Ben was sound asleep in the tent. He had no idea what was going on just outside of the tent. As far as he was aware, everything was fine. However, what seemed to be fate intervened. 'Wake up.' The voice echoed in his head. He moaned in his sleep. "Five more minnnnn." He rolled over in the sleeping bag. He was very slow to wake up. 'Wake up!' The voice was much louder this time. He jolted awake. "HUH!? WHA!?" Once he calmed down, he was puzzled. Did he actually hear that? If so, where the fuck did that come from? There shouldn't have been anyone here. Not at this time. He was getting ready to go back to sleep, but he decided to take a look around. He unzipped the tent after rubbing his eyes to try and wake up a bit.

Being early winter, the air was quite crisp, but his thick fur kept him warm. He looked around a bit, when he froze at what he saw. His vulpine companion was hanging about a foot off the ground with a rope around his neck, and he was disturbingly still. 'Oh. My God.' Ben was unable to move for a few seconds, but he quickly ran over and put his body under Logan's legs. His body leaned back, putting weight on the back of his neck and on Ben's shoulders. It was much better for weight to be on the back of the neck than on the front, where the windpipe was. Ben threw out Oshawott's ball, and the small sea otter appeared. Upon seeing the situation, he put on a serious face. "Listen Oshawott, I know you don't know Razor Shell yet, but I need you to try and cut this rope with that shell of yours!" Oshawott took the shell off his chest, and hurled it at the rope around Logan's neck. His throw was good, and the sharp object cut into it. It didn't cut clean through, but it was enough to caught it to snap under Logan's weight. Ben was unable to keep Logan from falling back. His head cracked off the ground, which made Ben wince. He knew that couldn't be good, if Logan was still alive that is.

He let go of Logan's legs and let him lay on the ground. He noticed Logan wasn't breathing, but when he put an ear on his chest, he could hear a heartbeat. It wasn't too late. Not quite yet. "Come on Logan. I'm gonna get you through this." He placed his hands on Logan's chest and began pushing down in rhythm. Sure that was made to restart a heartbeat, but maybe it would get his lungs working again too. He placed his mouth over Logan's and blew air into his lungs. He could taste tons of alcohol. He then went back to pressing on his chest to get the air back out. "Don't you dare die on me!" He breathed into his mouth again, and was finally rewarded with a couple coughs and gasps. Ben breathed his own sigh, but in relief. Logan was gonna live.

After a number of minutes, Logan's breath was back to normal, but despite Ben shaking him, he wasn't waking up. "Logan?" He shook him harder.
Logan?" 'Please don't be...' Logan wasn't dead that was for sure, but if he wasn't waking up... He needed to get to Nacrene City and get Logan to a Center. He recalled Logan back to his ball, which in hindsight, he could've done to get him off the rope, recalled Oshawott, and paced up as quicly as possible. Logan seemed to be in stable condition. The main concern would be food and water. Once he had packed up, he began running, He ignored any wild Pokémon, and trainers once the sun came up, and just kept running.

January 8th, 2019. 8:00 am.

He had to stop many times to catch his breath and drink water, but he made really good time, despite being completely exhausted. He checked the map on his phone with raspy breaths, and located the Center. He burst in, vision blurry, and stumbled to the desk. The Nurse Joy there let him catch his breath. "You ok?" After a couple minutes, he was able to draw enough breath to talk.

"Zoroark… won't wake..." He set Logan's ball on the desk, and collapsed to the ground. The few trainers in the lobby stared a bit, but after a couple minutes they went back to their breakfast. The Nurse handed him a bottle of water, and led him to one of the emergency rooms. Ben sat in one of the chairs in the room as she sent Logan out onto the bed. He was still largely motionless. She hooked him up to a bunch of machines and the sound of a heartbeat monitor filled the room along with Ben's panting. He felt like he was about to puke from overheating. After a couple minutes of catching his breath, he was able to wheeze out the story of what had happened. She looked concerned.

"Well, I have some bad news. There's an abnormally small amount of brain activity, and from a combination of the lack of oxygen, near alcohol poisoning, and the traumatic blow to the head, I'm afraid your partner is most likely in a coma." Ben stopped breathing for a moment. That's what he was afraid of. "Well, you look like you've just run a marathon-" 'Not far from the truth.' Ben thought. "-so why don't we get you checked in to a room and you can take a rest while I run some tests on this guy to see how bad it is. Not all comas are alike."

Ben got checked into a room, where he fed his Pokémon, he always put his Pokémon first, collapsed on the bed after guzzling two bottles of water, and took a few hour nap. He was only able to sleep because of how exhausted he was. The moment he woke up he went down to see the nurse. He found her healing a few Pokémon in that healing machine. He waited until the trainer had left, and approached her. "So, how is he?"

"Well, I ran the Glasgow Coma Scale on him. Since he opened his eyes in response to my voice a few times, can speak with words, but not sentences, and reacted appropriately to pain, he got an 11 on the 15 point scale, of which higher is better. So the coma is moderate, almost minor. He should wake up any minute now. Most comas of this level last less than a day." Ben breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ok good. I was worried, but, what about when he wakes up? I'm sure the alcohol played a major part, but the fact that he attempted suicide... it scares me."

"Yeah, I took that into consideration. He'll be receiving therapy and counselling when he wakes up. I know your job is to be concerned about the health of your Pokémon, but my job is to make sure they're in the best hands they can be." Ben tilted his head in consideration, and then his stomach growled. "Well it sounds like your hungry. Go and get some lunch. If you'll give me your number I can call you when he wakes up." Ben wrote his number down and handed it to her. He spent a few minutes debating if he should just stay here and wait for Logan to wake up, but he decided to trust the nurse. He went out and stopped at a local diner. They had a couple fish Pokémon, so he got that, but really didn't pay attention to the food. He was worried about Logan. How bad of a state was he in that he actually tried to end his own life? What the hell happened to him? Then again, he once mentioned that he did something. What did he do?

After he ate, he returned to the Center, worried that he hadn't received a call yet. He walked up to the desk. The nurse wasn't there, perhaps checking in on Logan. He rang the bell and waited. He checked his phone while he waited for her to come back. 3:30. He'd been in this "moderate" coma for many hours now. It was worrying.

Once the nurse saw him she said, "He hasn't woken up yet. It's a bit puzzling, but it's nothing to worry about yet. Just be patient, and no that isn't a pun. Comas are rather unpredictable. Those scales to determine severity and likely length are more guesses than scientific fact. Just take it easy. I'll keep you posted."

Ben grabbed her arm as she went to walk away. "Can I see him? I just... I wanna make sure he's ok."

She nodded. "That's understandable. Just don't touch the equipment please." Ben promised he wouldn't and followed the nurse to the room he'd left Logan. The fox was almost totally motionless. It scared Ben. He just didn't look right. He had an IV in his hand, where a patch of fur had been shaved off, he had all kinds of pads attached to his head to monitor brain activity, and there was a plastic tube that currently wasn't attached to any part of him. 'Probably a feeding tube. If he can talk they may only put it in his mouth when they need to. Especially if he's supposed to wake up soon.'

He grabbed a chair, which he set next to the bed and leaned forwards. "Hey Logan... you can hear me right?" Logan's eyes shakily opened a bit, before shutting again. "I'm so worried about you. The fact that you tried to... you know... it makes me worried for your safety. I want to help you. When you wake up, please tell me what's wrong. You need help."

"Nnnnn. No..." Logan's single word was awfully quiet. The word concerned Ben even more. No as in he didn't want help? No as in he didn't think he needed it? The word had a few connotations here, but none of them seemed good. He very definitely needed help. 'Maybe this can be good for me. He has expressed desire to kill me. What if he does gain my trust, I release him, and he goes back on his word. I could just leave while he's still in this coma and be away from him. I could crush his Pokeball, he'd be free as he wants, and I could be away from him.' Ben was seriously considering this. It would work out for the both of them. Maybe. 'What if he tries to kill himself again?' After a moment, an extremely cold thought went through his head. It was exceptionally out of character for him to have this thought, but it happened. 'Well, he wouldn't be my Pokémon anymore, so it won't be my responsibility. … I can't believe I just thought that. He's in need. I can't just abandon him. I don't care how much he would want me to.'

Ben made a vow to himself, and to Logan, in his mind that moment. 'Logan, I swear to you. No matter what happens, no matter what the cost is for me, I'm gonna pull you through this. I'm not giving up on you.'