A/N: The tune I chose for Utopia's bell chime last chapter was the Legend of Zelda's Song of Storms. I don't know why, but it is :)

Why do I always write more when I have lots of homework I should be doing? Si-i-i-i-igh… And once again, I do not own Pokémon, just my OCs.

Utopia's POV

I sat down in the cool cave and tried to calm and sort my thoughts. It wasn't easy with the whole fear of Kyurem and dying, I'll tell you that! And so much for a nice lunch with Luke and Tim. I had pictured sitting on a quilt and eating sandwiches while laughing at photos. But no, Tim had to ask about Kyurem and push to try to help my fear.

I still couldn't believe that after all this he wanted to be friends with me. And friendship meant that I was in danger of death! Death! What kind of friend was that?

I stopped myself and thought of Tim and Luke instead. They were good friends. Even though Luke had died they still were like brothers to each other. And as nice as that was, I didn't know why he had changed his mind to try to be nice. Was it because he was so happy that Archen evolved?

No, he said that I needed to help him. I reminded myself. He needs my help to try to stop his killing touch if that even existed. I gulped as I remembered the Pidove he had caught and shuddered. Then my imagination of what it might've looked like for Luke to die at the jaws of a Cofagrigus. That could be me if I agree to this stupid idea…

And what's worse, he thinks he can help me in return! I fear dragons, so lay off! I don't want to change! I tucked my knees to my chest and set my chin on them. And his talking of Kyurem is just to get me to consider his friendship. But why me of all people?

DragonVow… there was a reason Tim had chosen that name and only now could I see it. He had a goal, a curse he thought himself to have and to break. And I was terrified of dragons, so he figured that it could be remedied. Had he planned this since we became partners? Since when did he start thinking of me as a friend instead of the enemy? I groaned as I thought back to Luke and Tim in the forest at the large tree. Luke had said something about me becoming Tim's friend! Back then I didn't know that being a friend would mean my life was at stake.

So I was left with the decision: become Tim's friend at the risk of my life, or not be his friend and everything goes back to normal? But did I want everything to be back to normal? Tim was right when he said that I pretty much had no deep connection to a home of sorts. For crying out loud, I didn't even get an answer from my own parents about our heritage! I didn't know if I had any talents and I was left wondering what to do with my life. That was my normal. One year of training and three badges later nothing had changed.

Strangely, I felt my will leaning toward the change. I wanted to get out of my rut in life and find myself. That what Jamie had said (along with her vague prediction of a possible Kyurem); to find myself in this competition. I wanted to! But still, the risk of me dying wasn't fun to think about. Why couldn't Malcolm be my partner instead of Tim? I thought. He'd be much more friendly and helpful to help me find myself. Tim's just… Tim. And Malcolm's way I wouldn't have to face death in order to change.

"Tamato or Pidove-noodle soup?"

I jumped at the sound of a voice interrupting my thoughts. Of course I knew who it was, who else would be there? I gave Tim a weary look. Words couldn't express my confusion, fears, and downright dislike of his strategy for DragonVow.

The black-haired guy shrugged and placed the bowl of Pidove-noddle soup by my feet and took the tamato berry soup for himself. He sat down on the cave wall opposite of me and began to eat calmly.

I stared at the steaming soup and said flatly, "Did you poison it?"

Tim gave me a 'you can't be serious' look. "Sorry for trying." He said with a hint of sarcasm.

"I didn't say that I wanted to be your friend yet." I mumbled defensively even though the smell of that soup was making my stomach rumble to demand a taste. Oh that kid was clever! Making soup and acting all friendly! I tore my gaze away from the soup and asked, "Ok, so if you want to be friends so badly, then why did you attack me on the first day of the challenge and flip me off? If you ask me that's not the best way to start a friendship."

Tim's look fell a little bit. "Oh yeah…" He set down his tamato soup and put his hand to his chin. "Let me put it this way, I was defensive of your Larvesta torching my shirt so naturally I wanted to show you up. Then when you refused to fight I kept on going, expecting you to give in. And the flipping off part was…" he smirked a little, "Well you did say you wanted a 'bird'."

"You made a rude hand gesture to me, it's not a joke." I huffed angrily.

"Sorry then. I shouldn't have done that." He said with that strange tone, it almost sounded like he was really sorry.

I sighed and picked up the soup. It was so yummy smelling, and looking to boot! I gave Tim an uneasy glance and started to eat the soup with the spoon he had provided. It turned out to be as good as it smelled and looked. My starving stomach was very happy for the food! I paused from eating the soup and asked, "So, you made this?"

"Soup in a can warmed up, nothing much."

The conversation stilled until I was finished with the soup. I set the bowl down and wiped at my mouth. "Thanks for the soup then…" I said casually. I still was apprehensive to accepting Tim's friendliness so readily. And it was still creepy to see Tim happy, friendly, or even apologetic.

Luke floated in to join us he held a few photos in his hand and thought, "Ok, so do you want to see what I looked like when I was a human, Utopia?"

Tim's eyes snapped open wide. "Hey, did you steal those from my pack? Which ones are they?"

"What? Are you afraid of an embarrassing one?" I snickered.

Luke giggled and quickly handed me the pictures before Tim could censor which ones I was allowed to see.

I grasped the photos and glimpsed at the top one. I forgot all ideas of trying to protect the photos at the sight of the first one. It was a baby picture of a curly-black haired boy with an enormous grin on his face. He was wearing a cute little long-sleeved and striped shirt with light green overalls. "Ooh! That's so cute!" I smiled widely. I looked at the little ghost and asked, "That's you as a toddler?"

Luke nodded with a hint of blush on his face. "Yeah, that's me."

"Let me see." Tim said and sat down beside me to see the pictures. He nodded. "That's your family's favorite toddler picture."

"Of course! That's why they gave you one for yourself. They made so many copies of it. There's one hanging on the wall at home still I think."

I flinched at Tim sitting by me, and then I turned my attention to Luke. "Do you go home much?"

Luke's gaze fell to the ground and he admitted, "Not really… Tim and I agreed that… well, I can't go home because I'm a Pokémon…"

"Wait, you haven't seen your family since you became a Pokémon?" I asked. That would be terrible to not see your family for that long of time. How long was it again? Four years of not seeing his parents?

"Well, I did see them when I was still newly a Pokémon and I couldn't use my telepathy that well. And when Tim finally realized that I was Luke, then he and I agreed that it would be too strange of a family to treat a Yamask as a son. I couldn't have a Pokémon journey and I might've been kept away from Tim thanks to the circumstances of my death…"

I stared at Luke, then Tim, then back to Luke. "So your parents think that you are dead, like completely gone? They don't know that your soul is a Yamask now?"

"Luke's family thinks that my Yamask is an ancient person from the Relic Castle's past that felt pity for me. They don't know." Tim admitted sadly. "I don't know if it's the right choice, but we made it and we're sticking to it."

I felt my sympathy for Luke soar at an all-time high. He was killed and he wasn't able to tell his parents that he was now a Yamask. His parents knew him as dead.

"Well, there are more pictures, so go ahead." Luke thought cheerfully. "You don't have to feel sorry for me; I'm probably happiest out on a Pokémon journey with my best friend."

I nodded and put that picture in the back of the small stack. The next one had the young Luke and his father, a large guy with similarly black and curly hair. They were standing in front of a school sign and a school in the background.

"That's my first day of school." Luke thought proudly. "My dad and Tim's dad went to that same school when they were young, so that place was a really good school. I had a lot of fun there."

I stared at the young Luke in the picture. He looked so happy and full of life. There seemed to be a tint of blush on his cheeks. And his hair was so curly! I looked back at Luke's Yamask form and nodded. "I can see a little resemblance." I said jokingly.

The next picture was a group picture. There was a salt-and-pepper haired man with his hand on a young chestnut-haired boy's shoulder. Then Luke's dad and what I assumed his mom were standing by the happy young Luke. Also in the picture were a great Carcosta and Sawsbuck on Luke's family's side and a Beheeyem and a Golett on the other side.

"Who's all of these people?" I asked.

This time Tim took the picture and pointed out everyone. He pointed to Luke's side of the picture and said, "That's Luke, his mom Toiba Dimitri, his dad Robert Dimitri, Sawsbuck, and there was no room on the other side, so Carcosta is on Luke's side. Then on my side is-"

"Wait, your side? Where are you?" I asked. I didn't see any black-haired emo kid in the picture.

Tim gave me that same 'are you serious' look. "I'm the kid with the archeologist father."

I looked again and frowned. "So is that your natural hair color then? Chestnut brown hair?" There went my amusement with imagining Tim with blonde hair.

"Yeah."

"So why'd you change your hair color?"

"That's not important." He continued to introduce everyone in the photo, "I'm the brown-haired kid, and that's my father Simon Feldman. The Pokémon around us are Golett and Eglantine the Beheeyem." All Pokémon in this picture with the exception of Sawbuck are my father's." He sat back and handed the picture back to me. "Those are our families when I was eleven and Luke was seven."

I looked at the picture again in closer detail. Sure enough I could see a slight similarity of Tim in the picture and the Tim that sat beside me. Chestnut brown… I still couldn't imagine Tim being anything other than black-haired. I asked Luke, "So your last name was Dimitri?"

"Yep. My dad worked at Icirrus gym as a trainer there. That's how I ended up being an under-aged Pokémon trainer. He just loves Pokémon fights. He taught Tim a lot!"

I giggled. I still couldn't imagine that a Yamask had a last name, even a family. But then again, he was a past-human. "Luke Dimitri… I don't think I can call you anything other than plain Luke."

"That's fine, I only go by Luke. Tim on the other hand-"

"Hey!" the guy in question snapped and gave the ghost a stern look.

"-doesn't want to talk about his nicknames…" Luke admitted sheepishly.

I chuckled a little. Those two were a strange duo, but close friends nonetheless. I wish I had a friend I knew that well. Well, I knew that well and didn't threaten my life. I knew Ouri from childhood, but I hadn't seen him in years and I wasn't as close with him as I could have been had I stayed in Lacunosa.

The next picture was of slightly older Luke laughing at (or with) the same brown-haired Tim at a table of a fancy restaurant of sorts. The shot was a sort of close-up so that I could see the two boys at better detail. I glanced between the picture and Tim to confirm that it was the same person. Yup, the face and eyes and nose were the same. It was still strange (and yet fitting) that Tim had light brown hair. Luke, still being his cheery and curly-haired self, still had blush on his cheeks as if he was always happy.

"That's at Odo's, the nicest place to eat in Icirrus." Luke thought.

"We ate there to celebrate my dad getting a job offer from the famous Eugene Kwester in the Relic Castle. You know how that turned out." Tim explained. "After that we traveled to Nacrene to meet up with that famous Pokémon breeder and revive Archen from a fossil. On the way I borrowed my dad's Carcosta to defeat Skyla and Clay in their gyms."

I nodded as the time and setting started to make sense to me. This was a picture of Luke almost a week or so before he died. I gulped and felt sad at thinking that. The last picture was of Luke hugging Siggy's tail, his blushing cheeks and curly hair defining him.

"That was the day before we went inside Relic Castle. Mr. Dimitri caught Siggy and gave it to Luke as a 'pet' (but we all know differently). This is the last picture that was taken of Luke."

I gulped and stared at the picture. I felt the pity rise once again and I wondered, he looks so happy in this picture, in all of them. What is my latest picture and would others be able to look back on my life and see that I was always having fun like Luke? I snapped out of my daze and handed the photos back to Luke. "Thanks for the pictures. I still know you better as a Yamask, but it was very cool to see you as a person…" I could have said something a little more eloquent, but oh well.

Tim leaned back against the wall where I was and said, "So, ready for the next round of contests, partner?"

I gave him my still uneasy look. "Sure, though I still haven't agreed to try and help you with your friendship and killing touch and the like. So… yeah. And you being this friendly is just weird…"

"Well it's either death by me or death by Kyurem, your choice."

"Shut up about Kyurem! It is not going to show up outside of Giant Chasm any time soon and I'm sure that I'm never going to the Giant Chasm!" I shot back. The nerve of him! "And if by some strange chance it does show up, I will not die by it!"

"Whatever you say." Tim said flippantly and stood up. He stretched and said, "But you'll still have to put up with me since we're in the same team."

"Why do you want me to be your friend? I thought you hated me." I mumbled moodily.

He looked down at me and said evenly, "I did. I hated everyone until you kept asking me questions about me. I think your curiosity made you seem friendly to me. I see that you still don't think me as a friend, but I don't really care."

I stared at him. He was being so honest it surprised me. But even though I still held a grudge against him for his rudeness and past misdeeds, I did admit earlier today that I already considered myself friends with Tim and Luke. Besides Ouri, they were people that I spent lots of time with. And of course Malcolm was a friend, but I hardly knew him like I knew Tim now.

But something about Tim and me… we had some similarities. We were both only-children and had family issues. We didn't have all that much badges and very few friends that we were close to. We spaced out a lot and were thinkers. Tim came in Mistralton to prove himself and I came to prove others wrong about an all-male gym. And then our fears… somehow I felt that they were connected but I couldn't place how. We had deep fears, ones that controlled our actions and minds.

My eyes widened as I realized something. Tim was so blunt and unfriendly because he didn't want friends. He didn't want friends because he was afraid of letting them die. He rejected Malcolm's offers so readily because he didn't want to have a friend die. Or maybe I'm overanalyzing and he simply hates Malcolm. That might be it. But still, Tim didn't have any new friends other than slightly me because he feared his killing curse so badly…

"What?" He asked flatly. "Do you see a Cubchoo or something?"

"No, I just was thinking of something surprising, like you actually have feelings…" I stopped myself from talking and let my eyes widen. I glared at Tim and blurted out, "I'm starting to sound like you! You're a bad influence!"

Tim chuckled a little. It was an amused chuckle and not a usually dark or sarcastic laugh. Once again it set my nerves in high alert. He smirked and shook his head, then walked out of the cave with the soup bowls in hand.

Luke closed his eyes happily and thought, "See, I told you that you two could be good friends!"

I sighed and said quietly to the ghost, "As long as I don't die I might be ok with it."