Almost forgot to upload this chapter! Anyways, enjoy, as usual, and leave me a review if you liked it, or if you hated it.

Thanks for reading! c:

When Bugsy emerged from the bushes with Julia, Flame, and Sir Majestic Tail following him, the sun hung low in the sky, spilling orange hues onto the clouds. As much as the sight was lovely over the treetops, Flame knew it meant something more sinister. Night was approaching, and besides it being more difficult to see, different Pokémon were usually driven out to hunt. Being that she herself was technically a hunter, that didn't concern her too much. What did, however, concern her, was the thought of one of these Pokémon attacking Julia.

Because as weird as this forest is, I'm certain I could get through it alright every time. For a Pokémon, I don't even think it would be that much of a big deal. But a human...that's another story altogether.

"Should we split up, or...?" Julia asked Bugsy, to which he quickly shook his head.

"I don't want to lose one of you, especially not at night." Faintly, Flame could still notice him trembling. He must really love his sister...

Taking in a breath, Julia replied, "Alright. Let's head in, then." All at once, they walked into the forest, then continued as their eyes adjusted to the dark. Flame could see almost right away, from the faint light emanating from the quarter moon, but Julia had to pull out her PokéGear to use the light from the screen to illuminate the path. Then she started dialling a number.

"What – " Bugsy began, but Julia interrupted him.

"My friend, Leo – he's obsessed with knowing about weird things. I think he'd appreciate a video call from inside the forest." She tapped the screen, frowning. "If there's reception in here."

A few seconds later, a voice from the device asked, "Yeah? Oh, hi, Jules. Where are you?"

"I'm in Ilex Forest." Julia paused, then let out an uneasy laugh. "For the third time. Honestly, I betcha anything I'll end up visiting so much that I move in."

Leo laughed at that, though he still seemed a little downcast. "Well, turn the screen around. Let me see."

As she did, Julia added, "We're looking for Bugsy's little sister. Team Fury dropped her off somewhere in here, and, as you know, the Pokémon in here are hostile, so we need to find her."

"The guys that killed a crapton of people last night? Yeesh, those guys are sick!"

Flame dropped in close to Julia's side, flicking her eyes about. Just a bit behind them, Bugsy was gripping a long, thin vine tightly in his fist, which he slashed the first Furret that attacked with. It wasn't a great comfort to have a grass type defending them in a bug-infested forest, but she had seen the way he fought back against Team Fury when they attacked Julia and how he healed Flame. At the very least, Flame could smirk in thought of how Fluffy would have reacted to having a grass type on the team.

The forest was surprisingly quiet when the last glow in the sky faded into darkness. The tree grew densely, though the path they walked on was wide and almost completely clear. Wild Pokémon did attack often, seeming to come out of thin air, but fighting them felt different now that Flame had realized how non-threatening the place would be for a Pokémon like herself. Her only point of concern was her trainer who, on top of being mostly incapable of defending herself, was also holding out a PokéGear for Leo to see the forest for himself.

"This is incredible!" the boy exclaimed when they reached another of those baited rooms. "They all managed to cooperate to attack as one!"

"I'd call it terrifying," Julia objected, quickly stepping back to avoid an attack from a Paras, "though it's not as bad the third time through."

Bugsy had been silent the whole time, but now he said, "This is really weird, though." He whipped his vine at a Spinarak, his eyes narrowed. "Ever since we've come in here, I haven't been able to understand a single wild Pokémon. It's bizarre – in all my time living by this forest, this has never happened before. And why has it turned into a labyrinth now?"

"They aren't speaking normally, Bugsy," Flame agreed as she ran into the clearing to gather up some of the items scattered around. "Maybe they can understand each other within their species, but to me, it sounds like gibberish. Are you getting the same thing, Fire-Butt?"

"I don't care what language they're speaking, I just want to leave this place!" He made a disgusted noise as he squished a bug Pokémon of sorts underfoot. "Can we not get to finding that girl faster so we can leave...please?"

Flame glanced at Julia, who nodded sombrely.

"Lily!" Bugsy yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Lily, can you hear me?!" All that replied was silence.

"Oh, Lily, do be a dear and come out!" wailed Sir Majestic Tail. "Come out so we can go out!" Then he accidentally tripped on a vine spread out on the ground and chestnuts dropped down on his head. "What on earth – ?! Who in their right mind would pummel me with so many chestnuts?!" Raising his head, he cried out, "Don't you know who I am?!"

"Calm yourself, you spastic dunderhead," Flame snickered at him. "It was only a chestnut trap. No big deal."

"Sure, it's a big deal!" retorted Sir Majestic Tail, but he said nothing more than that and took to silently pouting.

It felt like they were making no progress. Julia had long disconnected the call, with Leo excitedly telling her he'd post the video to his site and to add that she should let him know if she learned anything new about the place. From time to time, Bugsy called out his sister's name, but he never received a response. Sir Majestic Tail suggested that they leave and return when it was light – an idea that Julia hesitated to shoot down. The longer they were in Ilex Forest, the more likely it felt that Lily was beyond saving.

That was until a small voice whimpered, "Help...please..."

Bugsy turned and ran towards where it had come from and collapsed by a bush. "L-Lily! Oh, Lily, it's okay. Big brother's here now." Tears were filling his eyes as he reached out his arms and pulled a skinny little girl from the bush. "Oh, thank Arceus, you're safe..."

Slowly, Julia approached with the rest of her Pokémon and they stood by the girl. Her hair was the same shade of violet as her brother but her eyes were light brown, and she was wearing a little white dress that was torn with one edge that was soaked in dark red.

"There's not much I can do without the sunlight," Bugsy murmured, stroking her hair gently, "but I'll heal you as best I can." He placed a hand on her thigh and it glowed momentarily before he pulled it away.

"There were a lot of scary Pokémon," she whimpered, trembling. "A Weedle started chasing me and wouldn't stop! What if he comes back?!"

"Hey, Lily, it's okay," Bugsy whispered, smiling at her. "Big brother will chase away any bad Pokémon, okay? Let's go back home now." Standing up, he extended both his hands to her and pulled her to her feet, then clenched one of her hands and began walking back.

Feeling awkward for just following silently, Flame came around the girl's side and smiled at her. "Hi, Lily. My name is Flame! It's nice to meet you!" The little girl blinked at her, turning her head sideways, then let go of Bugsy's hand to hug her unexpectedly.

"You're so soft!" Lily squeaked, snuggling Flame's fur. Flame's face burned, but she lightly put her paws over the girl's shoulders. The two were almost the same height. "Are you one of Bugsy's friends?"

"Yes, she is," Bugsy replied for Flame, smiling. "Her name is Flame, and that's Flame's trainer, Julia, and Sir Majestic Tail." Lily let go of Flame and glanced back at them, then cheerfully waved.

"Hi! Brother, if they're your friends, can they be my friends, too?"

"Of course!" Julia replied. "We can all be friends!" That seemed to delight Lily and she ran over to Julia, then to Sir Majestic Tail, giggling.

"Pony-ta!" she addressed, patting his side. "Your fur is nice, too!"

"Well, we all knew that, didn't we?" Sir Majestic Tail asked, raising his nose. "But thank you, small lady, for noticing."

Then Lily ran back to her brother to grab his hand again when a Noctowl swooped down from above. Flame shot it with Ember and was genuinely shocked to see that that was all it took to knock it out.

I suppose all this running around in Ilex Forest has made me stronger, she figured, feeling a little bit of pride before realizing something else. That means that I might be evolving soon. Oh, please let my evolution look okay!

The forest was, once again, different on the way back. It wasn't too difficult to traverse, but Flame hated the feeling of not knowing how much progress they had made. For a few minutes, she mentally mapped the area and an odd idea began to form in her mind. Sometimes, they reentered the same patches of clearing, but after a while, it was impossible to double back. When that happened, some of the Pokémon in the area changed – sometimes there was an abundance of Weedles; other times, there were none to be found and Furrets dominated instead.

It's split into floors! The realization made her feel a bit elated inside. Whenever we reach a new floor, there are new Pokémon and items and the layout of paths and clearing changes. Then we can't go back to the previous floor, no matter what!

Oh.

"Um, Julia?" Flame tugged on Julia's bag until the girl glanced down.

"What is it?"

"I figured something out," Flame sighed, looking at the path ahead. "The way we're going now, we're headed to Goldenrod city."

Bugsy glanced back sharply at that statement and Lily gave a little cheer. "Yay! Does that mean that we can go and visit Whitney? She made gingersnaps the last time we came, remember?"

"Yes, I remember. Flame, am I hearing you correctly? We're going in the direction of Goldenrod?"

"Yeah, I think so." She looked at the ground, then looked up to quickly shoot Ember at a Paras. "It doesn't matter if it seems like we're going back. This forest is split into floors. I don't really get it myself, but there's areas that change within this forest, and once they change, you can't go back to them. There's no way to go back to Azalea town until we clear the forest and go back in."

Bugsy frowned, then sighed. "Well, I can say for certain that we're not going back through Ilex Forest anytime soon, so Goldenrod it is."

"Thank you, brother!" Lily cried out happily. "Maybe we can even go on the Magnet Train! Or go and have some ice cream on the beach together!"

The Gym Leader's expression softened, and he smiled back at her. "I'd really like to do that." He picked her up and nuzzled her hair. "It's late tonight, so we can play tomorrow. Do we have a plan?"

"Yep!"

Laughing, Julia began, "I'm glad that it all worked out for – "

"Hey, Fire-Butt, slow the fuck down!"

Everyone stopped and Sir Majestic Tail turned and ran back down the path to press the side of his head against –

"Fluffy!"

Flame's eyes involuntarily pooled with tears and she wiped them away with a paw before joining the two. The Flaaffy put her paws around Sir Majestic Tail's neck and Flame's back, shaking.

"Man, I've been running around looking for all three of you forever," she panted. "Finally you came back for – " Her voice cracked and she stopped and swallowed, wiping her face against Sir Majestic Tail's neck. "Let's just get the fuck out of this mystery dungeon, okay?"

Mystery...dungeon?

"It's really you," Julia murmured, crouching when she came near. "We thought you'd died or – "

Fluffy Thunderbolted all three of them.

"You idiots! Like I'd die so easily!"

Bugsy set down Lily and also came over, a grin on his face. "So you've all reunited? I'm glad that you're still around, or Julia might have caught a grass type Pokémon! Without you to remind her..."

"Arceus forbid!" Fluffy bleated, shoving him away gently. "Flame, if she ever forgets, you tell her, got it? That's an order!"

Smiling, Flame tried to cross her paws and managed to. Whether she pulled off the teasing look was a different story altogether, but she came close. "It's good to have you back, Fluffy."

"Never run off again!" Sir Majestic Tail whinnied, blinking away tears. "You had me worried sick, my dearest Fuzzykins!"

"Whatever, guys. Let's beat it."

A new feeling of joy bursting within each of them, they turned and continued down the path. Then Bugsy paused.

"Hey, Lily? Where'd you run off to?" he called out.

"I'm over here!" came the response. Nodding, to Julia, Bugsy quickly ran off in the direction of Lily's voice. Suddenly, a scream pierced the forest that sent the Pidgeys flying from their roosts in the trees. The four exchanged glances, then sped over to where Bugsy was, on his hands and knees.

Julia's eyes grew wide and she nearly collapsed. Tearing her eyes away from the sight for a moment, Flame grabbed both her hands to right her, but couldn't stop herself from whimpering.

There on the grass lay Lily. Above her stood someone clutching a dark red lump that trailed down to her body, spurting blood. The someone laughed, squeezing the heart between his fingers.

"Took you long enough to show up," he said, then lifted the organ to his face and licked it. "Now, I know what you're all thinking. Literally." Jerome dropped it and pressed down in it with the heel of his boot. "Unfortunately, your revenge will have to wait for later. Until we meet again..." Then he vanished.

Bugsy shook, staring at the ground. "N-no...he wouldn't...not when...were so close..."

"LILY!"