Pride of Your Soul

Chapter 25: Clearing Doubts

AN: Okay sorry this took so long. Thankfully i got this part out before Christmas. So like I said before, this would have been one kinda filler-like chapter that just had the main cast relax a little. But as I finished up the chapter, there were a few things I noticed:

1. The chapter was stupidly long. Like holy fuck it's like half the length of my senior thesis long.

2. It had Nate, Rosa and Hugh as the three main focuses, but they're in completely different locations, so bouncing between their POVs made the chapter a mess in terms of narrative and overall flow.

3. Yeah it was just one big mess jumping from Nate, to Rosa, and to Hugh and repeating the cycle.

So I instead divided this one chapter into 3 chapters, each one focusing solely on Nate, Rosa and Hugh respectively. So unfortunately this chapter will mainly focus on Nate outside of the beginning part. Fortunately, this means that the next 2 chapters will have the rare instances of focusing solely on their star character and Nate will not show up at all outside of being mentioned a couple of times. So in a sense he gets a break, and Rosa and Hugh get their own dedicated chapters. And while this was meant to be finished much earlier, Smash Ultimate decided to come out. And that's where my December went.

Oh and before anything else, I would like to announce that I have a discord server apparently. The ever-so-nice NarutoK went out of his way to make a discord server dedicated to you guys who enjoy my stories called 'Grey Space'. You can find it through discordlist . me by simply searching for grey space there. If you're interested, it would be nice if you could maybe drop by and show the man and the server some love, and maybe build the server into a community of sorts. It also lets me talk to you guys without having to burn through a chapter as an excuse to do so or through FF's PM system. I might host a QnA there (a normal one) where you guys can ask me questions about the story or whatever in real time and not have to wait a millennia for me to answer it. So if you could consider it, then that'd be real appreciated.

And now to respond to the reviews. But first, there were two reviews I want to address first. Mostly because, while yes they did bring up some good points, I felt like I should give my own reasoning as to why so and so happened. Also cause I went into detail to address as much of their issues as I could, so they ended up really long.

If you're not interested, merely skip the following section.

Guest (Oct 25): Okay. Yes you do have a point; children shouldn't be put in the kind of serious situations that Hilbert and Nate were put in. Yes Brav was kinda flawed in implying that Hilbert was somewhat at fault here. Yes you have a right to be mad at that, and that's okay. But here's my defense:

First off, your generalization of children, while kind of accurate, is not 100%. Not all children are like how you described them to be. That's just a generalization, and a rather flawed one at that. And it most certainly isn't how either of the boys are. You believe that Brav is placing blame on Hilbert for the situation. While I can see why you would assume that, he's not. Brav knows that placing blame on Hilbert for something that happened over 8 years ago is pointless. You can't change the past, and while you can still hold a grudge, what's happened has happened, and there's nothing else they can do but try to move on. What Brav was saying to Hilbert was that he could have helped Nate, but chose not to, reasons-be-damned. Hilbert could have done something; call someone for help, call his mother, take him to the police station and let them handle it, do SOMETHING. Hilbert chose to just leave Nate there, which caused Nate to become who he is today. Hilbert did not necessarily need a reason to help a poor kid who desperately needed help. He could've just helped Nate out of the goodness of his heart. He could've just ditched the kid and deem him crazy (which he did). Yes that's a bit much to ask for an eight-year-old, and yes children aren't expected to be put in such intense situations, but sometimes fate can be a bitch and make it happen anyways. Because Nate somehow managed to find Hilbert against all odds did all this even happen.

Hell no one is blaming Hilbert like how you seem to assume. The only one who's blaming Hilbert is Nate, and that's because he's being too much of a stubborn fuck to admit that he was wrong when hard-core evidence was provided because he doesn't want to admit that his main motive for his plans (or at least one of them) was a null point, thus making his own actions pointless in that sense. Hell he knows that he might be wrong with his motives and grudges, but doesn't want to admit it because if he did, then he'd be back to being pointless in the grand scheme of things. After years of feeling like he had no purpose, he found a purpose in life (as misguided as it was), and clung onto it in fear of going back to being useless, which is Nate's main problem/fear. If there's a TV trope for Nate, then it would be 'I Just Want to be Special', which basically sums up why he's really doing what he's doing outside of genuine hatred.

And yes actually, Nate has justifiable reasons to blame Hilbert. Yes Hilbert had gotten his memories erased by his mother to prevent the boy from getting PTSD. Yes, there was no way for Hilbert or their mother to know that Nate was still alive and managed to track them down by sheer luck. But now let's look at this through Nate's perspective. There was no way for the boy to even know that all that had happened. He was too busy living in the wild and getting the shit beaten out of him by assholes to even consider that amnesia is even a thing. If Hilbert and his mother didn't anticipate Nate being alive, what makes you think he would anticipate that Hilbert got his memories erased? So for Nate, he just saw his big brother who he was separated from for about a year casually claim that he had no siblings and disowned him, crushing the boy's hopes. From Nate's PoV, Hilbert basically just abandoned him and pretended to not know him. You really think Nate would just go 'oh his memories were erased' when Hilbert told him that he didn't recognize him? That that would be his first assumption? No, he's going to assume that his big brother forgot about him and turn his back on him, leaving him for dirt. And then proceed to hate Hilbert for abandoning him in his eyes.

So that's that. I said my piece on this. I'm not gonna press the topic any further. You do you. Hopefully you see where I'm coming from in here. If not, well, that's your choice.

Guest (Dec 15): Not gonna lie, i'm kinda surprised more people don't hate Nate. I mean at first I thought everyone would hate him for being a violent douchebag. I basically designed him to be a genuine asshole to test the waters with an asshole protagonist. I'm surprised more people don't hate him.

But in his defense, no one is justifying Nate's reasonings. They're justifying that, yes, Nate has his reasons. No one is saying they're good reasons or justify anything he's doing or defending him (well maybe Yancy if you squint hard enough), but they're still there. Bad things happen? Being called a freak because you're different from others, having your family turn their back on you (as far as you know) and then almost getting murdered. All right before you turn five. Calling Nate's fourth year 'bad things' is an understatement. Hell, Nate wouldn't have even gone for genocide had he not ran into Kyurem, a giant mystical dragon who has a grudge against Unova and is very capable of destroying a continent full of people should he regain all his powers. And yes Hugh has been acting more friendlier to Nate than to Rosa. That's a plot-point to Hugh's own flaws. That I would've gone over but y'know that's for chapter 27. Nate also gave Rosa all that crap because she was pissing him off by trying to pry into his personal secrets and for also berating him on something he knew and acknowledged was his fault, but just got fed up with being reminded by that (back at Chargestone Cave / Mistralton). And then he more or less neglected her to avoid talking about his secrets (ie. plan), and then he got angry at Rosa back at Undella because he ended up back at the ONE place he didn't want to go back to. At that point it's less Nate had a worse secret but more Rosa ended up screwing things up more. I'm not saying that either one of them are in the right, it's just that Rosa slipped up first.

Also Yancy winning over Rosa was out of sheer luck. This will get addressed more when Nate grills her about it, but Yancy's victory over Rosa was out of sheer luck. And before you call luck a BS reasoning, tell me you never lost a battle in Pokemon because RNG decided to fuck you over, whether it be missing a move at the worst possible time, to getting paralyzed, to getting frozen out of nowhere. Luck is definitely a factor. Especially i where luck becomes even more volatile since you don't have another party member to fall back on. This is basically one moment where luck favored Yancy and let Thunder Fang's 10% paralysis chance happen and give her ursaring Guts. If it makes you feel any better, had that NOT happened, then Yancy would have definitely lost since Nina could simply outmaneuver Teddi and wear him down until he gave in. Rosa just got unlucky, end of that. No that doesn't mean I'm redoing the battle.

And glad that you at least like my story. Hopefully this explains why I did so and so.

Aaaand done. Sorry about that, but those were two reviews that I felt needed to get addressed first because yes they brought up good points, but there were some flaws in their arguments that I felt like addressing, and I wanted to be as thorough as possible and make sure I didn't miss anything. Now to the rest of you.

Guest (Oct 23): You see that's the main problem. Nate didn't think this through. He realized this, but just kept going because he didn't want to chicken out after spending so much time going through with it / just too headass to admit that maybe this isn't a good idea (among other things) until Kyurem literally switched sides. And that's his problem there.

RedPkmnMaster: Oh N will show up soon. He just has his business to take care of.

Tony Anderson: Thanks! Glad you liked it as always!

FantasyLover88: Well I mean the boy (Hilbert) didn't remember anything. So he was justified in feeling creeped out by another random boy who suddenly claimed that they were his little brother without any proof whatsoever. Of course Hilbert was justified in not believing Nate. And Nate, in turn, is justified to hate Hilbert because he couldn't have possibly known any of that and could only assume that Hilbert just straight up forgot about him. Also glad you like the pairings at least.

I M Poik: I mean the poll never had any actual influence on the main pairing. I just wanted to see what you guys liked so I know which part of the majority I'm disappointing lol. Sorry bout that. And unfortunately I don't plan on having Curtis join the main party, as he still has to attend to his responsibilities. He will still show up in the story from time to time though. And when Kyurem said 'destroy Unova', he meant all of Unova. Regardless of whether he would work with Nate or Plasma, EVERYBODY is going to die if he succeeds. So yeah that would include Nuvema Town.

TheDarkMaster4000: Yeah no. Regardless, glad you liked it. Once again, nice highlights collections. Had me lol at some of them. Hope you continue to enjoy the story.

JesusChrist: LOL

Moses: LMAOOOOO

zeldamaster456: Wow you've kept with this story for THAT long? Color me impressed. Thank you for sticking with me and PoYS for so long! And also sorry for making this story THAT long...hehe...Thank you for your compliments though. I like to think that I'm much better than I started out at least. Focusing down on one story does help though. And glad you like the pairing, and not gonna lie, you might be onto something...

BobtheBlobFish: Hey glad you liked it. And happy to see that your pairing prevailed. Yeah I can see how Curtis being in love with Rosa sounded a bit far fetched given that the time they spent together was limited. I just set it up to it being 'love at first sight', coupled with just how nice Rosa treated Curtis on their first 'date'. Kinda like Nate and Yancy's interactions when they first met and when he helped her catch Audi sort of. So they kinda mirror each other in a sense.

X-keeper 13: Hey there, thanks as always! In regards to your concern, back in CoYS it kinda goes two ways. He was genuinely happy to see that Hilda was still alive since he hadn't seen her until then. And he's happy that Hilbert's still alive since that means Nate can still get his revenge on him. And his comment on how he doubts that they would recognize him is because he doubted that Hilbert remembers him, and he doubted similarly for Hilda. Although I can understand why you thought it was a continuity error because honestly looking back it kinda does look like an error, haha. Sorry about that. But still glad you pointed that out.

Gueest: You know that technically could happen if I keep going with the ships I have planned.

Guest42: Sorry I don't know this meme.

Guest (Oct 29): L-Lewd...

Guest (Dec 11): Glad you liked the chapter at least. And yeah, Rosa has been getting a lot of flak recently. Like how I explained above, Yancy winning over Rosa was due to sheer luck (Thunder Fang managing to activate Teddi's Guts which gave him enough comeback power to win). And unfortunately as of right now, her team is by far the weakest out of the main trio (not including Yancy). And her brief descent to psychopathy was more due to jealousy to Yancy, paranoia and gross misunderstandings. It's understandable to feel bad for Rosa. If it makes you feel any better though, she's due for her final team member next chapter and Eve's due for an evolution soon. I finally decided on what to do with her.

ErisLuna35: Oh my god Eris! You finally got an actual account! Good for you! Yeah everything was to set up Nate's backstory (and road to redemption) really, and to get Plasma to shift gears. Sorry that your ship lost (I've been saying that a lot recently lol), but trust me, it's not like Nate and Rosa are just back to square one. Unfortunately since the chapter got too big, I had to divide it up. You'll get your Rosa x Curtis next chapter. So sorry about that. I'm glad you seem to be okay with Nate x Yancy though. Unfortunately I don't have plans for Curtis to join the main party. This will be more divulged next chapter, but unfortunately I don't really have much use for him in the main plot moving forward outside of a few instances. So sorry if you wanted Curtis to be in the main party! I'm not getting rid of him outright though.

And that should be all of them. By the way, Pride of Your Soul reached over 300 reviews! Thank you Moses for being the 300th review (even though you probably set your review up as a gag with the JesusChrist review before you, but WE TAKE THOSE). I honestly can't believe I would ever get this much support from my one of my stories! It may not be that significant when compared to the big titans in this category, but it does mean the world to me that I reached this milestone. So thank you to each and everyone of you who took the time to review, favorite and/or followed my stories and just showed their support to this project. I can't thank you guys enough.

Now onto the chapter, AKA the Transceivershipping chapter with some plot!

Everyone perked up as they heard footsteps approaching from the cave. Nate and Yancy, along with Brav, emerged from the cold cave.

"-Nate!-" all of his Pokémon sans Deo exclaimed as they all ran up to him, while Yancy's togekiss flew up to her master.

"-Are you alright?-" Luca asked worryingly.

"Yeah...I'm fine," Nate mumbled. "...Well we're out of a job though."

"-Huh? Does that mean...?-" Luca asked.

"Kyurem is gone," Nate told her bluntly. "He's most likely been tricked to join Team Plasma."

"Figures," Hilda muttered. "So what do you plan to do now? Track down Team Plasma?"

"Well someone's gotta stop them," Nate replied. "Hell if I knew where to begin looking though..."

"Then we'll search for them," Hilda offered. "You should head back to the lab. Honestly you're still in your patient robes."

Nate blinked, before glancing down at himself. Indeed, he had ran off abruptly that he did not bother to change back into his usual attire.

"Besides, I'm sure your friends are still waiting for you back there," Hilda added.

"Friends...huh..." Nate muttered. "Right...I guess I owe them an apology..."

Nate then glanced over to Hilbert, who glanced back. Nate groaned quietly, as if trying to make up his mind on something he would rather not do.

"C'mon," Yancy said softly, gently nudging to him by the side.

"Alright, alright..." Nate groaned, before facing his brother.

"Nate, I–," Hilbert started, before Nate cut him off.

"Save it," Nate said. "Just...look, I know it wasn't your fault. You didn't do what you did on purpose. And I was just holding a grudge."

"...But your grudge was justified," Hilbert said. "I...we abandoned you."

"You both had no idea of knowing that I was still alive," Nate countered, referring to their mother as well.

"And you had no idea of knowing that Mom erased my memories," Hilbert countered back.

Nate glowered at Hilbert, who glowered back. The two were in a deadlock, glaring at each other for what seemed to be like an eternity. Eventually Nate broke the deadlock with a frustrated sigh.

"Well looks like we're both stubborn asses," Nate clicked his tongue. "...I guess that's to be expected from siblings."

"I suppose so," Hilbert agreed, letting out a small chuckle.

"...Look..." Nate mumbled. "Once all this is over...once all this shit with Plasma, and Kyurem, and whatever...you wanna just...talk about it?"

Hilbert's eyes widened slightly in surprise at Nate momentarily, before nodding and smiling. "Of course. Thank you, Nate."

Nate clicked his tongue before looking away, before he felt Yancy grab his hand. He looked up to see Yancy's approving smile, before blushing and looking away from her in embarrassment.

"Oh?" Hilda asked, her tone rather teasing. "Since when did you get to the point of holding a girl's hand like that? Did something happen back there?"

"WHA–N–NOTHING! Nothing happened alright!?" Nate stammered.

"You're still holding her hand," Hilda snorted, not convinced at all by Nate's weak rebuttal.

Nate made an undignified noise, before separating his hand from Yancy's. The pinkette merely laughed nervously at Nate's flustered rage.

"-Uh what's going on here?-" Vire asked, noticing the different, almost affectionate, mood between Nate and Yancy.

"-...Oh don't tell me...-" Deo muttered, more or less figuring it out.

"-Wait what? What's going on?-" Luca asked, not understanding what was going on.

"-BOSS!-" Bo yelled. "-Was I right this whole time!? Are you and her dating or something!?-"

"Hah!?" Hilbert blurted, shooting his glance at Nate for a rebuttal.

Nate spewed out something unintelligible in an attempt to deny the claims, but failed to do so spectacularly.

"-Yancy confessed her love to him and offered to find his calling in life with him,-" Brav explained from behind Nate. "-And Nate tearfully accepted it all. So basically yes, they're dating now.-"

"YOU SHITTY OLD GEEZER!" Nate snarled at Brav, who merely sniggered at his foster child.

"-You're dating!?-" Zoro gasped, pointing to Nate and Yancy.

"Y-I-I guess you can say that..." Nate muttered.

"-Well you're lucky you actually got a mate now,-" Deo teased Nate with a rather mischievous smirk. "-I doubt anyone else would wanna be with someone as crazy as you unless they're just as crazy.-"

"The hell's that supposed to mean you damn unicorn!?" Nate snarled.

"-I'M NOT A UNICORN!-" Deo suddenly snarled as the two lunged at each other.

"-Oh for Arceus' sake,-" Vire muttered as he and his fellow teammates went into break the fight.

As Nate and Deo were at each other's throats, Hilda and Hilbert walked over to Yancy.

"You did well," Hilda told Yancy. "Honestly I wouldn't have expected Nate to make such a fast mental recovery, but you managed to do just that."

"Ah–It's nothing really," Yancy replied. "I just told him what I needed to tell him..."

"Still, thank you," Hilbert said to Yancy. "You did something I surely couldn't do. You managed to get to Nate, when there was no way I could do it. For that, you have my gratitude."

Hilbert glanced over to Nate, who was trying to punch Deo in the snout rather childishly while the keldeo in question was trying to kick him in the face, before Vire and Luca tried to pull them apart. Hilbert could not help but have a smile grow on his face. Hearing Nate being willing to talk things over was perhaps the best news he had received all day. It certainly was good news for Hilbert to distract him from the fact that Team Plasma now has Kyurem, along with whatever legendary Pokémon they have under their arsenal.

"I suppose we should head back to the lab now," Hilbert said. "Everyone's waiting after all."

Vire and Luca managed to break up the fight, managing to pull Nate and Deo apart from each other as they all glanced at Hilbert.

"Right..." Nate muttered. "Alright, let's get going then."

Deo muttered something under his breath, before all of Nate's pokémon regrouped to him.

"Anyone got any balls?" Nate asked. "Pretty sure you're all wild right now."

"I have some spares if you want," Yancy said as she rummaged through her bag for some empty pokéballs for Nate to use.

As Yancy managed to find some pokéballs for Nate, Hilbert remembered something from Nate's backstory. If he recalled, he had killed two Team Plasma members who were supposedly responsible for informing Ghetsis about Terra Village, which caused the whole tragedy to happen.

If Nate's story was accurate, then they had apparently left a child there before the whole event happened.

If Hilbert recalled, Hilda was apparently abandoned by her parents at the village before he found her...

Hilda glanced over to Hilbert, noticing his expression changing to shock as if he realized something he should not have realized. "What's wrong with you?"

"...You said you were abandoned by your parents at the village right?" Hilbert asked silently.

"Yeah why?" Hilda asked, confused.

"...Okay now please don't flip out at what I'm about to tell you," Hilbert whispered slowly. "...But there might be a chance that your parents might've been the ones responsible for Ghetsis learning of the village...and Nate might've killed them."

"...Huh," Hilda said, before she glanced over to Nate, who was in the process of re-catching his team. "Hey Nate."

"Yeah?" Nate asked as he turned around as Hilda approached him.

Without saying anything, Hilda placed one hand on his shoulder, before flashing a thumbs up to the boy.

"Good job," Hilda complimented him. "Good job."

"Uh...thanks?" Nate asked, perplexed by Hilda's sudden compliment as the woman let go of him and went back to Hilbert. "The fuck was that about...?"

"...You're not mad?" Hilbert asked carefully.

"Hilbert, those bastards were the one who abandoned me in the first place, and were the ones responsible for Ghetsis finding our home, kidnapping us, getting our homes burnt down and everyone in it killed, and killed our Dad," Hilda said bluntly. "If I weren't an abiding member of the law, then I'd have probably went and killed them myself. And then make sure you wouldn't snitch."

"...I see..."

After about an hour or two, Nate's group had returned to the Transfer Lab, regrouping with the others who were waiting there.

"Nate!" Rosa and Hugh exclaimed as he landed onto the ground.

"Hey," Nate muttered.

"Yancy!" Curtis exclaimed as Yancy landed, running up to her. "You're okay!"

"...So...Is everything alright now?" Rosa asked.

"...Yeah, yeah..." Nate mumbled. "...Everything's alright. We're good. And...I guess I owe you two an apology. If I hadn't kept any secrets from you guys, then none of that shit might've happened."

"Nate..." Rosa said in surprise, not expecting the boy to apologize for his actions.

"...Well, you had your reasons to keep them from us," Hugh sighed. "I mean, stealing Luca, murdering two assholes, plotting to destroy the country...if I were in your position, I'd keep quiet too."

Nate looked up to his two traveling companions, as Hugh placed a hand on his shoulder.

"While you did do some objectively terrible things, there's really no point bashing you for them at this point now," Hugh said. "And there's no doubt we need you to defeat Team Plasma. Having you arrested is honestly gonna cripple us in the long term. Besides, you helped us with our own personal baggage. Now it's our turn to pay back."

"Hugh..." Nate muttered.

"You scratch my back, I scratch yours," Hugh simply stated. "Simple as that."

Hugh put up a fist at Nate. The brown-haired boy stared at Hugh's gesture.

"...You better not regret leaving me off the hook," Nate said.

"Please, I'd be regretting it back at Driftveil if that were the case," Hugh smirked as the two boys bumped their fists.

Nate could not help but smirk, before glancing over to Rosa. The girl could not help but look a little uneasy at Nate, considering the events that happened back at Undella Town.

"Oi, stop acting like that," Nate said, frowning. "I can't blame you for the shit you did, since some of it's my fault for not telling you stuff."

"Wha–No, no! It's my fault for assuming things and trying to make you tell me things you obviously didn't want to share," Rosa stammered back. "I just made things worse by assuming things and going behind everyone's back..."

"And I instigated all that by not saying shit," Nate countered, before pointing to her and Hugh. "Even though I more or less know you two's problems. Ugh, we're just going in circles if we keep this up, so bygones?"

Nate held out his hand to Rosa. Rosa almost did a double take at the gesture. She did not expect Nate to do such a gesture, considering how prideful and lonesome he normally is.

"...Bygones," Rosa said more confidently, accepting the handshake.

"There's the bunhead I'm used to," Nate smirked. "Honestly it felt kinda creepy with you acting like a downer half the time."

"Shut up," Rosa rolled her eyes at the response, though she could not help the smile on her face.

"It looks like you all made up to an extent," Cheren said as he and Bianca walked up to the trio. "Why don't you all take a day off?"

"Huh?" Rosa asked, looking at Cheren in surprise. "Are you sure?"

"I mean why not?" Cheren shrugged. "We took a day off the day before we invaded Team Plasma's castle. I don't seem the harm in taking at least a day to yourselves. Especially after all the crazy stuff that happened in the past two days, and we don't even know where Team Plasma went off to."

"In the meantime, we'll go try and track them down," Hilbert offered. "We'll let you know if we manage to find them."

"Sounds good," Bianca nodded. "We'll call you three if something comes up."

"Alright then," Nate muttered as he headed back into the lab. "I need to get changed."

The boy entered the lab, where he was greeted by Professor Park and his assistants. In one of the assistants' arms was Nate's wetsuit, looking good as new.

"Welcome back," Park said.

Nate merely nodded as he was handed the wetsuit. "So it's all fixed?"

"Yes," Park nodded. "We also enhanced its effects and durability. You should be able to tank at least a bullet or two now."

"What kind of shit is this thing made out of?" Nate murmured to himself as he glanced at his suit.

"Science," Park replied matter-of-factly. "We were able to extract a lot of data from it. Roughly four years' worth of data. From there, we were able to make the necessary adjustments and upgrades."

"I see," Nate said as one of the assistants showed Nate the way to a room where he could change. Nate made his way to the room, where he found his bag and his clothes in a neat pile. Nate discarded the wardrobe he was wearing and checked his stomach. It was clean, with no signs of any wounds whatsoever. The boy vaguely remembered someone being in the operating room with him. But Nate could not remember anything further about it. He was not even sure if there was someone in there, or if he was just hallucinating. Deciding to drop the subject, he changed back into his wetsuit. He felt the components of the seemingly-normal wetsuit taking its effects on his body. His body felt lighter.

Nate then changed back into his jacket, shorts and shoes, before reaching for his bag, checking its content. His pokédex and Xtransceiver were still there, along with the several items he had collected over his journey. Nate dug deeper, before spotting what he was looking for; two rather peculiar, but gorgeous-looking stones, each a different color. Nate remembered when he got these. A strange figure bestowed them to him on the day of the Driftveil Tournament, shortly after he lost to Colress and his genesect.

"In the end, what the hell even is this?" Nate asked himself. The figure did not explain what they were. He had no idea what these stones were. But Nate's instincts told him that keeping them with him would be a good idea. At the very least there was no harm in keeping them anyways.

Nate put the stones back in his bag, before grabbing his visor that was on a nearby table and putting it on his head, adjusting it, before leaving the room.

"Good as new, I suppose," the boy muttered.

"Please do be more careful out there," Park told Nate. "You gave all of us quite the scare when your brother came in with you looking like a bloody rag. But you somehow managed to recover from those wounds. Much faster than any of us predicted."

"...So that's not natural?" Nate asked.

"You should've been bedridden for at least three weeks," Park explained. "But here you are now, up and walking as if nothing had happened."

"...Strange..." Nate muttered. So was that figure real? Did they heal him? If so, then how?

"Regardless though," Park said. "We're just glad that you're alright. We can find out what really happened later."

"Yeah..." Nate muttered. "Thanks for everything, Professor."

"Of course," Park replied with a smile. "Try not to get too hurt out there."

Nodding, Nate adjusted his visor and headed out of the lab.

To his surprise, the only ones outside were Yancy and his Pokémon. The others were nowhere to be seen.

"...And where did the rest go?" Nate asked Yancy.

"Mister Hilbert and Miss Hilda left to go track down Team Plasma, Mister Cheren and Miss Bianca went to Lacunosa Town, since apparently that's where Professor Juniper is at right now, Rosa and Curtis went off somewhere, and Hugh went off to train," Yancy explained. "They all said to rendezvous at Lacunosa Town tomorrow and to enjoy our 'day off'."

"The hell did I miss? How long was I even in there?" Nate asked. "Whatever. Lacunosa? Got it."

"...So, what do you wanna do now?" Yancy asked as she got closer to Nate. "We have the rest of the day to ourselves..."

The pinkette leaned against Nate's arm, wrapping one of her hands around his. Nate fought against a blush that etched itself onto his face.

"...I wanna head to Route 10," Nate said, causing Luca and Brav to look up. "...Might as well check up on things over there."

"-Route 10?-" Vire asked. "-Isn't that...?-"

"Where I grew up? Yeah," Nate replied to Vire. "I haven't been there in a year now. I wonder how everyone's doing..."

"YANCY!"

Everyone looked up to a sudden shout, before turning to one of the stairs that led to the entrance from the side, where a pink-haired man was panting on top of the staircase. The man's hair was unkempt, and his once-professional looking business suit looked messy beyond belief.

"Father?" Yancy asked, not expecting to see him here, letting go of Nate's hand.

Nate merely narrowed his eyes at the man as he slowly approached Yancy.

"Curtis said that you would be here," the man, Mr. Lapis, said.

"I see..." Yancy mumbled, silently cursing Curtis for informing her father about her location.

"...Yancy..." Mr. Lapis mumbled, before he lowered his head. "...I'm sorry."

Yancy's eyes widened a little. Did her dad just apologize to her?

"After everything that happened at that mansion," Mr. Lapis said. "I realized just how horribly I've been treating you all these years. And I realized that I almost lost you to some lowlife behind all that wealth and power. I haven't considered your feelings about any of that. And I almost lost you because of it."

"Father..." Yancy murmured, taking in her father's apology.

"From what Curtis told me," Mr. Lapis went on. "You ran away from home because you couldn't take how I've been treating you anymore. Of course, I've only ever been seeing you as a source of income as opposed to my daughter. I should've been looking out for you as my daughter, but instead, I saw you as nothing but a profit. I've forced you to lie about yourself to the fans to make yourself more appealing.

"Everything I've done...I've done it so that we wouldn't go back to a life of poverty. So that neither you nor Curtis would have to go back to that life. But in the end, I lost sight of that. It turned from keeping you two away from that life, to making sure I never had to go through that life. And in the process of that, I lost sight of you: the real you. And for that...For everything...I'm sorry. I failed you as a father and as a person to trust."

Yancy stared at her father dumbfounded. Never in her life would she have thought her father would apologize to her like that. Admit for all the mistakes he had done. Acknowledge that their relationship had fell apart the moment 'Nancy' was born for the sake of profit.

"...Nate, Route 10 is near Opelucid City, right?" Yancy suddenly asked.

Nate merely nodded in response. Yancy nodded back, before facing her father, who looked up to her rather angry eyes.

"...The damage's is done," Yancy said. "Because of you...that image...'Nancy'...it will forever be a mask I'm ashamed to wear. To me, that will always be a reminder of how I deceived so many people, including myself. For so long, I stopped thinking of you as a true father."

Mr. Lapis cringed from his daughter's harsh words, knowing full well that she was right, and he could not defend himself.

"...I quit," Yancy said. "...I quit being Nancy. I want to find my own life. Be something I can actually be proud of. Being Nancy is something I'm no longer proud of being."

"...I understand..." Mr. Lapis nodded.

"...But..." Yancy muttered. "...That doesn't mean I hate you."

Mr. Lapis shot up, but Yancy had already sent out her togekiss and mounted her, before the Flying-type took off.

"YANCY!" Mr. Lapis called out, but she was already too far away.

Nate recalled all of his party members but Brav, before walking up until he was besides Mr. Lapis.

"Look on the bright side," Nate said. "At least she doesn't hate you."

"You..." Mr. Lapis said, glancing at Nate. "You're the boy from the mansion...and the same one who fought with her back at Nimbasa."

"...I already know the gist of your relationship with her. She told me," Nate said. "You're right. You're certainly not winning any 'Father of the year' awards, that's for sure. Parents are meant to protect and nurture their children. Not exploit them for their own gain. You only used her as a tool to satisfy your own greed. In that case, then you really didn't need her then. If something else made more profit than her, then you would've been better off discarding your own daughter for the sake of money."

Mr. Lapis lowered his head in shame.

"However..." Nate said, catching the man's attention. "The fact that you were able to admit that and apologize for it...at the very least you're stepping in the right direction. Well, at least I think so. I still think you're a piece of shit, don't get me wrong, but I can acknowledge a genuine effort to change things. I'm sure she thinks the same way too. At least I think so."

The man looked up to Nate, who refused to spare him a glance.

"I'm sure she'll forgive you. Eventually, I suppose," Nate went on. "She accepted some messed-up freak like me after all, even though she has every reason to just abandon ship. Give it some time, and I'm sure she'll decide to forgive you. I'm not saying everything will be back to normal, but at the very least she'll forgive you."

Nate signaled Brav to take flight. The bird did as instructed and rose up into the air where Nate grabbed one of Brav's talons.

"Wait!" Mr. Lapis exclaimed. "You...what's your name?"

"Right, I never actually introduced myself to you before," the boy muttered. "...Nate. Nate Warren."

Mr. Lapis then proceeded to lower his head to the boy. "Please...take care of my daughter. Keep her safe."

"...Yeah..." Nate muttered back as Brav began to fly. "You better make sure Yancy doesn't regret her decision."

Brav took that as his signal to leave the scene, taking Nate with him to the skies and back to their old home. Mr. Lapis was the only one left. The man stared at Nate until the boy was out of sight, before heading back to Undella Town in his own silence.

After a good hour of flight travel, Nate and Yancy reached their own destination and landed onto the high cliff of Route 10. Yancy took in the breathtaking view she was greeted to of the lush Route 10 as Nate tossed his bag into the cave behind them.

"So this is where you lived?" Yancy asked.

"Yeah," Nate replied. "Became a lot more peaceful when it got blocked off from the public."

"What do you mean by that?" Yancy asked, confused.

"You know about the landslide that closed off Victory Road two years, right?" Nate asked in response.

Yancy nodded in confirmation. If she recalled, shortly after the Plasma Raid incident that had occurred, a harsh landslide had ravaged the old Victory Road, destroying a good portion of it. As a result, the route was closed off from Opelucid City and the entrance to the newly rebuilt Victory Road was relocated elsewhere to the east.

"Well, since the route got closed off from the public, no humans can enter and disturb the wild Pokémon that live here," Nate explained. "Of course, there are the occasional dumbasses or two who decide to trespass regardless, but that doesn't happen too often, seeing as how the route is essentially a dead end."

"I see," Yancy said, before Nate suddenly lifted her in his arms. "Wha–?!"

Before Yancy could react properly, Nate suddenly jumped off the cliff, leaping off of tree after tree before he reached the ground. Once safely on the ground, Nate let Yancy back on the ground.

"You could've given me a warning!" Yancy pouted at Nate.

"Sorry," Nate shrugged as Brav and Toge descended down beside their respective owners.

As Nate looked around, several wild Pokémon emerged from the tall grass, including mienshaos, bouffalants, throhs and sawks. Two particular mienshao instantly spotted Nate, before rushing over to him with the other wild Pokémon following not too far behind.

"-Nate!-" the two mienshaos exclaimed eagerly.

"Yo, Rin, Ran," Nate said.

"-You're back!-" the mienshao on the right, Rin, exclaimed. "-You were gone for so long!-"

"Yeah," Nate nodded. "A lot happened...sorry 'bout that. It's not for long, just gonna spend the day here."

"-I see,-" the mienshao on the left, Ran, nodded, before noticing Yancy. "-Who's the human?-"

"Ah..." Nate muttered, glancing at Yancy briefly before glancing back. "She's...ah...well..."

"-She's his mate,-" Brav said from his side while snickering.

"WHY YOU–!" Nate snarled at Brav while furiously blushing.

"-Your mate?!-" the two mienshaos gasped, while the other wildlife took the news in shock.

Nate groaned and grumbled while fighting back his furious blush, before relenting and giving his wild Pokémon companions a glare that did not have its usual kick in it.

"Yeah, she's my...'mate'..." Nate fumbled with his words, before glancing at said 'mate'. "C'mon, introduce yourself."

"Ah–Right," Yancy said as she faced her new audience. "Hello there. My name's Yancy."

The wild Pokémon stepped up surrounding the pinkette, giving her narrowed gazes as they seemingly inspected her. Yancy could not help but feel a bit uncomfortable, while Toge got ready to jump in to protect her master just in case.

"-...Well she seems nice enough,-" Rin commented.

"-Doesn't look like she would do anything bad,-" Ran mumbled. "-Well I mean looks can be deceiving though...-"

"-I'm sure Nate would've noticed something like that,-" a throh argued.

The chatter amongst the wild Pokémon kept going, leaving Yancy to simply wait for them to come to a decision awkwardly.

"Uh...what're they saying?" Yancy asked Nate.

"They seem to like you," Nate said. "That's good."

"-Still, didn't think that lil' Nate would take a liking to a human mate,-" a bouffalant commented rather cheekily. "-Looks like you finally grew up boy!-"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Nate snarled at Bouffalant in embarrassment, who was unfazed by the embarrassed screech.

The wild Pokémon laughed in response, while Nate merely grumbled indignantly as he sent out the rest of his party.

"Alright," Nate announced to the community of Route 10. "You all know Luca, but the others I caught while I was away."

"-So this is Nate's home, per say,-" Vire mumbled as he looked around.

"-It's much prettier than what your story set it out to be,-" Zoro commented.

Bo was too busy ogling the scenery that was Route 10, while Deo remained silent.

"-You guys!-" Luca exclaimed happily.

"-Luca!-" the wild Pokémon happily replied. The wild Pokémon rushed over to Luca, swarming the female jackal, clearly having missed her.

"-Looks like you were missed,-" Brav could not help but chuckle as the wild Pokémon chatted with Luca, catching up with her.

"Everyone liked her," Nate shrugged, noting Bo and Vire's bewildered expressions. "She was raised here after I rescued her, much like how I was raised by Brav."

While Bo and Vire were rather dumbstruck, Zoro could not help but feel a tinge of jealousy course through him as Luca happily chatted with the wild Pokémon of Route 10.

"-How pathetic you are right now,-" Deo rolled his eyes, earning himself Zoro's heated glare.

After catching up with Luca, the wild Pokémon shifted their attention to the newcomers.

"-These are your new comrades?-" a sawk asked.

"Yeah," Nate said. "I was able to get this far thanks to them."

The wild Pokémon proceeded to examine Nate's party members rather critically. Nate's Pokémon sans Brav and Luca regarded the wild Pokémon rather cautiously as they were being examined by them.

"-...They don't look half bad,-" one of the throhs admitted. "-If you trust them that much, then I suppose it isn't our place to judge.-"

"Thanks," Nate muttered.

"-You had your doubts?-" Vire asked.

"-I mean you look the part,-" a sawk said. "-But can you play the part?-"

"-Wanna find out?-" Zoro narrowed his eyes as his claws gleamed.

The Route 10 group glowered as Bo, Vire, Zoro growled in response. Deo, meanwhile, scoffed, before facing Nate.

"-Oi,-" Deo said. "-If you aren't doing anything important, then I want you to take me somewhere.-"

"And where, exactly?" Nate asked.

"-To that rock,-" Deo said. "-To that grove where we first fought.-"

Nate eyed Deo curiously, before recollecting back to his earlier memories. The first time he and Deo fought? If Nate recalled it was...

"Ah," Nate muttered, remembering what Deo was referring to. "There."

Deo nodded. Nate signaled Brav, where the bird nodded in understanding and began to rise into the air, grabbing Nate's shoulders in the process. Nate recalled Deo back into his pokéball as Brav started to rise into the air.

"You wanna come?" Nate asked Yancy.

"Ah, but what about the others?" Yancy asked, glancing over to Nate's remaining team members, who just realized that Nate was leaving without them.

"-Nate?-" Luca asked, curious about where Nate was suddenly leaving off to.

"Gonna go visit a place," Nate said. "I'll be back soon."

"-I see,-" Luca nodded. "-And you're sure we shouldn't come with you?-"

"It's fine," Nate insisted. "You lot deserve a break too."

"-...If you say so,-" Luca said somewhat unsure.

"-Ah? Boss!-" Bo exclaimed, having noticed Nate leaving. "-Where are you going!? Let us come with you!-"

"Oh for fuck's sake," Nate grumbled as Zoro and Vire now noticed Nate leaving them. "It's fine! We'll be back in a jiff!"

"Maybe you should give them something to do while they wait?" Yancy asked.

"That's a good idea..." Nate mumbled, before coming up with an idea and proceeded to point at the wild Pokémon. "Oi! If you lot don't trust my mons' abilities, why don't you all just fight and see for yourselves? Seems like you all want to kill each other anyways."

"-That's a good idea,-" Rin said as the wild Pokémon group glared at the foreign trio. "-Might as well see just how tough you all are.-"

"-Alright then,-" Vire growled as he, Bo and Zoro got ready to fight. "-If that'll prove our strength, then come at us, you bastards!-"

Luca merely sighed as her party members and the wild Pokémon proceeded to hurl themselves at each other in one, giant brawl. She then saw Nate and Yancy leave the area on their Flying types as soon as the brawl commenced.

"-Be careful!-" Luca called out to them as they flew farther away from the route, before glancing back to the smorgasbord of senseless and mindless violence to see which side was stronger. Disregarding the fact that the wild Pokémon had her party members outnumbered by a large margin. The jackal merely sighed and shook her head, deciding to stay out of this mess. She did not have to prove a point like the other three, nor did she feel like picking sides.

"-Thank Arceus this place is closed off,-" Luca muttered as Bo punched Ran in the face. This was going to take a while. And it certainly was not going to end pretty, that's for sure.

After roughly two to three hours or so, the couple arrived at Floccesy Town. The town still had its calm, rural feel to it that Nate remembered when he first reached the town many months ago when he first infiltrated the southeastern parts of Unova.

"-What a nice place,-" Brav commented as he looked around the town.

"Right, you've never been here before," Nate said to the eagle. Brav had parted ways with Nate temporarily before Nate explored the area, so the eagle was unaware of what Southeast Unova had in store for them.

"So you've been here before?" Yancy asked Nate.

"More or less," Nate muttered before he looked around. "Now then...where is it again...? Ah right, Alder's house."

Nate recalled finding a hidden grotto behind Alder's home. That was where Deo wished to return to. The boy made his way to Alder's home, with the others following behind him. Soon enough, he spotted the old house that was taller than all the other houses in the town. Nate could remember when Alder had met the group way back at the beginning of their journey from Aspertia, and where the old man had them spar with the two schoolkids he was teaching. It was from there where Nate had found Deo's home and found the colt for the first time since they both raided Team Plasma's castle two years ago.

"What is this place?" Yancy asked.

"This is the home of Alder," Nate said.

"You mean the previous Champion? That Alder?"

"Same one."

Nate peered to the side of the house that was besides some trees as he released Deo.

"That's it, right?" Nate asked Deo.

"-Yeah,-" Deo nodded.

As Deo approached the alcove, something shot out from it, catching everyone by surprise.

"-The hell!?-" Deo blurted as he instinctively jumped back.

The group looked up to see two, small, gray fairy-like Pokémon with two tails that each have a red jewel encrusted in them hovering above them. One of them had a partially magenta face with four long, drooping appendages. The other had a partially yellow face, with its head faintly resembles that of a helmet. While the magenta fairy was staring at them with large, amber eyes, the yellow one's eyes were closed.

"The hell are these...?" Nate asked, taking out his pokédex and scanning the two fairies.

"Entry data does not exist in current version of the Unova Pokédex," was all Nate got in response from the device.

"So they're foreign Pokémon?" Yancy asked.

"-Who are you people?-" the magenta fairy asked. "-Trespassers?-"

"-That's my line!-" Deo snarled as his horn forged into his energy sword. "-You two were trespassing in my home!-"

"Oh, is someone there?"

They glanced back to the house, where a familiar old man with long flaming red hair tied back in a spiky ponytail, tan skin, and dark eye and wearing tan cloak-like vestments with a black collar, red and orange trim on the sleeves, and orange and black trim across the middle. Nate immediately recognized the old man as Alder, the previous champion of Unova and the owner of the house.

"Alder..." Nate muttered.

"Oh well if it isn't young Nate!" Alder exclaimed jovially. "And Keldeo as well! But wait, where are the other two trainers that you were with?"

"A lot happened," Nate said. "Long story short, we're taking a day off, as weird as that sounds...So they went off to do whatever."

"I see," Alder nodded in understanding.

"Yeah" Nate said, before pointing to the two fairies. "These yours?"

"Ah yes, my apologies," Alder said, before glancing to the two fairies. "Mesprit, Uxie! There's nothing to worry about. They are guests!"

The magenta fairy, Mesprit, and the yellow fairy, Uxie nodded, before floating down and next to Alder. Deo merely snorted before dispelling his sword.

"So what are they?" Nate asked. "The pokédex couldn't get anything about them."

"Well that would be most likely," Alder chuckled. "These two are in fact legendary Pokémon foreign to Unova, after all."

"They're legendaries!?" Yancy gasped.

"Indeed," Alder nodded. "The pink one is Mesprit, and the yellow one is Uxie. They are legendary Pokémon originally from Sinnoh."

"So there were more of these foreign legendaries," Nate muttered, referring to Heatran and the Lati duo that were in the possession of Hilbert and Hilda. "And how did you manage to even find them?"

"Well, I was exploring Route 20, where I found this strange cave," Alder explained. "The cave was unlike anything I had ever seen! It almost felt like the cave itself was from a different land altogether! In there, I found Mesprit, Uxie, and a third one, Azelf. I was able to befriend Mesprit and Uxie, but Azelf had already fled the scene before I could interact with it."

"...Better anyone else than Plasma, I suppose," Nate muttered.

"So," Alder said, glancing at Yancy. "Who might you be, young miss?"

"Ah, hello," Yancy replied. "My name is Yancy."

"Well hello there," Alder replied back. "Are you one of Nate's friends?"

"Ah–well–you can say that..." Yancy stammered, her cheeks flushing pink.

"Oh?" Alder asked, before he sported a mischievous smirk as his eyes glanced to Nate, seemingly figuring something out in his head. "Well, well, well..."

"Don't even start, old man," Nate snarled indignantly.

"From the looks of it, she seems to like you quite a bit, young boy," Alder snickered. "Your father would've been proud to see this."

"Shut it!" Nate growled, his cheeks flaring up.

Alder merely chuckled at Nate's expense, before deciding that was enough teasing the boy. "So, what brings you here today?"

"Deo wanted to visit the grove again," Nate said, pointing his thumb to Deo.

"Deo?" Alder asked at the new name. "So you caught Keldeo?"

"Yeah," Nate muttered.

"Most impressive," Alder complimented the boy as he gazed at Deo. "It would seem that you managed to gain the upper hand this time."

Deo did not heed any attention to Alder, still glaring at Mesprit and Uxie.

"I think he's mad that they were in his home," Nate told Alder.

"My apologies then," Alder said. "These two were curious about what lied beyond the grove. They had no intentions of trespassing or messing up anything there."

"-...They better not have touched the rock,-" Deo grumbled as he went on ahead to the grove.

The rest of the group followed behind Deo as the colt led the way into the grove, until they reached the interior of it. Standing tall beyond them was a giant rock, with three large slash marks engraved into it.

"Well it certainly has been a while since I've seen this," Nate said as Deo approached the rock.

Mesprit and Uxie eyed the rock curiously, tugging at Alder's sleeves to get the old man's attention.

"Oh, are you curious about the rock?" Alder asked them, where they nodded in response. "This place is the Pledge Grove, where it was rumored that the three Swords of Justice, Cobalion, Terrakion and Virizion, had trained. That rock is proof of the rumors."

"So, the three legendary Pokémon lived here once?" Yancy asked.

"It would seem to be the case," Alder nodded as Nate and Brav approached Deo.

"-Those marks run in deep,-" Brav commented as he stared at the rock. "-The immense power behind the slashes are eminent enough.-"

"-Nate,-" Deo said, getting his trainer's attention. "-Have I ever told you about my upbringings?-"

Nate stared at Deo, before shaking his head in response. Deo stared back, before glancing back to the rock.

"-...It was seven years ago, I think,-" Deo explained. "-There was a war that broke out between the humans. In the crossfire, a forest had been engulfed in flames. The Pokémon that lived in the forest frantically evacuated the forest but to no avail. There was no way to escape from that damned fire.-

"-It was then, when all hope seemed lost, where Cobalion, Terrakion and Virizion had appeared. They fended off the humans. Terrakion shaped the earth and created passage for everyone to escape, Virizion used her speed to shield the Pokémon from sparks and embers, and Cobalion ushered Pokémon to safety. In spite of their best efforts, the forest was burned down, with any Pokémon unlucky enough to not escape, died.-

"-I was one of the Pokémon left in the forest. By some miracle, I managed to survive. My parents...weren't so lucky. It was there when Cobalion, Terrakion and Virizion found me, and adopted me. They had trained and raised me to be one of them; a sword of justice. I was happy.-

"-Then, two years ago, I was separated by them. I was attacked by Team Plasma, and that damned purple machine of theirs.-"

"Genesect..." Nate mumbled, recognizing the 'damned purple machine'.

"-I was rescued and helped by a pack of humans when I woke up, but Team Plasma ended up finding me,-" Deo went on. "-But then, Team Plasma found me, and so did my mentors. They used me as a hostage...and then...-"

"They caught them," Nate finished for him.

Deo gritted his teeth, hating having to remember the bitter memory what had happened afterwards.

"-I was weak...I was weak and so they were caught and enslaved because of it!-" Deo snarled. "-That's why I wanted to become stronger! To save them! To exact my revenge against Team Plasma!-"

"Vengeance against humans who wronged you...huh..." Nate mumbled. That sounded eerily familiar.

"-But...after meeting you...my thoughts changed...-" Deo muttered. "-You told me that what I was pursuing was nothing more than a severe black and white morality. Bringing justice upon everyone who bore the banner of Team Plasma, regardless of whether they were children or old humans, regardless of reasoning...What I was doing ended up turning from saving my mentors to merely lashing out against anything that was Team Plasma. It was justice for my own sake. A selfish justice. In that case, what would make me any different from Team Plasma, who stole and terrorized for their own selfish desires?-"

Deo glanced back at the rock.

"-My mentors wouldn't have wanted to see me fall like that,-" Deo muttered.

Nate and Brav listened intently to Deo's monologue. The other two humans, while unable to understand what Deo was saying, could tell from the atmosphere, that it was rather important.

"-And then, I saw you,-" Deo said. "-You, who was on a same wavelength as me, as someone who was wronged by humans, risked your life to protect two humans you barely knew. You protected two innocent people from getting killed. That was something my mentors always valued; the safety of the innocent. That was something I had been neglecting on my own tirade. I was neglecting the very lessons my mentors taught me when they saved me.-"

"...So what do you plan to do now?" Nate asked.

"-I still want to save them from Team Plasma,-" Deo said. "-But not for the sake of revenge, but purely for the sake of freeing them. I want to protect the ideals my mentors left for me. To protect the innocent. And to truly inflict justice upon the guilty.-"

"Spoken like a true Sword of Justice, I suppose," Nate snickered.

"-You were a genocidal brat, yet you were able to protect some random humans from gunfire,-" Deo smirked, glancing back at Nate. "-If a human like you can do it, then there's no way a Pokémon like me can't do it either.-"

Deo then stared at the three slash marks on the rock. Deo can remember them as bright as day. The left mark was from Terrakion. The right mark was from Virizion. The middle mark was from Cobalion. He remembered the day the trio engraved the ferocity of their swords into the rock. The marks represented the determination of his three mentors to their cause and their own ideals. Deo had once wished to match up to their determination one day; to be a being worthy of the title: Sword of Justice. That resolution had once vanished thanks to his animosity and hatred, but after everything he had witnessed, after seeing the markings once more, that resolution came back to him. Then suddenly, Deo's body began to glow brightly, taking everyone by shock.

"Huh? Is he evolving?" Yancy asked.

"No, not that," Alder corrected Yancy, before the light blinded everyone in the vicinity.

Once the light died down, Deo revealed to have changed. The dark blue protrusions on his head became shorter and lighter in color, now resembling ears. His horn was now a dark blue, and had grown much larger and ridged. On the side of his head are three feathers colored aqua blue, green and orange, where his mane had grown to be much longer and magnificent. His eyes were still a deep, cold brown, but there was light within his eyes.

Deo roared as his body glowed yellow. His horn grew into a long, yellow blade of radiant energy which was much longer than Deo's previous blade. Deo furiously swung it horizontally against the rock. The blade sliced cleanly through, leaving a new, horizontal mark, across the rock that extended far longer than the other markings could ever hope to do.

"Incredible!" Yancy gasped, amazed by the sheer power Deo's attack had.

"Indeed," Alder nodded. "Although...that looked much different from Sacred Sword...could this perhaps be a new technique Keldeo created himself?"

"So it's a straight-up upgrade," Nate said as the light and sword died down. "...So what do you wanna call it? I mean this is basically your creation."

Deo stared at the mark his sword had left on the rock. The other markings left by his masters paled in comparison.

"-This is my own technique. My own secret technique,-" Deo said. "-...Let's call it 'Secret Sword'.-"

The sun was starting to set on Unova. As the group exited the grove, Nate had explained to Alder the events that had transpired back at Undella Town and the lab.

"A lot happened...would be an understatement," Alder commented.

"Yeah..." Nate merely muttered.

"Well I am glad you turned out alright from that ordeal," Alder said. "But that was still reckless of you. One wrong move, one mishap, and you could have been killed there."

Nate merely grunted as he recalled Deo to his pokéball and got ready to leave.

"You're leaving already?" Alder asked.

"I gotta check up on the others," Nate said as Brav grabbed Nate and Yancy rode on Toge's back.

"Ah, hold on!" Alder exclaimed, catching Nate's attention. "...I should apologize to you."

"For what?" Nate asked in confusion.

"If I hadn't convinced your mother to go to the Pokémon League back then," Alder said, referring to a particular event that had transpired several years ago that Nate was too familiar with. "Then perhaps, things might have played out differently. Perhaps, you would have been able to escape with your mother's help."

Nate stared at Alder, before snorting. "You don't have to apologize for shit. There was no way you could've known. And I highly doubt one person would have made much of a different."

"I see..." Alder mumbled, before smiling. "You truly did change. You've grown quite a bit from the last time I saw you."

"...If you say so," Nate muttered as he signaled Brav to leave. "...I made my warning."

Brav nodded, before he took flight into the skies. Yancy quickly thanked Alder for his time, before chasing after Nate on Toge into the skies, both of them headed back to Route 10. Alder smiled as he saw the two off, as Mesprit and Uxie floated around the old man. Alder smiled as he scratched their chins, making them squeal with pleasure.

"He truly changed ever since I last saw him," Alder said to no one in particular. "I'm sure you would be proud to see him now, Roy."

Nate had expected the route to be a mess since he more or less instigated a fight between the wild Pokémon and his own Pokémon. He did not expect it to escalate to the levels he was witnessing when he and Yancy arrived at Route 10.

The majority of the trees were either bent or knocked down. The tall grass of the route was all but either charred or sliced completely. There were several craters within the mountain-like walls of the route. Several of the wild sawks and throhs were unconscious and sprawled all over the ground; some were even in the river.

The ones who were on the ground but still conscious were his own party members, along with the two mienshaos, Rin and Ran, all panting heavily in exhaustion. Luca was the only one who was perfectly fine, riding on a hydreigon who was floating above the carnage that had occurred below.

"So how'd it go?" Nate asked as they approached Luca and the hydreigon.

"-They held up surprisingly well, all things considered,-" Luca commented. "-Managed to take on everyone before tying with Rin and Ran.-"

"Is that so," Nate said as the hydreigon flew over to him, where the boy rubbed the dragon's head. "It's good to see you too, Zan."

The group descended down to the exhausted and defeated fighters. On a closer look, the wounds the two mienshaos sustained were much more severe than the wounds Bo and the others had, but the amount of wounds Bo and the others were far greater than the amount the two mienshaos had. Nate looked around, seeing similar harsh wounds on the nearby wild Pokémon.

"They did a number, that's for sure," Nate commented.

"-KAAAAAH! That last one stung...-" Rin let out in an exhausted sigh as the group descended down towards them.

"-You guys are pretty good...-" Ran mumbled.

"-Hell right we are...!-" Bo replied tiredly.

"-I wished...you'd admit that...sooner...-" Vire grumbled between pants, before grunting in pain. "-Ow...-"

"-How am I still alive?-" Zoro asked, recalling all the brutal fighting types he was forced to overcome to merely survive.

"-Because we're awesome...!-" Bo replied.

"-Shut the hell up,-" Zoro growled back.

"Y'all really went out, huh," Nate sniggered as he glanced down on them, before glancing over to the twin mienshaos. "So? What's the final verdict?"

"-Well as you can see,-" Rin said as he waved his arm around to all the fallen Pokémon in the route. "-They managed to kick everyone's ass.-"

"So they good enough?" Nate asked, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

"-Yeah...they good...-" Ran replied while Zan merely snickered at the two. "-Shut up, Zan.-"

"Good to hear that they get your seal of approval," Nate said. "Now then, let's eat. I'm starving."

"-Is there even anything left?-" Luca asked, glancing around. "-I mean the area's totaled.-"

"These idiots didn't bring the fight to the deeper parts," Nate said, pointing over to a staircase that was clearly manmade. "So we're good. I'll go gather some berries and basculin meat."

"-You're just gonna leave us like this?-" Vire asked.

Nate glanced at his fallen teammates, before glancing to Yancy. "Does Audi know Heal Pulse?"

"Yeah," Yancy nodded as she sent out Audi. "She can take care of them."

Audi nodded as she proceeded to create a pink ball of energy within her small paws, before releasing the energy as a wide pulse that covered all the fallen Pokémon before her. The pulse covered them, quickly healing the various wounds that covered their bodies with ease. Within no time, the Pokémon were healed completely. The Pokémon got up on their feet and examined their newly healed bodies to feel that indeed, no pain plagued their bodies as if they did no go at it in an all-out brawl.

"-That's better,-" Vire muttered as he checked his body, before turning his head to Audi as she went over to heal the other defeated Pokémon.

"Now then..." Nate muttered as he sent out Deo to let him roam around. "I'm gonna go get some food. Y'all stay put."

As Nate ventured off into Route 10, the others gathered around Deo, eyeing his new form.

"-So what happened to you?-" Zoro asked.

"-I just...settled some scores is all,-" Deo replied.

"-Is that so,-" Zoro said as he sat down on the grass. "-Well that's good then. So is that new form just aesthetics or did you get stronger?-"

Deo merely scoffed, before he projected his new sword, shocking everyone around him with the power that radiated from it.

"-That's certainly an upgrade,-" Zoro whistled.

The colt acknowledged Zoro's compliment, before glancing over to Rin and Ran, along with the few wild Pokémon Audi had finished healing.

"-So, do I need to go through whatever initiation you made these idiots go through as well?-" Deo asked almost challengingly.

"-N-Nah, you're good,-" Rin stuttered, waving his hands defensively. "-I'm sure you're plenty strong enough. And we'd rather not go back to being near unconscious again.-"

"-Wait what the hell!? We had to go through four hours of a gauntlet but he gets a pass!?-" Vire yelled indignantly. "-I call tauros shit!-"

"-I mean it isn't often you see one of the legendary Swords of Justice,-" Ran defended Rin in response.

"-Now, now,-" Brav interjected as Vire was about to pursue the argument. "-You proved to them that your strength is true. That should be enough.-"

Vire grumbled at Brav, before Bo placed a claw on his shoulder, getting the Electric type's attention.

"-Oh come on, it's already over, isn't it?-" Bo reasoned with Vire. "-And besides; it was fun and exhilarating fighting everyone and seeing how strong they were!-"

"-Ugh...you battle freak...-" Vire sighed, before conceding. "-Fine! Fine! I'll drop the subject!-"

Luca merely chuckled as Vire indeed dropped the subject as Bo patted Vire's back with a hearty laugh, which earned him Vire's irritation as the Electric type shocked Bo. Luca still remembered the two back when they were merely a small, energetic tepig that was mesmerized by Nate, and a rather mischievous, daring elekid who wished to challenge Nate respectively roughly five months ago. Having been with them ever since then, she could not help but be amazed at just how far the two had grown since then. It reminded her of herself, back when she was just a small, terrified riolu who had revered Nate as a messiah for saving her from the Riches, and grew strong as time passed. Albeit, Bo and Vire had much more innocent motives for their pursuit of strength than compared to Luca's original motives for becoming stronger. Luca could not help but think that one day, these two could certainly surpass her and Brav if they keep up the pace.

Yancy, meanwhile, had watched the antics between Nate's Pokémon and giggled to herself as Audi returned to her.

"Did you heal everyone?" Yancy asked Audi.

The hearing pokémon nodded in response as Yancy looked around. True to Audi's response, all the wild pokémon had their wounds all healed up. Yancy smiled, before kneeling down slightly to rub Audi's head.

"Good girl," Yancy praised Audi, who squealed in delight.

Some wet footsteps sounded from behind, which prompted Yancy to turn around, expecting it to be Nate who had finished his food gathering. Indeed it was Nate, but she could not help but recoil a bit as Nate had one bag that reeked of fish in his right hand, while the left hand carried a bag that was visibly filled with berries.

"Dinner time," Nate said bluntly, seemingly ignoring Yancy's recoil.

With some help from Bo and a large amount of firewood, a large campfire roared in the middle of the route, where the basculin that Nate had caught were skewered and roasting near the fire. Nate, Yancy and their pokémon, along with all the wild pokémon gathered around the giant campfire, holding what was akin to a rather large festival of sorts. The pokémon were chatting away with one another and the wild pokémon seemingly accepted Nate's party as if the four-hour slugfest had not occurred at all.

"-This stuff tastes pretty good,-" Bo commented with his mouthful as he took another bite out of the roasted tamato berry.

"-Dude, chew, swallow, then speak,-" Vire retorted in disgust at Bo.

Bo quickly chewed what was in his mouth and swallowed, before proceeding to choke on the amount of food he ate. Vire merely sighed, before getting Bo some water to clear his throat while Rin and Ran merely laughed at Bo's situation. To his side, Yancy's Teddi glanced at Vire trying to help Bo from choking on his food, before resuming to eating his own fried basculin, while Snor was shoveling even larger amounts of berries and fried basculin into his own mouth without a care in the world.

"-Hot!-" Deo winced in pain as the basculin slightly burned his tongue.

"-You alright?-" Zoro asked as he gnawed on his own fish. "-What? You never had hot food before?-"

"-Does it look like I'm even physically capable of making hot food?-" Deo shot back in annoyance.

"-C'mon, you of all mons should be able to handle it,-" Zoro chided Deo.

Deo flashed a look of anger at Zoro, who merely shrugged as he chewed on his basculin. Deo grumbled as he took another bite at the roasted fish, wincing in pain from the heat once more, but still powering through, ignoring his heat-induced pain.

Nate and Yancy, meanwhile, were sitting next to each other, silently eating their own fried basculin. Brav and Luca were sitting next to Nate eating their own share of fish, while Audi and Toge resided next to Yancy, nibbling on the sitrus berries available.

"This tastes really good," Yancy commented.

"That's good," Nate murmured as he ate his own food.

Yancy could not help but notice Nate's forlorn, vacant expression as he ate his food mindlessly.

"Everything alright?" Yancy asked.

"I dunno..." Nate muttered.

"You wanna talk about it?" Yancy asked.

"...Well I guess better than keeping it to myself," Nate said. "...Keeping stuff to myself is what caused all that shit in Undella to begin with...along with Rosa..."

"Rosa?" Yancy asked, before nodding in understanding. "But you apologized to her. Her and Hugh."

"I did, didn't I?" Nate muttered.

"...Do you still feel guilty?"

"Kinda, yeah." Nate answered. "I mean yeah I was pissed at her for going behind my back like that and she went psycho...But her actions were my fault anyways. I mean I knew all your secrets, but I never bothered to tell you all mine."

"Well I mean trying to destroy the country would be a good enough reason to keep it a secret," Yancy muttered, which caused Nate to mumble to himself.

"Outside of that, I could've at least shared why I didn't want to go to Undella that badly," Nate said. "Sure I wouldn't have said the full details, but I could've given them a good enough reason to avoid the damn trip. Hell I could've at least told them some half-truths and all of this could've possibly been avoided. But I chose not to. And it blew up in my face."

"...She went insane because she was jealous that you kept concerning me over her. Even though I came into the group after her," Yancy told him, causing the boy to look at her funny. "I mean yes, you not telling us anything was also a part of it, but...well...to be frank, she had a crush on you. So when you kept paying more attention to me than to her...she got jealous. Combined with what you did, and she slowly went paranoid...and then everything else happened."

"...Right..." Nate groaned, recalling that particular fact that Curtis had told him back at the mansion.

"Wait, you knew?"

"Your brother told me."

Yancy looked somewhat surprised. She did not expect Curtis to know that the two girls had a crush on Nate.

"All this time, I only really ever cared for myself," Nate kept going. "Sure traveling with you guys and helping you guys out was fun, but the end game didn't concern you three. Or at least...that was the plan. If we went back months ago, I would've definitely disregarded you three along with the rest of Unova...but now...?"

"Now...you care..." Yancy finished Nate's thought. "You grew to care...didn't you?"

"...You three treated me differently," Nate admitted. "Sure it wasn't all smooth sailing from the get-go, but you guys treated me like a person. And not like some kind of freak. And after traveling with Rosa and Hugh...and then meeting you...I guess my views...kinda changed."

"When did you realize that?" Yancy asked.

"When someone asked me what I would do if you three got killed in my plans," Nate answered, recalling his conversation with N back at Chargestone Cave. "I was so determined to destroy Unova with Kyurem...and then when he asked me what I would do about you three...I hesitated. And when I threw away an opportunity to get Reshiram to save you three...that's when I realized that I didn't want to actually destroy Unova. That I actually cared about you three. Hell, I don't even hate Hilbert anymore.

Nate stared blankly into the campfire. "And now, without a goal in mind, with nothing but my thoughts and looking back, all that made me realize just how much of a shitty person I've been acting all this time. Treating Rosa like shit was just icing on that cake."

"Oh c'mon you're not..." Yancy tried to defend Nate, but could not bring herself to outright deny and defend all of Nate's actions. "...Yeah you're kinda an asshole...Sorry..."

"You don't have to apologize," Nate snorted. "I'm not an idiot; I know I'm the last person to make friends with. I'm not an idiot to think that what I was doing was right...it's precisely why I know not to demonize Rosa, and that Hilbert wasn't really at fault back then when he told me his memories were erased...but I was just too stubborn to admit that I was wrong until now. I'm just a shitty, confused brat who now doesn't know what to do anymore. Heh...how pathetic, right? Seeing me like this, after all that bravado I showed off throughout our trek through Unova."

"...No, you're not pathetic," Yancy insisted. "It's okay to be wrong. It's okay to not know everything. It's okay not knowing what you want to do in life. That just makes you human."

"Human...huh..." Nate muttered.

"...So what made you care all of a sudden?" Yancy asked. "I mean...it just seems so out of the open for you to open up like that."

"I dunno," Nate muttered. "Maybe because I lost my objective I now have time to reflect on the shit I did. Maybe it was also when you said you loved me, I thought to myself, 'wow she must be a saint to actually love someone like me'. And then that made me think to myself, 'wow I'm a fucking dick.' I ended up becoming the very kind of human I resented this whole time.

"What about you though? Up until now you've basically let me do as I please. What made you suddenly grow a spine?"

"...I guess, when Rosa and I argued back at the mansion," Yancy said. "It made me realize that…things went too far. I did want to give you your space as to not scare you off...but now? Now I realize that was all just because I wanted to stay with you no matter what. I should've at least tried to ask if you were alright. Obviously not to the point of obsession, but I felt like someone should've stopped you. Better late than never...I suppose...haha..."

"...I see..." Nate said. "...Heh...I guess we're both kinda selfish if you think about it."

"Yeah..." Yancy giggled. "...You know, Rosa and I fought to determine who got to go after you to the chasm."

"Really?" Nate asked, before realizing something. "Wait you won against Rosa?"

"Uh huh," Yancy nodded.

"How the fuck?!" Nate asked incredulously. "She may have been annoying but she's a way better trainer than you! Your team is literally nothing but Normal-types! You auto-lose to any Fighting move!"

"Gee thanks for the vote of confidence," Yancy muttered.

"Okay I'm not gonna sugarcoat it; between you and her, she's clearly the more experienced trainer and you cannot deny that, no matter how hard you try," Nate retorted bluntly. "How did you even win?"

"Well...it wa since we were short on time..."

"...Uh huh..."

"And it was her arcanine against Teddi."

"Okay..."

"And she ended up triggering Teddi's Guts."

"...So what you're telling me is..." Nate said. "It's that you got lucky."

"...I guess?" Yancy asked.

"Okay that makes more sense," Nate muttered. "If it was a full-party battle then you'd probably lose anyways. Look I don't mean to be a dick, but realistically there's no way you're beating Rosa in an actual battle."

"Hey I won the 1 v 1!" Yancy argued indignantly.

"Because you got lucky with a comeback factor," Nate sneered. "Do you know how lopsided 1 v 1s can be? Honestly if she sent out Mandi and zoned you out from the sky then you would've been camped out and lost. I dunno why she didn't do that, but hey I'm not her."

"So you're calling her dumb for wanting to go for a head-on battle?" Yancy asked accusingly.

"I'm saying she had a smarter and safer option to deal with you," Nate countered brusquely. "If she wanted to go for a slugfest then that's totally up to her. But she definitely could have just camped you out with Mandi and call it that. But I feel like she wouldn't had accepted that, and neither would you."

"I guess you have a point..." Yancy muttered. "...So...what would you have done if she had won instead?"

Nate stared at Yancy, who wanted to know his answer in regards to whether or not he would have accepted Rosa's feelings.

"I didn't even know you two had a thing for me until yesterday," Nate said. "...Honestly, I'd be flattered, but I'd rather pick who I'd want to spend the rest of my life with myself."

"Oh, I see..." Yancy said quietly.

"But honestly?" Nate answered. "At this point, I could only see myself spending the rest of my damn life with you."

Yancy suddenly darted her eyes back to Nate, who had a small blush on his face.

"R-Really?" Yancy asked.

"Eh, you're my type," Nate admitted, which caused her to blush. "I feel more comfortable around you. I could sympathize with you more. I could understand you more. And most importantly...you believed in me...no matter what. Even at times where turning your back on me would be completely justified. That's why...spending my life with you...it doesn't sound like a bad idea to me."

"I see..." Yancy mumbled, her cheeks still flushed red. "Thank you..."

Nate nodded, before letting out a deep exhale. "I guess talking to you about this made me feel better. Like getting it off my chest."

"You're welcome," Yancy replied sweetly, happy to have been able to help. "...But, now what? What do you plan to do now?"

Nate glanced up to the sky. The moon was shining brightly, illuminating the night sky rather beautifully and breathtakingly.

"...For now? Stop Plasma," Nate said. "They have Kyurem. There's no telling how long it'll take before they make their next move. Letting them run amok is the last thing we want. So stop Team Plasma. Save Kyurem. Stop them from destroying Unova."

"You want to save Kyurem?" Yancy asked.

"I do owe him for saving my life years ago, and for giving me something to strive for, even if it was misguided," Nate admitted. "Afterwards? Well..."

Nate glanced at Yancy. "What do you think I should do?"

Yancy stared back at Nate, giving his question some thought. She knew what he was asking; he was asking her for a purpose once Team Plasma was dealt with. In the end, he did not want to abandon his desire for belonging.

"...Well...how about trying that dream you used to have?" Yancy asked.

Nate arched a brow at the sudden question. That dream he used to have?

"...You mean a place...where Pokémon and people can coincide in peace?" Nate asked, perplexed.

"Yeah, that one," Yancy nodded. "You may not be the best person in the world, and you may have done many terrible things...But this conversation was enough to prove that you can change. That you want to change the image you imposed on yourself. What happened in the past will always remain. But you can still decide what kind of future you want to see yourself in. So why not try making that dream come true? The one you believed in when you were a kid. A world where Pokémon and humans can work together in peace; as equals. A world where no one has to suffer what you suffered."

Nate stared at Yancy with an open mouth, before he pondered on the idea. He did in fact used to believe in such a fantasy. A place where humanity and Pokémon could live in harmony. A place like Terra Village, or what it used to stand for. His ideals were crushed by the harsh reality of human society and its darker aspects. But, now that he knew that harsh reality did not represent humanity as a whole, perhaps...that childish fantasy could become a reality. Because surely if there were humans who would understand him like the three, then surely there would be others out there like them. It did not matter how long it took, it could happen so long as Nate never gave up on that dream.

"...Protecting and creating a world instead of destroying it...huh..." Nate mused, before he snickered. "How ironic that you tell me to protect a world I tried to ruin."

"But it's not a bad idea, right?" Yancy asked with a knowing smile.

"...No, it certainly is not," Nate agreed. "I was wrong before; I can always be wrong again. Making that childish ideal a reality...that doesn't sound so bad right now."

The boy could not help but smile as he stared up into the sky. It was a rather refreshing feeling he was feeling right now. As if all the stress and torment he had been harboring for so long had disappeared and that he was at peace.

Yancy saw the expression on Nate's face, and could not help but smile. The smile on his face was perhaps the most genuine one she had ever seen on the boy's face.

For once, he looked genuinely happy.

"...So what about you two?" Nate asked Luca and Brav, who perked up upon being mentioned. "You two were dragged along because of my shit."

"-...No matter what, I'll always be by your side,-" Luca declared to Nate. "-Our objective just happened to change.-"

"You still resent humans?" Nate asked Luca. "They did kill your parents after all."

"-Like what you said, not all humans are bad,-" Luca replied with a smile.

"-As if you would need to ask me at this point,-" Brav scoffed. "-I'm just glad you decided to go past your grudges.-"

"...Sorry for making you worry all this time, Old Man," Nate muttered.

"-It's quite alright,-" Brav replied. "-I should apologize for failing to keep you away from the path you took.-"

"Better late than never, I suppose," Nate muttered. "Well, I'll continue to count on you two."

Luca and Brav nodded determinedly in response. Nodding in satisfaction, Nate turned his attention back to Yancy.

"You know I'm probably not gonna be good boyfriend material," Nate said. "Hell I'm not even sure if this relationship is gonna last. But I'll do my best not to act like a shitty boyfriend, at the very least. That good with you?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Yancy replied affectionately, letting her head rest on Nate's shoulder. Nate sighed as he let himself lean his head against Yancy's, glancing at the girl as she stared at the fire mesmerizingly.

He honestly did not expect her to stick with him for so long; much less help him with his own internal baggage as much as she did. But the boy was glad that things turned out the way they did. Nate would doubt that his philosophies would have changed if he never ended up meeting her. He was able to finally find peace in himself, even if it may be short-lived for the time being. He was grateful for everything that she did for him. The least he could do now was to repay her for her help.

'I may have done a lot of stupid and shitty things in the past,' Nate thought to himself. 'But even I can protect someone who believed in me even at my lowest.'

The boy was content in letting the girl rest on his shoulder as they watched the rest of the pokémon rage on in their own festivities as the night passed by.

Because starting tomorrow, he was sure that things would change. His journey from tomorrow forward would be not for the destruction of a country out of spite, but to put an end to the madness that wretched cult started, and the madness that he pursued for so long.

Whether the change would be for better or for worse, only time would tell.

To be continued

AN: And that ends part 1. Hope you liked this, because neither of them are showing up for the next two chapters. Seems only fair since this was more or less dedicated to them. And because the other two need some well-deserved screentime. Nate more or less makes amends with Hilbert, Hugh and Rosa, Deo gets his upgrade, and Nate finally gets some well-needed enlightenment (therapy), gets off the path of genocide and sets his sights on protecting Unova from the future looming threat and find something new to accomplish. Oh and Nate x Yancy is now official. Hopefully I can make this work believably, since I doubt Nate would exactly know the basics on how to be a boyfriend.

Next chapter is gonna focus on Rosa.

And current team rosters:

Nate: Luca (Lucario) / Nite (Emboar) / Vire (Electivire) / Brav (Braviary) / Deo (Keldeo-Resolute) / Zoro (Zoroark)

Yancy: Audi (Audino) / Teddi (Ursaring) / Snor (Snorlax) / Toge (Togekiss)

Rosa and Hugh are removed just this once because they're at completely different locations.

Alright that's enough for me. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry once again for having to split this up into three chapters. And before I forget, once again, if you are interested, please do go check out the Grey Space discord server and give it some support. It's rather small, but hopefully you guys can make better use of it as a community.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a Merry Christmas! And if I don't update by the end of the year, then have a Happy New Years!