After taking a much needed shower and checking back in with Colress for an update on the plan, Cheren called professor Juniper to his parents' house on Nuvema Town. There, he revealed everything to her. She listened attentively, and became increasingly anxious the more Cheren kept talking. During the narration she worried for him, she couldn't fathom the idea that the sweet and brainy kid that he would always be to her had to experience such a horrible nightmare, and during that time she fancied Grimsley to be the most despicable human in the planet.

Then Cheren got to Bianca's part and Juniper's hate became directed towards him. She rebuffed Cheren's claims, arguing that Bianca had in fact communicated her absence to her, and spoke of nothing except that she was okay and would return as soon as possible. But Cheren dismissed her arguments as another mischievous ploy of Grimsley, to deceive them, and spoke of Grimsley in a way that was nothing less of an assassination of his character. Juniper pondered if all of this could be true, and ultimately chose to believe Cheren's account, based entirely on the peculiarity of such an unusual situation.

It was not rare for Bianca to go on trips and leave work for a while. In fact it had been on Juniper's insistence to let Bianca go outside and relax, so as to not burn her spirit out. But the truth was that this time she had not heard a single word about that escapade from Bianca's mouth, only through a simple message, and when she became convinced that Bianca was in peril her anger towards Cheren became clear; he had taken her most delicate and fragile flower and had led it directly to the mouth of a vicious ursaring, it was almost unforgivable.

Juniper stopped Cheren midway through his account of the events that had transpired, and demanded that he rushed to the laboratory with her so that they could figure out what to do next with more care. They sprinted to the laboratory, which was at walking distance from Cheren's house, and as soon as Juniper opened the door Colress and Sabrina appeared on her sight, said nothing, and promptly got into the laboratory before her.

Juniper looked at Cheren but he looked away from her. She sensed foul play, however, after learning of Bianca's situation, the knowledge that every minute that passed was a minute she spent in danger greatly tormented her, so she went along with the ruse and told all of her assistants to leave the laboratory, leaving only the four people inside.

"I am very disappointed in you Cheren," Juniper said, and she could see the anger that her words caused on him,

"with all due respect professor," Cheren answered candidly, "you played an integral part in my instruction, you even gave me my first pokemon, however, I can't help but find the tone of your words patronizing and condescending, and quite frankly it is the same with everyone else, nobody ever seems to skip the opportunity to disparage and belittle me any time they see me, I am a gym leader! How much time will it have to pass before people start seeing me as one!?"

"You have to understand that you'll always be the same curious and eager boy to me, but that doesn't mean I don't respect you, perhaps it is because of that exact reason that I am disappointed,"

"well I am disappointed at myself too, because I couldn't stop Grimsley, but most of all because it was me who told Bianca to go there in the first place,"

"...I can see why you didn't want anyone to know that Grimsley kept you captive, you must not blame yoursel..."

"there will be plenty of time to discuss our feelings of guilt or otherwise," Sabrina interrupted, "for now let us focus on Grimsley,"

"you are right," the professor said as she put her index finger on her lower lip, "I had no idea this was going on, Cheren, how did you find out about Grimsley in the first place?"

"I received an anonymous letter alerting me of his intention to reform team plasma,"

"that was Colress." Sabrina said without any daintiness in her voice, and everyone turned to Colress,

"I didn't mean to tell him about that just yet", he said, while a single drop of sweat rolled down his cheek. His secret had been revealed. He was the one who sent Cheren to stop Grimsley, he was the one who sent Bianca to do the same. All he wanted was to leave his past behind him, and all Grimsley wanted was to bring it back, and for this Colress wanted nothing more than to make the man disappear, along with his past. He had never felt more powerless, he had to rely on others to accomplish his objectives for him, he felt like nothing. "...Everyone who knows I exist thinks of me, at the very least, as a villainous person, how was I supposed to convince anyone that a member of the elite 4 was planning to take over the world? Let alone go against him without any evidence?"

"Cheren could've been seriously injured, or worst," the professor said to Colress as she stared directly at him,

"fair enough," Cheren intervened, "you've got your evidence, why'd you call Sabrina then?"

"Because everyone will believe her when she tells them that Grimsley's trying to get the drop on them right from under their noses, and because she specializes in psychic pokemon, which makes sense when you remember that dark type trainers tend to be...let's put it nicely…pragmatic. Who should be more well versed on their trickery than psychic trainers?"

"Alright," the professor said as she crossed her arms, "what now?"

Sabrina walked up to the professor and touched her shoulder, "Now I need you to convince the local authorities to make me the lead agent in this matter,"

"I can't do that," the professor sorrowfully replied,

"yes you can," Sabrina insisted, "why did you think we let you in on this? If it were not for me you'd still be in the dark about everything...you can make it happen, do it for your assistant..."

Bianca sat down on the brown soil and rested her crossed arms on her bent knees, then took a very pleasant deep breath. It felt nice to be out of the cave for a change. She didn't need the sunscreen she always carried around, as the sun was covered by a group of clouds that seemed to be there just for her. It was so quiet outside that she could hear the sound of her own breathing, and only a faint wild pokemon noise away from her every once in a while. She moved her head up to the sky and closed her eyes, then kept taking deep breaths which felt increasingly better and more relaxing after each time.

"Excuse me," she suddenly heard and immediately opened her eyes wide. She was too relaxed to react, was still facing up and had her mouth still open. She moved only her eyes and searched for the source of the unwanted interruption, and found it to her right. It was a trainer wearing a blue jacket and gloves, and carrying a very large backpack,

"I'm so sorry to bother you ma'am, but I was wondering if you could point me to the right direction, I'm trying to find the pokemon league," the trainer said, looking down at her.

Bianca took notice of her position, she closed her mouth and shook her head a few times, then just pointed with her thumb to a cave entrance right behind her,

"thank you," the trainer said, and then continued with her trip.

It was awkward of course, she felt it, but Bianca was so used to awkward situations that she knew there was no point in getting embarrassed, and she could take solace in the fact that the awkwardness was mutual, she could see it in the trainer's eyes. Those moments of mutual sharing of feelings, even if it was involuntary, were always cherished by Bianca as worthy memories to keep, even if it had been unpleasant. Then she closed her eyes again...

"Listen man, I love you but you can stick a cork on it bro,"

Bianca heard behind her,

"I'll stick a cork in your eye dude how do you like that, huh?"

She raised her eyebrow and kept listening,

"well I don't like it,"

"well, too bad,"

"yeah I guess..."

"I am going to kill you."

Bianca opened her eyes once more, she thought of getting up and leaving but decided against it in fear that the two people arguing behind her would notice her, so she stayed put and hoped they wouldn't.

"For having a different opinion, I'd gladly die for that if it meant being an example of intolerance born out of ignorance,"

"what that means? Here, let's ask her."

Her fear became a reality and a moment later she had two guys wearing the same black and red outfit as all the other remnants standing right in front of her. To her right, a very short blonde boy with his hair parted in the middle, easy on the eyes, with big brown eyes and equally big eye bags that made it seem like he was wearing eye shadow. And to her left, a bald, otherwise young looking guy, rather tall, with a brown beard and gentle black eyes. The blonde boy was the first to speak,

"hey, you are Colette, right?"

"...yes," Bianca answered,

"cool, so my name is Popito and this bald dude next to me is Quincey,"

"pardon me?" Bianca asked after successfully containing a burst of laughter,

"yeah, my name is Popito, get over it,"

"Popeito?" Bianca asked him again at the same time she got on her feet,

"yeah, Po-PEE-to, Popito,"

"why did you choose such a stupid name? My name actually is Quincey by the way," the tall guy extended her hand to Bianca and both of them exchanged smiles as they shook hands,

"for the last time," Popito continued, "I didn't choose that name, it was given to me by a politoed when I fell into a lake and he saved me, also nice to meet you Colette,"

"likewise, you know, Colette isn't my real name either, I chose it because I really like it,"

"yeah but Colette is a real name that already existed,"

"shut up Quincey, anyway me and this guy were arguing...uhh...tell her Quincey,"

"sure, so this guy just hit me with a rock,"

"he did?"

"Yeah look," Quincey turned his back to Bianca to reveal a single stream of blood running from the back of his head unto a piece of cotton inside his collar,

"! oh my god!...Why'd you do that?"

Popito raised his arms up to his head, "I was throwing rocks at a garbage can, stopped for just a sec, then I threw another one and lo and behold, who walks by? This idiot,"

Quincey smiled and pointed at himself. Then Popito continued,

"hits him right in the dome, I was just minding my own business hanging out and having fun, so you can't really blame me, right Colette?"

Quincey spoke before she could, "I can totally blame you dude, I told you, maybe you didn't mean to hit me but you did, of course you don't go around trying to affect people but if you throw rocks around, and you end up hitting someone then you are absolutely at fault,"

"alright mister affect people, what about you and team plasma, you went around trying to freeze everyone and when you did it you didn't take the blame for it did you?"

"Yes we did! And we received a good pounding for it, and it hasn't ended, why do you think we are here?"

"I'm sorry," Bianca couldn't help but intervene, "are you going to be okay Quincey? Also, Popito, what do you mean by you and team plasma, weren't you part of team plasma too?"

"I'll be just fine, doesn't even hurt anymore," Quincey said,

"I was never part of team plasma," Popito said,

"what? Yeah you were, if not then why are you here?" Bianca asked with the utmost curiosity,

"well..." Popito looked at the sky, then started touching the tip of his index fingers with one another, "I...like to hang out in caves...it's quiet..."

"some regular folks are here by choice," Quincey added, totally serious, "they decided to join our group as we the remnants live here either on a partially self imposed exile, in atonement for our past transgressions, or just because nobody else wants us outside."

Bianca put both of her hands on her forehead and her face showed a wrinkled and confused frown,

"I thought you knew, with you hanging out with Helma and all that,"

"I didn't."

A rush of blood reached Bianca's brain, she rubbed her forehead and wished that Quincey and Popito would stop talking so she could think,

"alright Quincey, I am tired of arguing with you so let's just agree to disagree, you were not at fault for stepping in front of my rock's way, and I am not at fault for having fun, okay? Great,"

"everyone needs to learn about responsibility at some point man, you are very stubborn,"

"yes, but I am also a very sore loser,"

"guys," Bianca stopped them, "it was nice meeting you, let's chat again sometime." She reached into her pocket, took out her glasses and put them on. Then turned back and walked away as both guys happily waved at her.

Bianca was more confused than when she first got there, and yet at the same time it seemed like she had almost all the information she needed to make a decision as to what to tell Colress, and Cheren. On her way to find Helma around the ruins another idea came to her, there was something Grimsley was not telling her, she had felt that way ever since she talked with him on his room, and it bothered her more than ever before, so instead of looking for Helma she headed to Grimsley's room.