Sorry for the long wait again. *sigh* My old laptop started to randomly crash so I have to wait until I got a new laptop. Luckily I made changes to the new chapter and it's longer (possibly doubled compared to last chapter). Anyways, I hope you'll like this chapter.

I don't own Pokémon

Me and Christine both followed the Totodile, er I mean Wyatt, into the forest. Besides the wind blowing on the trees and our footsteps, everything was silent. I hate the awkward silence and I hate to be the first one to break it. I looked over to Christine and she has her attention at something else. Or maybe she's daydreaming? But I know she isn't going to break up the awkward silence for a while. I looked back to Wyatt and he quickly turned his head around. I can tell that he is shy and most definitely not going to break off the silence.

I sighed, knowing that if I don't break the awkward silence it's going to drive me crazy. So I got Wyatt's attention and began, "Well, since it's going to take a while, let us introduce ourselves. My name is Ethan. But you can call me White. And she is…"

I tried to get Christine to introduce herself but she just got out of her daydream saying, "Sorry. What were you saying?"

I facepalmed, "Never mind. Her name is Christine." Wyatt just nodded his head. Later, we were back to the awkward silence. What did I accomplish from that? After a few minutes, thinking of a way to break the silence before it drives me crazy, I hadn't noticed Wyatt stopped on his tracks, causing me to bump into him and Christine to bump into me.

"Sorry." said Wyatt

"Are we here?" Christine asked.

"Uh… We're almost there. It's just…"

I wonder if his patience and shyness is what causes everyone in his clan or group to look down on him. "It's just what?" I asked

After a few seconds of hesitation, he answered, "Why did you help me back there?" Okay more of a question but you get the point.

Before I got to say anything, Christine answered, "You are our only clue of where to find the Water Stone since you said you had it last." I did another facepalm to Christine's answer. Not really the best answer when you are trying to get an ally to trust us or better yet feel confident enough.

Wyatt said in a depressed voice, "Oh. Is that why?"

I gave Christine the 'evil eye'. "What? Did I say something?" She asked.

I'll deal with her later but right now Wyatt looks like he wants to hide behind a rock feeling all useless. I tried to cheer him up. "Don't listen to her. She doesn't know what she is saying."

I gave another guilt look to Christine. "What did I do?" She asked all confused.

"See." Wyatt looked at Christine, then back to the ground. Well, it worked for a second, I think. I sighed. We aren't going to be used to each other if we keep up like this. Man, I didn't think it was possible for anyone to have that low of self-esteem. This is getting me curious as to what his life was like back at his clan or whatever you call it. But we don't have time to ask him that at the moment. We still need to get the water stone. So I asked, "Wyatt, can you tell us the last time you had that stone?"

"Well, I heard there was water Pokémon that were coming near our home where the water stone is. I was afraid that if the Pokémon were to be able to get to our area, they might accidentally touch it and evolve, making the water stone disappear."

"Then why is your clan protecting the water stone if it's useless to Totodiles?"

"Because my leader despises stones. He keeps it so that no Pokémon would evolve from it. "

"Why does your leader despise them?"

Wyatt sighed, "It was because of my leader's past experience. Before he created our pact, he was just living alone near the river…"

Third Person POV:

The leader back then was just any other Totodile. He has a home near a river, he searches for berries when he's hungry, and just minds his own business. But one day, his life would change.

There were 2 humans, both dressed in black, who are carrying a cage that has a Pokémon .They were supposed to take that Pokémon to a different location to where their main headquarters are. The Totodile was just swimming across the river and he spotted those 2 humans. He didn't really care of what they are doing as long as they don't approach him. He was about to leave when he heard metal clanging and a faint female voice crying, "Help."

The Totodile heard a faint cry for help and noticed that it came from inside the cage that the 2 humans have. He had no idea what the Pokémon is, but he couldn't just leave someone who is crying for help. So he went to a nearby bush and shook one of the branches to get the 2 human's attention. His plan worked since they left the cage and began walking towards the bush. Once they were almost to the bush, the Totodile ran around them and reached the cage.

"Don't worry. I'll get you out of there." He said.

"Thank you so much." The unknown Pokémon said. The cage only has small holes so that air can get inside, so the Totodile didn't know what kind of species she is. When he opened the first handle, it made a click sound, which causes the 2 humans to look back at the Totodile.

"Hey! Get away from that cage!" One of the humans yelled.

"Oh sh—" The Totodile cussed under his breath and ran with the cage in his hand.

"Get that Totodile!"

The Totodile is running towards the river and he asked the Pokémon that is inside the cage, "By any chance, can you breathe underwater?"

The Pokémon answered, "Yes. Why?"

"Because we're heading into a river." The Totodile then jumped into the river and swam where the current of the water is heading. After a few minutes, he thought that the humans might have lost track of them now. He got out of the river and set down the cage.

"Did you lose sight of them?" The Pokémon asked.

"I think. We should be safe for now." He answered. He then opened the second handle on the cage and the cage door opened. "You can come out now."

"Uh. On second thought, I think I'll stay here." She said.

"Nonsense. You're fr…" He immediately dropped his jaw when he looked inside the cage. It was a Dragonair-like Pokémon except it was small like a Dratini and it couldn't float.

"Please, don't look at me." She said.

"Oh my goodness, what happened to you?"

"Please, I don't want you to look at me."

"I'm trying to help you. I don't care how you look."

She looks up, "R-Really?"

"Yes, now can you tell me what happened?"

"Well, those humans have captured me in a net when I was swimming in a lake. They took me to a building and they have these weird machines shining a red light at me. I was really scared. Then they injected something into me and they held a water stone in front of me. Somehow I started to evolve. I was a Dragonair. Then they took out a Pokémon and the Pokémon told me that I can evolve back and forth all I want. I thought that it was crazy, but I tried evolving back and it sort of worked. I was back to my normal size and I couldn't float, but I still have that weather ball on my neck, the marking on my tail, and the spike on my forehead. So basically, I am a Dratini who looks like a small Dragonair. They did more experiments on me to fully turn back into a Dratini, but they failed to do so. Instead I can't evolve when I want any more without a water stone. And their experiments hurts so much, I want them to stop." She began to cry.

The Totodile tried to comfort her, "There, there now. I'm sure there's a way to turn you back to normal."

"How?" She asked.

"I don't know, but we'll figure something out." Both of them spread the word to the Pokémon that lives around the area. Most Pokémon that were living in that area are Totodiles, which resulted of him forming a pact. One day, they found a water stone in Sacramento River. They decided to keep the water stone away from any human who are trying to get it. It's been a few weeks since the rescue and they thought that now the humans gave up on searching for the Dratini. But instead, the humans planned on waiting a few weeks before searching so that they would drop their guard. They searched for them by the river at night. They weren't hard to find since both Totodile and Dratini are out in the open, sleeping. They used Ardiados to tie them up and ran towards the Dratini. Totodile Used Watergun at the human but then the Ardiados used Stringshot to tie Totodile's jaw closed. The humans quickly put the Dratini in a similar cage as last time, but this time, it has a lock on it. The Totodile tries to get loose but the human grabbed a police cane that he had and knocked out Totodile on the side of the head.

Back to normal POV:

"The worst of all, that was the day I was on guard duty. I somehow I got tired very fast like I was…" Wyatt paused for a second, thinking about what to say. "…affected by sleep powder." Wyatt got mad and punched his fist to a tree. "I should have known!"

"So that's why everyone looks down on you?" Christine asked.

"Yeah. Ever since that day, everyone is mad at me. Including my older brother. I blamed myself all this time. I said sorry to them but they just attack me. Later, I just let them throw their anger at me."

"Which is how you got such low self-esteem." I said. Wyatt didn't reply. "You know, there is still a way to make up for it."

"How?"

"You can start by trying to get that water stone back. I believe that the humans who took the water stone is the same one that took that Dratini, right?"

"Come to think of it, they were wearing black. But how can we find them?"

"Well first, can you try to take us to where you last saw them?

"Sure" Wyatt started to lead us to where he last saw the people in black outfits.

To be cont.