I don't know how I didn't realize before, but I kept saying Chloe's hair is purple, even though it's actually maroon. I mean, I guess maroon is just a darker purple, but still. Even when I wrote my last story, for whatever reason, I had convinced myself that Chloe's hair was actually purple. Oh well, I'll call it maroon from now on, sorry about that.

"...Hey, kid." Chloe turned around slowly at the sound of Brandon addressing her and saw him preparing to exit the room. "I'll go check on what your friend Goh is doing, will you be alright on your own for a bit?"

"Yeah… I'll be fine…" She said in an indifferent tone.

Brandon put on his jacket and as he was leaving, he hesitated for a bit, but eventually, closed the door behind him, leaving the young girl all alone in the room.

It had been approximately two hours since the group's encounter with Articuno, and after realizing that Ash had fallen unconscious, they quickly took him to the nearest location for him to get treated. They eventually ended up in a newly constructed Pokemon Center, that also doubled as a motel, in a small village that they later found out was named Freezington. The center was the first and only one located in the entirety of the Crown Tundra, with the purpose of being a temporary rest stop for travelling trainers who wanted to explore the snowy region. Once they had arrived and explained their unfortunate encounter, a Nurse Joy with an Indeedee quickly tended to the unconscious boy, and Brandon had purchased a room for four to stay one night, seeing as the group weren't likely to get on the road anytime soon. Since then, everyone had slowly distanced themselves from each other.

Goh, after silently putting his stuff in the rented room, said he wanted to go out for some fresh air for a little bit, and the others hadn't seen him since. Ash, who had woken up fairly quickly after arriving at the center, was forced to stay in the room he was being treated in, as Nurse Joy wanted the young trainer to stay put while he recovered, to which he reluctantly agreed, and Pikachu stayed by his side. Brandon stayed with Ash for a while as well, since he wanted to make sure the boy was okay, but after some insistence from the Pallet Town trainer, he left him with Pikachu and made sure his other Pokemon were fully healed.

That then only leaves Chloe, who after Goh left, stayed in the room they had rented and hadn't moved since, not uttering a single word as she watched the snow particles lightly trickle down from the sky through the window of the room. Chloe had returned Eevee to her Pokeball upon entering the Pokemon Center, and she considered multiple times since then to let her out to keep her some company, but decided against it, as she wasn't really in the mood for her Pokemon's cheerfulness, and was actually glad that Brandon decided to leave her alone. As she fiddled gently with her hair, Chloe thought back once again to the events that had occurred a few hours ago. She thankfully didn't remember too much in details, but what she did remember, really took a toll on her. The only thing she vividly remembered was the sight of the boy that saved her, injured, and barely conscious on the ground, all because of her…

'...Chloe…' The only word Ash whispered before passing out echoed in her mind. She shook her head violently and looked at the ground, defeated.

"...I guess my dream was right… I am just a hindrance after all…" She told herself quietly, referencing the dream she had the previous night, as a little tear drop trickled down her face slowly and stained the carpet on the floor.

"Nurse Joy, I'm telling you, I'm fine. It's just a little scratch, really, so could you please just let me leave? I've been here for almost two hours now..." Ash begged desperately, currently sitting on the bed of the healing room.

Nurse Joy looked at him, unamused. "If it was just a scratch then why can't you raise your right arm?"

"I t-totally can now!" He persisted.

"Pikapi…" Sighed disapprovingly Pikachu next to his trainer, knowing full well he was lying. Nurse Joy was also not at all convinced by his words.

"You know what... prove it then. If you can do it successfully, I'll let you leave." The woman challenged the young trainer.

Ash obviously wasn't expecting that as an answer and hesitated as he pulled up his sleeve, revealing a huge bruise on his arm. He slowly started to lift his right arm into the air and he was fine… until he reached the height of his upper body when he suddenly flinched and grunted in pain. Nurse Joy chuckled lightly at the boy trying to put on a brave face and grabbed a roll of bandage tape.

"I think we both know you're not fine…" She said, causing Ash to lower his head, as she started to bandage his arm. "But I think with this, you should be good to go for now..."

Ash's face suddenly lit up in excitement. "Really!? Awesome! Thanks Nurse Joy!"

The pink haired nurse giggled at his sudden switch in mood, before saying. "Just doing my job... Don't force it too much and you should be completely healed by tomorrow."

Ash gave her a smile and a thumbs up and grabbed his bag to exit the room with Pikachu in tow, but just before he left, Nurse Joy stopped him one last time. "Wait! One last thing!"

Ash and Pikachu, already halfway out of the room, peaked their heads through the door. "Your friend Brandon booked a room for the night, number 201 on the second floor, and you're forgetting your Pokemon on that tray over there…" She pointed at a table right next to the trainer.

Ash went wide eyed as he had completely forgotten about his other Pokemon, but Nurse Joy assured him they were now fully healed. The Pallet Town let out a sigh of relief and clipped the five Pokeballs to his belt and said his goodbye to Nurse Joy as he finally left the room.

Whilst making his way towards room 201, Ash thought about what the nurse had told him and found it quite strange that Brandon would book a room for the night. It was only 6pm and he was fully expecting the Pyramid King to want the group to continue their way towards the Three-Point Pass, and the Pallet Town trainer was certain the location couldn't have been that far away anyways. Yeah, there was the delay of them meeting Articuno and him falling unconscious, but Ash had been through worse and still kept going. Heck, Brandon had probably seen him go through worse, yet this time, he went as far as to delay the adventure one more day, something that Ash wasn't even informed about until Nurse Joy told him about it just a minute ago.

Distracted by too many questions in his mind, Ash had unknowingly reached room 201, with the door to the room already slightly opened, but no lights seemed to be on. He told Pikachu on his shoulder to keep quiet and the duo peaked their heads inside. They were both surprised to see Chloe sat on the floor, staring idly through the window. Ash noticed the dim mood and decided against his original plan to scare the girl as payback for the Thunderbolt wake up on the train a couple hours ago, and he simply started walking towards the girl. Pikachu considered following, but decided not to, as he felt his trainer should talk to the girl alone, so he simply waited at the door and watched on. As Ash approached the maroon haired girl, he didn't utter a word and simply sat down next to her. Chloe obviously noticed this, and turned her head, only to find the trainer smiling softly at her. In that moment, she experienced multiple emotions in a very short span, consisting of relief, surprise and, strangely, nervousness. She looked as if she was about to say something, but stopped herself just before and kept looking at the snow lightly falling outside through the window, and the Hyper Class trainer did the same.

"The snow here sure is beautiful isn't it?" Finally said Ash, after a little while of silence.

"Yeah… it is…" Chloe responded quietly.

Another moment of quietness occurred, until Chloe noticed the bandage around Ash's right arm, and asked worriedly about it, since she didn't know about the state of his injury. "Your arm!? Is it okay!?"

"Nothing I can't handle!" He said confidently, not wanting to worry his friend. Unfortunately for him, Chloe narrowed her eyes and proceeded to lift up his sleeve, where she could clearly see the heavy bruise mark through the bandage, and her mood seemed to dampen heavily. "I-I'm telling you it's fine, really!"

"I'm not stupid Ketchup..." She said firmly. Ash didn't reply as he didn't particularly know what to say in this situation. Chloe meanwhile quietly said. "It's all my fault… I knew I was just a nuisance…"

Ash turned to face her once more and immediately started contradicting her words. "Chloe, none of this is your fault-

"But it just is though!" The maroon haired girl stood up suddenly, raising her voice, and an eerie silence fell upon the two trainers, as the Vermillion city girl started getting irritated. "I'm not buying it, Ash! I know this is my fault! If only I was a competent trainer none of this would've happened! If... If only I wasn't here... none of this would've happened..."

Chloe started shaking at her own words, fist balled in a mix of frustration and anger, and Ash just sat there, not knowing how to react. The maroon haired girl, feeling her anger rise up again, raised her voice once more. "Don't you get it!? The only reason you almost died today was because you had to save me from falling off a cliff because I couldn't take care of myself! There's no point in acting like I'm not to blame when I clearly am, you're just blatantly lying at this point!"

Now Ash was starting to get fed up with the maroon haired girl, as he was tired of the young girl accusing herself for what happened. He stood up and looked her straight in the eyes. "Listen Chloe, I was the one who made the conscious decision to jump after you, so the only person at fault for my injury is me and me only, I'm tired of you thinking you can't do anything right and that you're always a problem when that just isn't true! If it was, we just wouldn't have let you come with us in the first place!"

Ash's reply frustrated Chloe even more and, to Ash's unpleasant surprise, a few tears started to come out as she started yelling at him even louder. "I don't get you Ash! Why do you always insist it's no one's fault when it clearly is!? Can't you just blame someone for once, you selfless idiot! You're literally one of the best one hundred trainers in the entire world and yet you still blame yourself for an accident that could have literally KILLED you because someone like me has absolutely no idea what they are doing when it comes to anything in this stupid world! Heck, why did you even save me in the first place!? You should've just let me fall! It's not like I am of any use to anyone anyways! It's not like anyone would have cared! I'm just a stupid girl with an Eevee that can't take even care of herself! A dumb city girl that is too afraid to face the real world herself by finding a dream of her own so she's stuck tending flowers at school all alone like a moron! Seriously, why do you guys even waste your time with someone like m-

Ash, acting impulsively, suddenly wrapped his arms around the maroon haired girl and pulled her into a hug. The girl was left stunned and started blushing furiously at the sudden embrace. "A-A-Ash! W-What a-are you-

"Look Chloe…" The girl in question stayed completely immobilized as Ash started talking, still embracing her. "I know a lot of what I say sometimes sounds really stupid to you but, at least just this time, you have to listen and believe me when I say that, you're not useless. You're not a problem, and you're not a nuisance either. I get that you think you're at fault a lot of times or that you think are out of place, and maybe you're right. Maybe I wouldn't have gotten injured if I didn't dive after you, maybe things wouldn't have taken a turn for the worse, but you have to realize there's a reason I jumped after you in the first place, and that's because you are important to us, and I don't ever want you to think otherwise."

Chloe couldn't understand what was happening. The mix of Ash's warm embrace, that seemingly radiated security to her, and his reassuring words that comforted her much more than she ever thought they could, made her feel… safe. The strange yet tender feeling of the Pallet Town trainer hugging her, along with the frustration she currently had with herself, was simply too much for her. All the different emotions she experienced in the past minutes, had finally broken her. Tears started to come out uncontrollably as she returned the embrace, and cried quietly on the trainer's shoulder, who comforted her gently.

Countless minutes passed where no one moved, nor uttered a single word, with only the sound of a maroon haired girl quietly sniffling resonating in the noiseless room from time to time. As much as it may not seem like it, in those multiple minutes, Chloe had never felt so reassured in her entire life.

Brandon, slowly but surely walking through the snow, sighed for what felt like the millionth time already. "Just how far did that kid go…" He said with a frown.

It had been about an hour since he had told Chloe he'd go out to find where Goh had gone, but he still hadn't found him. He even tried asking the people in Freezington, only to be met with shrugs and negatives as responses. The Pyramid King knew the young researcher couldn't have gone that far, since he knew the Goh was smart enough to realize it wasn't the best idea after meeting a wild Galarian Articuno just a few hours prior, but with the countless tall trees and wild Pokemon surrounding the area, it was definitely not an easy search.

Five more minutes passed, and Brandon was almost about to give up and wait for him to return to the Pokemon Center, but he suddenly heard an explosion near the train station they had arrived at earlier. He made his way through the snowy area, using the now frequent sounds of explosions as directions. The Pyramid King eventually arrived at a small clearing, free from any trees or wild Pokemon, and saw Goh seriously commanding his Cinderace.

"Pyro Ball!"

"Cinder!"

The striker Pokemon juggled three rocks as if they were soccer balls and fired them at a stone pillar pretty far away from where they were, all three of them making contact. Brandon was impressed by this, as it was clear the Pokemon had battling capabilities. The Frontier Brain noticed this when they were fighting Articuno as well; Cinderace had no problem listening to his trainer commands and executing them, but the problem was that the pair had no strategy at all, which made it easier for Articuno to predict their movements. Brandon had figured out pretty easily that the reason Goh seemed distant after the Articuno battle was because he felt like he could've done a lot better, and Brandon was planning to help the young trainer realize what he did wrong in said battle.

He approached the trainer slowly and said. "You really aren't being discreet you know, I could hear the explosions from a mile away."

Goh turned his head, and when he saw Brandon approaching, he jumped in surprise. "O-Oh… Hey Brandon, I was just-

"I know what you were doing here." The man calmly interrupted, which made the researcher flinch slightly, as the Frontier Brain pulled out a Pokeball. "Come on, let's have a battle."

Goh was visibly not expecting Brandon to suggest that. "A battle? Why?"

"Don't think about why, let's just do it." Responded the experienced trainer.

"Uh, alright I guess…"

Brandon went to the other side of the clearing and released his Pokemon, revealing a Solrock. Goh took a second and quickly scanned it with his pokedex. "Solrock, the Meteorite Pokémon. Solrock has the ability to read its opponents' minds. It attacks by rotating quickly, while giving off intense heat." The device said.

"Okay well… Cinderace, let's go! He exclaimed, as his ace Pokemon stood in front of him.

"Show me what you got then!" Brandon shouted from the other side, slightly provokingly.

"Pyro Ball Cinderace!" The bunny didn't need to be told twice as he quickly shot a burning rock towards the opposing Pokemon, who easily evaded it without the need for Brandon to say anything.

"Argh, Pyro Ball again!"

"Derace!"

Once again Brandon didn't utter a single word and Solrock dodged the incoming Pyro Balls with no trouble at all. "Your Cinderace has other moves you know! Trying to defeat a Pokemon like Solrock with just Pyro Balls isn't going to get you anywhere!"

"B-But it's our best move…" Tried arguing Goh.

"You're not thinking straight Goh…" Started off Brandon. "You've seen Ash battle with Pikachu in official battles right?" Goh nodded slightly and listened on. "Ash doesn't just use Thunderbolt to knock out every Pokemon because it's Pikachu's best attack, he uses all 4 of his moves to try and outsmart his opponent. Pikachus in general aren't necessarily very strong, but the way Ash uses Pikachu to its fullest capabilities is the reason they make such a good team. I can clearly see that Cinderace is naturally very strong, but you have to think smart... and if Ash of all people can do that, you can too."

Goh took time to take in Brandon's word. He was right. He never really thought as to why Pikachu was so good in battles as only a second stage evolution, but what the Pyramid King made a lot of sense. Earlier today, he was too distracted by saving Ash and Chloe when he faced the Galarian Articuno that he wasn't thinking straight, and just tried to win with brute force, and if Brandon wasn't there to take the lead, things could have ended a lot worse.

Goh lightly slapped his cheeks and refocused. He needed to focus on this battle and this battle only. "Alright, Cinderace, get in close with Blaze Kick!"

The fire type started running towards the part psychic type, his legs burning up as he ran. The Pokemon was about to make contact with Solrock, but Brandon wasn't just going to sit there and watch. "Fly up and use Shadow Ball!

The Solrock quickly levitated upwards just before Cinderace hit him, making Goh's Pokemon miss, and quickly fired off a Shadow Ball in one quick motion, hitting the bunny's back. Cinderace fell face first on the snow and Goh saw Brandon smirk.

"Don't forget the opposing Pokemon isn't just a punching bag either…"

The Vermillion City researcher was starting to get ticked off, but this time, he remembered to not let his emotions affect him, and quickly ordered Cinderace's next move. "Quick Attack, run around it!"

As the Striker Pokemon started running circles around his Solrock, Brandon noted Goh was doing the same thing that Ash did with Lucario when they faced his Regirock yesterday. He smiled, happy to know he was at the very least observant, and decided to see what the trainer could come up with.

"Faster Cinderace! Kick up some snow while you're running!"

Using the speed from quick attack, The starter Pokemon managed to kick up a ton of snow as it sprinted and in turn, blocked Solrock's vision. Brandon was not expecting this and quickly ordered his own Pokemon to stay vigilant, although Goh already had the advantage.

"Now Cinderace! Pyro Ball!"

"Cinderace!"

With it's vision blurred from the snow Solrock couldn't dodge the assault of Pyro Balls that was coming his way, eventually knocking the rock-psychic type to the floor.

"Alright! Nice Going Cinderace!" Goh exclaimed happily, earning a thumbs up from his Pokemon.

"Getting cocky now are we?" Brandon said suddenly, earning Goh's attention. Solrock levitated up from the ground and the Pyramid King switched to offense. "Psywave!"

Goh panicked slightly as he lost focus for a moment, but quickly concentrated back to the battle. "Dodge it!" Cinderace, slightly off balanced, managed to dodge the incoming waves of psychic energy, but before he even had time to think, Solrock had already fired off a Confusion without Brandon needing to say a word. The Striker Pokemon stumbled backwards and little yellow birds appeared above it's head, indicating it was confused.

"Oh no! Cinderace, snap out of it!" Goh said worriedly, but to no avail.

"Alright, enough playing around… Solar Beam Solrock!" Brandon ordered his part rock type.

The Pokemon in question immediately got to charging a Solar Beam whilst Cinderace was still confused. To Goh's shock, despite the fact it was already sunset, Solrock charged the move very quickly, and Cinderace was struck with the powerful grass type attack, sending him crashing into a nearby tree. Goh worriedly ran towards his Pokemon as Brandon thanked Solrock for his services and returned him to his Pokeball, already knowing the result of the battle.

"Cinderace, you okay!?" The young trainer said to his Pokemon, who responded with a weak cry.

"I'm not a Frontier Brain for nothing you know…" Brandon taunted as he approached the pair. "But it seems like you learned something important today, so let's go back to the Pokemon Center kid." The Pyramid King had already turned around and started walking away when Goh stopped him.

"Wait a second!" Brandon came to a halt but didn't turn back around. "I-I have other Pokemon too... could you teach me a little more about battles? I-If you don't mind of course..."

A small smile crept onto the Regi Master's face, as he quickly unclipped a Pokeball and threw it into the air. Goh was once again left stunned as Brandon revealed a Registeel.

"Fair warning though, I'm not gonna go easy on you…"

Goh didn't say anything but a visible grin appeared, as he too unclipped another Pokeball, and prepared himself for a hard fight.

An hour had passed since Ash had gotten back to the room and Chloe had now calmed down. The mood had lightened up from before and, after Chloe explained to Ash where their other friends had gone, the pair calmly waited for their return. The Vermillion City girl had finally decided to let Eevee out earlier and the Pokemon immediately started running around carelessly, clearly full of energy from being stuck inside its Pokeball. Pikachu, who had entered the room a while ago, tried to get the normal type to calm down with little success, and quickly resorted to joining Ash in simply watching World Coronation Series battles on the TV. Chloe wasn't particularly doing anything special either, and alternated between going through her Rotom Phone and observing the battles with Ash. The girl found it pretty funny how Ash was really getting into the matches, even though he wasn't participating, and used that as her main source of entertainment.

As Ash was excitedly commenting on how good a person named Flint was doing to Pikachu, she reflected upon what had happened an hour ago. She felt a lot better, and it was pretty obvious it was thanks to who. His words reassured a great amount that's for sure, though his actions more or so just left her confused. Chloe still didn't really know why Ash had hugged her so suddenly, but it oddly felt comforting, and made her feel like everything was going to be alright in the end.

The Vermillion City girl turned to look at her companion and saw him with a beaming smile on his face, completely concentrated on the battle on the TV, making strange and very expressive gestures towards the screen whenever something mildly interesting happened. Chloe smiled at the sight and a small tinge of pink appeared on her cheeks as she unknowingly started staring at the young trainer completely focused on the match. Pikachu noticed the girl's gaze and let out a confused cry while tilting his head at her. "Pika-chu?"

Ash, hearing the sound of his partner, turned to look at him, then looked at Chloe, who was staring at him strangely, seemingly in some sort of daze. "Um… Chloe?" He said a little uncomfortably.

Ash's words snapped Chloe out of her absent-minded state, and when she noticed what she was doing, she awkwardly fumbled out a reply. "Huh?… O-Oh! Y-Yeah Ash?"

"You feeling okay? You were kinda just… staring…"

"Y-Yeah I'm fine, I-I was just lost in thought..."

Ash was a bit concerned, but he let it slide. "Uh, if you say so I guess…"

An awkward tension filled the room as everyone, even including Eevee who had abruptly stopped running around excitedly, looked at Chloe weirdly, so the maroon haired girl did what she did earlier today when she woke Ash up on the train to the Crown Tundra and said the first thing that came to her head. "S-So... I-I wonder if Brandon has found Goh yet, he's been gone for quite a while now.

"You're right, I hope nothing bad happened… again." Ash chuckled slightly then rested his chin on his palm in a thinking manner. "Now that I think about it, do you know why Goh left in the first place? It doesn't seem particularly like him to just get up and leave everybody."

Chloe shook her head. "No, I barely even realized Goh left, I was kinda distracted with, well you know... "

"Ah right, gotcha…" Ash, remembering the near breakdown she had earlier, quickly asked her how she felt about it. "Are you feeling better about… that?"

"Yeah, I feel a lot better now…" Chloe then realized she hadn't even thanked him yet so she nervously did so. "T-Thank you f-for earlier by the way... I-I really appreciate it."

"Just as long as you remember what I told you, I know you'll be fine, and if you ever need anyone to talk to, I'm right here." He replied with a smile.

His surprisingly caring attitude made the Vermillion City girl feel embarrassed, so even though she was really truly grateful for making her feel better, she replied with a little dig at him to lighten up the mood. "It still bothers me how you can be both an annoying Pokemon addict that only thinks about battling and a person that can understand actual emotions…"

"And it still bothers me how you just can't seem to be nice to me for more than two seconds…"

"Let me say the exact same thing you said to me this morning. I'm only mean to you because you're easy to frustrate, and I find that really funny!" The duo suddenly burst out laughing at Chloe's words, and Eevee and Pikachu just looked at them in total confusion, thinking their trainers had gone insane.

"I guess that works both ways…" Ash said while rubbing his nose.

"It sure does…"

A couple moments later, the door to the room opened abruptly, and Brandon appeared, this time, alongside Goh. "Goh!" Exclaimed Ash and Chloe simultaneously.

The young researcher in question immediately went and greeted Ash with a worried look on his face. " Ash! Are you okay!? Brandon told me about your injury on the way here."

"Yeah I'm fine, just a bruised shoulder, nothing too major, but what about you? Where were you this whole time?"

"Um… well…"

Brandon suddenly put his arm around Goh and interrupted. "He had some things to take care of, but he's doing just fine, I made sure of it."

Ash seemed a little suspicious, but since he trusted both him and Brandon, he didn't worry too much about it. "Okay well… it's good to see you again!"

As Goh and Ash shook hands like always, Brandon went up to Chloe, who was smiling at her two friends reuniting, and said in a low voice. "You seem to be doing better."

"Y-Yeah, Ash helped me calm down…" She said shyly.

"Of course he did…" The Pyramid King's response confused the maroon haired girl, but before she could question what he meant, Brandon coughed loudly to catch the attention of everyone. "Alright listen up everyone, Nurse Joy said Ash's injury should be healed by tomorrow morning, so let's get some rest today and tomorrow, we focus on getting to the Three-Point Pass, we've already wasted a whole day due to some, complications, so we can't afford to waste anymore time. We leave at 10am tomorrow morning, so be ready. And please, try not to be late this time Ash…"

"I-I won't…" The Hyper Class trainer said while laughing sheepishly.

Tomorrow, the group of four's quest to discover the mystery behind the strange readings in the temple in the Crown Tundra truly begins. Their adventure still has a lot of unknown obstacles ahead, and their complications have only just begun...