Thanks to everyone that answered my question on the flashback chapters. I was curious since I wasn't sure if people viewed them as annoying since it puts everything on hold for a few chapters. I'll try my best to make future content as convenient as possible.

Book II: Impending Twilight

Chapter 86: Ivy

Point of View Aiden

I comfortably lied on a mattress, still hidden below some bed sheets. I gave out a tired yawn and tried to fall back asleep. I wasn't ready to start my day, it was too early. Bright rays of sunlight shone through the window making it rather difficult to sleep past noon. For the next thirty minutes I tossed and turned as I tried to sleep, but I submitted after a bit and threw my blanket off me. I let out a groggy yawn as I crawled off the fire resistant mattress I slept on.

"Ughhh, what time is it," I grumbled as I looked towards the clock, "Eleven-forty-three… I'm up early today," I noted as I walked towards the door to my bedroom. I pushed the door open and made my way downstairs towards the kitchen.

David was in the kitchen talking to someone on the phone while he scratched his blonde hair with his free hand, I would have eavesdropped, but it was too early for this stuff right now. My first priority was breakfast. I made my way towards the fridge and to the pantry and acquired the necessary items to start my day right: a bowl, a spoon, some two percent milk, and some captain munch. I hopped up on a stool at the table and I poured my bowl of cereal and I began to eat my breakfast as David continued to talk on the phone.

"Yeah I gotcha, I'll be there right away," I heard David say as he put away his smart phone. David walked up to me and roughed up my head as he walked past me. "Sorry Aiden, I got to run, boss wants me in today," David said as he made his way towards the door as he grabbed a backpack full of his journalist stuff, which consisted of his camera, a laptop, notebooks, and all that good stuff you would think a journalist would have.

"But its Saturday," I commented as he began to open the front door.

"I know, I know. I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise. Also I left some cash for you to get lunch and stuff. See ya!" David said with a bit of pep as he left me to myself.

"Way to spend the weekend David," I remarked as I finished my bowl of cereal and pushed it to the side and laid my head on the table attempting to nap a little bit to shake off my grogginess. After a bit I gave up on napping, and I checked the spot David always left the money at. I walked into the living room where we had our couch and TV. I walked up to the table in front of the couch and located the twenty dollars David left me.

For the next two hours or so, I choose to kick it back and watch some TV. I mostly watched adult cartoons and such that we had recorded. The cartoons I watched were just so vulgar and stupid, and I loved it. After I felt satisfied with my kicking back time, I decided it was time to head out and do something. I grabbed my twenty dollars as I headed towards the door and I put it into my black sling backpack that had orange faded flame details on certain parts of it. The flames weren't obnoxious, they had an artistic design that made them look swag, not lame or anything like that. I slung the backpack over my shoulder and I headed out.

I walked around the streets of Lumiose city with one objective in my mind, hanging with Ivy for a bit. I walked to the house Ivy lived at with her trainer. I stood in front of the door as I rose my hand up to knock on it.

"Looking for someone?" someone called out from behind me. My head cocked back to see a snivy standing a few meters away as she wore a smirk on her face.

"Hey Ivy, I said I'd swing by sometime today," I said as I walked towards her, "What are you doing outside though?"

"Ehhh, just hanging in the sun, you know, I'm a grass type and all," she reminded me as she walked up to me and gave me a strong hug, even though she was actually pretty weak compared to me. I hugged her back as I lifted her off the ground for a moment and gave her quick kiss on the cheek.

"So, how would you like to get some lunch or something, my treat?" I asked her with a smile.

"I suppose, but I get to choose," she said as she giggled at the end of her sentence.

"Of course you get to choose," I said with a chuckle.

Ivy took me to some place that specialized in stuff like coffee, sandwiches, salads, and a whole bunch of other healthy things I didn't care for. We both got our meal to go; we had a place we preferred to visit when we had time. Before we left the shop I carefully placed our meals in my sling backpack and we headed towards the outskirts of Lumiose where we went on some trails in the forest, but it didn't take long for us to wonder off the trails.

Ivy and I headed towards this steep mountain like incline in the ground. We both began climbing up the rocky mountain like thingy. It was a long climb, and I usually did barely manage to make it to the top, I would imagine I'd die if I actually fell… Ivy didn't struggle as much as me since she used her vines to help her up. I gasped for air once I reached the peak of the mini mountain.

"Winded again?" Ivy joked with me as she walked along the rocky surface and looked off into the distance towards Lumiose. As I caught my breath I walked towards the edge as well and looked towards the city. From here we got a good view of Kalos. The way everything always looked so tiny from up here, the view amazed me every time. Being smaller than the average human child, and spending most of my time around humans, it felt nice to finally be above everyone for once.

After taking in the magnificent view, I took our lunches out of my bag. I kept both of our lunches contained in plastic containers that kept them from getting crushed. I handed Ivy her container as I sat down and pulled out my lunch. I opened up the container and began to eat my sandwich. Ivy on the other hand indulged in a nutritional salad. Ivy wasn't really much of a meat eater, she wasn't a vegetarian, but she took her diet to heart. I love the girl, but I swear she needed to eat more meat, but I guess keeping her figure required her to eat healthy… but a cheeseburger here and there wouldn't kill.

"I thought you said you wouldn't be able to see me until later?" Ivy questioned me as she continued to eat her salad.

"David got called into work for some reason, which pisses me off since his boss has no concept of what a weekend is," I replied with a mouthful of food.

"Welcome to life Aiden," Ivy said jokingly.

"Hah, I guess I have it easy," I replied with some honesty.

"I've been meaning to ask, did you ever find out when you and David are leaving on another trip?" Ivy questioned me.

"Crap that's right!" I shouted as I remembered, "Yeah I meant to tell you this a lot sooner, but we'll be leaving Tuesday. Sorry, it was kind of last minute for us, we just knew that the trip was coming up," I said as I nervously scratched the back of my head.

"It's fine, but when will you be back?"

"Ughh… anywhere from one to two weeks, but this stuff can be random," I answered.

"Awww, I see," Ivy said in disappointment.

"It's not that long," I reasoned with her.

"No, it's not long enough, I just can't get rid of you Aid-"

"Ay! You're the one who always wants to spend time together and stuff, so I'm guessing you're going to be left in emotional ruin after I leave," I teased Ivy.

"Totally, I'll just sit at home crying myself to sleep because I can't last one day without you," Ivy said with sarcasm.

"Heh, see I knew you wouldn't do well without me."

"I was being sarcastic!" Ivy piped up.

"Riiight," I said jokingly.

Many jokes later Ivy somewhat tired herself out with trying to convince me she could survive without me. Of course I knew she could, but her reactions were gold. Ivy leaned against my side as she wrapped her left arm around my front side and she basked in the sunlight. I on the other hand enjoyed the peace with her and stared off towards the city.

Usually Ivy and I weren't this boring, but we did enjoy spending time alone, especially in this spot since no one came up here. Ivy and I enjoyed doing many things together, games, movies, and just being idiotic together. Yep, she was someone I enjoyed being with.

After a long date with Ivy atop of the mini mountain thingy, we decided to climb down and head back home. After a very long walk we eventually made it back to Ivy's home. The day probably only had a few hours left until it would get dark out, and David and I did have plans to watch corny horror movies tonight, it was a Saturday tradition to watch movies so bad that is was hysterical.

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow, maybe?" I asked Ivy.

"I'll be free around this time tomorrow, so if you can stop by then, sure," Ivy answered.

"Gotcha, I'll see ya tomorrow then," I said as I gave Ivy a small wave, but she responded with a hug.

"I am going to miss you when you leave, just don't do anything stu-"

"Payton," A voice interrupted Ivy. "Payton!" the voice shouted from all directions, "Wake up already!"

My eyes sprang open as I awoke in the hotel room I was staying in. I let out a groggy yawn as I buried my head into the pillow I had.

"Come on Payton, today's the big day, or do you plan on sleeping all day?" Erika barked at me.

"Sleep always sounds good," I stated to myself as I clenched my eyes shut and tried to go back to my dream, but I found that it was slipping away from me, and that I had to accept that things weren't like that anymore.

"Come on, today's the day we conquer the second gym, so come get some lunch before we leave, and you need to stop sleeping in so late, it's not a good habit," Erika began lecturing me, but I just tried to block it out. Erika eventually left me to myself, and after I woke up a bit more I pried myself from the mattress.

I got off the mattress and leapt up onto a chair that was next to some cheap desk that was in the hotel. I looked across the room as I saw Erika carrying something over towards me. She handed me something wrapped in paper towels. The object was square and I could already tell what this meal was. I unfolded it to find a small sandwich on wheat bread.

I let out a depressed sigh, "Just like the dream," I said as I just placed the sandwich on the desk and ignored it. I loved sandwiches, but I wasn't really craving one at the moment, especially one that looked healthy. It looked like one of those sandwiches I would always get stuck eating when I spent time with Ivy. I was a sandwich lover, but I preferred a big meaty sandwich, not this disgraceful sandwich that hardly contained meat. Ivy usually always forced me to eat healthy, I hated it, but I was more than happy to put up with it for her.

I watched as everybody ate their lunch. Our team now consisted of three pokemon since Erika caught a mienfoo during our stay in Cyllage. She named the mienfoo Jade. Juda and I received a serious ass whooping to catch this pokemon. As we were getting the shit beat out of us, Erica surprised the mienfoo with a greatball, I guess the mienfoo wasn't strong enough to resist it. The mienfoo mostly remained quiet, she talked here and there but she spent most of her time meditating.

After everyone finished getting ready, we all headed out the door for the second gym.

Point of View Flare

Well, it was mid-afternoon at this point, and the sun was at its peak today. Our party was now travelling through the ruins that surrounded Geosenge. We all treaded through a field of overgrown grass and had many ancient ruins everywhere. Most of the ruins were shaped like spires, but many had collapsed and were worn out from the years. I could never remember what the purpose of these ruins were for, or if a reason as even discovered, kinda sad since I grew up around this area.

"So, anybody know what was up with all of these rocks?" Hesh asked as he tapped one of the spires.

"I have not the slightest clue," Black responded to Hesh.

"I believe archeologists are still trying to figure that out to this very day," Kana informed Hesh.

"Huh, well I can't see why someone would build all these spire shaped things… I mean why? Was there really nothing better to do back then?" Hesh jokingly asked.

"Who knows," Kana replied.

The conversation they were having carried on for a bit, and Black would jump in and out of it. I mostly blocked out what they were saying, I didn't really feel like talking to anyone right now, I just wanted to get out of here and never come back. Every step we took brought us closer to Geosenge, and I just couldn't stand going there and being reminded of who I was.

After a long walk through the ruins, we finally arrived… We all took a moment to stare at Geosenge town from afar. I gazed at the old worn out civilization that was out of touch with the modern world. a shudder ran through my body just from looking at the town.

"Well, here we are," Alex commented as he led us into the town.

Everyone followed behind Alex as I stood frozen in place. 'I can't do this," I said in my head. I tightened my teeth together as I stared at the town. Everything about it looked so innocent, there was no reason to be driven away like I was. That is, except for my background here. No one here would know me, but it was the memories that I feared the most. I didn't want to be reminded of those days. I didn't want to be reminded of Annie, and I didn't want to remember those I stood by.

Point of View Aiden

I gasped heavily as I pulled myself up the mountain that would lead us to the second gym. I had finally reached the bloody top of this evil place. I panted heavily as I lied on my back and felt like dying right there. Mountain climbing was a lot easier when the distance to be traveled wasn't so far… The rest of my teammates managed to get up here before me, and most of them had already recovered from the long climb. Erika walked up to me and handed me a bottle of water out of the backpack she had.

"Here, I'm sure you'd appreciate some," Erika said.

"Thanks," I replied with gratitude as I took the water and began to slam it down. My dry throat instantly became replenished, but I still wanted more than what I had. After I finished chugging the water I handed it to Erika and she placed the empty bottle in her bag.

"Take a few guys, I know you're all probably exhausted right now, I know I am," Erika said as she sat down and looked off into the distance. It took a moment for me to look up, but when I did I got a perfect view of Cyllage city. My jaw dropped from the sight, it was just awesome. We were so high up, I mean really high up, this was even higher than the spot Ivy and I always went to.

"Pretty nice view isn't it," My bulbasaur teammate said as he sat next to me.

"Yeah," I said with a bit of nostalgia. This view really did take me back to my time with Ivy and our special spot…

After a ten minute break we decided it was time to make our way inside the gym. My jaw dropped upon entering the second gym. Inside this big mountain was a big hollow opening with another mountain, it was a mountain within a mountain!

"Do mountains usually form inside of mountains?" I questioned my teammates.

"Not usually. I think this is a human made structure, not natural," Juda informed me.

"Right, I knew that," I awkwardly replied as I realized how obvious it was.

"Welcome to the Cyllage City Gym!" A voice called up from above. All of us looked on top of the mountain where we saw a dark skinned man with a bunch of rocks stuck in his hair.

"Tff, nice hair," I teased as I burst out laughing. The man awkwardly looked down at me as he noticed my hysteria. My laughing continued to grow out of control until I fell on my knees and my gut started to hurt. "Seriously, what went wrong to get that mess on your head!" I managed to yell as I continued to laugh uncontrollably.

"Payton!" Erica barked at me as she kicked me in the hip with her foot, but nothing aggressively hard.

"Right-right, I'm sorry Erica," I said as I held my hand over my mouth to hold in my hysteria. Tears were beginning to form in my eyes, never before have I seen something so ridiculous. I mean I know humans loved to wear jewelry and stuff, but seriously, gems in your hair? With hair that nappy he probably was a gem thief and he probably stores his stolen goods in that disgraceful haircut.

"Anyways," I managed to hear the gym leader mutter. "You have two choices, you can either climb up this mountain, or you can take the elevator," Grant said to us.

"Hah, as if!" I spat out.

"Erika took a moment to observe the mountain, and then she looked at the elevator, "Yeah, we'll just ride up that elevator, I think we've all had enough climbing for the day," Erika told the gym leader.

"Alright, I'll see you up here in a moment then," the gym leader said as he walked out of our sight.

We all hustled into the elevator and began to ride it up towards the top. I lazily leaned against the wall as my other teammates did their own thing. My mienfoo teammate Jade just closed her eyes and began to meditate as she always did. I swear, I hardly knew that mienfoo, but she was a quiet one. It amazed me that we managed to catch her; I mean Erika barely got the mienfoo to cooperate with us. I suffered a serious ass whooping just so Erica could catch her, so this mienfoo better make it worth it.

After about a minute in the elevator, the doors opened and we all made our way onto an arena. The gym leader was quick to approach us once we made our way up.

"I didn't introduce myself earlier, my name is Grant, pleasure to me you," gem head said.

"Likewise, my name is Erika," my trainer said as she shook gem heads hand.

"Are you familiar with the rules. I see you have three pokemon, so it's just simply three on three, of course one pokemon at a time per team."

"I know the rules, and we're ready to begin when you are," Erika said, "Actually... would it be possible if we could do a three on three all at once, you know, so my pokemon can collaborate."

Grant took a moment to think about the question, "Hmmm, that's a request I've never got before," the haired freak said as he placed his fingers on his chin," You know, I think that'd make things more interesting, so why not."

"Sweet," Erica said with a smirk on her face as she walked towards her side of the arena.

"I just warn you," the gem head began to say, "Things may get a bit chaotic, so just be wary of that."

"You don't have to worry about us," Erica responded.

The gym leader walked to his side of the arena and unclipped three pokeballs from his belt. Juda, Jade, and I all stood in defensive positions as we braced ourselves for this battle. Grant threw his three pokeballs and three pokemon took shape.

"Holy mother of Mew!" I yelled as I saw the gigantic onix that was accompanied by a tyrunt and an amaura. "Nope! I'm done," I said as I threw my hands up and walked off the arena.

"Payton, what are you doing?" Erika questioned me.

"Would you look at that onix Erika," I said as I pointed towards the rock snake. "That thing eats pokemon bigger than me for snacks."

"Payon, listen I know it's bigger than you, but size doesn't matter," Erika tried to reason.

"Size doesn't matter my ass!" I piped up.

"Listen," Erika said as she kneeled down and place one hand on each of my shoulders, "I'm not going to force you to fight if you're too scared,"

"I'm not scared! I just have logic not to fight things fifty times my size," I cut her off.

Erika just frowned. I guess she was getting the gist of what I was saying. "I'll tell you what Pate, if you tough this one out, I'll take us all out to dinner tonight, and I'll let you get any desert," Erika offered.

"Bribery huh? I'm not a little kid you know, I'm not dying for a nice meal," I complained.

"Well fine, I guess we hiked up here for nothing," Erika said in frustration.

"I guess so," I said as I stubbornly crossed my arms.

"Aiden," Juda called out from behind me. I glared back at him. "Just get in here and fight, don't be a coward," the bulbasaur insulted me.

"I'm not a coward; I just don't want to die so young!" I snapped at him.

"I see," the mienfoo spoke up for once, "It seems what I have heard is true. The more they bark, the weaker they are, I had a feeling you were all talk, charmander," the mienfoo said with a snobby attitude.

"Listen, I don't know who you think you are to just insult me like that," I yelled at Jade.

"Then prove me wrong, are you just a coward?" the mienfoo asked me.

"Fine!" I piped up as I walked onto the arena, "I'll get killed here with you all today!"

'Oh man I'm so dead!' I screamed in my head as that cocky look on my face quickly melted away into a nervous glance as I looked at the onix that towered over us. I gulped nervously as I looked at the other two opponents.

"So… how are we going to divvy this up?" I questioned.

"Erika will tell us that once we start," Juda answered me.

"Right," I said with a small nod.

"Are you ready to begin?" the gem haired freak questioned me.

"Ready!" Erica yelled back to him.

"Then let's get this started," Grant said with pep.

"Jade, go for the onix, stay fast and wait for your openings, Juda go for the amuara and use your distant attacks, Payton go for the tyrunt and use the moves we worked on during our training!" Erica quickly commanded us the instant the battle began.

Jade was the first to make her move, the mienfoo moved with a blurring speed that was almost scary.

"Rocky, use rock tomb!" Grant commanded. "Amuara block all of his attacks and overwhelm him with your own, and Rex, use crunch!" Grant commanded his pokemon.

The onix was quick to fling its tail against the dirt and splash multiple chunks of rocks towards the mienfoo, but Jade quickly weaved around the attacks as she continued to move at her blurring speed. The mienfoo jumped in the air and kicked the onix. The boulder snake flinched back as a loud crack echoed through air from the powerful kick.

Juda shot a razor leaf towards his opponent, and the amaura responded with ice based projectiles, and the two dodged and countered each other's attacks. I heard something running towards me and I turned to the side to see the lovable dinosaur running towards me. Rex I believed he called him, such a laughable name.

The tyrunt opened its mouth wide as it launched towards me and clamped its teeth down where I was before I moved to the side. I opened my mouth wide and I blew a flamethrower at the tyrunt's face and the dinosaur just clamped his eyes shut as I barely burned him with my flames.

"Type advantage, right," I noted as the tyrunt snapped towards me with his teeth again. I repeatedly dodged the attacks, each time his attacks came closer and closer to getting me.

'Payton go for the tyrunt and use the moves we worked on during our training,' Erika's words echoed through my head. As I dodged the attacks I began to concentrate my energy until a purple energy surrounds my claws. This was an attack Erika spent a good amount of time teaching me, learning this resulted in many arguments and a lot more migraines.

"Chomp on this!" I shouted as I swiped my dragon claws against the tyrunt's maw. The dinosaur flinched back as the powerful energy took its toll on him. "Come at me, I have something to prove to somebody," I said with determination.

"Rex, use dragon tail!" Grant commanded towards his tyrunt.

The tyrunt's tail pulsed with a similar energy as my claws. The tyrunt quickly turned in a three-sixty and swung his tail at me. My eyes widened as I instinctively attempted to grab his tail. The tail smashed into my ribs and I felt all the air leave my body, but I forced myself to hold onto the tail.

"Ughh… you hit hard," I groaned as I pulled on his tail and threw him onto the ground, "but I hit harder!" I shouted with a toothy grin as I ripped my claws into his chest and the energy sent the tyrunt rolling along the ground. Once the tyrunt stopped rolling he tried to stand back up, but his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell unconscious.

"Victory!" I shouted triumphantly as I held my fist into the air.

"Took you long enough," Jade said from behind me. I quickly spun around to see her and Juda both standing casually behind me with two defeated pokemon in the background.

"Wait, how long have you two been watching me!" I yelled in confusion.

"Long enough, we finished our opponents before you and we wanted to see how you'd manage on your own," Juda said with that same dull expression she always had, "And you didn't do half bad."

"And it never crossed your mind once that you could have helped me?" I questioned the two with a bit of anger.

"Nah, you had it under control, plus you looked so proud when you won," Juda said gleefully.

"True, I did kick that dino's ass," I said with a confident nod.

"I guess you proved yourself for now," the mienfoo said as she walked away and head back towards our trainer.

"Oh, good job Aiden, I was wrong, and I'm sorry for being so stuck up," I said in a childish voice as I pretended to be the mienfoo.

After our victory it didn't take long for Erika to collect our gym badge. Afterwards we headed back to our hotel and relaxed for a bit. I wasn't thrilled that I had to climb down that mountain, but at least I got to relax in the end. And no matter what Erica said, I am sleeping as long as I please tomorrow. I guess I had a bit of fun today, excluding my ribs that felt as if they were broken, but Erika checked them out and they were just bruised a bit. She just gave me some painkillers and an ice pack for it.

Tomorrow would be the day we set out for the third gym, I could hardly wait to see what trials await me! Note that that was extreme sarcasm.

Chapter End

Author Note: I'm going to apologize right now for making that gym battle a little rushed, but I honestly couldn't see people wanting to read a long gym battle again, except maybe for Aiden's POV, which I did do. So, hopefully it didn't bother anyone, but I did this because I want to move onto bigger and better things.

Anyhoo, hopefully this chapter was enjoyable, and I hope you all liked the additional background info I gave on Aiden. Till next time my fellow readers.

I'm to cool to thank genericgamer207 for all the hard work he puts in...

PS: Does anyone actually know what the Ruins near Geosenge town are for, or are they kinda just there?