Castor didn't stick around long. He immediately left the island after losing to me, which is exactly what I expected him to do. Hopefully, that'll be the end of seeing and dealing with him.

With the downtime between the end of my fight and the beginning of Caleb's I went to the Pokemon Center to heal my Pokemon. I carried Skitty into the Center and placed him on the desk.

"That was quite the impressive battle you had out there," she said childishly to Skitty. I looked at my Skitty counting the number of battle wounds in sustained. I was happy for winning but lukewarm to the cost of winning.

Is this worth it?

Caleb placed his arm on my shoulder and immediately sensed my uneasiness after I ignored the nurse's comments towards me. I look up and grip her glance. She repeats what she has already said, "Congrats on making it to the finals. I'm guessing it's hitting you right now."

I nod, "Uh yeah. Almost can't believe it." I flash a smile as she picks up Skitty.

She smiles back and leaves with my Pokemon. Caleb pulls on my shoulder to drag me outside of the Center. He leads me to a bench beside the small garden and sits down.

"So now that the nurse isn't here, want to tell me the real reason why you seemed to have a lost expression on your face in there?"

I lied. "I don't understand how Skitty was able to beat Primarina. It doesn't make sense."

He chuckled. "Of course it makes sense. You've been with Skitty a helluva longer time than Castor has been with his Pokemon."

"Yeah, but I never battled with him," I responded.

"So what? You've taken care of that Pokemon for years. There is a bond. Skitty wanted to take down Castor for you and for himself. It was pure adrenaline. Also, we saw his capability multiple times when dealing with Team Skull."

I sighed heavily. "Yeah, I guess."

Caleb rubbed my shoulder and kissed me on the cheek. "Look, now is the time to be happy. You're gonna be in the Finals."

I feigned a smile as I looked at him. "You better be there with me. Give Lana hell."

He chuckled, "That's the plan, Cam."

...

Lana wore a light blue shirt and a dark blue pair of pants that match her Primarina. She looked confident and focused as she stood across from Caleb.

Before the match began she looked up at me. We shared a quick glance and that was it up until she winked at me.

I still hadn't forgiven her for what she pulled.

For the first round of the battle Caleb sent out his Kommo-o, definitely sending a message to Lana. She received and acknowledged it.

"Going with your best Pokemon right away, huh?" she asked with a smile.

"Yes ma'am. You are no slouch."

"You better give me your all, Caleb. I don't want to see any of that lack of confidence you displayed yesterday."

What is she doing?

"Oh I will Lana."

"Good. Here's to a kickass Pokemon battle," she said with a broad smile. Caleb smiled back and nodded.

Lana sent out Nidoking and set up a battle between two Pokemon.

No Pokemon has a substantial advantage here, so it's going to come down to the trainer and how he or she trained their Pokemon.

Lana initiates the battle by telling her Nidoking to use Poison Sting. The attack hits but it looks like Kommo-o wasn't poisoned.

Kommo-o retaliates with a dragon tail attack. However, before it connects Nidoking grabs the tail. Nidoking picks Kommo-o up and slams it on the ground.

I'm not sure that hurt Kommo-o more than it hurt the ground below it to be honest.

Nidoking keeps a hold on Kommo-o's tail and slams it one more time.

Before it can slam Kommo-o again, Caleb yells out "Screech!"

An ear-ringing noise comes out of Kommo-o's mouth causing Nidoking to drop it's tail. In an outrage, Kommo-o slams into Nidoking making critical impact.

Lana orders Nidoking to use Megahorn while Caleb tells Kommo-o to use Sky Uppercut. Both attacks hit at the same time.

Both of the Pokemon are breathing heavily as they stare at each other.

"Hyper Beam!" both Lana and Caleb yell.

However, as both of the Pokemon power up Nidoking falls to the ground and faints. Kommo-o retracts it's attack and is returned to its Pokeball by Caleb as he awaits for Lana's next Pokemon.

"Well that was unexpected," Lana said.

"I told you I was going to give you my all," Caleb responded as he stretched his arms.

I couldn't help but think that Lana is trying to distract Caleb. I want to yell out but I promised myself I wouldn't try to help him. He will earn his win or loss.

Lana sends out Araquanid. Caleb responds with Tsareena.

Both Pokemon fail to make any impact as the other's speed allows them to dodge. The dodging causes the battle to become a bit of a stalemate so Lana switches things up.

When Caleb orders his Tsareena to attack using Rapid Spin, Lana doesn't urge her Pokemon to dodge. Instead she waits until a specific moment to order an attack. Araquanid uses Lunge on Tsareena allowing it to overpower the Rapid Spin attack and stun Tsareena.

Lana reacts quickly by ordering a spider web attack ensnaring Tsareena in a web it cannot get out of. Araquanid then launches a levy of infestation attacks on Tsareena until it faints.

The crowd roars in excitement as the battle as evened out.

I watched on as Lana and Caleb opened up another round of conversation during the battle. I grew amazed as they chatted as if they weren't battling. I watched Lana's demeanor steadily stay calm and positive.

Maybe I was wrong. She isn't trying to sabotage Caleb.

"So Caleb, are you truly ready to give it all you got?" Lana asks.

Caleb nods.

"Good. We owe it to ourselves, to this crowd, and to our opponent in the finals." They both looked briefly at me as the jumbotron showed my face.

"He's given it his all since Day 1. If we can't give it our all today, we don't deserve to face him tomorrow."

Caleb nodded at me and then looked over at Lana smiling.

"Lets turn this battle up a notch then," Caleb said.

"Now that's more like it," Lana says amused.

She isn't trying to sabotage him, no. She is trying to raise his game as well as hers. I smile a little bit realizing how much I have to respect that.

"What are you smiling at?" Carl asked.

"This is what Pokemon battling is all about," I say as I watch Lana and Caleb draw their next Pokeball.