A/N Thank you for the kind reviews. I hope you're all doing well.
There was no reason why May should have felt ashamed. She and Steven were adults, and adults kissed each other. But the stupid grin on Brendan's face made her feel as though she were a schoolgirl who'd just been caught kissing her crush by the entire class. Why did he always have to appear at the worst time possible?
Brendan looked down at Lisia. "Took them long enough, huh?" Now that he'd mended his relationship with Lisia, he was back to analyzing May's with Steven.
"Oh, leave them alone, Brendy-boo." Lisia smiled at May and Steven. "Sorry to interrupt. We'll, uh, knock next time."
May felt her face burning. "Yes, please do."
"Well," Steven said. "That was unfortunate timing." He didn't appear to share May's embarrassment. Instead, he wore the expression that May had seen on so many of the trainers she'd defeated over the years.
He looked deeply disappointed.
Brendan laughed. "Don't let us interrupt you, my dude. We were just coming back to get some shut-eye – we're exhausted."
Steven tilted his head towards the hallway. "Bedrooms are to the right. Take whichever one you'd like."
"We'll do that, thanks." Before he and Lisia disappeared into the hallway, Brendan turned and flashed May another obnoxious grin.
"Nice to know we're traveling with a twelve-year-old," May grumbled once she heard the bedroom door shut.
"It's nice that they made up, but…" Steven sighed. "I wish they'd taken just a little more time to do so."
May agreed. Their friends' sudden arrival had completely ruined the mood. The charged atmosphere had fallen flat. No way was she going to pick it back up again when two other people – nosey people, might she add – were just a room away.
"Why don't you get some rest, too, Steven?" she asked after a moment of awkward silence. She looked at him, and realized that she'd asked the right thing – there were faint shadows underneath his eyes that she hadn't noticed before.
"I will," Steven said. "After I clean up out here." He gestured at the kitchen table between them, still littered with the remnants of their breakfast.
"Oh, I'll get it," May said, already moving to stack the plates. "You cooked. I'll clean."
"You don't have to."
"But I will."
Steven frowned. "Then will you also get some rest once we finish up?"
Her immediate thought was to tell him that she was fine, and that she would rest later. But she forced that thought away and instead said, "Yes."
Steven blinked. "What?"
"Yes," she repeated. "I'll get some rest once we're done cleaning up."
"Oh. Alright, then. Good." But he was looking at her as though she were a stranger.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I'm just… surprised. I think this is the first time you've been so willing to get some rest."
She wouldn't say she was completely willing. There was still a part of her that wanted to run right out the door and get back to the search, sleep be damned. But she'd given more responsibilities to her colleagues, and she wanted to start relying on them in the same way that Archie was relying on Team Aqua.
She shrugged. "Just something new I'm trying."
"Well, I'm certainly glad to hear it."
"I'm sure you are. And besides, I figured you'd just drag me into bed if I refused."
She'd meant it as a joke, but he didn't laugh. He cleared his throat, and it was then that May realized her words could be interpreted in a very different way.
Color rose back into her face. "Joking, Steven."
"What? Oh. Yes, of course. Ha." His expression settled into its usual mask as he started helping her clear away the table.
A few hours later, the alarm on May's nav went off. Groggy, May reach out towards the nightstand next to the bed and felt around until the nav was in her hand. The alarm shut off.
Through heavy eyelids, she looked at the screen. No new messages. No signs of Wally or the townspeople of Pacifidlog. But, more importantly, no new disasters.
She rolled out of bed, stretched, shoved her nav into her back pocket, and then opened the bedroom door. Steven's voice was coming from the kitchen.
May followed it.
"…definitely a lot stronger than many of us realized," Steven was saying. He looked up as May rounded into the kitchen.
He was sitting at the table. Two dark-haired people – one guy, one girl - were seated across from him.
"Ah, May," Steven greeted. "You're awake."
"I am." And then, to the two strangers, "Uh… hi."
"Nice to see you, Champion May," they said in unison, and it was only then that May recognized them.
"Nice to see you, too," May said. "Liza. Tate."
Liza and Tate, Mossdeep's twin gym leaders, had definitely changed over the past four years. They were no longer the children they'd been when May had last seen them. They were teenagers now, just on the cusp of young adulthood, and they looked a lot less like twins.
Their clothes and hairstyles no longer matched. Liza was wearing a sky-blue blouse and had her long hair twisted into a braid. Tate was wearing a dark green shirt, and his hair had been cut so that the ends of it stopped right above his jawline.
May took the seat next to Steven's. "I'm assuming you two are here to talk about… well, everything."
"Something like that," Tate said.
"How did you know we were here?"
Liza spoke next. "When we came back to the city, one of our students told us that he'd seen you and another person on the beach."
"And another one said she'd seen you two head into Steven's house afterwards," Tate said.
"You came back to the city?" May asked. "From where?"
"They were out searching," Steven clarified.
The twins nodded.
"And… did you find anything?" It was a stupid question considering the lack of messages on her nav, but she felt compelled to ask it nonetheless.
They shook their heads.
"It's like there's nothing to be found out there," Liza said. "We didn't see a single trace of the boy."
"Or of the missing townspeople," Tate added.
"But we did see Fortree," Liza said, and her hands, which had been folded on the table in front of her, turned white at the knuckles.
"At least, what was left of it," Tate added quietly.
And just like that, May no longer saw the twins as the adolescents they'd become. She saw them, instead, as the kids they still were. Kids, who had the responsibility of protecting an entire city. Kids, who were putting their lives on the line.
Kids.
May felt her stomach twist into a knot. They were so young. And they wouldn't be in this position if she hadn't -
Don't you dare blame yourself.
The downward spiraling of her thoughts came to an abrupt standstill. Her mind was lifted right out of the darkness it so often went to. A shocked sense of relief overcame her; she felt like someone who'd just awoken right out of a nightmare.
Only a second had passed. Around her, the conversation was still going on. Across from her, Liza's hands had relaxed on the table. Nobody seemed to have noticed the change in her.
"Steven, you were saying before that you guys were able to keep the boy in place?" Tate asked.
"Yes, but not for very long," Steven said. "And it took the combined effort of our pokémon, Winona's, and her students'."
"But the people were able to get away, weren't they?" Liza asked.
"Yes, though it was a close call."
"There wasn't a single casualty," Tate said. "That's all that matters."
Liza looked at her brother. "We'll be able to stop the boy too if it comes to it, won't we?"
"Absolutely," Tate agreed. "If one gym leader could keep the boy back long enough for the people to get out of there…"
"Then two gym leaders can definitely do the same," Liza finished.
They grinned at each other. Whatever unrest May had detected in them before was now completely gone.
See? May's mind asked her. There was no need to worry about them. There was a reason why she'd given them more responsibilities. There was a reason she could rely on them.
They were gym leaders. And they were strong.
The darkness in her mind was growing distant, like a retreating storm. She knew it wouldn't disappear completely. But it seemed like she was getting better at saving herself from it.
"So what do you two plan on doing now?" she asked the twins.
"We're gonna regroup here for a bit, check in with the city's residents, get a bit of rest," Tate said.
"What about you guys?" Liza asked.
"We just got some rest ourselves," May said, "so as soon as the rest of our group gets up, I want to head back out and –"
Her nav started ringing.
She pulled the device from her back pocket and looked at the screen.
Sidney was calling.
"So where is it that we're going?" Brendan called out to May from the back of his Tropius. He and Lisia had woken out of a dead sleep to the sound of May's knocking at their bedroom door. In the short time it had taken the group to get out of the house, summon their pokémon, and take to the sky, neither Brendan nor Lisia had asked any questions. Until now.
May pushed her windblown hair out of her eyes. "Ever Grande City."
"Why?" Lisia asked from her place behind Brendan. "Did they find something?"
"Yeah," May said. "Wally."
According to Sidney, Wally had been spotted in the ocean outside of Ever Grande City. When he'd been seen or where he was now, May didn't know.
Steven's Skarmory flew beside her. "Are you okay?" Steven asked.
"I'm fine," she said.
Strangely enough, she silently added.
Wally was dangerously close to Sootopolis. This fact alone should have reduced May into a hyperventilating mess, but it didn't. She still had control over herself. Her mind had not dipped back into the darkness.
She felt like she was finally staying afloat in an ocean that had long been tossing her around.
Liza and Tate were flying nearby on their Xatu. Liza pointed ahead. "Over there."
About two-dozen cops, mounted on flying pokémon, were gliding over the ocean. Below them, several Wailmer with divers on their backs briefly surfaced for air before disappearing back into the choppy waters.
"Where's Sidney?" May called out to one of the cops as he glided by on his Fearow.
The cop looked up, and then almost fell into the ocean. "Champion May," he greeted after regaining his balance. "I, uh, didn't see you there."
"Sidney?" she asked again. "Where is he?"
The cop pointed down at small strip of land. "Over there, Miss Champion. He's talking to the guy who spotted the boy."
Sidney and a handful of cops were standing around a man holding a fishing rod. They all turned towards May and her friends when they landed nearby.
"Hey, there," Sidney greeted them as they withdrew their pokémon. "Glad you all could make it."
May was all business. "Where is he?" she asked as she walked over.
"Who, the boy? That's what we're trying to find out." Sidney turned back towards the fisherman. "So tell us again what you saw?"
The man was pale and trembling. He was gripping his fishing rod as though it were the only thing holding him up. "I told you," he said. "I saw him. The boy with the glowing eyes. Right there." He pointed just a few feet off shore. "I thought it was a Lanturn at first, but then I got a closer look and…" He wiped beads of sweat from his forehead. "He looked right at me. Arceus, he didn't even look human."
"And then what?" Sidney asked.
"Then he went underwater and disappeared."
"And you didn't see where he went?" Sidney asked.
"No, I didn't. He disappeared. Didn't you hear me? If I knew where he went, I would've told you the first ten times I told you –"
"Alright, buddy, take it easy." Sidney turned to the other trainers. "Well, there you have it. The boy's still at large."
"How long ago did this happen?" Steven asked.
"About an hour ago, I think." Sidney looked back at the fisherman. "Right?"
"Less than that," the man said. "I'd say about forty to forty-five minutes."
"Then there's a good chance he's still in the area," May said. Unless he'd picked up a Cheri Berry on his way here, Wally still had to be feeling the effects of her Vileplume's Stun Spore. And now that he no longer had the current of a river to push him along, he was likely moving very slowly.
"Um…" Lisia raised her hand. "Does my uncle know all this? We're really close to Sootopolis."
"Wallace? Yeah, we made sure to call him," Sidney said. "He's got a bunch of his students keeping watch around the city's entrance. They should be able to defend the city for a bit if the boy shows up." He rubbed the side of his head. "Let's just hope it doesn't get to that point."
The group broke off to start searching the area.
"You're not joining the rest of us?" Steven asked May after she'd summoned her Swampert.
May looked up at all the groups of policemen hovering past them. "I think we have more than enough eyes in the sky."
Still, Steven hesitated. "Didn't you say that you were going to stop throwing yourself into danger by yourself?"
"I did. But I'm not throwing myself into danger –"
"You are looking for it, though –"
"- and I won't be by myself," she finished.
As though arriving on cue, a team of divers and their Wailmer surfaced from the sea just a few yards out from where Steven and May were standing.
Steven looked at them, and then back at her. "If anything happens, or if you see anything, please come get me."
"I will."
May didn't know how long she'd been underwater for, but her fingers had long pruned, and she was growing increasingly sick of having to breathe through an air mask. She felt as though she'd searched the entire ocean.
A team of divers raised their hands in greeting as she swam past them. She nodded an acknowledgement to them.
People were searching the sky and water for Wally, and yet, he still hadn't been found.
Where are you? she wanted to scream.
She and Swampert swam alongside a wall of solid rock. In this area, rock formations stood out of the water like small but haphazardly placed mountains.
Several pairs of Luvdisc, all formed up in a two-by-two line, floated up into May and Swampert's path. Swampert stopped to let them by.
The Luvdisc were floating up from May's right. The only thing on her right was the wall of rock. Where were they coming from?
May looked down to find the end of the line. What she found instead was a crevice at the bottom of the wall, wide enough to allow the last of the Luvdisc pairs to swim through.
She signaled Swampert to swim down to it. She peered into the small opening. All she saw on the other side was more ocean.
Ocean that she had not yet explored.
The space was too small for her and Swampert to fit through together. She dismounted from his back and, keeping her arms close to her sides to make herself as small as possible, swam through the crevice. With just a few kicks, she emerged through to the other side.
She heard a low rumbling behind her and looked back. Swampert was making his way through the crevice himself, but, being significantly larger than May, he was having a rougher time of it.
He slowly pushed himself through. His hard skin was shaving off bits of rock, which were rising out of the opening in clouds of dust.
He finally made it next to May, and she lightheartedly pat his head before climbing onto his back.
They set off into the unexplored area. As they progressed, the water quickly became warmer and shallower. The sand beneath them rose, and they soon found themselves on land.
May dismounted from Swampert's back, removed her air mask, and looked around.
They'd found themselves on a secret shore within a stone cave. The walls of the cave were high, and in the ceiling was a small opening from which the sun shone down like a spotlight. The shallow waters here were as calm and blue as the cloudless sky. It was beautiful and hidden, and for a brief moment, May had the thought to bring Steven here so he could see it, too.
But that would have to come at another time. For the time being, she had to find Wally. And Wally wasn't here.
As she turned back towards the water, the light in the cave was snuffed out by a dark shape overhead.
She looked up.
Two people, each mounted on a flying pokémon, were hovering right outside the opening in the cave's ceiling. They seemed to be watching her.
Thinking they were part of the search, she waved at them.
They flew through the opening and came closer.
Just as May was able to make out the pokémon - a Pidgeot and a Staraptor – their trainers leapt off their backs and landed in front of her.
"Smile."
A flash went off.
May was temporarily blinded with the same burst of light she'd long come to know so well. When her vision cleared, she saw two men, one wearing a backwards baseball cap and the other, a pair of dark sunglasses, standing in front of her. Both men had a camera lens aimed right at her.
Oh, happy day. Members of the paparazzi were here.
She'd expected them to show up eventually. They always did. And it wouldn't have been difficult for them to locate her – all anyone had to do was notice the droves of people searching the area. She just wished she hadn't been jumped like this, when she'd wandered away from other members of the search party and was all alone.
Swampert looked up at the men's pokémon, which were still hovering in the air, and growled.
"Champion May," the guy in the baseball cap greeted. "How's the search coming along?"
Another flash went off.
"Don't look like that, Beautiful," the guy in the shades said. "Give us a smile for once."
That's when she recognized them. They were the same guys who'd chased her from the Devon Party.
"Fortree's gone," baseball cap said. "Why didn't you stop that from happening?"
Flash.
"Is it because this whole thing is fake?" sunglasses said. "Is this all just for show?"
Flash.
"Champion May, won't you say anything?"
Flash.
"Champion May, what happened to that sexy dress of yours?"
A round of raucous laughter pierced the air.
Flash. Flash. Flash.
May stood stock-still. She was being cornered, photographed, jeered at. The darkness within her should have overtaken her. It should have sucked all the air from her lungs. It should have made her want to run.
But it didn't.
Instead, the darkness stayed away. But something else had taken its usual place.
Anger.
She'd let the media chase her away from her home. She'd let it keep her away from her friends and family for two years. And when she'd finally returned, she'd been subjected to a fresh wave of insults and disrespect from Evan Grady, from Wally's family, from herself.
And now, from these two cameramen, for a second time.
"Go," she said.
"What was that?" sunglasses asked. Flash. "You say something, sweetie?"
"Go," she repeated, her voice getting stronger. "Get out of here."
"Woah." Baseball cap grinned at his colleague. "We finally got a response, huh?"
"Guess so." Sunglasses walked closer to her, so close that she could see her own reflection in the dark shades. "Don't be like that, hon. Have some fun with us." He reached out as though he meant to touch her face.
She slapped his hand away. "Get. Out. Of. Here." The anger in her was growing like smoke after an explosion. Her tone was as icy as the one Steven used whenever he was mad. "I'm sick of you guys, always getting in my face. I'm trying to get some work done. Leave now, or I'll make you."
The men laughed again. They weren't taking her seriously at all. And why would they? She'd been hounded by the press ever since she'd become the champion, and she'd never done anything about it.
But that would change. Starting now.
"Swampert," she said. Her pokémon gave a soft growl in acknowledgement. "Surf."
"What?" The cameramen weren't laughing anymore. "Wait –"
Without a moment's hesitation, Swampert acted on the command. The calm waters drew back, and then, as fast as a moving train, shot back onto the beach. The force wasn't strong enough to cause any serious physical damage, but it did knock both men off their feet and drag them into the sea.
With startled cries, their pokémon swooped down to their trainers. With shouted expletives, then men scrambled onto their backs.
With her arms crossed, May watched them as they flew away.
"I feel like I'm going insane," May said to nobody in particular. She was sitting at Steven's kitchen table, her hands folded underneath her chin. She stared idly into the dark grain of the wooden surface.
"Why's that?" Brendan asked. He and Lisia were seated a few feet away on the couch. They'd turned the TV on, but neither of them was watching it.
"You know why," May said.
Three days had passed since they'd searched the area outside of Ever Grande City. Despite all their efforts, Wally hadn't been found. Since then, May and her friends had remained in the area, using Steven's house in Mossdeep as their home base. They, along with the police, had searched the same area every day, and still, nothing. No Wally. No Pacifidlog residents. Nothing.
Outside, the setting sun had formed a sliver of orange amidst the increasing darkness. The group had only just returned from yet another search and had called it quits for the night.
"We have eyes everywhere," May continued, "so I don't understand why we haven't had any luck." Her hands dropped into her lap. "This is just so frustrating."
"I know it is," Steven said as he slid into the chair next to hers. "Especially when you feel like you've upended the entire world. But we'll find them."
She sighed. "I hope so."
"Hey, isn't that you, May?" Lisia asked.
May looked at her. "What?"
Lisia had the TV remote in her hand. The volume on the TV went up.
"…some shocking footage of Champion May from earlier this week," a disembodied voice said on TV while a video clip starting rolling.
"Oh, good," May said flatly as she recognized the scene playing out on TV. She hadn't realized that one of the cameramen she'd chased away had recorded the entire exchange.
Her friends, and everyone else in Hoenn who was watching the same channel, observed what had happened between their champion and the paparazzi three days ago, starting from the moment the two men had spotted May standing alone on the secret shore.
May looked, to her, like a crazy person. Her wet hair was plastered to her face, her clothes were dripping wet, and the expression on her face perfectly reflected the anger that had been brewing inside of her at the time.
"Get. Out. Of. Here," the TV version of May said. Her voice sounded harsh, even to her. "I'm sick of you guys, always getting in my face. I'm trying to get some work done. Leave now, or I'll make you."
The rest of the video played out. As soon as TV May uttered the command to Swampert, the image went down and sideways before blacking out.
The TV then cut back the two hosts of the show, who started debating whether or not their champion had been justified in doing this.
"Well," May said. "Can't say that was my finest look."
"Oh my gosh, May!" Lisia turned to face her. "That was awful!"
"Yeah… I might have gone a little too far."
"What? No, I was talking about what those guys were saying to you. Like, are they serious? Do they seriously think that what happened in Fortree was fake? And then they called you all those things, and one of them tried to touch you?" Lisia's face scrunched as though she'd smelled something bad. "Um, ew."
"Seriously. What losers," Brendan said. He stood up and looked at her. His face was hard. "When the heck did this happen?"
"It was three days ago, during our search."
"During our search?" Brendan repeated. "Where were all the cops?"
"I don't know. I went off on my own for a bit." May frowned. "You guys don't have to be so upset, you know."
"Uh, yeah we do," Lisia said. "It's so disgusting when the paparazzi do stuff like that! Seriously, I want to barf."
"I'm glad you attacked those guys," Brendan said. "They deserved it."
"I didn't want to attack them. I just wanted to get them to go away." May pinched the bridge of her nose. "That wasn't the first time I had to deal with those two guys, and I got angry."
Her hand fell back into her lap, and that's when she noticed that Steven was way too still beside her.
She looked at him. "Um… Steven?"
He was staring straight ahead. "Yes, May?"
"Are you mad?"
He looked at her and gave a tight smile. "Not with you."
"Ooh, man that's scary." Brendan shuddered.
May stood up from the table. "I appreciate everyone's concern, but I'm fine. Nothing happened to me. And I don't think those guys will be coming back any time soon."
"I would hope not," Brendan said.
"And if they do, let me know," Lisia said. "I've dealt with plenty of guys like them before."
"Okay. Thanks, Lisia."
Lisia looked at Brendan. "Are you tired? Or do you think you could come outside and train for a little while? I feel like I could blow off a little steam."
May was proud of Lisia. In addition to joining the group on countless searches, Lisia was also reserving a few hours each day to train her pokémon. The rest of the group had formed an unspoken rule that they would each take turns helping her. Yesterday had been Steven's turn.
"Yeah, I'm down," Brendan said, and the two of them left the house while May went to her room.
She heard Steven following her.
"I know you're still mad," she said, turning around as he appeared in the doorway. His mask was on. "But really, Steven. There's no need to –"
"Do you know their names?"
"Whose names?"
He made no attempt to clarify.
"The camera guys?" May asked.
Steven nodded once.
"No, I don't." She could tell he was still upset, so she opted for a lighter tone. "Why? Are you planning on murdering them or something?"
"No," he said. "But I would very much like the chance to speak with them." Her lighthearted tone had no effect on him – he was completely serious.
"Steven."
"You said this wasn't the first time you dealt with them."
"It wasn't. It was the second time. The first time, I ran away from them."
"You could have gotten me," he said. "You said you would, if anything happened."
"And nothing happened." At least, not to her. "It wasn't as though I was in any danger. Haven't you ever had any unpleasant experiences with the paparazzi?"
"I thought I did. But after watching that, I'm not so sure." His mask slipped. He looked disgusted. "They shouldn't have said those things. They shouldn't have tried to touch you."
"No, they shouldn't have," May agreed.
"And…" Steven sighed. "I wish you wouldn't keep going off on your own."
"If I'd have seen Wally, I would have come get you, and everyone else," she said. "But those guys weren't Wally. I could handle them, and I did. For once, I saved myself."
That took some of the hardness out of his eyes. "What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean," she said. "I usually panic or freeze up when anything happens. But I didn't this time. I was fine."
He silently considered what she'd said. "What changed?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Honestly, I have no idea." For the second time since she'd started this journey, she smiled. "But I hope it lasts. I finally feel… strong, you know?"
He looked stunned for a moment. "Well," he said. "I guess you're starting to see yourself clearly."
I want you to see yourself clearly.
Those were the words they'd said to each other, back when they were in Rustboro, back when this whole thing had only just begun.
Back when she'd pinned him down against a bed.
He took in her rising color. "By chance," he said, "are you remembering the same thing I am?"
"I'm –" She cleared her throat. "I'm not remembering anything in particular."
"Really," he said. "Well, I am. And that reminds me…"
Before she had time to even blink, she found herself on her back, lying on the bed that had been behind her just a second ago. Her wrists were being held over her head.
Standing over her, Steven brought his face close to hers. "If you tell me to stop, I will," he said, his breath warming her lips. "But if you don't…"
Her throat was dry. "If I don't…?"
"Then I believe some payback is in order."
A/N My mantra is, unfortunately: "Publish now, proofread later."
