Tick. Tick. Tick.

The sound of the clock was the only thing that kept the silence at bay. Second after second in endless repetition, the hands of the clock followed their daily routine as the rhythmic sound guided them through the trials of time. They were in perfect harmony, walking through the steps with enviable ease and peerless organization.

Tick. Tick.

Time wasn't going to slow down. That was what the clock was trying to convey to the children, the ones who weren't yet aware of how short life really was. With every passing second, one less second remained in life to live. If one were to realize how precious each second, each tick of the clock really was, they would never waste their time on pointless things again. But they wouldn't just gain drive; they would lose patience, as well.

Tick.

That didn't mean that there weren't those who were impatient regardless of how leisurely they took their time in life. Impatient with boredom, impatient with friends, impatient with deadlines—it was all about time, yet they just wanted that time to do something else with just as little value. What did they know about the importance of life, anyway? What was truly important compared to day-to-day life when that was all one could see if they were to look? Was there something beyond the norm that nobody dared to try?

Rather than wasting time with entertainment, Derek found himself lost in these thoughts in that silent room. Did he have the right to talk and try to change things, or should he keep silent, keeping his opinions to himself? If there were clues to be given, he didn't see them. If one answer was right and the other wrong, he wasn't aware of what decided that.

Ciel obviously wasn't helping. He made no noise or any indication of moving from the bed he lay in; he simply sat there, his back against the wooden frame, his lower body hidden under the white bedsheets. His light blue eyes flecked with their silver coloring were unfocused, directed towards the hands that lay on his covered legs.

Maybe I was just being arrogant, Derek thought to himself, shifting his weight in the hard wooden chair he sat in. The lack of armrests furthered his discomfort, but it felt appropriate; he wasn't supposed to be sitting down and just waiting, anyway. Not when he had promised Caitlin that he would break Ciel out of his silent spell.

It was already noon, a full two days since the events of the fight with Louis, an entire three days since he had met Ciel and Caitlin, and thus a whole four days since his victory against Lt. Surge. Both Damion and Caitlin had recovered since their battles with the self-proclaimed major, but Ciel still remained silent, giving short answers when talked to and ignoring indirect remarks. It was the complete opposite of the impression he had given three days ago, where he had seemed the casual joking type like Damion.

Derek had to admit, it wasn't easy holding back the sharp words on his tongue. Caitlin had never even been affected by her loss, being as practical as she was, but Damion had taken it harshly. The solution had been simple for the exuberant and naturally happy boy—simply showing that Derek himself was hardly even injured, which had been Damion's main concern—but he couldn't see what he could do for Ciel, knowing next to nothing about him.

The night before had been spent pondering exactly that, but they hadn't produced any results between them despite all the time they devoted to it. Damion, apparently sugar-high off of too many cans of Coke (having drank four of the six in the pack from their dinner), had suggested throwing parties and eating lots of cake; Caitlin had dismissed the idea before he had even finished the word "parties." Trying for a serious mood, Derek had asked what kind of person Ciel was—only to get an honest response.

"I don't really know."

Derek couldn't blame her. Traveling partners were something most people had, yet Derek knew firsthand that many partners knew little more than each other's names and hometowns. In fact, Derek and Damion didn't even know each other's last names, having never brought up the topic or a real reason to share them. (Though, this was really only due to Derek avoiding the subject as best he could.)

Still, as he sat there in the silent room, listening to the clock mark each second with a perfectly timed tick, Derek felt a heavy amount of pressure. He had offered to try, so he was obligated to at least do that, but each time he considered an idea or topic, it seemed too wistful or stupid to work out in reality. It wasn't just obligation, either; he sincerely did want to help.

It's pathetic that I lost to someone like this, he told himself, and he forced himself to believe that that was the reason. It had absolutely nothing to do with him enjoying Ciel and Caitlin's company, and it definitely wasn't because he was sure Caitlin would get depressed if Ciel stayed like this for much longer.

Nope. Not at all.

He crossed his left leg over the other and rested his elbow against the raised leg, holding his hand to his cheek. Sitting for so long had begun to get to him, and he found himself fidgeting with his hands and feet. He longed to get up and do something, but he wouldn't allow himself any luxuries until Ciel was there to join him.

So just how was he supposed to do that...?

Derek forced himself to think about that. Caitlin hadn't exactly cheered him up; she had just distracted him with other worries, and he wasn't going to mope about a loss, either. Not after what had happened after Emily Rose; this was nothing compared to that...probably. He hadn't really gotten the time to really think about the loss, unlike Damion and Ciel, since he had been knocked out for most of the time.

Still...hadn't there been other problems he had helped people with? There was never a time in his family that anybody had relied on him—that was the painful truth. He had leaned on Aliana, his only support, while everyone else had brought him down to his knees. But there were other people he knew, as well...

Yuki. How had he ever helped her? She had always been helping him; just being there had been more than enough. Her kindness, her upbeat personality, her rationality—those had been the things that had kept him alive. It had all been thanks to her; everything. He was completely and utterly indebted to her.

He shook his head as hard as he could, causing his bangs to shadow his eyes at an odd angle. He brushed them out of his face, staring at the white tiled floor thoughtfully. If he couldn't think of a moment when he had helped someone, why not think of someone who had helped him? There were so many of those that he couldn't even count: Yuki, Damion, Aliana, Chris, Matthew, Aewir, Marina; even Brock and Flint, at that rate.

Wait... He had the strange feeling he was forgetting someone. Someone who had really helped him out of a pinch, when he had been at his absolute lowest.

"Isn't that better than losing, at least? I'd rather feel satisfaction than disappointment."

A flood of emotion filled Derek. The feeling was impossible to identify: a mix of relief, embarrassment, nostalgia, and too many others to name. The person who had picked him up off the ground after his devastating loss to Emily Rose.

Richard smiled. "That's a fair point. But when you fail, you want to do better than before. It gives you a reason to continue, to strive forward. That's why all people need to lose at some point, or else they can never appreciate winning. Do you understand that?"

He had answered that yes, he did understand. The words found their way from his throat, tickling at his lips and forcing them to break away from their irritated scowl.

"Losses are necessary!"

His exclamation rang throughout the room, making Ciel gaze up at him wearily. Derek, too caught up in his memories to even feel chagrined, leapt to his feet and gave Ciel a meaningful look.

"Well? They are. Humans need to compete to evolve. That's why we can grow past previous limits. It's part of human nature to lose! That's an inescapable fact—it's reality. Humans—need—to—lose!"

A flicker of light seemed to show in Ciel's eyes, illuminating the silver for a second. "So what?"

The question was obviously rhetorical, but Derek chose to act on it anyway. He stepped forward towards Ciel's bed, leaning forward with his hands on the wooden frame. "My question to you is much more important: whatare you fighting for? Is it such a meaningless goal that you can just forget about it because of one little loss?"

"No." A dangerous expression spread across Ciel's face. "No, it isn't. But that's not important."

"It is!" Derek insisted. Throwing caution to the wind, he said, "I got my ass kicked. Damion and Caitlin got their asses kicked. So what? That's exactly what I want to ask. If we can't pick ourselves up off the floors, what does that make us as Trainers?"

"It makes us who we are. A human only shows his or her true colors under a life-or-death situation."

"Exactly. Did we run? Did we sacrifice each other? Did we try to offer our Pokémon in exchange for our lives? Did we give up, stand down, and let him win?"

Some sort of emotion began to show on Ciel's face: indignation. "Of course not."

"Then what? We just weren't strong enough, then. Being human is all about self-satisfaction! I doubt anybody in the world is one-hundred percent altruistic. I never won when I was a kid, but I retained pride. And you know what? That was good. I nearly got my Pokémon killed in a battle back after my Gym battle in Cerulean."

Ciel gave no indication of caring, but Derek didn't take it to heart.

"You know what happened after that? I still kept my pride. And then I got trashed by you. What then? I didn't go all depressed about it. Even after Louis—so what? He has years and years of experience over us. If anything, I should be the one who—"

"Shut it."

"—is...is...huh?"

Derek blinked, unable to hold back his confusion. Ciel only gave him a murderous look, tore the covers off, and stood up from the bed. In a seemingly unending silence, he closed in on Derek and grabbed the boy by the collar, his expression shadowed as he lowered his head.

"Derek." His voice was calm but terrifyingly cold.

It took all Derek had not to retaliate. The sudden silence broken only by the clock seemed to hold him back. "Y-yeah?"

"What do you think?"

He kept his silence, knowing that Ciel wasn't waiting for an answer.

"...About this whole thing. I don't know. I could've done better. I thought that by beating you, I might prove something, but in the end that Louis guy still beat us up. And it wasn't just you and me, either."

The grip on his collar tightened all of a sudden, threatening to tear the fabric. Derek was forcibly reminded of his battle with Louis, and for a second, he could only see the faint memory overlapping with reality.

"Caitlin got hurt. Our Pokémon got hurt. You know that, right?"

"Of course I do." Derek clenched the fingers of his right hand tightly, feeling the splint try to stop the movement. "Why wouldn't I?"

"We're just kids. I realize that. But there's gotta be something we can do about this. We're not weak, you and I. Are we, Derek?"

The boy raised his hand and placed it on Ciel's, feeling the boy tremble underneath him. "No. No, we're not."

Ciel raised his head just enough for his eyes to meet Derek. They weren't remorseful or tinged with sadness; they showed a light of understanding. "My goal was to become the best, at first. I wanted to prove to my mom and dad that I wasn't just an ordinary kid, even if we were an ordinary family living ordinary lives."

"What's wrong with that?" Derek muttered.

"Nothing. It was a childish dream, though. I wanted to outlive something, outlive someone, and that was what led me forward. But that's not right...is it?"

How would I know? Derek wanted to say. I'm fighting for the same thing!

Ciel shook his head, letting his hair fall across his face. "Fighting Louis... It didn't teach me anything. But it did make me realize that what I'm fighting for is different, now. I want to keep going on this journey with friends around me. That's not a bad reason, is it?"

"No... It isn't."

"And we will do something, right? We'll beat up Louis if we ever meet him again. Not for us, but for our friends who got hurt."

"Didn't you hear me?" Derek said, feeling Ciel slowly release his grip. They pulled their hands away, and he gave Ciel an almost amused look. "Humans are all about self-satisfaction. You're obviously not human if you're going to try something like that."

"Then I'll accept that." Ciel straightened up, giving Derek a faint smile. "What's wrong with that? I've always wanted to be a Pokémon before."

"Nah..." Derek stepped past the boy and towards the door, adjusting the collar of his shirt absentmindedly. With his hand on the handle, he glanced back at Ciel. "With the way you were acting, you might as well have been a tree."

"A tree?" Ciel let out a tch. "I can't be a rock, at least?"

"Why would you want to be a rock?"

"Better than a tree. Rocks are solid. They rock."

"...I think I'm going to leave, now."

"Don't you mean 'leaf'?"

Derek sighed and shook his head. "Arceus, Ciel. Hurry up and shower. No, even better. Hurry up and spruce up."

A smile found its way onto Ciel's face at that one. "I see what you did there."

Derek turned back to the door, opening it to reveal the outside hallway. "Rather than seeing me, you should go see Caitlin...lover boy."

"Huh—?"

He shut the door behind him, allowed himself a brief moment of amusement and triumph, and then made his way to his own room to get ready for his departure.

-.-.-

"All right, brats. Who's missing?"

Derek surveyed the people around them. To his left were Damion and Ciel, both dressed in normal Trainer wear: a t-shirt and some jeans. Slung through their belt loops were their Poké Ball belts, each adorned with their respective number of Poké Balls.

To his right were Caitlin and Marina, the former of whom was dressed similarly to the two boys. On the other hand, Marina wore a blue long-sleeved shirt, not unlike when she and Derek had first met, and her pants were far more sophisticated, per say, than jeans, being made of cotton and dyed a black color. She, unlike everyone else, had no belt.

Standing before them, with all the image of an older brother or upperclassman ready to take his underclassmen on a trip, was Aewir. He wore an unbuttoned short-sleeved black shirt over a gray t-shirt, wearing jeans like the rest of them. Over his shoulder was slung a single strap backpack of a dark gray shade, strengthening the road trip-like feeling. Instead of car keys, in his hand he held two Poké Balls.

"You guys," he said, nodding towards Damion, Ciel, and Caitlin one-by-one, "will be heading there first with Marina. The max people who can go at once is four, so we're splitting up. Unless you kids are afraid of that."

"Of course not!" the three answered in harmony.

"Wait, don't I get a say in this?" Derek cut in. "Why am I the one who's staying behind? At least settle this with rock-paper-scissors, or lots, or a battle, or something!"

He was cut off by the rustle of clothing. When he turned towards the source, he found Ciel pointing a finger at him in an overly dramatic pose, a grin plastered on his face. "What, you wanna try? I got a feeling I'm gonna rock today, if you know what I mean."

"Wouldn't you think paper would come from the tree?" Derek gave him a dark look before raising his left hand. "C'mon, then! Rock, paper, scissors!"

Five seconds later, Derek found himself cursing every rock in existence for betraying him.

Aewir only sighed and shook his head. "Anyway. Let's go, Blanca."

Bursting out from the Poké Ball was a Pokémon to behold. Looking very much like a human, the Pokémon reached to about Aewir's chin, which formed a noticeable height difference of a few inches between it and the children. Looking at it head-on only let Derek see a peculiar red horn-like appendage poking out from its back and chest. He raised his head to see hair of a refreshing green shade shadow the left side of its face, contrasting heavily with its almost perfectly white skin and heavy crimson eyes. Its arms were green, but the rest of its body was covered with a white dress that seemed to be both part of the Pokémon yet separate.

The graceful way it held itself identified it as a female (as if the gown hadn't been obvious enough), and she seemed to smile at them kindly. Derek knew what kind of Pokémon she was: a Gardevoir from the Hoenn region. He couldn't help but stare in wonder; Gardevoir were rare Pokémon, especially outside of their native region.

Upon meeting Derek's gaze, though, her eyes gained an odd expression to them, and the smile faded from her lips. For a split second, he could have sworn he saw her eyes gain an aquatic glow to them, glistening like the ocean, but the color returned to their ordinary dark red, a scarlet light coloring them.

Derek blinked at the oddness of the situation, but Aewir snapped him out of it. "All right, Blanca, take those four away, would you? Take this to your real Trainer, too," he said, handing the Pokémon her Poké Ball. "Don't lose it on the way, all right?"

She inclined her head courteously and held out her arms to the children. The two girls agreed to it without even a second's hesitation, but Damion and Ciel seemed to falter.

"Um... We're teleporting there, aren't we?" Damion said nervously.

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"N-no... It's just that..."

"Does it...hurt?" Ciel asked, and Damion nodded next to him. "Teleporting... I mean, I've never done it before, so..."

"You can get your limbs torn off," Derek said simply. He gave the two wicked, mocking smirks as they flinched. "Only if the place you're teleporting to is dangerous."

"Or if the teleporter overworks herself, which is why Derek and I will be going with a different method." Aewir motioned towards Blanca, who closed her eyes and smiled. "Go on, now. You'll be there before you can even scream."

"A-all right." Damion reached forward hesitantly, taking the Pokémon's hand into his own. Ciel followed his example. "But just so you know, if anything happens, Derek, I really—"

As if erased from existence, they disappeared in a glow of white before Derek could even register what happened. When he came back to his senses, blinking to himself, Aewir was already patting their means of transportation softly.

"Zirc, this'll be a bit of a long flight. Up for it?"

The Skarmory, Zirconia, let out a "Skar!" of approval. Derek immediately noticed something strange about the Pokémon. The steel-plated bird with its four-feathered wings had a strange quirk to it. Rather than the customary one gray feather and three red feathers of its species, the normally red three feathers of each wing were black. It was actually quite terrifying, as if they were blades of obsidian, ready to tear through the night.

Aewir simply said, "She's a special one. Get on already. There's a reason why you're the only one not going with them."

"Wasn't it because it would overtax Blanca?"

"That's part of the reason. But I could have taken Marina with me, couldn't I have?"

Derek blinked. It was definitely true, and it would have been a better decision if one were to think about it. "Well..."

"We have to talk. About Archer. About your loss. About my win." His words were blunt and to the point, making Derek wince. "I'm not bragging. This is to help you, Derek. I'll tell you what you need to know, and then you'll be ready."

"Ready...?"

"Think of it like an RPG." Aewir jumped onto Zirconia's back, motioning for Derek to get on as well. The boy was reminded of his first time flying with Chris and Gaia, which, he realized, he still didn't know what was. "Archer was an event. I'm the random sage who shows up to explain that event. You, the main character, will have to train to beat the antagonist."

"Is that antagonist Louis?" Derek asked, hesitating. There really wasn't any reason for Aewir to pay so much attention to him just because of a single battle, even if it was with a terrorist. "Or is there something more to it...?"

Aewir smirked. "Looks like you're catching on, kid."


A/N - Ciel's got the most boring recovery, I know. Damion obviously had the best one, what with the bromance, but this chapter has some importance to it. Just a bit of plot hinting here and there, if you try to read into it. You'll get confused, though.

At any rate, Blanca! Gardevoir are always some of my favorite Pokemon when I'm playing a Hoenn game (or any game) (and not like that, you sick perverts), so obviously one needed to show up. If you haven't gotten Aewir's style yet, we have Alexandrite the Aggron and Zirconia the Skarmory. NOTICE SOMETHING? (And I'm referring to both the Pokemon themselves and their names...)

One more to go~! Have a blast, =P