A/N: Sorry this one took so long and that it's so short and mellow in comparison... I wanted them to Rest.
August is ALWAYS a hectic month for me, and I had some commissions I'd been putting off that I needed to finish up! Hopefully you guys didn't mind waiting, I promise I definitely didn't enjoy making you wait.
This chapter is about one of my favourite pokegirls, tied only with Bonnie :'3 I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed channeling her spirit.
Last chapter, I was asked to start noting what episodes are referenced in chapters so that people can watch them in preparation, if they want! That being said, not many episodes are heavily referenced in this chapter! There's a pretty specific reference to DP146/Dressed for Jess Success, and to a stretch of the Meloetta Arc (BW085-BW093), but beyond that, not much!
Enjoy~!
Even early in the day, when the sun had barely made its way across the sky, Nimbasa was a whirling city of lively and energetic faces. Where Castelia's inhabitants shone with drive, and determination, and a steely grind that brought the promise of business and productivity, Nimbasa's were a leisurely sister with her head in the clouds and her hair pressed gently against the grass.
The former Rockets had woken earlier than most of them would have liked, with the intention to see the sights and potentially beat the lines at the amusement park. Jessie was a terrifyingly exuberant morning person, much to the chagrin of the boys, who were not to be spoken to before at least two cups of coffee.
The kind of serenity you normally come face-to-face with, when barely a soul breathes and there's nothing to be heard against the rising sun besides the pidove cooing around at your feet, was not waiting for them. Nimbasa was early to rise and late to bed, laughing off whatever expectations tourists passing through had for it.
This didn't exactly put a damper on their day, but they did have to rethink their strategy. The trio lagging behind Jessie and yawning were far more inclined to spend the day in a quiet little cafe enjoying the calm oasis of peace, and she was inclined to agree to spare herself their whining. If it didn't matter, it was better to hit the rides on a day when they actually had the energy to spare.
As they made their way across the city, hopeful to find a place to eat and wind down, a shimmering object caught in Jessie's peripheral, and she stopped and swiftly turned her head to glance at it. Still caught in a haze of early-morning brain fog, the boys were rammed directly into her one by one, unprepared for the sudden halt in movement.
"Watch it!" Jessie chided.
"Ya can wake us up at five in da morning, or ya can expect us t' leave da hotel wit' our brains switched on," Meowth shot right back. "Pick one!"
She absorbed about half of his sass, caught up in the flyer as it hung there on the bricks. The paper it was printed on was… excessive, to say the least. A glossy finish with holographic starbursts dispersed throughout—something she could really only liken to one of James' rare trading cards. She wondered who on earth had the money to print something like this, likely multiple times, when a normal black and white flyer would have easily sufficed. Jessie took all of this in long before she actually read what the paper was advertising.
It was so, so extra. She absolutely loved it. It called to her.
"Elesa?" James was suddenly peering over her shoulder, reading the text adorning it. "She's the gym leader around these parts, right?"
Jessie shook off her spellbound trance, squinting as she scanned the object, finally taking in the information herself. When she finished, the delight in her voice was obvious, tone shot up into the excited octave range her friends were so tuned in to.
"It's a fashion show!" She squealed. "Glitter! Glamour! Models! All kinds of new looks from independent designers!"
Her tone immediately became serious, and what she said next was more of an order than a suggestion.
"We have to go. Right now."
"Not to shoot down your dreams," James began. "But we'll be waiting a while."
He pointed to the date as it rested there, firmly declaring that the show wasn't for another day.
"Where have you been?" Jessie said. "This is the perfect time to offer our services! We're amazing at fashion!"
"Dis looks like a big deal, Jess," Meowth told her. "Ya really t'ink we're gonna be able to just waltz in there and make ourselves a part of it?"
"I don't care if we're running a concession stand!" She beamed. "I just want to experience it up close!"
James and Meowth both looked to Wobbuffet, who was standing between them with no opinions of value to offer, and was just happy to be thought of. They were all still way too tired to exist.
Jessie was already rushing off towards the gym, however—completely apathetic to any protests they might have offered. She was so caught up in excitedly power-walking away that she didn't even notice the girl turning the corner, tugging at her deep blue hair with matching eyes nervously downcast. Each held aloft in their own disconnected fantasies, the pair messily collided with each other, and the two of them were slammed backwards onto the sidewalk.
Both of them yelped in surprised, and Jessie's teammates all grinded to a halt, nearly tripping over themselves and turning the accident into a full-on dogpile. Jessie cringed sharply at the impact, and when she was finally able to force her eyes open, she came face to face with an apologetic—and familiar—twerpette.
"I'm so sorry!" Dawn was already knocked square on her butt, so she figured she might as well get on her hands and knees and start begging for forgiveness. "I should've been looking where I was going! I'm really sorry for the trouble!"
Jessie's kneejerk anger instinct flickered out at the girl's words. It was amazing, really—how easily it was immediately taken over by a much stronger urge, a feeling that had been buried down so deep she'd nearly forgotten it. Without thinking, she practically leapt to her feet and held out a hand, strangely kind.
"Let's call it even, I was prepared for trouble."
"If we're exchanging apologies, make that double!"
"Remind me again," Meowth rolled his eyes, stepping forward. "Was we in a hurry?"
"Wobbuffet!"
"T'anks, but I don't t'ink you've ever hurried for anyt'in' in yer life."
Dawn immediately brought her gaze up to see the duo with their arms outstretched, uncharacteristically welcoming smiles adorning them. Slowly, she grabbed their hands and managed to bring herself back to her feet.
"Team Rocket?" She pondered aloud.
"Eh, once upon a time," Meowth said. "Now we're just cute tourists!"
"Meowth is putting it simply," James added.
"What the heck are you doing in Unova?" Dawn asked.
"It's one stop of many in a journey to undo some mistakes," Jessie said, plainly. "So I'm pricing you scuffing my favourite capris at the cost of many a stolen piplup. Fair?"
"Uh, more than fair, I guess," she answered, still looking a bit perplexed, going back to nervously fidgeting.
"What about you, twerpette?" James inquired. "You're looking jittery."
"Oh, right!" She piped back up, practically pulling her hair out, now. "I don't have time to deal with you guys, I have a fashion show to work on!"
"A show," Jessie remarked. "Like the one Elesa's putting on?"
"Exactly that one!" Dawn panicked. "I'm supposed to be working on a dress right now and I haven't even started and the show is tomorrow—"
Jessie turned back to her teammates with a wickedly proud grin on her face, muttering romantically under her breath. "Oh, kismet… I'll never stop adoring how picturesque you can be when you favour me."
She turned back to Dawn, words leveled. "Twerpette. Let us help."
"Are you actually pulling my leg right now?!" was the response Dawn gave, and not much else.
"Sounds to me like you've got several people's' work to do in not a lot of time," James offered. "Why not quadruple it?"
"I dunno if I'm that desperate, yet," she put her hands on her hips. "Even if I did let you, what could you do?"
"Do ya know who yer talkin' to?" Meowth said.
"How many times have our on-the-fly disguises fooled you in our heyday?" James added.
Dawn crossed her arms, then, seemingly lost in thought. They were definitely the Team Rocket she'd known, but even then, the troublemakers she'd known were… just that. Not very intimidating. Just people on the wrong side of history. She'd gotten along with them on some rare occasions when they'd had to band together to face a greater enemy, and believing that they had the capacity for kindness… wasn't too out of the ordinary.
I mean, if they're plotting something, it's not like they're much of a threat… she pondered.
"Okay, tell you what," she finally said, unable to detect an ulterior motive. "We're gonna walk to the fabric store, and we're gonna shop, and it's going to be super boring for you guys, and the entire time we're there you're also gonna be selling me on why I should listen to you, and if you can handle it, we're gonna walk back to the gym, because my life is already so weird that this might as well happen."
"A test of endurance!" Jessie grinned. "You've piqued my interest."
"And tell me how on earth you got here while we're walking," Dawn said then, motioning for them to follow her. "I have so many questions."
"No promises that it'll answer any," James said, following her. "All things considered, we've had just as many."
Just like that, they were off on their next adventure. It felt uncanny, as of late—no legendary dragon-serpent threatening to vaporize them, no angry psychic type attempting to drown them, no old rivals with wicked grins offering a poison that smelled and looked so, so enticing. They hoped this meant another lucky break, for a while. None of them had really felt like they'd been able to breathe since they stepped foot in Unova.
Jessie was practically prancing as they followed behind her, still full of way too much energy for them to keep up with. Between her passionate excitement and Dawn's nervous fidgeting, the rest of the team knew they were certainly in for a day.
Somehow, the passage of time had eluded all of them, and they were now nestled on the floor of a massive room deep inside the Nimbasa gym. It was thankfully one of the only rooms without a rollercoaster, which Jessie was very thankful for. She'd spent the whole ride down there absolutely screaming her head off in horror, and the subsequent twenty minutes trying to distract from an undignified phobia with complaints of how impractical of a mechanic it was.
Dawn took little convincing to believe that the former Rockets had gotten their act together. This was both completely surprising and entirely predictable to them as a group—they were on the fence about karma, but after standing on the cliff edge and staring into the abyss of temptation back in Castelia, they were certain they were going to get theirs soon. On the flipside, this twerpette in particular was always… a lot like the Original Twerp. The more time they spent in her company, the more convinced they were that somehow, the two were separated at birth. They'd given her the rundown, surprised that they weren't tired of telling the story yet. Dawn just smiled through it all with arms full of fabric.
Despite being brimming with questions, she barely questioned if they were for real or not, and it gave the quartet a strange sense of pride. Here they were, feeling lower than they had in awhile, more like villains than they had in months—but she seemed to trust them completely. It was refreshing, to say the least.
Presently, the majority of everyone's pokémon were a room over, relaxing in a daycare-like enclosure full of toys and food. Elesa's gym was more like a tiny mall than anything, and she'd left a good portion of her team back at the gym to mingle with Dawn's own. The pokémon's friendly chattering just barely made it through the walls, providing a playful soundtrack to their work.
Greninja, however, was a lone exception. The pokémon was understandably uneasy about letting the former Rockets out of its sights, a complete opposite to Dawn's positive and confident outlook on them. It sat meditating in a corner, adjacent to the chaos of fabric and scissors and needles and thread, eyes closed and senses undoubtedly fine-tuned to everything around it.
James and Dawn sat leaned over the pattern that the latter had drawn up, carefully instructing measurements to Meowth as he cut fabric with sharpened claws. The design looked pretty air-tight, all things considered—it was a long, flowing, navy blue garment with a belt wrapped loosely around the waist. Halfway up the skirt, an ebony silhouette of Nimbasa's skyline stood proudly. James could make out the landmarks, the gym, the ferris wheel… all of it came together to make for a lovely design.
"I just… can't help but feel frustrated with it." Dawn admitted, as James was regarding it.
"What's da big deal?" Meowth asked, paws deep in work. "Looks great ta me."
"Yeah, it's not awful…" she said. "...but it's missing something, and not knowing what that something is has been driving me up a wall."
"Is that why you've got so much on your plate right now?" James inquired.
"Ugh, yes!" She ran a hand through her hair. "I can't believe I've sunk so low. But every time I look at what I have so far I just… hate it."
James tilted his head, trying to see what she saw. He considered himself an artist in the loosest, most vague terms—it was something he dabbled in but ultimately something that his childhood had more or less beat out of him early. He realized then that he'd never really gotten into the self-loathing stage of it—he'd always been a wide-eyed child with boundless confidence in his work.
Dawn must have needed some positive assurance, right? To be reminded that her design only looked bad to her because she spent all day toiling over it? He opened his mouth to let her know—
"It is absolutely lacking," Jessie cut him off, and he almost shouted her name at the audacity before she continued. "But feeling bad over it isn't going to help. What you need is a second opinion."
To James (and Meowth's) surprise, Dawn was almost immediately receptive. In Jessie's harsh words, they watched her anxiety dissolve, some.
"That's…" she said. "You're—you're the only person who's actually been honest with me!"
Jessie raised an eyebrow. "Oh, god. No wonder you're such a trainwreck over this. Are you surrounded by people who just praise you day and night? Are you starved for critique?"
"Yes!" Dawn practically shouted. "Like, everyone always told me this business was unforgiving. But I think they were thinking of something else, because even I'm tired of being told there's no need to worry."
"Well," Jessie said, peering deeper into the design. "If you're asking me, you shouldn't be shooting for elegance."
"Wait, really?"
Jessie nodded. "We need glamour where we're going."
"Yeah?" Dawn said, resting her face in her hand. "How do you think?"
"Twerpette, have you seen these flyers? They're printed on glitter paper," she explained. "I mean, do you really think people here are expecting the hautest of haute couture?"
"Okay, fair point!" Dawn admitted. "As much as I love the feedback, though, I do have some concerns about where it's coming from."
"Oh, dere it is." Meowth commented from behind them, not taking his eyes off his work.
"I assure you, kid, I'm not on a path of sabotage," Jessie said. "Much as I wish I did, I don't actually have a ponyta in this race."
"No, that's not it at all!" She put her hands up, gesturing transparency. "I mean, this isn't just about looks. It's about performance, too. I was a pretty solid Coordinator before fashion, so I think I might have the upper-hand in knowing what to do in those regards!"
Jessie's eyebrow twitched, and an almost unhinged grin crept onto her face, and James and Meowth stopped what they were doing for the sole purpose of sharing The Look that they gave each other when they knew wholeheartedly that their teammate was about to unleash something.
With flawless precision, she pulled two perfectly round frames out of her pocket and put them on, their gold finish shimmering in the lights of the workroom.
"You and your pokémon aren't the only ones who've seen the spotlight, of course!"
Dawn was almost awestruck, but more than that it looked like she was connecting points in her head that suddenly made way too much sense.
"Y… you were Jessilina?"
"Her spirit still breathes within me!" Jessie declared. "Those were such glamourous days for my life as a Coordinator… I miss them dearly."
"Yeah, hey, not t' distract from this beautiful revelation, but," Meowth began. "Didya just keep those glasses on ya all these years?!"
"You know I'm a hoarder of sentimentality, Meowth."
"Oh trust me, I know! Between you 'n' Jimmy over dere we might as well start weighing da balloon down wit' yer junk!"
She shoved him out of her breathing room and went back to addressing Dawn.
"With our superb Coordinator talent combined, we've absolutely got this in the bag!" She beamed.
"You know… you're right!" Dawn said, mirroring her enthusiasm after a moment's hesitation. Then, a wicked grin found its way to her. "Just don't change your style four times over the course of this design process, Ms. Jessilina!"
"The nerve!"
As the hours passed, Jessie and James both were finding themselves unable to visualize what exactly it was that the dress was missing. They'd pushed Dawn to let them all make what was more or less a 3D rough draft, and perhaps in a fit of desperation, she was willing to comply. Thankfully enough, it took no time at all with their combined hands and claws.
They were circling around it like two hungry mandibuzz, now, and Dawn was back in a corner sewing some of the more solid parts of the dress that she knew were unlikely to be drafted out. Greninja had fallen asleep, somehow. Wobbuffet had come in from the playroom to offer emotional support. The only sound that could be heard in the quiet concentration was the hum of the sewing machine and the droned-out, slow patter of feet on linoleum.
Dawn creaked her chair across the floor, stretching as she stood up. A quiet alarm had started to sound from her pokétch, and the other occupants of the room hadn't even registered it until the machine was flipped off. They turned to her, and she gave them a quick wave.
"Oh, no need to worry!" She told their curious looks. "That's just my reminder to eat. I have a habit of getting kinda sucked into work. Bring you something back from the kitchen?"
Dawn had opened the door to the hall now, and the team were about to open their mouths and offer an enthusiastic yes. Before a word could pass anyone's lips, however, a sharp clanging noise from the other room rang through the building, and the sound of tiny footsteps that followed it grew ominously louder and louder. Dawn was looking around wildly in slight panic, unsure of what to expect, and she hardly even noticed her piplup shoot through her legs and tear after Elesa's emolga.
No one really had time to take in or process the scene as it unfolded. Emolga looked annoyed at best, but Piplup was about as fired up as a water pokémon could be. Whatever their squabble had been, it had left Piplup infuriated enough to chase the other pokémon clean into another room with little disregard to any important business that was happening within said room.
Dawn was sputtering at her pokémon, trying to get him to calm down, but he wasn't hearing any of it—Piplup jumped a few feet, reeled back, and fired off a Bubblebeam in Emolga's direction, knocking the rodent back into the wall.
Piplup's impassioned shout as he did this followed by the sound of a pokémon being flung against a wall jolted Greninja awake, and its reflexes completely took over. From behind the work area, it materialized a Cut attack, and sliced the off a chunk of the dress's lower half.
Jessie and James didn't have much time to scream in agony about the dress being partially destroyed, because currently they were screaming at the other side of the chaos, where Emolga was beginning to glow a brilliant yellow and fire up a Spark. Piplup immediately snapped out of his rage and retreated behind his trainer's leg, and Dawn gave him the most incredulous, exasperated look that anyone in the room had ever seen. She didn't stand a chance to begin with—the brunt of the weak electric attack hit her and Piplup, throwing them backwards into an exhausted, staticy pile.
The former Rockets hadn't noticed until just this moment, but somewhere along the way, they had shut their eyes tight in fear. Realizing they'd have to open them to survey the damage eventually, they slowly did so, taking in the view of what they expected to be their best chance at a rough draft—now tattered in ribbons from Greninja's attack.
Greninja was on its knees beside the dress, bowing its head respectfully in sincere apology, completely embarrassed that it had let its guard down like that. As their eyes followed the natural path from the pokémon to the dress in question, their hearts absolutely sank in relief.
The cut was clean. Not a single frayed scrap or string. It was at an angle, sure, but all at once they realized… it looked better. The long and flowing look wasn't at all suited to the theme. None of them had even considered just lobbing a good chunk of it off for a much more energized look.
"Greninja, get up!" James beamed. "This is almost perfect, you have nothing to apologize for!"
The pokémon froze, peering up at them. "Gre…?"
"Almost perfect," Jessie repeated, then raised her voice an octave, so charmed by the happy accident that she completely forgot the chaos that birthed it. "Twerpette, can you come look at this?"
Dawn didn't say a word of response. She was dazed on the ground, eyes swimming with stars, unable to battle.
"Twerpette?"
The group turned to face her and saw her there, hysterical smile painted on her face, hair positively shimmering with thousands upon thousands of sparkling static stars.
She could offer no sentiments to them, she simply choked out a few choice words that sounded more like an embarrassing nickname than a coherent sentence, and remained momentarily immobilized by the attack. Piplup regained his mind before her, shaking her awake, guilty tears in his eyes. He hardly even noticed Emolga slipping out the door.
Wobbuffet and Meowth were similarly at Dawn's side, trying to make sure she was still bound to this world. James stayed transfixed on the sparkles festooning her hair like a shining crown.
"Oh, muse," he said, softly, to no one in particular. "How curious a creature you are."
Dawn was suddenly regretting jumping at the opportunity to take such a high balcony seat in the auditorium. It was definitely all inside of her head, but knowing that didn't make the feeling go away—the lack of air up here was strangling her. The nervousness she was so unaccustomed to had cranked itself up to eleven and she couldn't help but retrace all of the events that had lead up to this moment.
When did she start feeling like this? In the beginning, things were so easy. She could crank out a design and be happy with it, tweaking it along the way. She'd made close to ten now in the time she'd been here, and she knew she was good at it by the cheers the crowd gave whenever they would see her work. So why?
Bass boomed around her as she wrung the back of her neck with a free hand. Jessie had hit the nail on the head before, she concluded. Dawn liked to think of herself as a person with some common sense—and as such, she knew nobody was perfect. There's no reason she would be the exception. So when people had nothing but praise to offer for her designs, her head filled in for them—peppering her with unconstructive nitpicks, telling her she needed to change things but refusing to specify what.
It was maddening. The feeling had only grown with every new design over the past few months, and she agonized. She knew she could overcome any hurdle that the world threw at her, but her least favourite part of that was figuring out where to even start.
Piplup was finely tuned into his trainer's feelings, and even if he wasn't, he could tell by the look on her face just how sick she felt watching designs go down the aisle. A physical presence wasn't exactly his strong suit, he'd try and pat a friend on the back only for his flippers to move mechanically and awkwardly and not at all convey the tenderness he'd hoped. The best he could do for Dawn was chatter excitedly in her direction. Small talk might not have been exactly what she needed, especially with a bit of a language barrier between them, but it was a distraction, and it was definitely welcome.
"There are so many good designs here!" Dawn said over the music, her tone a mixture of anxiety and admiration, and from beside her, Jessie piped in.
"Really? This entire time I was sitting here kind of unimpressed."
"You can't mean that…" she responded incredulously, and then turned when Piplup alerted her to look at the newest look out on the runway. "Oh my Arceus, look at the trim on that one!"
"Sorry," Jessie interrupted her. "Is that a thing that people in Sinnoh actually say?"
"I do not have time for culture shock right now!" Dawn immediately answered, practically hanging over the railing as she peered at the designs below. "Look at the talent here! We don't stand a chance!"
"Relax, twoipette," Meowth offered. "Ya said dat da last dress in da show is da one Elesa picked as her favourite, right? Sure is funny how we haven't seen yours yet."
"Yeah, or she just straight-up threw it out!"
"Please," James said. "If she let that gaudy red-and-pink frou-frou nightmare fly, I'm positive we're fine."
Dawn actually laughed at this, completely caught off-guard, and Piplup couldn't help but brighten up. It was the first time he'd seen her optimistic self back all week.
As the minutes left in the show became less and less, Dawn found it curious how her companions got more excited and she only felt more and more unnerved. She tried to breathe, tried to take her own advice, but deep down she knew that she wouldn't be okay until the second she saw her dress on the runway. The girl knew that comparing her designs to every other one she saw was art poison, but it was all she could do to aid her racing mind—furiously taking down mental notes of precisely what every single one of them did right.
After what felt like forever, there was a change in the tempo of the music, and the crowd's applause began to swell alongside the swimming lights of the stage. Dawn clasped her hands together in a begging reverence, unsure of what she was praying for, unsure of what she was feeling other than 'bursting.'
The crowd positively erupted into cheers. It was almost deafening. Dawn could feel their shouts pricking bumps onto her skin, as if a thousand mothim were fluttering inside her heart, bumping at the walls of it, threatening to break forth. Piplup had to peck furiously at her arm for her to even dream of opening her eyes, shouting his name over the resounding cries of the auditorium.
Dawn forced herself to drift back to the waking world, and swallowing hard, she looked down at Elesa.
The woman was absolutely tearing a fierce trot down the runway, smile on her face bright as ever, blowing kisses and waving to her audience, her mere presence a walking performance. Dawn felt the same pang of inspiration she always felt when she saw Elesa in her element—a hope that she, too, could someday invoke those kinds of feelings just by smiling near people. Her long black hair framed her face better than ever, angling her features but somehow not taking away from the softness she seemed to emit. It was amazing how she practically danced down the stage in heels, never once stumbling, her whole vibe in sync with the music.
That's when Dawn registered the whole picture, finally—it was her dress. The completed product. What both her and her former enemies had banded together in a single night to breathe life into. Elesa was working it, and adoring it, and the crowds were cheering not only for the gym leader, but for Dawn herself.
Across Nimbasa's skyline, emblazoned on the dress, hundreds of meticulously sewn sequins brandished themselves. Dawn had stayed up early into the hours of the morning making sure not a single one was out of place. She didn't realize until she saw the whole outfit in action just how incredible it really looked—as the lights of the stage hit them, they shone with every colour of the rainbow, casting the image of the city iridescently aglow. One by one, in the dark night sky of the dress, Nimbasa's lively alternative to stars flickered on—a splash of colour in a region that boasted black and white.
The contrast against the darkness of the skyline looked breathtaking, and Dawn felt her eyes begin to well up with tears. She wished, more than anything, that she could've taken credit for the idea. More than she was disheartened, though, she was carried aloft by the indescribable feeling that somehow, everything was going to be alright.
The former Rockets had since grabbed her into a massive, crushing, group hug, several of them crying unabashedly. Piplup was crying, too, clinging onto her for dear life. Her head was the only part of her body she could move in the wake of it, and saying nothing, she took in the expression on every single face in the building.
Elesa's was the last she stopped on, smiling up at the girl before grabbing her mic and thanking everyone for showing up.
When the show was finally over, Dawn and the former Rockets were splayed out on the floor of the workroom, their hair a collective mess as it ran together like mixed paint. Breathing a synced sigh of relief, they mindlessly discovered shapes in the popcorn ceiling above.
The door being thrown open pulled them out of their reverie, and Elesa nothing short of pulled Dawn to her feet. In reality, she was patient with the girl's obvious exhaustion, but Dawn could tell that she had a lot to say with regards to that night.
"Dawn!" Elesa was glowing. "That was some of your best work yet, I can't believe it!"
Elesa's words and her electrifying presence had certainly shot some life into Dawn. As much as she wanted to ride that high, to live on that feeling, she never was too good at not wearing her feelings on her sleeve.
"Thank you so much Elesa, but…" she turned to half-face the trio, who were now sitting up and watching carefully. "...I can't take full credit. If I'm being honest, I had a lot of help from my… um…"
The woman peered into her, waiting for her to finish.
"...from my friends."
The former Rockets were surprised at how their collective heart swelled at the words. How many times had such sentiments been directed at them sincerely?
"I really only set the stage for this design," Dawn admitted. "It was these three who really brought the charm up."
"Well, well!" Elesa said, but her smile was understanding despite the admonishment in her tone. "Not like you to solicit help at all, Ms. Independant! What happened?"
"I, I just—" Dawn stammered. "I couldn't settle on a design I was happy with, and no one was giving me good feedback, and I'd taken on so many previous projects, it got down to the point where I had so much to do in so little time, and I got overwhelmed and happened to run into some old friends—"
"Dawn," Elesa stopped her, dragging out her name a second time, hands affectionately on her shoulders. "Daaaawn."
Dawn quieted herself, and breathed, and looked up at her.
"You've got a lot of spunk!" Elesa said. "A lot of optimism, too. It's not the end of the world when those things run dry, though!"
"I know, I know…" the girl responded. "But I don't want to be encouraged all the time. I don't want generalized positivity thrown my way, Elesa—it just messes with my brain."
"How do you mean?"
"I need to be told what I can do better, too," Dawn told her. "No matter how much faith you have in me, I need you to be a little hard on me too. Because if you're not, I'm just going to be hard on myself, and honestly? That just isn't me."
Elesa removed her hands from the girl's shoulders, expression even softer now, and threw her head back into a charmed laugh.
"Only you, Dawn!" She grinned, and put a hand on her hip. "I can do that for you. But only on one condition."
Dawn tilted her head. "What's that?"
Elesa produced from the pocket of her jacket a thick envelope, handing it to the girl.
"Your commission," she told her. "Take this and for heaven's sake, love, you and your friends spend a share of it at the amusement park. You need a vacation right now."
"Can't I just vacation by laying on the floor until I melt into a ditto?"
"Consider it your punishment!" Elesa said, still grinning. "Your friends were kind enough to help you out. It's only natural to share the spoils with them!"
Dawn looked down, a little embarrassed.
"Sorry about all this, Elesa," she suddenly said. "I just want to get better as soon as I can, and… I kinda just… go into warp drive sometimes."
"Dawn, dear," Elesa said. "You're young and beautiful and have all the time in the world. It's very important to work hard, but do you know what's even more sacred?"
"What?"
"Having fun."
Elesa pushed the cash into her hands again, placing her own hand atop Dawn's affectionately.
"Now go," she said. "For designing a wonderful dress. Take it and have the time of your life with these people who obviously care about you a lot!"
"Are you sure that's it?"
"Knowing how much of a workaholic you are, I think it's more than fair," Elesa winked.
Maybe it was the gym leader's unshakable presence, maybe it was the adrenaline of the night resurfacing somewhere inside her, maybe it was just the studio lighting—but as Dawn's smile came back, the trio behind her swore that she was positively glowing.
The sunset brought with it a pleasant chill, and the group found their collective solace in the white noise of theme park as it swam around them. Lights slowly began to blink on. For every star cast far away from the glowing city, an artificial one took its place. They shone brilliantly, unafraid that they were any less, confident that they made this niche of the world exactly what it was.
Former Rockets at any manner of theme park were a forced to be reckoned with. Jessie had a habit of falling in love with every single oversized plush prize she saw, and James had a habit of being criminally good at every single carnival game ever. Naturally, one would think this was ideal—but in lieu of any home base they had being out of the picture, they no longer had the room to hoard unnecessary items of leisure. Jessie was having some trouble adjusting to this fact.
"I want that giant wobbuffet," she'd said.
"You have an actual, real-life wobbuffet," James kept walking. "He is standing next to you."
"Precisely," Jessie had told him. "I'd much prefer one that keeps quiet."
"Wob~ba!" Her pokémon retorted, and Meowth had to keep himself from laughing at how nonchalantly Wobbuffet had called her coldblooded.
The night was cool and calm and precisely what Dawn had needed after such a long grind. She was so unused to stress, so unused to her optimism wavering. There were a few unkind hours, before everything was said and done, where she was wholly convinced that she had lost her stride. That her days of artistry were behind her.
There, with old enemies made friends, smiling in the shimmer of the theme park, she wondered when that doubt had managed to creep inside her. Right now, Dawn felt nothing but hopeful for the future of all of them.
Jessie was timid in the face of most fast-paced rides, biting anyone's head off when they inquired if her usual unwavering demeanour had cracks in it. She'd file her nails and re-tie her hair and put her eyes anywhere that weren't on the interrogators, because she wasn't scared, she just didn't see the point in screaming for a measly three minutes as a leisurely activity, honestly.
Jessie wouldn't have stopped any of the others from enjoying those rides without her, but communication definitely wasn't her strong suit. As it was, all of them compromised and ended up on the Rondez-View ferris wheel as it quietly drifted through the night, carrying them upwards towards the stars.
"My, my," Jessie said, staring out at the expanse as it lay like a painting beyond the gondola's windows. "It certainly has been a while."
"It has, hasn't it?" James added. "The last time we rode this ferris wheel, we were plotting some pretty nasty deeds."
"Time flies…" Meowth concluded. "What about you, twoipette? T'ings have been so hectic, we barely even got t' talk."
"Oh! Well, um…" Dawn began. "I suppose I did sit there and listen to your wild stories without really giving any of my own…"
"It was a fair trade, for what it was," James told her. "For all you knew, we were still just as dastardly as ever."
"I suppose that's true enough!" Dawn responded. "Although… if we're being honest, I pretty much believed you from the get-go."
"That trusting heart is gonna get you taken advantage of one day, you know!" Jessie said.
"Is that not normal?" The girl inquired. "You guys aren't that scary."
"So we're learning," Jessie said, and there was a certain solemn in her voice as she gazed out the window.
There was a short silence, not uncomfortable, but still leaving something to be desired, and Dawn was the one to break it.
"I was out here a while back, too," she said. "I came to visit Ash! And see the sights, I suppose."
"Oh, right!" James said. "Back in the Meloetta days…"
"I'd radder we don't dwell on dose," Meowth butted in. "We've had enough reflectin' on da darker days for one story-arc, yeah? Finish ya story, kid."
"Ha, well…" she continued. "At the time, fashion was just kind of a side interest of mine, y'know? Nothing I really planned on pursuing… but I saw one of Elesa's shows and it just… planted some kinda seed in me. Something… different than what contests made me feel, I guess."
"How do you think?" Jessie asked her.
"It's like… a contest performance is cool, right? But think about it…" she paused to think. "All those people show up to cheer for you. And what they get is an amazing performance, but even then, that's just… a memory.
"Any good Coordinator will tell you that without an audience, we're nothing. Even if every judge says yes to our routine, they're only in that building to judge us because people want to see us perform.
"In the end, despite being the total foundation of contests, I just… don't feel like we give enough back to the people who got us there," she raised her voice an octave, suddenly a tad defensive. "That isn't to say that I'm disenchanted with the contest scene at all! It's still something I love with all my heart. But…
"Fashion is more tangible art, you know?" Dawn looked at her feet, smile radiating a humility far beyond her years. "You can put a design out there, and in return for their support, the people who love your work can keep it with them forever. I just… think that's kind of beautiful, you know?"
Predictably, James was on the verge of tears at Dawn's words, and Jessie couldn't help but feel something resonating inside of her, too. Like most things that elicited an emotional response in her, her brain decided to be irritated at this.
"Honestly, can't believe…" she grumbled.
"Did I say something bad?" Dawn tilted her head.
"No. You're ridiculously wise, and I'm disgustingly jealous," Jessie said with an annoyed sense of self-awareness. "I wish I had figured out all that before my time in the contest spotlight ended. The stuff about us owing it to our audiences, I mean. I worry that I never truly did hit my prime…"
"Hey, no need to worry!" The girl beamed at her. "Just because you're on this whole new adventure now doesn't mean your time in the spotlight is up! Consider it a really long rest day. Heck, this conversation might as well be homework, yeah?"
"I think you'll find that the term 'rest-day' is fairly alien to Jessie." James smirked.
"Excuse you, Mr. Slacker!" Jessie huffed in response. "Not my fault I value action."
"Mr. Slacker!" Meowth parroted. "More like Mr. Cosplays-Ya-A-Hundred-Poicent-In-Charactah-For-A-Whole-Day-'Cause-Dere's-A-Contest-Yer-Too-Sick-To-Compete-In!"
"Oh my god, that was one time," Jessie shot back. "I wanted to be there myself!"
"And point," James concluded.
Dawn was looking understandably perplexed, and noticing this, James turned away from his teammate and back to her to clarify—
"That's probably a story for later," he said. "In retrospect, it is one of our better ones."
"I probably can't judge much!" Dawn told him, and then turned to face Jessie herself. "I mean, the whole reason we're even here together right now is because I don't know how to slow down. Starly of a feather, huh?"
Jessie smiled genuinely at this, unused to people connecting with her in a way that didn't make her feel vulnerable and open and bleeding.
"I suppose so."
Another silence. This time, more comfortable. The wheel came to a stop, and they waved to the controller to let him know they were good for another trip. In the late night atmosphere where only a handful breathed, they ascended freely once more.
"I really love it here," Dawn said, suddenly. "I can't help but feel it was the region itself that called to me most."
"You know," James said, eyes fixed on the smattering of lights and people below. "Unova's really done a number on us. Maybe it… maybe there's something about these lands that invokes a deep sense of reflection in people."
"I can understand how that feels," the girl affirmed. "I mean, I really like what I do here! Honing my skills as a design intern, and all. The whole time before this, though, I felt so torn. Between my original goal and what I ended up falling in love with and being pretty good at."
"Ah, man," Meowth said. "If dat doesn't resonate."
"That's the other thing about being in Unova, too…" Dawn's tone was oddly philosophical, as if she was repeating something she'd heard in a tall tale long ago. "You'll hear lots about 'truth and ideals'. My ideal would have been to just go on writing fashion articles before going back to being a Coordinator like my mom... but my truth ended up being that I fell in love with designing and didn't want to leave it any time soon."
The quiet that ended up falling over the group made her a little nervous, and she quickly backpedaled, realizing how serious she had inadvertently made things sound. Her voice got lighter, more playful.
"It's just funny, is all!" She said. "The idea that a change of atmosphere can change you entirely. It seems silly right up until it happens!"
"Nah, yer definitely onta somet'in," Meowth told her, crossing his arms. "Dat divide is real, y'know? I guess our ideal was that we wanted t' go on a painless journey where we didn't ever have ta face da people dat we was before."
"Granted," James interjected. "We knew we'd have apologies to give. We knew we'd probably take a few beatings in atonement. But I think there might have been a certain… detachment from who we were then and who we are now. As if we have their memories, but not their hearts."
"I think that's normal, though," Dawn said. "When you change with the years, it's way easier to think of your past self as… your past self, not... just you."
"Unova did something terrifying, though," James continued. "It put those past selves—I mean, it put us—up against the one group of people who we were never prepared to beg for the forgiveness of."
The girl peered into him as he shared a look with his teammates. "Who's that?"
"Us."
In the silence of the still air, James let the words sink in. His teammates remained quiet, unable to say it better themselves. He was right, of course—as soon as the reality of their redemption quest had sunk in, the entire group were making lists in their head. Of the people they'd hurt, of the people they needed to seek closure with, of the people they would gladly take a blast-off from if it meant a clear conscience. The list was overwhelming, and decades long, and every name tattooed itself maddeningly onto their skin. The list went on and on and on into forever before they ever once noticed their own names square in the center of it.
Dawn sat there across from them, the lights of the theme park illuminating her through the window as if she were atop a throne of kings. When she spoke, the empathy in her voice was something they were certain could transcend language itself.
"So you've found your truth," she told them, strangely quiet despite her signature optimism. "But that doesn't mean it's something you have to process right away."
Jessie peeked out of her steel fortress, looking down at Dawn from its barbed-wire fence. "...you think?"
"You've all got plenty of time. Life is only short in the grand scheme of things, right?" She smiled. "For the people living it, it's the longest thing there is!"
In response to this, the redhead cracked a sly smile. "Sure your truth is designing clothes and not motivational wall-hangings, No-Worries-Twerpette?"
"Oh, make no mistake, by the time I've made it big in this scene, I'm definitely going to find a way to combine the two," she snarked right back. "It just seems natural."
The group nodded in mock-seriousness, proud of the bit they'd cultivated, and Dawn couldn't help but break character and let out a charmed laugh.
"You gotta look for the convenient things when tackling the hard ones," she said, then. "That divide between truth and ideals, black and white, whatever you wanna call it… it was heavy, but it also kinda reminded me of home, how Sinnoh's divided by Mt. Coronet. It might sound like a stretch, but when I was able to make things familiar, I honestly just felt like I was setting off from Twinleaf again."
"Ah, Sinnoh," Meowth said, almost romantically. "'Bout time we made our way dere, huh?"
"You could probably learn some stuff there, too," Dawn told him. "I miiiight be biased, but it is a lot comfier of a region."
"I do seem to recall enjoying our time there a lot," Jessie added. "But then again, I was constantly on stage and being cheered for."
"There's a lot to do there!" Dawn said. "And a lot to learn. I think it'll be a bit more forgiving to you, though."
"Guess we both needed to hear what Elesa had to say, eh?" James asked her, gaze fixated outside. "It's important to bleed, and important to heal."
Dawn grinned again, taking in the night air, the view. She was acutely aware, just then, that somewhere in the day, her body had finally relaxed. The soreness of all her muscles no longer being clenched tight crept into her, but she couldn't help but be annoyed with it. It was a beautiful, middle-of-the-road feeling, like twilight in her nerves—she'd worked hard, and now she could rest.
Dawn gave good advice, and seldom followed it herself. This time, though, she was confident that she'd be taking her own words to heart.
Hanging there in the black air, they felt weightless.
It was late in the day when the former Rockets finally decided to set off, and they couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness as Dawn walked them to the edge of the city. After all Unova had put them through, after the challenges and confrontations and ugly reflections of who they'd been, Dawn's presence was an incredible comfort. Just when they felt as if they weren't deserving of a break, she was there to remind them that hardship does not mean the end of good times.
Of course it would be her, James found himself thinking as he pondered the whole scenario. She always did retain a certain sunny outlook.
Dawn sat beside them, smile bright as ever, feeling as if nothing short of a miracle had brought her old enemies into her hands. Yes, the win was not entirely her own—but if not for it, if not for them, if not for their confidence in place of her own, how long would it have taken her to make the breakthrough that she did? To tell her mentor her problems without fear of letting her down?
Of course it would be them, Dawn realized. They never did give up, even when things went downright catastrophic for them.
"Dis is where we take off!" Meowth declared. "Partin' is such sweet sorrow."
"He's right, you know," James agreed. "Somehow, I find saying goodbye to you harder than anyone so far, twerpette."
"Geez, I dunno what to say," she offered. "All I did was be an anxious wreck around you guys for a few days!"
"Still, I think you're exactly the kind of person we needed to run into," Jessie said. "I know you're not responsible for the beauty of fate, but there's still something to be said for that."
"Well, I guess all I can say is thanks!" Dawn beamed. "For everything, really. Who knows where I'd be right now if you hadn't shown up."
"We should be off to Sinnoh soon enough," James told her. "Anyone there you'd like us to pass a message to?"
"No one I don't already talk to regularly, I don't think!" She told them, then paused. "Although… you did say that was Ash's greninja, yeah? So I take it you'll be running to his parts eventually?"
"You bet!" Meowth affirmed. "Pallet's da last stop we're hittin' up, but we definitely intend to make it there."
"Hands up," she said bluntly, and the lot of them were a bit caught off guard by how instant the demand was.
"We're ex-cons, twerpette, that's not exactly a statement we're elated to hear—"
"Just work with me here, alright?"
Hesitantly, James raised his arms, and with the biggest, brightest smile, the girl high fived him with all she had.
"That's from me," she said. "To Ash. He'll know what it means, okay?"
James stiffened a bit, unsure of if he was going to be able to deliver with as much energy as she had, but determined to at the very least try.
"I'll make sure it gets to him," he said.
Dawn's eyes shone like the surface of the ocean when the dipping sun hit them, and as they were about to part ways, she told them something they didn't know the needed to hear.
"Best wishes," she said, and her voice sunk to the pit of their hearts like drizzled honey, warm and sweet and inviting and safe.
Jessie couldn't help but inquire. "What's that?"
"Unova is rough and unforgiving, and you do hear a lot about truth and ideals, you do end up doing a lot of hard reflecting," Dawn told them. "But you'll also hear an awful lot of people wishing you nothing but the best when you set off to confront those truths and ideals. That's what makes the region worth it."
She gave her words a moment to register, then spoke again. "That's how you part ways in Unova. With an affirmation that no matter what happens, you hope that people end up happy. It's something I learned here and probably something I'll always keep with me."
"Suppose we had to earn it, huh?" Jessie said, then closed her eyes, exhaling with a smile. "Best wishes, twerpette."
"Best wishes, Team Rocket."
As their footsteps echoed down the dirt road, towards their balloon, Jessie couldn't help but inquire—
"Lesson or no lesson," she said. "I still wish the karmic retribution of the universe would've given us a little warning that it was going to strike hard the second we landed here."
"Eh, y'know what dey say, Jess…"
"Hm?"
"It's always darkest before da dawn."
Pidove fluttered out of the trees beside them at the sound of her heel shoving him straight into a bush.
A/N: I've felt kinda garbage about these last few chapters, and it definitely peaked with this one, ehe. I was agonizing over it the entire time I was writing it, worrying that not enough happened, and that Dawn kinda took the focus when previously it had always been about the TRio.
That being said, pretty much every good and coherent part of this chapter was Ven, so if you liked something, chances are he literally ghostwrote it xD
Unova has been just as tough for me as it has been for the Rockets, tbh. It's a region I don't find myself very well acquainted with, so I really hope that I did it justice. I know things got really heavy here, and for some that was awesome, but I plan on keeping this a pretty balanced story overall. Meowth's awful dad joke was entirely on point.
Honestly thanks so much for all the support, you guys. I felt really meh about the last two chapters, only for the reviews to tell me that they were some of the best yet. Now they're some of my favourite things I've ever written. I seriously mean this-I could not survive this landscape without y'all. A multichapter is a scary undertaking I've never succeeded at before, but because of the comments you guys leave, I'm more confident about seeing DTE to its end than ever.
Ven and I love writing this story and we love that you love it, too. Thank you so much. I cannot wait for Sinnoh.
As always, I will do my best!
