Edit: As if 12/2/15, there's a new scene near the center of the chapter. It was supposed to be in the original version, but wasn't included. There's another scene like this that will also be added. Sorry for the inconvenience, but please do enjoy the chapter nonetheless!

"'Only part of that was a lie. You know which one,' was what he ended with. I didn't give him a reply."

Felicia still didn't look up at him. She had listened closely the entire time Nychia had spoken, though didn't interrupt him. She only nodded occasionally, just to show she was listening. "Which part was it?" she asked, her voice a bit scratchy from having not spoken since Nychia had started his explaining.

"What?" Nychia replied, trying to avoid her question.

She frowned, though still didn't look him in the eye, still didn't turn away from Erioris. "What part was a lie? You said that you won't be ashamed of your scars, or the choices you've made or live you've lived. Which was a lie?"

Words ended up caught in his throat, and the only thing he could manage to let out was an "I don't know," followed by "I honestly don't know what he was talking about."

"Nychia," Felicia said, the sound of his full name in her voice directed at him hit hard, "you said we should never feel the need to lie to you, but why do you feel like you need to lie to us?"

"I'm not lying, Felicia-"

"I've known you long enough to know you're lying!" she screamed, turning to him. "You're a liar; why are you lying!?"

Going off the bed and jumping to her side, he tried to console her by putting a paw on her shoulder. "Felicia, Felicia, please. I understand you're upset, but Cendre and his teammates are sleeping. Try to keep your voice down."

As both Akokanon heard the sound of movement before anything more could be said, they both turned towards the source.

"Damn... The hell did I miss...?" Erioris was half awake, now, left eye closed, right eye half open. He was visibly in pain, but he still had a grin on his face. "Cia, you never scream like that. Maybe if you did that earlier I would have been able to help with your problem, there."

"Eri!" she exclaimed, albeit softly, as she quickly pounced and wrapped her arms around him. "You're awake!" She had a completely different disposition compared to the one she had before; Nychia couldn't tell if it was because she was hiding how she felt, or that seeing Erioris awake was enough to calm her down.

"Heh. I think so. And it's nice to see you, too. I just love the way you greet me sometimes."

Nychia smiled, relieved, though on the inside he was still panicking. I don't even know what I was going to do, if I had been still stuck in that situation... What have I gotten myself into?

Felicia giggled a bit, though quickly afterwords she frowned and lowered her ears. "I'm sorry, though..."

"Sorry? About what?" Erioris tilted his head.

"You know...the Echoed Caverns thing?" she answered.

"What Echoed Caverns thing?" He seemed genuinely confused.

Another memory lapse... They don't seem to be getting worse, but... It's still not a good sign, Nychia thought.

Felicia thought for a moment, then shook her head. "It's alright. What do you remember about today?"

"God dammit. I hate that question." He sat up slowly, as not to hurt himself, as he was already in enough pain as it was. "Well, we went to those ruins, right?"

Both Nychia and Felicia nodded.

"Then, after that, we went back to the base, and Zao made us babysit. But it wasn't that bad, because the kids were actually pretty ok to be around. ...Except for that one. The one with the attitude."

"Her name is Lora," Nychia said.

"Yeah, that's it," he answered. "She doesn't have a filter."

"Anything else you remember, Erioris?"

"Uh...We got attacked by Zubat. And Cendre had no idea what he was doing...So I helped out." There was a slight pause. "I remember being really pissed off for some reason, though. Not at the kid, er, any of the kids, actually." He squinted, tilting his head again. "I think it was at you, Nychi? What the hell was it...?" he drifted off, framing it more as a confused question rather than an angry inquiry.

Feeling a strike of guilt hit his chest, Nychia said "I can answer that...if you want."

"Yeah, I'd like that," he frowned, "because I really want to know what reason I'd have to be mad at you."

"To be fair, you were kinda mad at me, too..." Felicia added.

"What? That's just stupid," Erioris replied. "I'm never mad at you."

"You were today..."

"It was something important, right? Because otherwise I'm not gonna be too happy with myself about it."

"It had to do with the fact Felicia and I were very, to say the least, weary on going into Echoed Cav-" he was cut off by Erioris grabbing his forehead, a sudden rush of pain causing him to inadvertently curl up into a ball. Both teammates' eyes widened.

"Eri!"

"Erioris, are you alright?"

"Ergh... I don't get it!" he shouted, ignoring their questions, though unintentionally. "I used my power, right!? Against that stupid," he winced, "that stupid Noivern! Then why the hell do I still have this headache!? That's what this whole conversation's been about, right? The fact that I did it! I did it in front of the rookies, even though I told myself that no matter what happened, I wouldn't do that! They're terrified of me now, aren't they!?"

Nychia could provide no words of comfort to his teammate. It's all my fault...if I wasn't in the attack's range, then Felicia wouldn't have had to-

"No, no no..." Felicia took the shaking Meowstic in her arms, leaning him against her. "That's the whole point. You didn't. I... I stopped you."

He looked up at her, straining himself to lift his head up. "What...? Did you... I didn't tell you that I didn't want to have it happen. How did you-"

"I was caught in the attack's range, Erioris," Nychia said, "I was in front of Forte, seeing as I was knocked out by him previously. Just as I woke up, I saw you beginning to use it, and Felicia fired Hypnosis to stop you, because otherwise..."

For what felt like a long while, no one spoke a word. Finally, Erioris himself broke the silence with "If I wasn't stopped...I would have used Psycho Nova on you. Is... Is that what you're saying?"

"...Yes."

Erioris pulled away from Felicia, even though she didn't quite want him to, and lied down on his side, still curled up in a ball, but facing away from the two.

"Erior-"

"Leave me alone."

"B-But, Eri-"

"I SAID-" he winced again, the sudden shouting costing him energy he didn't have, "I said, 'leave me alone'. I need to think about things..."

Reluctantly, Nychia pulled away from the scene, gesturing for Felicia to do the same. She slowly walked over to her bed, then hopped up onto it and lied down. Nychia did similar, lying down his own and looking out the window. He didn't expect his teammates to fall asleep for quite some time, so he figured that staying awake for a little while longer wouldn't be too bad of an idea.

Waking slowly, Cendre felt disoriented. Groggy, he sat up and rubbed his eyes. Ugh... it feels like it's the middle of the night... He absentmindedly looked around the room, though didn't seem to recognize it right away.

Wait... I didn't fall asleep here. It took his brain a few seconds to remember where he was, but the instant he did, his eyes widened. I'm here again, in my room! He looked down at himself to confirm this; indeed, he was a human again.

I'm here again! he thought once more, that means I can try to look for clues!

Cendre popped out of bed to search his room, though lost his balance as his feet hit the floor. His fall caused a loud thud to sound in the room. "Ow! Ugh..." I'm not used to this... Long legs are annoying...

He stood up, slowly, making sure he had a firm grip on his balance. After confirming he could indeed walk, he began to tear his room apart. Searching the room from top to bottom, he wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he was sure he would know it when he found it.

However, the only thing that stopped him dead in the middle of his search was a sound of the door opening. Cendre stayed completely still, as if being frozen would prevent anyone from seeing him.

He heard a second sound: a gasp, from what sounded like a woman. Slowly turning around, he locked eyes with her and immediately recognized who she was.

She was the woman from his dream the night before.

Both stayed absolutely still for a moment with the same exact shocked expression on their faces.

"...Wh-What...?" Cendre exhaled, being the first to speak.

"Cendre...?" the woman asked, visibly tearing up. She took a step towards him.

"Wait-" he tried to put his hands up defensively, but in the next second as grabbed and hugged after she ran over to him. She pulled him close to her.

"Where have you been!?" she asked, both relieved and mildly angry, "You've been gone for two days!"

She pulled away from him a bit as she felt Cendre tense up. Pulling back away from him a bit, she said "Cendre...? Why are you looking at me like you've never seen me before in your life?"

This is going to be bad. "Ah... W-Well you seem, um... very happy to see me," Cendre said, trying to pretend like he knew who he was talking to.

"Because I'm your mother!?" she answered, bewildered.

Cendre's eyes widened. "L-Listen, ma'am, I-"

"'Ma'am'!? Cendre what are you-?"

He looked down. "Well if I'm to be honest I'm not really sure what 'Mom' means; I think I heard Lamperé mention that word once-"

"Who is Lamperé?" his mother asked, thought stopped herself. "This is a bad dream, isn't it?"

"Um," Cendre tried to interject.

"Yes, it definitely is," she replied to herself, sighing and letting Cendre go.

"Wait-!"

"It started out so perfect, too..." She stood up. "I have to be dreaming. I remember falling asleep in front of the TV..."

Cendre blinked. Not sure what else to say, he asked "What's a TV?"

His mother looked down at him sadly, brushing her hand across his forehead to move some of his hair. "It's not important, dear."

He frowned. "Um... Can I tell you something?"

"Of course."

"I'm pretty sure this is my dream, though."

She stared blankly at him. "What?"

"Th-This is my dream," he said again. "I've been here before, but I didn't see you that time... sort of..." he added softly.

Sitting down next to him, Cendre's mom asked "What are you talking about? You're not making any sense. How are you sure?"

"Y-Yeah. I'm really sure. And it'll make even less sense when I tell you I turned into something called a Pokémon, or to be more specific Cyndaquil, and I started an Exploration Team with a Squirtle who can make herself glow and a Cubone with a bone she smacks people with, plus I lost my memories except for the fact I'm a human, but nothing specific about being one. Just that I was."

His mother remained silent for a few moments, processing everything Cendre said. "Oh, Hérris..." she mumbled to no one in particular. "You've officially lost your mind. The disappearance of your son has caused you to go insane."

"Hérris is a nice name," Cendre said, trying to make her feel better. "It sounds... familiar to me..."

"Well, thank you, but it's disrespectful to call your Mom by her name." Realizing what he tagged onto the end, he exclaimed "Wait, it's familiar? So you're remembering me?"

"I think so?" he tilted his head. "I mean, the first time I was here, I did see you. I just... didn't know who you were. But now it all makes sense, I think... I'm just sorry I didn't remember you sooner."

"It's fine, Cendre. All that matters is that you do now."

"...Can I ask you something, if that's okay?" he said.

Hérris smiled. "You never did like asking questions. You thought it was-"

"Rude?" he suggested.

She nodded and said "You can ask me anything. Don't worry."

"You said I disappeared? What do you mean by that?"

Confused by his question, she still answered anyway. "Well one day-"

Her voice was cut off by sudden darkness. Cendre couldn't hear or see anything anymore.

Am I waking up? "Mom!?" I can't wake up now. "I can't see you!" I have to find out what happened to me! "Mom!?"

"Mom!" Cendre woke with a start, sitting up immediately. He was breathless, and his heart was beating triple time. He looked around, not recognizing where he was. It took him a moment to remember that he wasn't at Lora's home, but rather Team Akokanon's. His teammates were still asleep, surprisingly, and as he glanced out the window he noticed that it was still very well into the night. Looking down at himself, he was indeed a Cyndaquil again.

Once his initial panic was over, he took a moment to calm himself down. Why did I wake up? What's going on? Nothing in the room seemed to be wrong, but thought he heard talking somewhere else in the house.

He stood up, deciding he needed to clear his mind, and exited the room. He ended up back into the first room in the house, which was [from the looks of it], one of the larger rooms, two hallways [including the one he was in] leading further in.

Cendre knew snooping around at night wasn't the least bit suspicious, so he slowly inched his way to the door, making sure not to make any more noise than he absolutely needed to.

He froze once he heard a familiar voice shout something. It was too muffled to hear, and he assumed he had only heard it because he wasn't in the bedroom. Without even thinking, he approached towards the sound, going into the hallway that seemingly lead to where Team Akokanon was staying in.

"...what this whole conversation's been about, right? The fact that I did it! I did it in front of the rookies, even though I told myself that no matter what happened, I wouldn't do that! They're terrified of me now, aren't they!?"

Wh-What's Erioris talking about...? Cendre thought back to earlier that day, but couldn't find a solid answer. Darn it...I'm not good with guessing...

He heard the sounds of other members of Erioris' team talking, but he couldn't quite make out what they were saying again.

After he realized he was still loitering behind the door, Cendre took quick steps backwards, into the main room. He hid to the side of the door frame, thinking that if anyone came out to investigate strange scuttling noises, they would completely glance over him.

Wait! How did I not realize this before? Erioris is awake! But...I don't think he's doing very well... Cendre frowned. He sounded really upset. Well, more than upset. Way more than upset. He leaned back against the wall. I don't think I should have done this. If they catch me I'm so done... I have to apologize to Nychia. Standing up once more, he softly paced back to the door way of their bedroom [he only assumed it was this, and that made the most sense to him, anyway], lifting a hand up to knock when he heard "I SAID-", but it got abruptly cut off.

E-Erioris? Cendre thought, knowing that was his voice. With one final statement from what he assumed to be the Meowstic once more, all the noises in the room stopped. They must have gotten into a fight. I don't really think I should bother them. He then, once more, walked away and back towards the room where his teammates where, though he heard a noise behind him and stopped dead in his tracks.

"Cendre?" a voice asked, "You're awake."

"N-Nychia!" Cendre turned, looking up at the Zangoose. He was smiling sympathetically, though Cendre could see in his eyes he was upset.

"I'm sorry. You must have heard all of that."

"Ah..." he paused for a moment. Well yeah but that isn't what woke me up, if that's what you're getting at. "Kinda..."

Nychia took a deep breath, then exhaled. "I see."

"Why'd you come out here? ...Did you hear me?"

"I thought I heard something," he explained, "and seeing as it was only faint noises, I couldn't tell if it was you, Lamperé, or Lora."

I don't think Lora would be very quiet or be able to restrain herself from knocking on the door loudly if you woke her up but go on.

"To be fair, I think I'm just...on edge," Nychia added, though as quickly as he opened up, he shut himself tight once more. "It's none of your concern. I'm sorry you had to be woken up."

"It's alright, but..." Cendre trailed off, wanting to help him but not quite sure if he'd accept his offer. 'I don't think he's the kinda guy that likes venting, though...' he remembered Lora saying. After a few seconds of thinking, he awkwardly mumbled "if you wanna, um, talk about it...as team leaders...or something... We could...?"

Nychia thought about it for a moment, honestly considering his request. "...No, no. I'll be alright. I appreciate the thought, however."

'He puts everything on himself-' he recalled, and Felicia's frown after words along with her sudden cut-off told him all he needed to know. I guess it really is true... "Are you sure? I want to help."

Shaking his head, the Zangoose replied "It's fine, really. I don't want you to worry about me."

"But I am worried! I'm worried about you, Erioris, and Felicia. You can tell me about what's happening."

"...I understand, but we'll be fine. We've gotten through this many times-" Nychia cut himself off once more. "Please, just don't worry."

I shouldn't keep bugging him about this. I think he's been through more than enough today. "Alright... If you need me, I'll be with my team."

"Same goes for me, now go get some sleep."

Cendre nodded, then walked towards the room he was staying in. Before fully leaving, he added "Tell Erioris I'm not scared of him, okay?"

Nychia was silent for a moment. "...I will. I promise."

And with that Cendre went back into the spare bedroom, and Nychia went back into his own. Cendre couldn't find it in him to fall asleep again, so he stayed awake. Eventually, however, through sheer force of will, he fell back to sleep again.

Once he entered into his team's bedroom again, Nychia glanced over at his teammates. From what he could tell, they were sleeping, and that was more than enough for him to feel relieved.

Going back over to his own bed, he lied down once more and looked out the window. For as long as he could, he kept watch, keeping track of every sound he heard [which wasn't much at all], or anything he saw [mostly movement of the trees outside], making sure it could be easily explainable by something natural. However, eventually he too fell asleep, as he usually does, trying to stay awake for as long as possible to keep him and his teammates [along with Team Searchlights this particular night] safe from harm.

Team Searchlights:

Cendre Tephra (San-druh Tef-rah) the Cyndaquil - Male (15)
Ability: Flash Fire
Timid nature, often lost in thought

Lamperé Lenterazine (Lam-pier-ay Len-terra-zeen) the Squirtle* - Female (14)
Ability: Torrent
Quirky nature, somewhat of a clown

Lora Lillium (Lore-ah Lil-E-um) the Cubone - Female (12)
Ability: Battle Armor
Rash nature, quick tempered
Held Item: Thick Club

Team Akokanon(Ah-co-ka-non):

Nychia Acetyl (Neh-he-ah Ah-C-till) the Zangoose - Male (21)
Ability: Toxic Boost
Adamant nature, strong willed

Erioris Nyx (Eh-ree-or-es Nicks) the Meowstic - Male (19)
Ability: Prankster
Relaxed nature, alert to sounds

Felicia Keen (Feh-lee-C-ah Keyn) the Purugly - Female (18)
Ability: Thick Fat
Naïve nature, likes to run

Incidentally I don't think Nychi ever ends up telling Eri that Cendre isn't scared of him. He just never finds a good chance to do it

or maybe the writer is incompetent and forgot that Nychi was supposed to do that