*A/N* Fear not, I have not vanished. This was an insanely hard chapter to right, coupled with me getting a job and a new story I've been chugging out, there's been a delay. But here it is, in all it's glory. Enjoy, and grab a bite to eat, this is a lengthy one. *A/N*

3:00 PM

The day continued uneventfully, the omnipresent clouds finally achieving victory and blotting out the sun once again, but hesitating on releasing any rain. Pokemon dotted the wet pastures, chatting, sparring, and relaxing as though the previous storm had never happened. Inside the ranch house, the situation was different.

A zombie, its right foot severed, stiffly began to stand up. A young SWAT team member aimed his shotgun at the ghoul fearfully.

"Shoot it, man." his partner urged. The young man unsuccessfully fired his gun, and cocked it again.

"Shoot it man! Shoot it in the head!" his partner insisted, only to be swiftly accosted by another zombie lurking in the next room.

"Professionals, my tail-feathers. I wouldn't trust these morons to hold a can of Lemonade for me." Steffi said matter-of-factly. She sat cross legged in front of the television, while Riley sat in the usual easy chair. The two had switched places to watch Dawn of The Dead, since Steffi couldn't see the screen unless she was close enough.

"Well, how would you fight off zombies, then?" Riley responded.

"I wouldn't. I would be out of that apartment building faster than you could say 'Call the cops.'"

"Steff, you'd be the most boring horror movie hero ever." Riley admitted.

"I'd also be the most efficient." Steffi said, parrying Riley's jab.

Brian entered the room with a large file under his arm. "Hey, you two. What are you-" Brian was cut off by the shrill scream of an unfortunate woman on-screen, who just had a large part of her arm bitten off by an approaching ghoul. "Ouch." Brian said, wincing.

Steffi turned with an eyebrow raised to Brian. "Ken?" she inquired.

"Sorry to bother you, Steffi, but I have another pair of glasses for you." Brian removed a small black case from his front shirt-pocket and handed it to the Blaziken. "They were about 1500 PD, so I doubt your vision'll be as sharp, but they'll have to work until we can get Dr. Morowitz to send you a proper pair."

Steffi put on her new eyeglasses, small silver rimmed semi-circular lenses. She turned to Brian.

"They look okay, I guess. I liked the other ones more, but that's because I'm used to them." Brian said. "But can you see alright?"

Steffi shrugged.

"Well, they're good enough for now. Riley, did you take all your pills?"

Riley nodded.

"Well, good. Ross is pleased to know you made it out of that whole lake debacle okay, he wanted to make sure you wouldn't forget. He also wanted me to tell you that he's very proud of you for the progress you've made."

"Thanks…" Riley spoke. "Why...are...you...smiling?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Something I heard on the radio this morning."

Steffi knit her brow and placed a hand on her hip. "Blaziken." She stated.

"What? That's the truth." Brian defended innocently.

Steffi made her expression more severe.

"Serena couldn't help but overhear your conversation with Duster this morning. She tells me you plan to sort things out with Stevie tonight."

The two Pokemon exchanged looks of worry.

"Now, don't panic. Serena won't go and tell anyone. It was a pleasant surprise to hear, I was worried you guys would stop talking to each other."

Riley gulped. "I'm…nervous."

"I would be too, Riley. But the thing you need to know about Stevie is that she's never been a bitter Pokemon. She's a delight to be around when she's in a good mood, and she's an amazing battler and friend. So don't think she'll never forgive you or anything drastic like that. Talk things out, and she'll be herself again in no time. And if things don't get better, send her to me."

Brian then gestured to the file in his hand. "I've got some paperwork to do, so I'll leave you to your zombies. Good luck tonight, Riley!"

Brian made his exit, and Riley gave a guilty smile.

"He's probably the nicest human I've ever met." He admitted.

"Years with Pokemon have moulded him into a real stand-up guy." Steffi replied. "I think the only time I've ever seen him get really angry with someone is with Janet or Salazar."

"Janet deserves it." Riley blurted out.

"You're right. She'll be taught a real lesson one of these days. Salazar, on the other hand, has something seriously wrong with him."

"Was he always like that?"

"I'm not sure, he only came to the ranch recently. Brian caught him and somehow got him to battle without killing anyone. All I know is that there's more than one person living in that thick skull of his."

"You really think so?" Riley asked.

"I know so, I've seen him arguing with himself, or, 'himselves.' It's disturbing to watch."

Riley slumped back in the chair and continued watching the violence on screen.

"So… what are we going to do when I leave the ranch?" Riley inquired a few minutes later.

Steffi didn't respond immediately. Instead, she paused the film and slowly turned to Riley, turning over the possible answers she had in her head.

"Well… that ultimately depends on what you want, Ry. What do you want to do?"

Now it was Riley's turn to pause and think. "Well, I don't want to leave you, but I think it would be better for me to finish my therapy."

"Catch 22." Steffi replied.

"What?" Riley asked.

"Never mind. I want you to know that whatever decision you make, I'll respect it. It's none of my business what you do with your own life. Truthfully, I could rest easier if I knew you were happy. But like I said, I think it would be chimerical to break up, since we both make each other so, well, for lack of a better word, happy."

"I guess we'll just have to see at the end of the week. Thanks for understanding." Riley said gratefully.

"Thank YOU for considering my feelings in such a matter. I think it's safe to say that our relationship won't be ended by miles, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah…" Riley began another query when another thought crossed his mind. "What did you ask Duster earlier?"

"What did I..? Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot myself. It was nothing important, just some previous arrangements. Entirely for insurance purposes."

Riley couldn't help but notice the distant grin on Steffi's face, but quickly dismissed it.

"Do you think Stevie will forgive me?"

"Forgive you? Riley, you've apologized enough. It's time for her to say she's sorry. She unfairly judged you, and it's partially my fault, too. This is largely something we as a family have to remedy, you've done most of your job already. But, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be ready to speak, yeah?"

Riley nodded. "Okay. Let's make things right."

5:55 PM

"I really wanted to thank you for coming Stevie."

Stevie eyed the Zoroark sitting across from her suspiciously, but managed a half-smile. "Thanks for inviting me, I guess." she said as she bit into some of her food.

Zoey beamed. "I guarantee this'll make you feel 100% better. Now if my Slowpoke of a boyfriend would show up, we could get started… where the hell is he?" Zoey looked about for Duster. "He always chews me out for being late, and literally the one time I ask him to show up on time…"

Stevie went back to her meal. She wasn't sure how eating dinner with someone would magically make her feel better. To be honest, all she felt was a little less hungry. Her headache had subsided, but her mood had yet to brighten.

"Ah-ha! Here he comes! Eh- what is he carrying?" Zoey's brisk impatience turned into confusion in a heartbeat.

Duster had a heavy cylindrical drum slung over his back, and he moved ponderously under its weight.

"Finally find somewhere to put your ego, Duster?" Zoey called out. Duster's response was a short and annoyed glare as he reached their table.

"So, what is that anyway? Your dinner?" Zoey chaffed.

"Oh, shut up. I need this to sit on, alright?"

Duster slammed the drum down beside the table and sat upon it.

"See this, Duster?" Zoey said, tapping on one of the metal benches. "It's called a 'bench.' You use it for sitting."

"Thanks," Duster began spitefully. "But I know. Last time I sat on one of those pieces of junk, it broke underneath me."

Duster had hardly noticed Stevie, who let the argument between the two play out while she ate her meal in silence. Duster leaned in towards Zoey and whispered in her ear.

"Hey, did you tell her yet?"

Stevie's head clicked upwards. "Tell me what?"

Zoey groaned and slapped a paw to her face. "Way to go, Barrel Boy." She chided to Duster. She turned to Stevie, now on high alert.

"What did you do? I swear, if you're planning on screwing with me-" Stevie began.

"Now now, don't get hasty, Steves. We're not planning anything, we just brought along somebody else for you to talk to."

Stevie slammed her fork on the table aggressively and stood up, placing both talons on the table as well. "You set me up. Damn it to hell, you set me up!" Stevie's blood began boiling. "I trusted you, Zoey! But no, you had to go and pull some stupid bullshit like this, didn't you?"

Zoey stood up alongside her, keeping a cool head. "Easy, Steves. I didn't do this as a cruel joke, I did this to help you. Why would I hurt one of my friends when they're feeling so blue? You don't even know who's coming yet."

Stevie felt the anger inside her die down somewhat. She wilted back into her seat and placed her head in her talons. "It's been Hell these last couple of days, you guys." She murmured apologetically.

"And that's exactly what Duster and I have been planning to fix." Zoey proclaimed.

Duster rolled his eyes. (What YOU'VE been planning to fix.) He thought.

Stevie smirked joylessly. "Yeah, 'cause you two are super-psychiatrists, right?" she said, her voice oozing sarcasm.

Zoey ignored this last comment, as something behind Stevie had caught her attention. She stood and waved her paw feverishly. "Hey, guys! Over here!" she called.

"Guys?" Stevie turned to look.

A Blaziken, tall, clean, and curvy, approached the table, walking with a steady limp in her right leg. Beside her, a Lucario, easily a head shorter than her with long, down-turned ears and radiant green eyes, followed.

Stevie balled up her talons, bracing herself for the wave of anger and fear that quickly gushed through her body like hot steam. She turned to Duster, who looked away.

"Zoey… what, what did you do?" Stevie finally managed to say.

"Something that you couldn't have done on your own." came the reply.

Stevie closed her eyes and tried to find her composure, wherever it went. Now what was she going to do? Killing Zoey came to mind first, but that would have to wait. She delved further into her murky conscience for any logical answer, and came out empty-handed.

"Hello, Zoey. Duster. Sis." Steffi kept her greeting short for fear of revealing too much emotion. Riley exchanged no words, silently nodding to Duster once, who made a 'shoot me' motion with his claw.

Steffi sat beside Zoey, and Riley sat on a bench by himself, as far from Stevie as he could manage without appearing rude.

"Well, Stevie and Steffi, you're probably wondering what you're both doing here." Zoey began methodically, having clearly practiced this opening speech. "This isn't an intervention, first of all, what we have here is a chance to talk about what's on your mind, specifically, what's making the two of you so upset, and what we can do to fix it."

"That's the definition of an intervention." Steffi stated curtly.

"Right," Zoey continued, ignoring the correction. "Well, I think it would be healthy to begin by stating what's making the both of you so upset. Steffi, why don't you start?"

Steffi cleared her throat and began playing along. "Okay, well, as almost everyone knows, I started a relationship with Riley here two days ago. Stevie was one of my main encouragers in doing so, I might add. As we grew closer, Stevie became frustrated with me because I refused to give away any information about him, which, I fully admit, was a catty thing to do, but then she sent two children to spy on me and gather information."

Stevie felt her mouth twitch.

"Afterword, Riley had a panic attack, and inadvertently injured Brian in the process. Stevie entered the library to gain more information from me, I questioned her on her espionage plan, and we both entered the bedroom to try and comfort Riley. Stevie then, in her words, accused Riley of being both a 'nut' and a 'basket-case,' turning on a dime from suspicion of Riley to full on hatred. She seems to still think Riley is still a threat to my safety."

Stevie felt the verbal lashings sting as she stewed in her own humiliation and fury.

"Stevie, it's your turn." Zoey said.

There were many things Stevie wished she could say, but they wouldn't do her or the others any good. So she began as calmly as she could muster. "Well, you heard most of it from her. I guess all that's missing is the fact that Steffi refuses to say that something like this happened in the past with really, REALLY ugly results, and when she wouldn't talk to me, I thought it was happening all over again."

Zoey nodded and turned to Riley. "Anything you want to say?"

Riley blinked. "I…uh…well, I guess what makes me upset is that Stevie, if you'll excuse me, turned on me completely. Now, I understand about Brian, but you seemed to like me a lot at first, and all of a sudden, you and Morgan are calling me crazy."

Zoey nodded, but her speech was interrupted.

"I'm sorry, but would someone please tell me what this is supposed to do other than give the biggest guilt trip ever?" Stevie said, some of her pent up frustration escaping its trappings.

Steffi couldn't help but retort. "Because you need to feel guilty."

Stevie's eyes burned as she rounded on her sister. "Guilty for what, trying to make sure that you're safe? Well, excuse me for trying to be a good sister!" she shouted.

"If your definition of being a good sister involves passive-aggressively attacking a relationship with no real problems, then I'd hate to see what a bad sister is like! You had no business sending Penny after Riley and setting off his phobia!"

"If you would have actually talked to me in the first place, none of this would have happened, would it? If you, for one second in your selfish life, considered how somebody else felt about a decision you made-"

"Oh ho ho, look who's calling who selfish! You find it impertinent to consider how anybody else feels about your insults and you go and invade my privacy to get secrets that don't even belong to you-"

"There you go again, making yourself the victim! Arceus, if I had a dollar for every time you shifted blame to something else, I would buy myself an island in Mossdeep!"

Riley feebly raised his paw to try and get Steffi's attention, but Zoey shook her head 'no.'

Steffi stood up, her sister following suit, as their argument gained more and more fuel.

"Listen to me, Stevie! You just don't seem to understand-"

"Oh, I don't understand? Okay then, why don't you just lecture me like you always do! Read me something you got from a book instead of an actual person, 'cause we all know anything you read is true!"

"No lecture this time, Stevie. Just a question. Why are you so jealous of me?"

Stevie froze in place. "H-how did you know about that?" her voice suddenly sotto.

"Myra told me she figured it out. So please, tell me, why are you disguising your jealousy for my relationship as some kind of personal vendetta?!"

Stevie's brows un-knit. "Myra read my mind, didn't she?" she uttered, more to herself than anyone else. Her tone dropped substantially. "Okay, look. I was never jealous of your relationship."

"Will you stop denying it? You're embarrassing the both of us!"

Stevie raised her voice again, but not with anger, with desperation. "I mean it! If Myra read my mind, she must have found jealousy, but it was never for your relationship. Well… okay, maybe some of it was, but most of it wasn't!"

Steffi crossed her arms. "Then please, Stevie, enlighten all of us, who are you jealous of?" she exclaimed, making a motion to the others at the table.

Stevie couldn't get the words out, simply making a few weak noises, like an engine attempting to start up and form sentences.

"We're waiting!" Steffi snapped severely.

Stevie's final response came low, subdued, and aching with humiliation.

"…You, okay?"

Steffi tossed her arms into the air and let them slap back down on her thighs, looking at her peers with disbelief. "So she finally admits it. It's been the relation-"

"NO!" Stevie shouted, making Riley recoil. "That's not it! It's just you, not your relationship with him, I've always been jealous of you!"

Steffi pinched her beak and squinted her eyes shut. "What are you talking about?"

Stevie looked about herself, and found that she not only had the attention of Riley, Duster, and Zoey, but many other Pokemon had begun rubbernecking, some whispering to others, some enjoying the show. Stevie balled up her fists, turned around, and sped off in the other direction.

"Oh, no you don't!" Steffi protested, following her sister a ways before managing to grab her shoulder and spin her around. "You're not leaving me with a riddle like that!"

"There isn't a riddle, Steffi. I'm jealous of you, do you want me to spell it?! J-E-A-L-O-U-S! JEA-LOUS! Are you done humiliating me, or can I go now?!"

Steffi was a little stricken at the conviction in her twin's voice, and dulled the sharpness of her tone slightly. "Explain yourself." Stevie's eyes continued darting back and forth between her sister and her onlookers. Steffi noticed her plight, and turned to the spectators.

"What are you looking at, then?!" she bellowed.

Some outright took their food and fled, others begrudgingly turned away, some were simply annoyed at all the noise and continued their conversations.

"Look, I… Just forget it!" Stevie spluttered, but her twin grabbed her talons and looked into her eyes.

"This HAS to stop, Stevie. We can't keep running away from each other! At this point, I don't care how much the truth is going to offend me, spit it out so we can make it better."

"I didn't say it was-"

"Please. Explain." Steffi said in a disarmingly non-aggressive voice.

Admitting defeat, Stevie swallowed her pride and forced the words out. "Even though we're twins, you've always been the 'older sister,' the more mature one. I look up to you. You always know the answer, and you have more common sense than I do."

"Is that what all this has been about? You being jealous of my intelligence?" Steffi asked.

"No. I've always been happy with our relationship, you being the Yin to my Yang, even if I envied your intelligence and looks."

Steffi shook her head earnestly. "You're confusing me, Stevie. I don't understand why you keep explaining your envy, but deny it at the same time."

Stevie took a heavy breath to regain her rapidly escaping composure.

"I'm not denying it. Look, Myra misidentified the reason for my anger. Yes, it's hard for me to admit that I'm a little jealous of you, but that's not why I've been acting like this."

"Then please, tell me what's wrong."

Stevie glanced about herself to weed out any prying eyes or ears, and continued shakily.

"Well, you remember when I told you to try dating Riley?"

"Of course."

"I wanted you to open yourself back up after the whole fiasco with… him. And what do you know, you did! But since you didn't talk, I thought you were hiding something from me. And when Riley attacked Brian-"

Steffi quietly interjected. "He didn't 'attack' anybody, he acted on pure impulse and still feels awful about it."

"Okay, fine, but since I knew jack about him, what was I supposed to think? I literally JUST learned about his phobia, I thought he had a psychotic break. And hearing about what happened to him at the Frontier just made it worse. What if he had PTSD or something? Then it hit me, I just set you up with a lunatic!"

"Stevie…"

"I wanted what was best for you, Sis! I didn't think! I ended up hurting you again!"

Steffi grabbed her twin's shoulders.

"Stevie, listen to me carefully. I know it was unfair of me to shut you out, so I'm going to put your fears to rest. What happened with Brian was an isolated incident. Riley is one of the softest, most kind-hearted Pokemon I've ever met, and he's as harmless to me as you are. Yes, he's neurotic, I admit it, but he's very important to me. I even kissed him last night."

"Wait, what?"

"Later. But let me say this for the last time, Riley is not dangerous, and I'm truly sorry for my aversive behavior. I should have taken your feelings into consideration. You're my sister, I love you, and I apologize for acting so selfishly."

Stevie was struck dumb for a few moments, before a lump formed in her throat.

"I-I'm sorry, Sis. I'm sorry I judged too quickly, I'm sorry I acted like a bitch, I-I just… I love you too."

Stevie desperately moved forward and pulled her twin into a bracing hug. Steffi followed suit, patting her on the back.

"Apology accepted." Steffi said warmly.

Riley, sitting silently with Zoey and Duster, was at a loss for words as usual. But this time, he was silent due to concern for the Blaziken twins. They had gone out of sight, and Pokemon had begun steadily filtering away from where they had disappeared to. Zoey and Duster were arguing about something, but Riley didn't hear them, his thoughts were noisily buzzing around in his head and blocking out everything.

Thankfully, the swarm exited when he spotted two bright red girls coming towards him.

"Hey guys, look!" Riley exclaimed, cutting into the couple's argument like a hot knife through butter.

Zoey instantly switched gears into professional mode, giving Duster a single 'shush' motion to keep him quiet.

"Hi guys, you feeling any better?" Zoey said brightly.

The twins exchanged looks before nodding.

Zoey smiled. "Well, that was easier than I thought. I guess all you had to do was talk it out, huh?"

"Something like that." Steffi said. "Stevie? Don't you have another loose end to tie?"

Stevie turned sheepishly to Riley, who withdrew himself a little bit on instinct.

"I'm sorry." She stated shortly and sincerely. "I was unfair in the way I treated you, and you don't deserve to be called crazy."

Riley was pleasantly surprised by her apology, and felt his cheeks color slightly.

"Oh, um… no hard feelings." he uttered.

"Seriously, Riley. If there's any way I can make it up to you, just say so."

Riley scratched the back of his head. "Oh gosh, um… I-I don't think you need to do anything."

Riley's ears then perked up. "Oh, uh, actually, there is something…"

"Hit me."

"Accept MY apology."

Stevie blinked. "Your apology?"

"Yes, for making you think I was dangerous."

Stevie felt herself laugh involuntarily from shock. "Woah, wait, you don't-"

"No, I do. The whole point of me being here was to learn how to manage myself better around others, and boy, did I screw that up with you. I mean, between Brian and the whole Penny thing, it was just me acting like a two year old." Riley then gulped hard, and shakily extended a paw towards Stevie. "Friends?"

Stevie took a moment to react, but took his paw as graciously as she could and shook it gingerly. "Yeah, friends. And I accept your apology. Even though you didn't need to make it."

Riley quickly retracted his paw, smiling theatrically.

Zoey folded her arms across her chest triumphantly. "Well, I would say this little get-together was a success. Now aren't you two glad you came?"

Stevie gave Zoey a steely look. "Oh sure, because we totally went into this willingly."

Steffi's eyes lit up as a thought crossed her mind. "Duster, did you remember that favor I asked of you this morning?"

Duster grinned. "I did."

Steffi couldn't help but grin as well. "Don't you think now would be a good time?" she added.

Duster slid off the barrel he had sat upon through the entire ordeal, turned to face it, and removed the lid. In a matter of moments, he had hoisted the heavy container over his head and tilted the open end towards Zoey. A torrent of water tumbled out of the barrel, dousing the Zoroark, who shrieked and stood up.

Soaking wet, she shook her head and let her mouth hang open in disbelief. "Wh-what was that?!" she gasped.

Steffi, pleased with herself, rested an elbow on the table and took her chin in her talons.

"The next time you try to set me up, you'd better hope I don't pour acid on you instead."

Riley was in almost total shock, blinking rapidly and trying to look at everybody at once. Stevie, on the other hand, had burst into peals of laughter. Not only over the revenge prank Steffi had just played, over the relief that she finally had her sister back. Things might finally begin going back to normal around the ranch.

Zoey wiped her dripping muzzle, and simply gave an approving nod to Steffi.

"Well played."