I took some extra time on Route 205 to strengthen up Nicky and Gloria. It didn't take so long, and once their training was complete, it was time for them to have a little break and let the rest of the team battle...

Another trainer was left defeated, with Cole easily overpowering their Budew. As he stood victorious, he seemed to give off some sort of glow that continued to get brighter. A bit confused, I watched him transform into something different... something bigger and stronger. After the light faded, it took me a moment to realize...

"Cole! You evolved!" I excitedly ran over and hugged him, but he chuckled as he slipped from my grasp.

"Hell yeah I did! This is sweet, I'm a Fire and Fighting type now!" He said, throwing a few punches to the air.

Tyler grinned, "Hey, congrats! That'll make training a bit easier..."

"Speaking of which..." Nicky chimed in, "Are we almost done here? These pokemon are getting way too easy to defeat..." He said as he nonchalantly punched an attacking Bidoof in the face.

I chuckled. "Okay Nicky, you're right, we should get moving."

"Aren't I always right?" He said with a smug smile.

"Sure ya are... I wonder how far off Eterna City is though."

All of a sudden, a trainer came speeding past me, his hands full with weakened pokemon. "I knew I should have brought Antidotes... Don't worry you guys, I'll get you to the Pokemon Center in time!"

I looked back in front of me and approached a huge mass of trees that towered above me. A small wooden sign in front of it read in faded text: "Eterna Forest". Below that in clearer, red letters read: "BEWARE OF POISON TYPES!"

"Well this is gonna be fun..." I sighed, slumping my shoulders. "...Alright, I have a plan. We'll go as far as we can with the supplies we have, then once we need to go heal, we'll go back to the Pokemon Center in Floaroma and buy what we need to get through the rest of the forest."

"Fine..." Tyler cracked his knuckles, "Let's just get this over with."

I took a deep breath as I took my first steps into the forest. It was nicer than I expected though, with trees nicely parted to make paths for trainers, and in no shortage of tall grass to find some pokemon. With enough Antidotes and/or trips to the pokemon center, this would make a great new training spot! Before I got the chance to explore a bit more, a tall girl with long green hair approached me, her face seemingly worried.

"Um... Excuse me, but is there any chance you could help me get through this forest? It's awfully big and I don't want to get lost in here... But you look like a strong trainer that could help me!"

"Are you kidding? I've got my own Pokemon to worry about, I don't need to go babysitting any more. Why should-"

"I can heal your Pokemon the way through if you want...!"

I immediately grabbed her wrist and started walking. "Y'know what, I just changed my mind for no particular reason at all!"

"Really? Thank you! My name's Cheryl by the way!"

"Yeah yeah, nice to meet you Cherry-"

"Cheryl."

"Sure, right. My name's Margaret."

I wasn't paying much attention to what she was saying, not that I really cared. All I knew was, I had a freaking portable Nurse Joy with me that I was undoubtedly going to take advantage of. I turned to the team, a grin on my face.

"Alright guys, get ready, because we're about to have some SUPER-FOREST-GRINDING!" As I raised my fists in the air, my voice echoed through the trees. "Oh, and Cole? You'd better not start a forest fire..."

He smirked. "No promises...!"

As we continued our way through the forest, we were battling wild pokemon and trainers left and right without even breaking a sweat thanks to Carol's healing! Yet another one of those bug catchers got sight of me and challenged me to a battle.

"Go, Beautifly!"

"Hah, easy. You got this Cole!"

He quickly ran up to Beautifly, breathing fire to damage it. However, it retaliated and created a huge gust of wind with it's wings, leaving Cole flat on his back. As he slowly stood up I made sure I got him out of the battle.

"Alright Tyler, get in there and finish it off!"

He nodded confidently and charged at Beautifly, but was suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. Beautifly held him back by using Absorb, quickly sapping every drop of energy he just had. As Tyler dropped limp after the attack, I rushed to his side quickly and picked him up.

"Ty! Hang in there, alright?"

Andrea was next to attack Beautifly as I took Tyler back to heal. She snarled, "Quit hurting my friends you jerk!"

I wasn't looking at the battle, I just wanted to make sure Tyler was going to be okay. But the look on Cara's face as I showed him to her worried me even more.

"I... I can't heal him with what I have..."

"You mean you're out of healing items?!"

"No, I mean that the only way he'll make it is if you get a real Pokemon Center. Even then the chances are slim..."

"I don't care." I said, shaking my head. "If there's the chance at all, I'm gonna take it! Watch Andrea while I'm gone."

I didn't even wait for a response before I started to run back. But I didn't get very far before I heard Tyler's weak voice.

"Margaret... Just stop.."

Although for some reason I did, I looked down at him. "Tyler, are you crazy?! I need to get you fixed now!"

"No... Don't waste your energy. I'm.. I'm already a goner. Just make sure Andrea's alright..."

"I-I can't just-"

He forced a smile onto his face, "But hey... thanks for giving me one heck of a ride. . ."

My grip on him slowly loosened in disbelief as his eyes closed and his arms dropped. Tears formed in my eyes as I held him close and repeated his name to myself. I solemnly walked back to Cara and the fight that was still going on. As Andrea was preparing for the final blow, she emitted an electric aura, and just like Cole did earlier, she evolved right as she tackled the Beautifly to the ground. She was happy for just a moment until she found me crouched down with Tyler in my arms. She ran to my side, and just like with Zach, I found myself holding onto Andrea for comfort.

R.I.P Tyler

Level 6-15

Everyone was silent after we buried Tyler and made his grave. I couldn't stop thinking about how I failed the team again... Maybe if I didn't listen to him and kept running I would've made it anyway. I could've saved him... this is all my fau-

"Um... miss? Why are you crying?"

I felt a tug at my shirt and looked down to find a little Wurmple by my side. I reached into my bag, and with a caring smile, I said to him, "Oh... Nothing you need to worry about...!"

I quickly pulled out a Pokeball and caught him by surprise. Andrea, who was still near me, spoke up. "Margaret? You think we should go yet? I don't think we should stay here too long..."

I nodded, "Yeah, I'm sick of this forest... But we still need to stay and train a new member...!"

I waved behind me, "Bye Speryl!"

"It's Cheryl!"

"Whatever!" I couldn't stop smiling as my Dustox floated beside me.

"Wow Evan, you evolved way quicker than I thought you would!"

"Yeah, that's how it is for most of us Bug-Types." He tilted his head to see Aline, who was sitting on my shoulder as always. "Hey, uh... Aline, right?"

"Mm-hmm!" She nodded, "What is it?"

"Well first of all, I just wanna say that I loved the story of how you survived that Onix's Rock Throw!"

"Oh stop it...!" She said, a bit embarrassed. She looked down at her wings, "It did come with a price though..."

"Oh, about that...! Now that I can fly, would you like it if I carried you around until you're back on your wings?"

Aline's face lit up. "Are you kidding me?! I'd love to! Maggie, get me up there!"

I chuckled as I gently lifted her off my shoulder onto Evans back. She held on tight while he flew around the air. I smiled as I watched the two; this was the happiest I've ever seen Aline! And for the first time, she called me Maggie... something that usually only Trevor calls me. Even then, I don't really like it when he does, but for some reason, I'm glad when Aline does...!

"You said the next town ahead is a city, right?" Evan asked, flying forward.

"Yeah, Eterna City is just up ahead!"

"There's a city named after the forest?"

"I think the forest was named after the city..."

"Either way, I've never seen a city before! Oh, can you tell me what buildings are like?"

I chuckled, "Just be patient and you'll get to see one for yourself!"

"But I don't wanna be patient!" He pouted, but then put a grin on his face. "Hold on tight Aline, we're going to the city!" Evan suddenly sped up as he soared toward Eterna.

"Hey, wait up!" I chased after him with a big smile.

With Cole, Nicky and Andrea running alongside me as the wind blew in my face and brushed through my hair, I suddenly just felt alive. I held onto Gloria a little tighter as adrenaline pumped through every vein in my body, urging me to go even faster and never stop. The sound of my fast footsteps changed as I reached the bridges that stretched over a small lake. I continued running faster and faster, speeding past the fisherman sitting on the sides of the bridge. For just a moment I closed my eyes, and then- SPLASH!

I felt like I crashed into someone, but before I could even see who it was I fell backwards into the lake below me. In a bit of a panic, Nicky dove into the water and helped me get back up. Once we were both out I ended up drenched, lying on my back, and... laughing hysterically!

Cole looked at me like I was crazy, "Uh... Margaret? You could've drowned just now. What exactly is so funny...?"

I controlled my giggle fit to blurt out, "Because that was fun, duh! Who did I even bump into?" I said as I sat up.

"That would be me...!" A tall woman, even taller than Darryl, with blonde hair and wearing all black spoke up. "I'm very sorry for making you fall like that!"

I shook my head, "No, don't worry about it. It was my fault anyway."

"Well, I feel like I should still make it up to you somehow... Oh! I know..."

She reached into her bag, handing me some sort of disc. "Here, it's an HM for your pokemon. It can teach them the move Cut! I'm sure it will be of good use to you."

"Oh, you don't have to-"

"Nonsense! If anything, just think of it as a special gift from one trainer to another. By the way, my name's Cynthia." She extended her hand.

I reached out my own to shake hands. "Margaret."

"Margaret.. I'll remember that in case we see eachother again. And I'm hoping we will..." She waved back to me as she turned around and walked away.

"Well, that was a little... weird. Wait- Where's Gloria?!"

"Down here!" She answered in her tiny voice. "You dropped me once you fell in the water, but I'm okay!"

"Oh, good...!" I crouched down to pick her up again. "Did Evan and Aline ever stop?"

Cole shook his head, "Nope. I don't think they even noticed you fall."

"Well then, we'd better go find them... Hopefully Eterna City isn't too big."

"It shouldn't be that hard to find them," Nicky said. "How hard could it be to spot an overly-excited Dustox with a Zubat on its back?"

"Still... I don't want them getting into any trouble or anything."

"Nah, I'm sure they'll be fine..."

"If you say so Nicky...!"

I took a moment to look on both sides of the disk Cynthia gave me as we kept walking. "Hidden Machine, huh...? Do any of you happen to know how these things work?"

Gloria sighed and looked up at me. "Put the HM on my forehead."

Confused, I did as I was told. Out of nowhere the HM started glowing, until it stopped with an oddly satisfying 'ding!'

"What in the name of...?"

Gloria then hopped out of my arms, approached a small tree, and slashed it down with her bud.

"So let me get this straight... By putting this weird disc on your head, you can now clear away trees...?"

Gloria nodded. "Yeah, basically."

I stayed silent for a minute, staring at the disk. "...Eh, works for me I guess." I shrugged and stuffed it back into my bag.

It was only a short distance until we came upon Eterna City. Although it was apparently a very old place, the newer houses and tall buildings gave it a more modern look. As I walked toward the nearest Pokemon Center, I kept my eyes up to the sky, looking for Evan. With no sign of them once we got to the red-roofed building, I turned to everyone.

"Alright team, I have a plan. It's starting to get late, so to speed up the search, everyone will split up to look for Evan and Aline, besides Gloria. She'll be with me!" I looked down at her with a smile. "We'll meet back here in an hour, got it? Ready... G-"

"There you guys are!" Evan called down to us from above. "Jeez, you took forever to get here! And why are you so wet?"

"Oh I only fell into the lake while chasing you..."

Aline giggled as she poked her head out from behind Evan. "Well we should probably go dry you off then...!"

"Good thing we're already at the Pokemon Center...!"

I smiled as the warm temperature from inside the building greeted me with open arms. By now, most trainers and their team were inside, getting healed and ready for some sleep. My first priority though, was to get some towels, and luckily I didn't even have to say anything for the nurses there to help dry me off. They even got that Magikarp smell off of me and reserved me a bed for the night. One perk I loved about the Pokemon Center besides free unlimited healing was that they pampered trainers who come in. I guess they just want to make life more convenient for the 10-year old kids (well, in my case 16) who were thrown out of their hometowns to train Pokemon... Still, the towels there were warm and fluffy, like they just came out of the dryer, and I just loved it. After a change out of my still damp clothes, I rushed outside with Evan.

"Why are we out here again? It's starting to get cold..."

"Just a quick favor, alright? Do you think you can fly me up to the roof?"

"I'll try, but... why? It sounds kinda dangerous..."

"Don't worry about it, I'll be fine! Now get me up there!" I demanded, raising my arms.

Evan sighed and grabbed them tightly. "If you say so..."

He slowly lifted me from the ground, straining as he brought me up higher. Eventually I could climb up on my own, and an exhausted Evan collapsed on the flat roof. I chuckled as I let out the rest of the team.

Nicky yawned, "I sure am ready to get some good- HOLY SHIFTRY WHY ARE WE ON THE ROOF?!"

"Be careful not to fall!" I said through a laugh.

"Thanks for that thought Margaret...! Seriously though, maybe a little warning next time?"

"Well, I wanted to keep it a surprise!"

"Keep what a surprise?" Gloria asked.

"This!" I spread my arms open in the opposite direction, revealing the sun lowering beautifully over the city in a mix of orange, yellow and pink clouds. Everyone stared in awe, even Cole, who for once was actually smiling!

...For all the time we spent up there, not even a word was spoken. All I had to do was exchange a look with one of them to know I had a connection with them beyond just being their trainer. I closed my eyes and smiled, soaking in the moment. And as a breeze flew by, I could've sworn for at least a moment I felt the soft feathers of a Starly brush up against me, as well as the rugged edges of a Geodude hand by my side. I didn't bother to look down or even move, I just kept gazing at the gorgeous sunset.

Just like Cole, Andrea and Evan, it was then I knew for sure that because of this journey, I had changed.

Yet... oddly enough, this feeling was somewhat... familiar...

Why. . .?