I'd like to think we're ahead enough in our Kalos story now. Just in time for Brendan and May to retire from saving the world, or at least have a chance to be normal kids again.

The next day...

Wally had his Key Stone around his neck, and swore to himself that he'd never leave it behind again. Gallade was just as grateful, and made a promise to thank Rayquaza face-to-face.

The box had been dropped off by a cheerful Latias, containing nothing more than the Key Stone and a note containing a challenge from Brendan that Wally had been more than happy to accept. She'd been carrying more boxes of similar size, but she had stopped to say hello to all of the Pokémon and to his parents before taking off again.

Wally had decided to follow her example. There was a new tournament opening, and he was going to come in first this time.

"Are you sure you're ready to go?" his mom asked, and Wally looked up. "I thought you were going to try breeding."

"I've got time." Wally wasn't sure where she was going with this. It had been her idea to send him to Verdanturf two years earlier. Was she really going to do the whole 'My baby's all grown up' thing now? "It might be the only way I can get Brendan to stop calling me that stupid nickname."

"But -"

"Mom. You were never called 'Agent Broface' among names like 'Songbird' and 'Dancing Shadow,' and at least 'Rainbow Sprinkles' likes hers. Brendan won't let me off unless I can beat him in battle." There was a determination in his eyes that both made her proud and scared her. "He and May are watching the Litleonids. If I start my new journey now, I might be ready for him." He smiled brightly and waved goodbye, Gallade right behind him.

His dad laughed softly. "I never would have thought that there would be a day Wally was too well," he half-joked. "But he's happy now. That should be enough for us."

"It is," she said, and she was convinced of it. "But...really, all of this over a codename from a secret club? What do these kids even do with their lives, now that Brendan and Wally are in the Hall of Fame?"

That was the tenth napkin.

Shelly hadn't meant to start counting, really. But Archie seemed so determined to get Matt back, he hadn't wanted to even use real paper, so she was sitting back and supplying her own ideas as he ruined one after another. And, when it was officially deemed a Bad Plan, she was the one who lit it on fire.

At least she'd convinced him to think about things other than work. That was a step up.

"Why don't you just ask him to come back the next time he calls?" she suggested. "I miss him too, Archie, but you don't need to overcomplicate things. We don't want a repeat of Kyogre."

Archie looked up. "Kyogre was under-planning, Shelly," he said, slipping into the typical pirate accent. She rolled her eyes, but smiled, and the sight lightened his own mood. "Have you ever asked him?"

"Once," she admitted. "He said he would return. But you were his boss, Archie, you could still give him orders."

"So you admit that polite asking does nothing." He wasn't serious. Not entirely. "No, overcomplicated is what he understands. We'll figure this out."

The shadows on the floor distracted them, and Archie turned to hide his paper. No one but Shelly got to see his sappy side. That was his personal rule. But when he heard her small gasp of surprise, he crumpled the napkin up and threw it into the trash can.

He knew who it was.

"Matt?" Shelly asked, eyes wide. "And...Ben?"

The grunt beside Matt shrugged. "I go by Benjamin," he said, "but Ben's acceptable."

Archie reached for his pen, letting Shelly distract them. But she'd lost her voice, so he wrote down what he needed, pretending to ignore the new arrivals.

"I'm sorry, bro," Matt said. There it was. Matt had apologized first.

Archie turned around, still keeping a straight face. "Benjamin," he said, his voice still hard, "go out and get us coffee. Get one for yourself, too, I don't care."

Benjamin's eyes lit up. "You remembered my name?"

"Do you want me to start calling you Billybob again?" Benjamin shook his head. "Then go."

He went.

"You remembered his name?" Shelly whispered.

"Wrote it on my hand," Archie said, matching her volume. "Matt's the hard part."

Archie had forgotten how big Matt was. The Aqua leader wasn't a wimp by any stretch, but he certainly felt like it now. It had once made him slightly jealous, but now it was almost funny.

"Archie," Shelly hissed. "Say something."

He wanted to, but he wasn't good with words. That was why Shelly had been in charge of the hiring. It hadn't just been her pretty face and quick brain and...everything else he'd liked about her. But she was waiting on him to make the move, so he went with the first thing that came into his head.

"It's unforgivable."

Matt looked as if he'd been slapped. Shelly looked surprised. Perhaps going with the first thing in his head was the wrong approach.

"How I acted was unforgivable," Archie continued, continuing to do so anyway. "First I drag you both to what would have been your certain death, then I never bother to explain that I'm actually happy about the loss! I'm a man, emotions confuse me! That...thing with Shelly took until our defeat for me to consider putting it into words! To think I didn't even realize I drove my own loyal crew into despair...I don't even deserve to be called a leader anymore."

Even the blunt admission to what Matt had known for years was less important to him than the last remark. "You're still worthy, Archie. I'm the one who took your ideas too far even after you learned what 'too far' was. I messed up."

"We all did," Shelly said quietly, not at all shocked by her leader's words. "Though making a rocket Mega Evolve was something I'd never heard of."

Archie had calmed down, getting it all off his chest. "I plan to start from scratch. Bring Team Aqua back to its former glory, and do things right this time. Even working with Team Magma and Team Breakneck if we have to. We waited this long because we couldn't do it without you. Would you be willing to be a part of this new Team Aqua?"

Matt couldn't help it. This was more emotion than he'd felt in a long time, and he started to cry, not caring how macho he looked. "I...I'll do it, bro. I'll even do one of those dumb movies the twin Gym Leaders forced you guys into."

Shelly shook her head, noticing Archie had a few manly tears of his own. "Losers," she said softly. And then she cried out in surprise as Matt pulled both her and Archie into a tight hug.

But she didn't fight. It could have been worse.

Maxie was staring at Courtney. Courtney was staring at the floor. Tabitha was staring at a clock on the wall, and there were no words from any of them.

Tabitha caved first. "Well, this is going nowhere." Neither of them moved. "I'll do it myself, then! Courtney, apologize!"

Courtney looked scared, and Maxie...well, there was something there that she couldn't quite place. But, when Tabitha ordered it again, she immediately bowed her head.

"I'm sorry, Leader Maxie!" And she certainly sounded like it. "I...I'll never do anything...I won't do it again! Forgive me...please..."

Her voice broke, and she sniffled. She refused to cry, though. She hadn't cried in front of people in years. But Maxie's unnerving silence was putting more pressure on her than she'd like to admit.

"I will forgive you," Maxie said, and Courtney looked up. "The one thing I ask in return is that you forgive me, for not making sure you understood what I did and did not want to come from our loss to Brendan and May. I never knew your loyalty was strong enough that you would attempt to steal a rocket for me." Tabitha saw his expression shift for a fraction of a second.

Courtney mumbled something under her breath, something Tabitha pretended not to notice. Her face was turning nearly as red as her hood, and there were some things he just didn't want to know.

Maxie didn't see. "You have impressed me, Courtney, but I would like to leave that part of Team Magma behind us. Reawakening Groudon left me willing to stop my harmful actions. Now I would like to bring a new Team Magma forward. One that works to protect the land we have, not to create more of it. Would you be willing to be a part of that Team Magma, Courtney?"

There was a moment of consideration. And then Courtney broke down, crying her little heart out, and tackled Maxie in a hug. Maxie stood there, too terrified to move, and looked at Tabitha for help.

"She's leaking," he mouthed, hoping that his second-in-command could understand him. "What do I do?"

Tabitha facepalmed, but quietly approached. Taking one of Maxie's arms in each of his hands, he placed them around Courtney. As she still cried, Tabitha started using one of Maxie's hands to pet her head.

The sniffles gradually faded. Maxie gave Tabitha a relieved glance. And, when Courtney dared to look up, he focused on her. "Now," he said, gentle enough to not trigger the tears again. "Tell me what happened with the rocket."

The more Steven and Wallace talked, the less Winona seemed to understand. She made the right noises at the right points in the story, of course (including a quiet "no" when she heard just what Brendan and May had captured on their latest adventure) but overall seemed pretty lost.

"...and the meteor shattered and burned up like it was supposed to," Steven finished, "leaving a lot of questions that don't need to be answered."

"But how did she know that the meteor would crash into another world?" Winona asked, feeling a headache begin. "Even in that other world, I'm assuming that space is pretty big. There was a near infinite chance that it could have landed anywhere else."

"Leaving a lot of questions that don't need to be answered," Steven repeated.

"And if the Link Cable was based on the warp tiles," Winona continued, ignoring him, "why wouldn't she expect it to just be sent to another place in our universe?"

"I really have no idea how Devon works," Steven admitted. "I'm the heir to the family business, but I focus on the 'business' part. I'll have to look into things myself."

"I just ignore it," Flannery said, diverting the conversation. She'd heard the first half of it before, but had tagged along to learn how it ended. "The kids saved the world, a Deoxys gets to get probed and studied for human understanding, and then it gets shown the world over a longer time frame than ten years. I think everybody won this round, and Zinnia leaving you guys alone is a plus. Who cares about the specifics behind her reasoning?"

"A therapist," Wallace said at once, "and perhaps an author needing motivation for her character."

"But we're all professional battlers. Not therapists." A slight, dark smile crossed her face. "Though let's all agree to not tell Roxanne about this."

Steven didn't return that smile. "The only reason we even told you was because you had to deal with Lisia."

Flannery wasn't bothered. "You all love me. You know it."

"We're under obligation." Winona's voice was placating, but Flannery knew better. League members usually did develop close friendships, and letting Steven and Winona in on the 'Winning a wife through a poker game' joke was just opening it up for their false witness reports.

Winona got to her feet immediately after. "Well," she said, trying to push her questions aside, "after hearing about the new Pokémon the kids caught, I'm going to lock myself in the Gym and have a nice, long panic attack. Do you want to come along?"

"It's over. After all this time, it's over."

It wasn't the first time that Aster had been confused by Zinnia, but it wasn't the worst of it. At least she knew what was over.

They heard the old woman coming, but didn't turn until she had stopped. Then Zinnia made eye contact with her elder, and almost teared up.

The old woman gave her a warm smile. "You did your part," she said, putting a wrinkled hand on Zinnia's shoulder. "Your burden is done."

"But Brendan tamed Rayquza," Zinnia said, not surprising the woman at all. "I could barely summon it."

"But you played your part. You did summon Rayquaza, which was all the prophecy spoke of. You started what he finished."

"But I couldn't finish what our ancestors started!"

"You didn't need to. All you needed to do was bring Rayquaza's attention to the crisis." Seeing that Zinnia was ready to object, she held her ground. "It's done now. You're free to start a new life. Go and make the most of it."

Zinnia looked surprised when she got permission, but looked back at Aster. Aster's ears twitched. "I thought you already came to that conclusion, Zinnia. You're a disappointment."

Lisia was back home in Lilycove City, following her mother through the Department Store. The near-death experience had lifted her punishment, but her parents had still promised themselves to not let her stay home alone for at least another year.

Of course, the reason they were here in the first place might have made it an empty threat, anyway.

"Lisia?"

The voice was familiar, and she looked around. It took only a moment to recognize the speaker, and he didn't even need his Machoke out behind him. "Hey, Chaz. Make it to the Master rank yet?"

"I just won the Tough Masters," he declared, and his Machoke flexed as a joke. "She really outdid herself this time."

"I'm sure she did," Lisia said, smiling at the Pokémon. "I didn't know you were in a Contest today."

"It was yesterday," Chaz said, not sure he liked that she was that oblivious to her own path. "I thought you'd be in the audience, if you weren't on the stage."

"I was with my...aunt, for lack of a better word." Chaz's confusion wasn't what she was going for, but she wasn't about to clear it up. "Mom and Dad had things to take care of, so they dumped me on Wallace, who left me alone with her when he got called on business."

"I don't get it."

"I didn't expect it." She looked around, noticing which floor they were on. "Why are you in the Pokeball department?"

Chaz flipped his hair arrogantly. "I'm going to start a badge quest. I'll have a new Pokémon for every Contest type."

Lisia looked down at the Pokeballs on display, then up at Chaz again. "Would you like to be rivals, then? I'm starting a badge quest myself, and I know you always wanted me to say it on the Contest circuit..."

"But you said you didn't believe in Contest rivalries," Chaz finished. "I can accept this as a second-place trophy."

"Don't go giving yourself second place yet. We haven't even had our first Gym battles yet, much less made it to the Hall of Fame."

Chaz was about to complain about that, but the look on her face proved that she was doing it to annoy him. "Funny," he said, as if it wasn't funny at all.

Lisia faked innocence, but it quickly disappeared, turning into real happiness. "Good luck."

And she meant it.

Brendan and May had no idea when the show was going to begin, and had been in the Space Center long enough to fall asleep.

That was the sight the twins walked in on, but it was not the cute sleeping that Zinnia had talked about. May had her head on Brendan's right shoulder and her arms around Pikachu, but she had clearly had no idea what to do with her legs and had them slung over the end of the bench. Brendan had both his feet on the floor, but he had his head tilted back, and was snoring so loudly it should have woken May.

Tate pulled out a camera. "Say blackmail," he said quietly, and took the picture.

The sound and flash woke May, who sat up at once, looking around in confusion and only waking Brendan when she realized where they were. Brendan didn't take as long to process, but he had a question of his own.

"Is it time already?"

"Almost," Liza said, hopping onto the bench next to Brendan, leaving the spot where May's feet had been for Tate. "We didn't want to wake you, but you would have been furious if you'd missed this."

"Not nearly as furious as my dad would've been." Brendan tried to keep the image of an angry Norman out of his head. "He paid for these tickets, and 'the Space Center is not a hotel.'" Even his voice could sound like Norman's when he wanted it to. May's laughter wasn't helping anything.

"It could be worse," Tate pointed out. "It could be raining."

May shushed him immediately. "Don't you dare," she hissed. "We went through too much trouble to watch this, and I can't have it ruined because someone decided to tempt fate."

Tate's only response was to play dumb. May would have continued, but that was when the show began.

It didn't last long, but Brendan was content. With his friends this happy, saving the world was almost worth it.