I was sound asleep...

"Wake up.

Wake up!

FOR THE LOVE OF ARCEUS, CECILIA, WAKE UP!"

...until Delilah woke me up. At first, I tried to ignore her. Then, my Froslass Wake-Up Slapped me. Before Delilah could do anything else to torture me awake, I stumbled out of bed and looked at my Pokemon. "Hey, Delilah," I greeted her.

"I feel like I've been trapped in there for ages!" the Froslass complained.

"I know," I said, "and I'm sorry. I was mad at first, but eventually realized that there were other people to be mad at."

Delilah tilted her head to the side. "Uh, what?"

"Long story short, August was making a big deal out of nothing."

Delilah let out a hearty laugh. "Makes sense," she proudly understood. "I knew that she was faking the whole time."

"You have no idea what I'm talking about, are you?"

"Not a clue. What are we talking about again?"

I slapped my face with my palm. "When will you ever learn?" I mumbled.

-x-

I explained the whole thing to Delilah and Grace at breakfast that morning.

"Really?" Delilah asked me. "She was an agent the whole time? Mega cool!"

"No, NOT cool," I yelled at her.

Cecilia, Grace said, calm down. You're becoming too riled up.

I listened to my Gardevoir's advice and took a few deep breaths. "Sorry, Delilah," I apologized. "I'm just really, really mad at August."

"But why?" Delilah asked as she took a bite of her Pokemon food. With a full mouth (which repulsed me, to be honest), she added, "What did she do to you?"

"She never wanted to be my friend."

But Cecilia–

"It's quite obvious, though, isn't it? I mean, she only befriended me for the sake of her stupid mission. Everything was set up that way. I was just a simple asset in the International Police's plot."

"YO CECE! SHUT THE HELL UP FOR A SECOND AND LISTEN TO ME!"

My eyes narrowed, and I glared angrily into my Froslass' eyes. "What?"

"Why is it that when you found out N's secret, you were cool with it, but when you find out August's secret, you get all pissed and stuff?"

She's making a good point.

"Because–" I tried to answer, although I couldn't find the right words to say. "Because–because I–I–"

"–was blinded by love," Delilah said, finishing the sentence for me. "Face it, Cece. You have a major crush on N. That's why you were cool with it. However, if you only had a casual relationship with him, how do you think you would've reacted when you figured out that he was the leader of Team Plasma?"

"Uh–" I pondered. I had never thought about any of the things that Delilah was telling me. For once, she was telling me useful information.

"Exactly. You can't put it to words. Think about it: you were shocked by being betrayed by a friend, but you were to wonderstruck to be mad at N. It's not that hard to understand, but I don't think that you've figured it out until now. I think that you need to set your priorities straight, missy."

I was speechless. Like Grace had said, she was proving a point: I had no right to be mad at August. N's secret wasn't much better than August's. If I was forgiving to N, then it was only just to be forgiving to August.

But based off of how I acted towards my ex-friend, I didn't think that I would be able to apologize. I mean, I didn't even know where she went off to. For all I knew, she could've been a million miles away.

For all I know, I could've gotten her kicked out of the International Police for what I did, I thought. She was supposed to be protecting me and the Dark Stone. That's the only reason why "Summer" came to my aid when we stopped traveling together–it was in her job description. It all makes sense now, but I feel like I've made a horrible mistake.

Grace seemed to have heard my thinking. Look, Cecilia, she said, don't be so hard on yourself. You're thinking about worst-case scenarios. Besides, a good friend would do anything to apologize.

"Are you saying that I should try to scout out August and apologize?" I asked.

I have a feeling that, when the time comes, you two will meet again and be able to apologize to each other. You're both at fault here, to be honest.

Grace's words of wisdom made me smile. "Thanks, Grace."

"Hey!" Delilah shouted. "What about me? I helped you sort things out in your mind! Don't I deserve some–"

I got out of my seat and hugged Delilah. "Thanks," I told her. "I had no reason to be mad at you back in Castelia."

I then walked over to Grace and hugged her as well. "And thanks so much for lightening my spirits," I told her.

-x-

After breakfast, my Pokemon and I trained on the field behind the Pokemon Center. We had a gym battle to get ready for. It was the first time that I had battled with Grace in the longest time, so I was a little nervous. Still, I felt like it had to be done.

Believe it or not, training went well. The Destiny Bond between Grace and I seemed to have dissipated, which was great, considering that I was sick of going to hospitals. Grace was battling like before, and nobody had to work about a dual knock-out.

I couldn't get Celeste to battle again; she was battle-shy, and I absolutely needed to respect that. I bet that hard-core trainers would have let a Pokemon like Celeste go if they wouldn't battle, but I felt like that was an inhumane thing to do.

Seattle was training very well. I watched her movements carefully; they were swift and agile. She exerted all of her energy to battle with extreme precision. I was surprised, considering that I had never seen the Riolu battle like that before. I then thought about how little I battled with her, and then decided that she really wanted to show me what she could do so I would use her in battle. I admired her go-getter attitude and decided that I was definitely going to use her during the gym battle.

-x-

Then came time for the actual gym battle. I stood inside of the gym, staring at a roller coaster car. Okay, I thought. This is it. Time to go and rock this battle.

When I had made it to the end of the roller coaster track, I hopped out of the car and walked up to Elesa. "Nice to see you again, Cecilia," she said. "How are things going between you and August?"

I said nothing.

"Don't want to talk about it?" she asked. "I'm cool with that. Now, let's see what you can do. I've been anticipating this battle all day."