegan's mind kicked into overdrive and her own suspicion dawned. Okay, so now I know that I'm not meant to be here, but what about him? "What are you doing here, anyway?" she dared cautiously, inwardly wincing at her unintentionally accusing tone.

"My name is Eusine, not 'you', and I happen to have permission," the stranger snapped irritably, briefly brushing the lock of hair out of his eyes. "But that's a distinction you don't."

Well so-rry! "It's not my fault!" Keegan flared at his dismissive tone. "No one ever said anything about this being private property!"

Eusine stared, and Keegan flushed deeper. Oh boy, there you go, making an idiot of yourself again…

"It's surrounded by walls and trees on all sides!" he said finally, sounding disbelieving. "What else could it be?"

Oh. Keegan fell silent, practically feeling her cheeks burn hot enough to fry an egg. "I didn't think of that," she said in a small voice, staring down at her scuffed shoes as he looked at her incredulously.

"You see a building surrounded by walls and it doesn't occur to you that it might be private? What kind of a girl are you?"

Keegan was just wondering that herself, though she'd never really thought about walls before. Obviously she'd never consider running rampant in someone's house without permission, but a place like this or the Alto Mare library, in the open, a place that everyone pretty much knows and no one seems to explicitly own, a public location, how could she ever consider that going there might be trespassing?

"But how do I know that you really do have permission?" she tried again, more quietly and less belligerently without looking at him. Her face was quite hot enough, thank you.

"You don't," was the simple, stern answer.

She glanced up through her bangs, shuffling uncomfortably, to see him tapping his gloved fingers impatiently on his crossed arms. "Well, then—"

He sighed in exasperation. "Do you always question authority or am I just the lucky one?"

Keegan flinched, hearing echoes of Pete and Miriam's words in her head, and smiled a little sheepishly. "Um, always, pretty much. I just—I'd leave, but how do I know you're really meant to be here?"

He looked at her again, with those piercing eyes which Keegan felt like were looking right through her, and her cheeks went red again. At least this time he doesn't look angry, she thought, shifting uneasily and chewing her lip. On the contrary; it was like he was studying her, so instead she began to feel like she was under glass. What was worse was the fact that she couldn't read him at all, so she had no idea what he was thinking.

"I'll go down with you," he said finally. "And I happen to know where Morty is, so I'll take you to him. That way you'll know I'm what I say I am, and you won't have a reason to go wandering where you're not supposed to. Done?"

Keegan blinked, momentarily surprised at his offer and the fact that his tone had softened to something that was almost friendliness, before realizing exactly what he'd said. Her eyes widened and she grinned broadly. "Really? Thanks!"

"Good," Eusine said briskly. "But you'd better hurry up, because I've still got research to do up here and Morty only gave me today to do it."

"Oh." Keegan followed as he moved to the stairs downward, casting a single, curious glance at the way up before the floor rose around her and obscured her view. She turned back to the front, struggling to keep up while hiding the burn of her still-sore muscles. "What're you researching?"

Eusine looked at her with the same measuring expression that he had before as they passed through the next floor, the slitted windowsills tinted gold by the impending sunset. "Legendaries," he admitted at last. "I'm looking for one of the Legendaries. Ecruteak is the seat of Johto's myths and legends, so I come here to do my research. Now as for you," And though his tone was calculating he had, to her relief, looked away, because it was damn hard not to feel put on the spot when someone as handsome as he was staring at you, especially with that intense gaze of his. "Why are you after Morty? You don't look like a particularly strong trainer, so it can't be a battle."

"I'm not," Keegan confessed, finally giving in to jogging a bit so she could keep up with his quick, long-legged stride. She winced as her legs complained, drawing her attention from his almost derisively amused tone at the thought of someone challenging the gym leader. "I read that he can see things from far away. I came to see if he could help me find someone." She wouldn't normally have explained that much, because the subject was very personal to her, but he was helping her and, as they said, turnabout was fair play.

"I see." was all the answer she received, but instead of making her feel relieved it just made her wonder what he was thinking.

After that they walked in silence, Keegan feeling uncomfortable and self-conscious. She had absolutely no idea what to say and he seemed so deep in thought that she didn't want to disturb him. Instead she bore the situation stoically, even though she'd always hated the quiet when there were other people around to talk to, and instead focussed on what she planned to do afterward, depending on what Morty was able to tell her.

So when her companion abruptly stopped, throwing out a hand which she almost banged into, she jumped with surprise. "Wha—" she began, but he shushed her, his gaze not focussed on anything in particular as though he was listening to something.

Apparently he wasn't as out of it as I thought. Keegan's chest clenched with apprehension and she took a deep breath to ease it, closing her eyes to do the same.

It took a moment before she heard anything, but when she did her eyes flew open and she tensed, her lips drawn tightly shut as though to retract any sound she might make, spoken or not.

There was someone down there—several someones—and judging by Eusine's reaction they weren't supposed to be there either.

He already had a pokéball ready and expanded, and after only a second's hesitation Keegan did the same, picking Firefoot's pokéball out and clutching it with an unsteady hand. This is a game, she told herself firmly before fear could get too deep a grip on her, briefly touching her pendant for luck. Last man standing. The only difference is that we're allowed to use pokémon, and we even played it like that sometimes, to up the teams.

So with another deep breath she followed after her companion's flicking white cape, absently impressed with the quiet of his footsteps. Well, if he's a Legendary hunter…

"Is there a sign at the front of the Tower which says 'anyone can come in and enjoy themselves', or is this just my unlucky day?"

You've got to be kidding. Keegan only just managed to keep herself from putting her head in her hands, stopping short at the height of the steps not far behind Eusine. Giving them warning is a bad idea, idiot!

The darkly clad trio in the next room whirled around in surprise at his abrupt, irritable voice, all of them diving for their pokéballs with a speed that suggested special training. Keegan swore she heard Eusine mutter, "Well that answers that question," as he called out his pokémon, only a beat or two ahead of the intruders.

A female alakazam materialized on the bottom step, the dark brown armour on her forearms, torso and knees seeming to absorb what light still came through the windows. Barely a moment later she was faced with an oval-bodied azumarill, its ears cocked and eyes hard, but the alakazam had already raised her spoons. With a sweeping gesture of the silver utensils the blue-and-white pokémon was sent flying back into the orange-haired woman that was its trainer hardly before its feet had touched floor.

Both of them hit the wall and tumbled to the ground with twin thuds, gasping for breath, but before Alakazam could do the same to the others a second pokémon was deposited on the floor, red shell gleaming in the fading light and eyes glaring at Alakazam from beneath the shadow of a yellow star-shaped crest.

Oh shit—crawdaunt are part dark— Keegan's stomach lurched with recognition and she darted as far as she could down the steps, shoving past a surprised Eusine as Alakazam narrowed her gaze, her eyes flashing a bright, cerulean blue, and gestured once at the crab-like pokémon with a spoon. For a second the crawdaunt shone the same colour; then the aura was dispelled with an almost audible snap, leaving no effect whatsoever.

"Ahlaa?" Alakazam's eyes widened in horror, but before Crawdaunt could retaliate it was knocked aside by a muscular, bright orange-and-black figure.

With a toss of his white-maned head Firefoot drove the crawdaunt back across the room, the crab's trainer jumping aside to avoid it, almost tripping, and the water pokémon trying desperately using its stubby back legs to halt its skid before it crashed back into the azumarill which had just staggered to its feet.

"A fire pokémon," the third intruder spat in disgust as he lifted a pokéball of his own, his brown hair peeking out from beneath a navy-coloured bandanna with a strange white emblem imprinted on the front.

What is that? Keegan managed to wonder.

"Bubblebeam!" the woman snarled angrily, crouched by the wall and clutching her shoulder where she'd landed badly.

"Zurii!" Azumarill pounced on Crawdaunt's tall head, firing a rapid stream of bubbles not towards Firefoot or Alakazam, but up at Eusine and Keegan, unprotected on the stairs.

Without thinking Keegan slipped through the rails, where she'd been crouching to drop Firefoot's pokéball down the side of the stairs, and let herself fall, hitting the floor hard as the bubbles exploded against the wooden entrance to the next floor. Ow… Keegan staggered to her feet, her knees wobbly from the shock of the landing and her heart pounding down low in her ribs with adrenaline, her thoughts scattered on the wind of instinctive action. She looked up with enough time to see a second Bubblebeam headed off by a Lightscreen from Alakazam, each blow causing the transparent surface of the barrier to fizz.

"Thundershock!" Keegan heard Eusine shout, and felt a surge of relief that he was all right a second before she realized what he'd said.

Oh God, he's got to be kidding!

He wasn't. With an undignified yelp Keegan ducked beneath the stairs, her hair already frizzing up from the static, having definite flashbacks to the day before. Lightning crackled overhead, aimed for the crawdaunt as the azumarill skittered thoughtlessly out of the way.

There was a flash of red, the light forming into a shapeless figure in front of Crawdaunt a second before the lightning hit.

And then dispersed, revealing a slimy blob of a pokémon, its blue fur slick and expression untroubled.

Quagsire, Keegan recognised though the slats, for much the same reason she had the crawdaunt—Alto Mare being on the border between Johto and Hoenn, and a city of water to boot, she knew pretty much every pokémon of that type through sheer osmosis.

But that knowledge didn't help her much now, except to feel a mixture of dread and relief. Electrical attacks would be useless as long as the intruders had a ground-type to absorb them, but that meant that Eusine wasn't likely to try to use electricity again, right?

But we can't use our best attacks for fear of damaging the Tower, either! she realized, stomach clenching with the thought that those damned electric attacks were probably their best bet.

"Arrcth!" The familiar howl interrupted her thoughts, ringing throughout the close-aired chamber, and Keegan's heart jumped.

Firefoot!

The stairs shuddered as the arcanine bounced off them in a splash of water, landing sprawled to the other side, and Keegan scrambled beneath the steps to check on him, hurriedly squeezing out as much of his sodden fur as she could. Growing up on Alto Mare meant he was a little more resistant to the liquid than was usual for a fire pokémon, but still…

We can't go on like this. Electric attacks are the best chance we've got, although if we could just get rid of the crawdaunt instead… either way… "See if you can get rid of the quagsire," she said through gritted teeth as the arcanine staggered back up, shaking himself slightly and looking bedraggled. "We need those lightning attacks to get through!"

Firefoot's ears twitched in agreement; then, a second later, his head jerked slightly to the side in response to a command Keegan didn't hear properly. Abruptly he jumped towards her, knocking her aside in time to avoid a shadowy pincer as it pounded the floor, leaving cracks in the wood. "Take Down," Keegan gasped blindly, her elbows smarting from where she'd landed on them and unable to see past Firefoot's bulk and the stairs.

"Arrcnnn," Firefoot snarled and was gone, giving Keegan a chance to lever herself up and see what the hell was happening.

She caught Firefoot's full-bodied collision with the quagsire, throwing them both to the side just in time to evade the crackling Thundershock which scorched the crawdaunt's gleaming shell.

She saw Alakazam's spoons whirl in her hands, directing a rainbow-coloured shaft of energy towards the azumarill, sending the blue-and-white pokémon cartwheeling across floor. It crashed into the still-dazed and sparking crawdaunt, both of them tumbling back to land in a heap of stubby limbs and pincers.

Firefoot skidded to a halt, having just barely managed to land on his feet after being thrown by the supple quagsire, his body heaving with pants.

For a split second there was a lull as the intruders' pokémon tried to recover themselves, Keegan's mind racing for what to do next, praying she didn't clash with Eusine's orders.

Then there was a roar of breath-stealing wind and something blew itself up the stairs to Keegan's left, something encircled by eerie, swirling red and yellow lights which made her eyes hurt, humming a high, steady note which made it difficult to think.

What's going on?

She suddenly felt so alone, and it was so dark, so hard to see anything aside from the scarlet-tinged globes. There were enemies around, she could feel them—

Something thudded beside her and Keegan flinched away, her heart suddenly pounding with terror, but before she could escape she was wrenched around, pulled away from the fascinating dance of circles and against something warm and breathing.

"Don't look at it," someone breathed sharply in her ear when she tried instinctively to struggle, and a hand came down over her eyes. "It's Confuse Ray!"

Confuse Ray. A more effective form of Supersonic. It's dangerous because it can make your pokémon turn on you unintentionally…

What? When did I read that?

Keegan's mind cleared and she went still, finding her hand gripping someone's sleeve, leaning against their chest, turned away from the buzz and panicked shouts she could hear somewhere out in the middle of the room. Her arms prickled with goosebumps when the pitch faltered for a second before turning up even higher, making her ears ache and a chill run down her spine. "Hypnosis," Eusine's voice sounded somewhere not far overhead, and that was when Keegan realized that he was the one holding her.

She didn't need to see to know her face had just gone as red as Firefoot's fur.

Her heart lurched. "Firefoot!" she gasped, automatically trying to pull away. For a moment a startled Eusine resisted; then the humming stopped and there were multiple thuds as bodies hit the floor.

Keegan was up the instant Eusine let her go, but her knees buckled and she staggered, her vision swirling with the pound of a head-rush as she caught herself on the side of the stairs.

"Eusine, everything all right?" an unfamiliar voice asked calmly over several sets of footfalls as she blinked rapidly to get rid of the white burn of dizziness in front of her eyes.

"Just peachy," Eusine answered, and a part of Keegan laughed at his grumpy tone.

I guess he just ran out of time for his research.

Keegan's vision finally cleared enough for her to see, but the first thing in sight was a purple-bodied gengar, floating over the unconscious bodies of the intruders with a wide, red-eyed grin. Keegan shuddered and turned away to find Firefoot sprawled on the other side of the stairs, his ribs rising and falling steadily in sleep, and she returned him, relieved that he seemed to be okay.

"Who is this?" someone asked, their sharp tone catching Keegan's attention, and the girl spun around to look at the newcomers.

One of them had longish yellow hair, held back by a blue headband, and half-lidded eyes which made him look somehow laidback, as though nothing could faze him. Morty, she identified him instantly, feeling her stomach drop to her knees. Great, he's not gonna want to help me at all now he knows I was trespassing.

Three more were monks, clad in brown robes and of varying sizes and ages. One of them was scowling at her suspiciously under thick eyebrows which contrasted with his thin face, so she guessed that he was the one who'd asked the question.

The final member of the party was Officer Jenny, her blue hair tucked securely under her cap as she moved around the room to place the intruders' pokémon back in their pokéballs and take details, her keen eyes studying the area as Gengar followed with leering interest.

"A customer," Eusine said briskly and with a hint of dryness. "You'd better tell the students not to send people up here looking for you, Morty."

"Sorry," Keegan apologised quickly, abashed. "I didn't mean to."

Eusine snorted but thankfully didn't say anything, not about that anyway, and his continued explanation turned attention away from her. At least, until Officer Jenny looked up at her a few moments later, one hand tapping a pencil against the notebook she had in her hand. "So you just walked up and into the Tower?" the woman asked with something between suspicion and disapproval.

"There was no one in the courtyard," Keegan said nervously, sliding down the stairwell's post to sit on the bottom slat. "And I called to make sure, so I could ask, but no one answered."

"We were all in the shrine-house in the back at the time," Morty said grimly, as much to Officer Jenny as to Keegan. "We got a warning note this afternoon saying that someone was going to steal some of the artefacts the monks keep back there."

"There's nothing really of value in the Tower itself except the bells," Eusine added, throwing Morty a frown to show that he didn't appreciate being kept out of the loop. "And they're of value more for historical reasons, so they'd be useless to sell. There'd be no reason to come in here. Or not much of one, at any rate."

"Obviously those guys disagree," Keegan murmured with a vague wave at the uniformed intruders, letting her head drop tiredly against the rail. Now that the battle was over she was beginning to feel a little tired again, as well as on edge because of all the surprises and sore because at some point she'd stretched the graze on her arm to the point of weeping. I wonder if Eusine would have found them if I hadn't disturbed him?

"Well, they don't have any ID," Jenny was muttering almost to herself, examining the three compact hang-gliders resting in the corner. "Except this." She held out a scrap of black material to them, imprinted with the same emblem that had been on the intruders' bandannas, only this time in blue. In the centre was a circle, while at the bottom were two short lines, with a third at the top, making it look vaguely like an 'A'.

Keegan shrugged her ignorance when the policewoman looked at her in query. "Can I go?" she asked in a small voice while she had Jenny's attention as Morty took the cloth, fingering it absently and studying the symbol.

"No," Officer Jenny told her sternly. "I need to get a statement from you."

Bugger, Keegan thought, disappointed. She really, really wanted some alone-time to talk to Hazel, to make sure Firefoot was okay, and just be able to keep out of big occurrences in general. Is it always like this, or am I just the lucky one?

In the end she and Eusine went off with Jenny to the police station first, leaving Morty and the monks to look over the Tower and keep watch over the intruders until Jenny could send in some people to pick them up. It took a couple of hours for Jenny to speak to them both to her satisfaction, during which Keegan got tired of telling the same short story over and over again, all the while wishing she was gone.

Or that it was morning, either way, because just before they'd left Morty had told her to meet him at the gym the next day so he could give her a reading. The thought that she was so close made her heart flare with hope and her mind resign to the fact that she probably wouldn't be getting much sleep that night.

She turned out to be right. She made it back to the Pokémon Centre in plenty of time before curfew, giving her a chance to make plans with Hazel. Or it would have, if the eevee hadn't been so put out that she didn't get in on the action that evening that she kept on turning away whenever Keegan tried to speak to her.

But despite the fact that she slept badly Keegan was true to her nature and arose early, while the horizon was still green with the dawn. Ecruteak was just waking up by the time she got out of the Centre, bidding Nurse Joy a decently cheerful farewell as she went with all her possessions in hand and pokémon cleared for battle, but as she reached the timber-built gym her steps slowed with uncertainty.

He's probably not awake yet, she realized with dismay. I always get up earlier than Haze and Firefoot, and even Miriam sometimes.

A second later she grimaced, feeling a pang of guilt that she hadn't thought about her foster mother in ages and wondering briefly how she was doing. I hope she never finds out about the whole… um, getting attacked thing. She'd kill me.

…bad thoughts. She forced her mind away from them and refocussed on the gym in front of her. Well, at least I can check… Cautiously Keegan tested the heavy doors, peeking in when they proved to be unlocked. All she saw was a dim, wide-spaced arena, with timber bleachers set at the walls to either side, flanked by the same slitted windows that the Tower had possessed.

"Well, are you going in or not?" a familiar voice snapped from behind her, and Keegan jumped, her heart rebounding off her ribs and leaping up to her throat as she whirled around.

"Don't do that!" she gasped, clutching at her chest and shuddering. God, for a moment there I thought— "And besides, weren't you the one telling me about walls and private property?"

"And weren't you the one ignoring them?" Eusine asked, raising one slender eyebrow and looking faintly amused before pushing past and entering himself, the blonde-haired girl trailing guiltily in his wake. "Morty!" the caped young man called stridently as he moved across the tamped dirt of the arena towards a shadowed doorway Keegan could now make out at the opposite end of the room.

A second later Morty came through the entrance, flipping aside the dark cloth which draped in front of the door, his blue-and-yellow shirt looking bright in the gloom. "Early riser?" he asked with a slight grin, and Keegan smiled back sheepishly.

"Sorry," she offered, but Morty just waved a hand in dismissal and got straight to the point.

"Eusine said you wanted some help in finding someone. Can you give me a description? Or do you have something they once owned?"

"Um…" Keegan fingered her pendant and shifted uncomfortably, wondering how much she should say. "I—I don't know what they look like, or what their name is, or… well, anything." She swallowed hard, steeling herself to say aloud something her family rarely did, partly out of sympathy for her plight and partly because half the time it seemed like a dream that she actually had the condition. "You see, I—I have amnesia. I can't remember anything from before I was ten years old, and I've lived with foster parents since then."

Eusine's eyebrows shot skyward in surprise, but Morty just nodded in thoughtful understanding, and Keegan let out a shaky breath, her legs feeling unsteady. Damn, but I haven't said that out loud in far too long. "Um, my pendant," She tugged on the dimmed firestone, fumbling with the chain to take it off. "It's one of the only things I had on me when I was found, so…" she drifted off as she held it out uncertainly, feeling strangely vulnerable when Morty accepted it.

"Before I do anything," The gym leader looked at her seriously, the pendant's chain draping over his fist. "I should warn you that since it's been so long since you received this, I might not be able to See much. And if I do, it might not be to your liking. Too much might have changed."

Unable to speak through her suddenly dry mouth, Keegan just nodded, hugging herself around the waist and feeling unexpectedly chilled despite the light jacket she wore. I didn't think he might not be able to see anything…

Reassured she understood, Morty pressed the index and middle fingers of his right hand firmly to his forehead and closed his eyes, gripping the pendant tightly. After a moment Keegan felt a slight prickle, similar to when Alakazam had been using Psychic or Gengar had used Hypnosis, only on a much lower scale. "Your arcanine used this to evolve itself," the gym leader observed idly, not really seeming to expect a reply, though the girl nodded again anyway, her gaze riveted to him tensely.

Skilfully Morty expanded the scope of his vision, searching for someone he knew could well be too far away even for him to see. Or simply not exist anymore.

And then… flashes.

—a man with red hair, tall and dignified, dressed in crimson and black—

Or is that grey? Morty wondered, relaying this out loud. "But I can't see his face, there's too much shadow…"

It was more than that; the image was flickering, unstable, like the distance between them was simply too great. Probably in another region, then; most of Johto is within my Sight.

A second later the emotion hit him, and he almost gasped out loud. The depth of this man's passion was incredible, and as clear as the image was hazy. There wasn't much interpretation needed with a feeling as apparent as that. "He's the one who gave this pendant to you… and it was given with a great deal of love."

Come on, give me a little more than that… He strained himself as far as he could, making his temples throb slightly with the effort, but he was sure there was something else to find and he hated to leave the girl with so little, considering he was probably her only lead.

The vision changed slightly, the background shifting from obscure shadow into sputtering flames set against the roaring crash of surf.

"There's fire behind him, but there's water too."

Keegan couldn't restrain a sigh upon hearing that. Fire and water. Fire and water. Why is everything fire and water? Damn ocean.

Morty was silent for a few moments longer before opening his eyes with a rapid blink, lowering his hand. "That's it. I'm afraid this man is too far for me to see anything detailed, so he's probably in another region. But judging by what I felt… I'd say it's a good bet he's your father."

Keegan's eyes blurred unexpectedly as she accepted the pendant back, her chest clenching tightly with the lump in her throat, and she had to take a deep breath, and then another, to keep from breaking down right then and there. My father. I had—I have a father, and he loved me, and he gave me my pendant.

"Thanks," she managed to whisper, brushing distractedly at her eyes even as her cheeks went pink with embarrassment at being seen like this. "But I— I'm not sure where to start looking—"

"Fire and water sound like pretty good leads to me," Eusine said with apparent disinterest, looking away and examining the arena like a referee just before an important match. "There are fire and water gyms in both Kanto and Hoenn. Maybe he's in one of those places."

Feeling a swell of gratitude towards the young man for his discretion, Keegan took another deep breath, managing to swallow down the obstruction, forcing back tears. At least until I get somewhere private. "I suppose those are as good as any place to start."

"I'd suggest you make the fire gyms a priority," Eusine added with a slight tilt of his shoulders, as though to acknowledge her comment. "Considering that he was wearing red. Mono-type trainers often like to dress the part."

"It'd be easiest to go to Kanto first from here," Morty suggested, absently rubbing his temple with one hand while ignoring Eusine's ironic tone and the shift eyes in his direction, an indication of a discussion that Keegan hadn't been part of. "It's nearer, for one. Plus you can take the Magnet Train from Goldenrod right into Saffron, and then a ferry to Slateport from Vermillion. Otherwise it's a lot more running around."

And a lot more time on the sea, Keegan thought with an inward grimace. It sounded like she'd be on ferries for the rest of her life at the rate she was going.

To distract herself from that unwelcome thought she reached into her bag, looking for her wallet. "Um, I heard that you do readings for a living, so… how much do I owe you?"

Looking slightly surprised and but not ungrateful, Morty named his price and waited patiently as Keegan pawed through her bag, muttering curses under her breath. She finally found her purse in one of the side pockets, nestled in amongst the wad of cash Simon had given her, perhaps half of which she still had. Meals at the Pokémon Centre were cheaper for trainers, boarding was free, and she'd been sleeping outside a lot. Most of what was gone she'd used to pay for the ticket to Olivine.

"Finally," she muttered to herself as she took out the notes to get at her purse, stuffing them back into the pocket a second later.

She looked up to find both Morty and Eusine staring at her. "Uh…"

"You carry around that much plain cash?" Eusine demanded incredulously, and Keegan felt her face heat up.

"It was a present," she protested. "And I don't have a bank account. How else am I supposed to pay for things?"

"Usually that's what parents of any kind are for," Morty said dryly.

Yeah… 'usually' being the operative word there.

"Well…" Keegan ducked her head and shuffled her feet, plucking timidly at the loose threads on the edges of her purse. "I kind of… ran away from home."

Eusine snorted and she twitched, glancing up at him. "You have pokégear, don't you?" he asked in a tone of voice which suggested he was talking to a child.

Keegan stared blankly. "So?"

Once again, Eusine looked at her as though she were mad, the same way he had the night before when asking her if she didn't consider walled off areas to be private property. "Didn't anyone explain to you how it works?"

"I was… kind of in a hurry at the time," Keegan protested. "And my uncle wasn't exactly supposed to be giving it to me."

Eusine sighed. "Pokémon training," the purple-suited young man began long-sufferingly, completely ignoring Morty, who allowed his friend to explain with an amused twist of his lips. "Is considered a casual profession. Trainers who have no other source of income are given a small allowance by the Pokémon Association. Don't tell me you don't have the payment card for your pokégear."

The what? Keegan blinked. She remembered rifling through the pokégear's instructions and reading about the cards. Simon had given her one each of the map and radio cards, but they had been the only ones there.

Apparently her confusion showed on her face, because, to her mortification, Eusine closed his eyes and slapped his forehead with a disbelieving groan as a grin crawled across Morty's face, the gym leader's shoulders beginning to shake with silent laughter.

"Nurse Joy in Cianwood sat me down to explain all that stuff," Keegan objected, flushing, as a still-chuckling Morty turned around and strode back towards the door he'd initially arrived through. "If there was such a thing, how come she didn't mention it?" She left note of the fact that Joy had asked if Keegan already knew how to use her pokégear, which the girl had thought she did, so they hadn't really covered that.

"She probably assumed you already had it," Eusine said with great exasperation. "Usually when trainers start travelling they have their finances worked out first."

"I didn't know, how was I meant to have known?" Keegan complained, but despite herself she could feel a grin tugging at her lips. Morty's laughter was infectious. "And I couldn't exactly go up and ask my foster parents to lend me money, I had to sneak out on them before they'd let me go anywhere!"

Eusine shook his head and lifted his eyes upward as though to say 'spare me'. "Just listen, I don't want to have to explain this twice. With the payment card you get a certain amount of money a week, usually enough for the more basic supplies. If you leave it go, it accumulates. The card is your credit ID, so don't ever lose it, otherwise you won't be able to withdraw anything, and for your account to be activated you need to take it to a Pokémon Centre, so do that as soon as you can."

"Gotcha," Keegan muttered, peeling away the amount she knew she owed Morty from inside her purse as the gym leader reappeared with a flick of the dark curtain. Upon his approach, still looking deeply amused, he held out a thin card the same shape and size as the ones Keegan had found already inserted into the pokégear when she got it.

She swapped him for his fee, not feeling nearly as embarrassed as she thought she would. "Do I need to pay you for that as well?" she asked wryly, but Morty just shook his head with a laugh.

"Just explain where you got it and Nurse Joy will credit you to your account," he told her. "Most Pokémon Centres and gyms carry a few of them for emergencies—you'd be surprised at how many new trainers forget how important money is. Right, Eusine?"

Slyly he looked sidelong at his friend, and Eusine spluttered indignantly. "I got my card on time!"

"Yes, from my sensei," Morty said dryly. "A month after you first left home."

A month! At least I haven't been gone for quite that long yet! Keegan covered her mouth with one hand to hide her smile, her shoulders shaking in an imitation of Morty a few moments ago as Eusine protested.

So it was that the girl left the gym with a stitch from trying to stifle her laughter, leaving behind two good-naturedly arguing friends and feeling more light-hearted than she had in the nearly four weeks since she'd first left Alto Mare.