After the battle is over, we call the police and an ambulance to our location and they arrive before long. The fire dogs are taken to a Pokémon Center, while Nate and I are taken to an actual hospital. Dawn is forced to stay behind to fill the cops in on what's happened.

When we actually arrive at the hospital, Nate and I are taken to two different wards. On my end, the only thing they do is bandage up my arm, though it doesn't escape me how they shudder when I mention the scratches come from human nails.

In any case, when they're done bandaging me up, I walk away and look for the room where Nate is being kept. After some asking around, I'm directed to a room in the psychiatric ward, the door to it closed.

I knock on the door. Nobody answers.

I knock again, more forcefully this time.

"Uh? Oh, enter!"

I open the door and find Nate resting in a bed, his usual clothes replaced by a hospital gown, and looking at nothing in particular with a forlorn look. One that disappears when he notices me.

"Oh, Eugenio!" He exclaims, and I walk over to his side. "I...uhm…"

I glance around, pick the first chair I can see and place it to the side of the bed. I then sit down and cross my arms. "How are you doing, Nate?" I ask, my tone as soft as I can make it.

"I…" He turns away from me. "I'm not sure. I keep thinking of what happened out there and-"

He gulps and doesn't continue.

"Want to talk about it?" I intervene. "That could help."

He stays quiet at first, fidgeting in place as his mouth twitches. I'm just about to try something else, when he decides to speak.

"That...thing frightened me more than that Jupiter lady did," he slowly states, his voice's volume just above a whisper. "I-I know that sounds weird considering what happened then and now, but-"

"No," I cut him off, his head jerking in my direction as a result. "No it doesn't."

For all her cruelty, Jupiter had done little more than threats. That Nidoking was actually about to kill him and his team.

"I...I had always thought of Pokémon battling as just friendly competition," Nate then continues. "Even with what happened two years ago all across Unova, the idea of Pokémon genuinely wanting to hurt others never felt real. And-" He fails to suppress a shudder. "That Nidoking had no trainer giving it orders. Nothing that could be blamed for what it did. It tried to eat Mary and crush Mister Jaw's skull of its own volition. Why?"

I purse my lips, suddenly wishing I'd paid more attention to philosophy in high school.

"Because," I say, taking a shaky breath before continuing, "Pokémon are similar to humans under many points of view. There is good, and then there is evil in them. Which one they choose to express is up to them."

When Nate doesn't respond, I take it as a cue to continue. "Take Mister Jaw himself for example. That Nidoking had just tried to kill him and his intentions were clearly to protect you and the others. But was blinding one of his eyes really the right thing to do?"

He shudders again before answering. "In all honesty, I don't know."

What?!

"Punishing someone so vile that gave so little weight to lives should always be the thing to do, I know that much. And that's what Mister Jaw was doing. But the way he went about...it didn't feel wrong. But it didn't feel right, either."

Oh, dear God. How am I supposed to handle this?!

"That punishing someone vile is the right thing to do is something I won't argue about," I concede. "But what you speak of is justice. And there is a thin line between that and vengeance."

He looks at me confusedly. "Is there?" There is no hint of denigration in his voice. He's genuinely asking.

"Yes. Justice is making sure wrong-doers pay for what they did. Vengeance is the wronged ones lashing out at them. And that is a path on which the wronged ones run a high risk of becoming just like the wrong-doers."

Nate lowers his head. "In this case, Mister Jaw consciously choosing to draw blood on other Pokémon. That is what you mean, isn't it?"

"Yes." No sense beating around the bush, I guess.

A few moments of silence pass between us. Nate then clutches his arms as he speaks again, this time in a more broken voice. "It's my fault for that. If I had been a better trainer, he wouldn't have done that." He tightens his grip. "No, if I had been a better trainer, that Nidoking would never-!"

"Hey," I interrupt him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "What happened out there is not your fault. Or Mister Jaw's. It was that Nidoking that wanted to harm you. And it was whatever bastard trained him that allowed him to behave like this."

Nate sniffs. "I just...I wish his evolution did not make him...this."

"I know. But there is nothing saying that the damage can't be undone." Nate raises his stupefied gaze to me again. "If you and the rest of your team are willing to accept him. To aid him. To believe in him."

Nate looks just about ready to open his mouth and respond with something. Unfortunately, he doesn't get the chance to.

"Excuse me?" a nurse asks as she enters the room, looking at the two of us. Or - more specifically - at Nate. "Mister Nate Black?"

"Y-yes?"

"You're needed at the lower floors. There's a problem with your Vibrava."

I frown at hearing that. What happened now?

"Vib!" the dragonfly protests, flapping his wings threateningly whenever someone so much as approaches him and showing them his fangs.

"I've been told he's been acting this the whole time," the nurse says as we watch from behind the room's glass. "We need to check on him, but we can't so long as he is like this." She turns to me. "What happened?"

"You haven't been told?" I huff out while Nate reaches with his hand toward his Pokémon, the glass preventing him from doing so.

"Only that he fought a Nidoking that left him in bad shape. We weren't given the details."

My hands clench into fists as I grit my teeth. I know exactly what the problem is. Something he shouldn't have had to deal with in the first place. Nor should his trainer.

I lean closer to the nurse's ear and finally answer with, "Earlier today, he was still a Trapinch. When that Nidoking crushed his skull, he was forced to evolve."

The nurse winces. "I...I see." She steps over to the door and then gestures for Nate to follow her. "In that case, I believe seeing his trainer should help."

Nate lets down a gulp, but complies after that.

After stepping into the room, the nurse gestures in the Ground-type direction and Nate hesitantly walks in his direction.

Mister Jaw relaxes when he sees his trainer approaching, wings dropping down, mouth closing and the black beneath his membranes widening. He seems to even manage to muster a smile.

Unfortunately, when Nate tries to reach and pat him, that smile goes away and he spreads his wings again. The hurt expression that comes to Nate's face as he retracts his hand and the way Mister Jaw drops his head afterward feel like fists to my stomach.

Despite that, Nate purses his lips and hardens his face. He then steps closer to Mister Jaw, making sure to keep his hands lowered as he does so. He manages to get to his bed's side, his eyes always on his Pokémon while the Vibrava doesn't raise his head again.

I think my heart skips a beat when Nate reaches for the Vibrava's back and starts stroking it.

True to my worries, the Pokémon tenses his wings again when he's touched. But it doesn't get further than that, as Mister Jaw finally lifts his head up, his gaze met by his trainer's reassuring smile.

"I'm sorry," Nate says. "I let you down there. Again."

...again?

"Vib?" the Vibrava responds. "Bra va! Vib!"

"I did," Nate continues. "This was the second time I took you into a fight. During the first one, I got you beaten down by Burgh's Pokémon. This time, I ended up having you suffer something much worse."

Oh, Nate…

He lowers his head, avoiding his Pokémon's gaze. "I understand if you don't want to be by my side anymore."

I watch with bated breath as the Vibrava just stares at him for the following moments. After those have passed, he takes off for a moment and lands on Nate's arm. He raises it and is met by the sight of Mister Jaw clutching to it as tightly as his tiny legs can allow him and offering a smile to him. One that Nate returns.

I let out a sigh of relief at seeing that. I don't know how those two are going to be from now on. But hopefully we haven't lost either of them.

Later in the day, I'm at one of the vending machines, looking at what drinks are sold. Unfortunately, I still have no idea what any of the beverages are, so I decide to just buy water.

But after selecting it, I stiffen in place as two arms wrap themselves around my chest and gently embrace me. And soon, they're followed by a head resting between my shoulder blades.

"Uh…"

"Are you alright?"

Dawn!

Her arms let go of me as I turn around, soon met by her worried face. I wrap her in my own arms and the two of us hug one another tightly.

"I'm fine," I tell her. "A few scratches on my arm, but Annette's spikes were much worse than that."

"Not just that," she says from over my shoulder. "How are you holding together?"

A gulp escapes me. "I'm...managing," I tentatively reply. "I think. I...haven't really had the time to stop and process what happened. And I..."

I have to stop that sentence as the events replay themselves in my head. How the Pokémon of those two Pinchers had my team cornered. How I had to step in myself. How that Nidoking had Nate and his Pokémon dead to rights. How Mister Jaw had to-

It happens involuntarily and I stop myself as soon as I realize it, but my hold on Dawn tightens for a moment.

"It's never easy the first time," Dawn whispers in my ear. "Mine was at the Valley Windworks. My battle against Mars shook me like none before. And it wasn't because I lost or because it wasn't a friendly competition. I had had experiences like that before. No, what shook me was how much more powerful than anything I'd come across before her Purugly was. And how thoroughly she took advantage of that. Nothing held back, no hesitation, no mercy. Just a ruthless beatdown."

A shiver goes down my spine. "How did you handle that?"

"Mars was never as cruel as Jupiter." She shivers at saying the other Commander's name. "And after she and Team Galactic left, I stayed in Floaroma for a few days to recover. That's when I caught Drif." She fails to suppress a sigh. "But after that I was fine. Until-"

"Until Eterna."

She doesn't reply. She just holds me tighter.

"I think I see what you mean," I tell her. "We could all definitely use a break after this. Especially Nate."

At hearing that, Dawn lets go of me and distances just enough to look me in the eyes, her gaze filled with worry. "How is he? He took the worst of it all."

I purse my lips and shake my head. "Not well."

I then tell her everything that happened. What he told me and what happened with his Vibrava. Dawn shudders at hearing the kind of conversation the two of us had. But she manages to let out a sigh of relief at how the situation with Mister Jaw went.

"What on your end?" I then ask her. "Anything new?"

She shakes her head. "Not really. When I brought up the Pinchers, they called that ranger Summer. She told me to relay her thanks for intervening and added that the path between the city and the refinery will be guarded from now on, but nothing else." She gives the closest elevator a quick glance. "Do you think it's a good idea if I check on Nate?"

I nod. "Definitely. I suspect he'll need as many friendly faces around as he can."

I give her directions to Nate's room and the one where Mister Jaw was being kept. I also tell her I'll rejoin right after I pick up my water and she gets going.

The moment I turn in the elevator's direction, though, I feel something grabbing my foot. I look down and I find a Salandit looking up at me, with its paws wrapped around my ankle. And the moment we make eye contact, it starts climbing my leg and my torso, until it finally settles on top of my shoulder. After which, we stare at each other, the Poison-type smiling at me.

"What the-?"

"Sorry, I guess he recognized you from the ranger base," a new feminine voice chuckles. Turning in its direction, I'm met by the surprising sight of a smirking Roxie.

"Hey there! I see someone was being romantic around here."

I decide to ignore her Pokémon for now and frown at her. "Did no one ever tell you it's rude to listen in on other people's conversations?"

She chuckles lightly. "Sorry about that. When I heard you and your group had been hospitalized, I came here looking for you. Your girlfriend got to you right before I could."

"She's n-"

I cut myself off. She technically is now, isn't she?

Although Roxie seems to notice my hesitation, as she says, "Hey, no need to get defensive with me. The fact she's an ex-Champion doesn't mean you have to keep it a secret."

Another one? "Why is everyone able to tell who she is so easily?" I mutter.

"Are you kidding me?" Roxie chuckles. "Eight years ago you couldn't be a kid interested in Pokémon battling and not know who she and Ethan Gold we-"

As she cuts herself off, her smirk drops and her speech is slightly less lively. "Sorry, you probably don't know what I'm talking about."

Oh no, is that the kind of treatment I should expect from her?

"I know the gist of it," I say, crossing my arms while Roxie perks up her head. "Two new young trainers, one from Johto and one from Sinnoh, both from the farthest, most rural corners of their region. They took on the Gyms and within a year, Dawn just a few months after Ethan, became the new Champions. That about right?"

"Yup!" Roxie exclaims in surprise. "I was honestly more of a fan of Ethan Gold, but I'd be lying if I said Dawn wasn't amazing in her own right." The tips of her mouth briefly twitch downward. "It's a shame she cut her career as a trainer short."

I let out a sigh. "Life doesn't always go the way we envision."

She sighs as well as she rubs the back of her head. "Yeah, I getcha. It's not easy balancing my career as a musician and my duties as a Gym leader. I can only imagine what the Champion's responsibilities are like."

If only that were all the issues Dawn had.

"But anyway, I'm not here to talk about that," she says, shrugging before hardening her face. "The other guy from your group - Nate, right?" I nod. "Is he the son of Mister Black from Nature Today?"

If I had been drinking, this would be the part where I spit it all out. "How do you know that?"

"We met once before," she replies, taking me aback. "Five years ago, we ran into each other near the refinery. We didn't get each other's names at the time, but I managed to see his dad, who I then recognized from one of Nature Today's articles."

I blink at that statement. "The girl that he saw catch a Venipede...it was you?"

Her eyes slightly widen. "He remembers me?"

"He, uh…" He got a crush on you back then and he apparently never got over it. "Yeah, he does. He didn't tell us that was the local Gym leader, though."

She lets out an amused snort. "I'm not surprised. Like I said, we never got each other's names. Unless he listens to my band, I doubt he'd have figured it out. Heck, I mostly remember him because of those pupils of his."

Well...this is getting kind of awkward.

"Anyway," She crosses her arms and her face turns serious. More than I've seen so far. "He's really in that much of a bad shape?"

Ah…"You heard that, didn't you?"

She just nods at that.

"Yes," I sigh. "What we were up against was not kind to him."

She purses her lips at hearing that.

"Well," she sighs after a bit. "In that case, maybe he'll be relieved to know the Pinchers won't get away with this. The Terra Foundation is about to release the Salandits in the wilds. Mister Ottavio will make the announcement tomorrow."

Wait, what? "Already?"

Her brow furrows. "If anything, if they became so daring as to operate near the refinery, I'd say we've waited too long."

I let down a gulp. "I know you've said it before, but are you really okay with your Pokémon taking such a risk?"

She gives me a stiff but solemn nod. "I am. I trust everyone in this operation to do their part. I wouldn't have proposed it in the first place if I didn't."

Oh, you have no idea what you're in for.

Her features soften. "Still, if you and your friends want to call out, you are free to do so. No one would blame you for needing time to yourselves.

We can't. Not while Tabitha is still involved. "I can't speak for the others, but I'm not quitting. We've come too far."

A smirk returns to her face. "That's the spirit!" she says as she bumps a fist on my unwounded arm. Not strong enough to actually hurt, but enough that I have to massage it. "Then I'll make sure the rangers will let you know when we have something."

I nod to her. "Thank you." I then finally glance at the Salandit again. "So, uhm...can you call him off?"

"Actually, I've got a better idea." She tosses a Poké Ball at me, which I barely manage to grab. "Say hello to your new team member!"

I stare at her dumbfoundedly. "Are you serious? One of your own Pokémon? Just like that?"

Her smirk doesn't waver. Her tone does. "One of the harsh truths of Pokémon breeding is that you are likely to end up with several Pokémon that don't match what you were going for. In my case, several more male Salandits than I'd intended. I'm looking for trainers I can trust to look after them, but most are only interested in females. But you - you are after Pokémon that can't evolve, right?"

"...how can you tell?"

"I've watched recordings of your fight with Burgh. Not many would challenge a Bug-types specialist with a team like yours. Especially when there are much more viable options."

Riiiiiight…

"So what do you say? He likes you, and I can tell a guy willing to start a fistfight to defend wild Growlithes is trustworthy."

Not gonna ask how she figured that one out.

"Not sure if my sponsor will approve," I say. "They were the ones who told me to use non-evolving mons. And considering the females do evolve, that may not count."

"Buuuuuut!" I hastily add when the Salandit drops his head. "I'll try to convince them."

Roxie nods. "That is all I ask. I'm sure a guy like you will know how to make himself heard."

What is that supposed to mean?

"Anyway, bye!" she concludes, waving at me and her former Pokémon. "Behave with him, Salandit!"

Before I can say anything more, Roxie is already walking away from me, the Salandit waving back at her. I follow her until she takes the stairs to go down. And then I turn to my new team member.

"So, uh…" I start. "She called you Salandit. I take it she didn't give you a nickname yet?" He shakes his head. "Well, uhm...how about Hubert?"

He responds by licking my cheek. And I feel the skin over it start to itch more and more.

Less than a minute together, and I'm already wondering if I can handle a Poison-type.

[Wes]

I pick up my phone after watching the Terra Foundation's announcement with the Salandits and text Tabitha.

Wes: nice going

Wes: guess your days being a lieutenant came in handy, huh?

To my surprise, it doesn't take long before I receive a reply from him.

Ottavio: Please, don't bring that up.

Ottavio: I still don't like the fact I'm selling my men out.

I purse my lips in frustration at reading that.

Wes: those are not your men

Wes: you all made your choices

Wes: you decided to move on

Wes: they decided to double down on being crooks

Ottavio: You assume they had much of a choice when we disbanded Team Magma.

Wes: and you didn't?

Tabitha doesn't answer me.

Wes: look, i get it you are trying to look after them

Wes: but you have other responsibilities now besides yourself, don'tcha?

Again, he takes a moment to answer.

Ottavio: I do.

Wes: good. then let US worry about courtney and the others, arite?

Wes: we get plasma members, hikari and co get off your back and you get to keep bringing food home

Ottavio: Very well.

Despite his words, I can't help but be worried. For Arceus' sake, why did three upstarts have to make everything more complicated all of a sudden?

Yes, I know what I said last time. But this chapter was already half-way done and I had pretty free week-end, so shush.

Thanks to Softandhappy for betareading. You can find us at the Fanfiction Treehouse discord server at: 9XG3U7a

See you all next time!