The Gardevoir kept backing away, slowly and with widened eyes like Sol was a snarling beast she was trying to escape without provoking further. Sol froze in place. Several Pokémon rushed into the room but hesitated once inside. They had heard a scream, but they didn't see any emergency.

Sol took a step towards the frightened Pokémon.

"Wh-"

Before Sol could even finish the word, the Gardevoir emitted another shriek and was briefly obscured in a bright flash of bright green. When the light faded, she had disappeared. Teleported. Sol kept forward another step, hand halfway raised in an aborted placating gesture. She clenched that hand into a fist before lowering it to her side.

"What's going on?!" the newly arrived Pokémon demanded. Their eyes flicked nervously from Riley to Sol to the spot the Gardevoir once stood. "What did you do to her?!"

Sol turned her head slightly to stare at them. Riley expected anger, this was Sol after all, but the blankness on her face was much more disturbing. He blinked his eyes and the world lit up in loud clouds of colour. Too loud. Aura's twisted and melded with each other, colours merging and overlapping until they were impossible to distinguish from one another. Hospitals had too many people feeling too many strong emotions. A multicolour gloom filled the room like a mist, dampening the auras of its occupants. Riley couldn't interpret anything through it. The only thing he could see clearly was a ribbon of purple silk hanging in the air like the tail of a cat about to pounce.

Riley blinked his eyes once more and the colours disappeared. He didn't have fine enough control to be able to read aura in an environment such as this one.

This took Riley three seconds to conclude. In that time, the small crowd of concerned Pokémon fully entered the room. The seemed uncertain of what to do. They had heard screaming, and the Gardevoir had certainly seemed distressed, but they hadn't seen any reason behind it. The two Riolu weren't acting threateningly. At the same time, it didn't feel right to them to simply let things go on as if nothing had happened. Should the Riolu be asked to leave and escorted out? Should they be apprehended?

Sol pressed the base of her palm against her forehead. With her other hand she waved dismissively at the small crowd while stomping over to the exit. Riley hurried after her. He was more than a little concerned about what she might decide to do. She didn't stop outside the doors, just kept going with her hand still pressed on her face. Riley fell into step behind her. He wasn't sure where she was leading them. He was certain Sol didn't know either. Riley wasn't brave enough to bring this up to her.

They walked down the street to an intersection before Sol abruptly stopped. Deciding which way to go? The seconds stretched on awkwardly.

"Um... Sol?" Riley finally said. She didn't respond. Riley shifted from foot to foot.

"... What are you doing?"

"..."

"If we go back the way we came, we can meet up with Eliza again."

Sol's other hand went up beside the second, pressing heavily against her brow.

"Or we could continue to search for Eevee."

"..."

"Either way we'll need to keep moving..."

This continued unresponsiveness was unnerving. Riley attempted to check her aura again. It was a bit easier to see outside of the hospital, but a general haze encompassed the city and overlapping auras made for very complicated readings. What Riley saw, or at least thought he saw, was a cloud of solid navy blue surrounding the other Riolu. No swirls, no red diamonds, no patches of lighter or darker tones. Solid navy with a purple ribbon skimming the edge of the cloud.

All of this was unnerving. Riley didn't know what to do. Quite a familiar feeling, if he was being honest. It was time to call in someone who would actually know how to handle a situation like this.

Riley concentrated on his own aura, contracting and expanding it in small pulses. A few steps ahead of him Sol flinched slightly in response and the purple ribbon went wild, stretching and whipping about like a snake. Riolu instincts winning out over a human mind. Riley hoped Eliza wouldn't get to upset at him since this wasn't really an emergency, or maybe it was? A lot was happening and he hoped she would find them soon.

...

"Everyone knows who I am there! Well, nearly everyone knows me here, but there it's in a good way! We're helping a lot of Pokémon, exploring all kinds of neat places! We've even made the paper a few times! You must have seen it! And my team is the best! Team Wanderers! You have to meet Sol, I'm sure you'll hit it off! I was so scared at first, applying to the guild, standing up to bad Pokémon, exploring scary places, but she stuck with me through all of it. I wouldn't have been able to do it without her, and she's super strong and smart and she has the Dimensional Scream ability! We can be on our way to help Pokémon before they're in trouble, and she can see ways to get though mystery dungeons, like this time we jumped through a waterfall! You have to meet her before we go back, she's my best friend!"

Mariam smiled at her son. Eevee was feeling almost giddy with excitement to have the chance to share his adventures with her. It had been hard at first, being back in Pokémon Square, but all he had needed to do was remind himself that he wasn't the same person he had been when he had left this place. He was an explorer! He had friends who would always stick by his side! Everyone in Pokémon Square would eventually come to see just how great of explorers he and his team was, just like they had in Treasure Town.

"Ren and Jak aren't here right now, but some day we'll come here and you can meet them too! Ren's super smart and I have trouble keeping up with what he's saying sometimes, but you'll like him! He always knows what to do! And Jak's really strong! She almost set Sol on fire when we met." Eevee laughed, but it quickly peetered out awkwardly. "Well, it's funny now, but it was scary when it happened. But she's our friend now so it's all fine! One time, we all got put in a super scary prison by... by a bad Pokémon. Except for Sol. I mean, she was a prisoner too, but she was kept somewhere else. But then Jak melted the lock on her door! Melted it! And we all broke out! Except for Sol. But she found us later!"

Eevee's mother's smile was beginning to fade. Oh no, Eevee panicked, I'm going to worry her! Time to switch topics.

"But we always kept each other safe! We all got out without a scratch! Like that time in Crystal Cave! You should have seen it! Everything was made out crystals, it was so colourful and pretty and Jak kept slipping on the floor! She was so mad! And there was this puzzle at the end of the dungeon where there were these three giant crystals, and every time we touched one they changed colours! Sol used her Dimensional Scream to figure out how to match the colours the right way, and then this big passage way opened up and we all slid down this huge crystal chute thing! It was so much fun! Sol tripped and ended up going down head first, and Ren crashed into Jak and they sort of went down together in a clump. I was kind of scared to go down, but I could do it since they were with me."

His mother's smile was beginning to return, but she still looked a little concerned. Eevee supposed that they had done some pretty dangerous things. Sol did get hurt a lot. But they had also done some amazing things that made it all worth it. They were explorers, and pretty famous ones at that.

"Maybe... Maybe you could come to Treasure Town one day, and maybe see everyone at the guild."

Eevee loved the thought of his mother meeting all of his friends. But he loved the thought of her seeing how people treated him there. He wanted her to see the respect and smiles he was greeted with where ever he went in Treasure Town compared to the suspicion and scorn he received in Pokémon Square. He wasn't just the son of a criminal over there.

"I would like to meet, your friends," she said, carefully pronouncing her words. "I would like to, meet Sol, before you two leave."

"Of course! I'm not sure where she is right now exactly, though. We got separated after we ran into Adren..." Eevee trailed off, a slight frown on his face. He hoped Sol hadn't gotten herself in more trouble. Could she have continued on to the clan without telling him? She wasn't one for waiting around, and that was the plan, but would she really do that...

Eevee started suddenly when he realized that several seconds had passed in silence while he stared off at nothing. Mariam smiled at his embarrassment.

"I'm proud of you, Eevee."

Eevee stilled except for his tail, which twitched from side to side. He couldn't keep himself from grinning widely.

"I almost wasn't able to do it, but I became an explorer."

"I was proud of you before, too. Always."

An up welling of emotion felt like a stone stretching out Eevee's throat. Heat rose in his face and Eevee broke eye contact to look down at the floor. Praise still felt odd-

Mariam stiffened, fur standing on end, and her head swiveled in the direction of the entryway. Half a second passed, just long enough for Eevee to register that something was going on, before green light flared in the entryway in a dazzling flash.

"Wha-"

"Mariam!" Gardevoir ran into the room, nearly frantic. Eevee didn't even hear her come through the door. "Mariam, I," she paused for a breath, winded by panic. "I need the charm, the charm I gave you back... I need it."

"How did you-"

"Of course," Mariam said after a moments pause to take in the situation. She left the room without a question, leaving a confused Eevee and a Gardevoir anxiously wringing her hands.

"What's wrong?" Eevee asked.

Gardevoir didn't answer, her eyes on the floor yet seeing nothing. She was too focused on whatever had her worried. Eevee bit his lip nervously.

"Did something happen?"

Gradually, Gardevoir looked up at him. Eevee was taken aback by just how frightened she looked. Eevee felt a growing sense of dread. Things have been going downhill at a breakneck pace, and the one upside of all of it was now being interrupted by another steep drop towards rock bottom.

"I..." Gardevoir took a deep breath while shaking her head. "It's nothing you could possibly do anything about. Nothing any of us could do anything about!" Her voice rose to a hysterical pitch that frightened Eevee. He flinched back. She hissed out an uneven breath and went back to staring at the floor.

It wasn't long before Eevee's mother returned, now carrying a small trinket strung on a fine silver chain that was presumably the 'charm' that Gardevoir had mentioned. It appeared to made of smooth glass in the shape of a half sphere with a divot on the flat surface. She passed it over to Gardevoir without a word, who accepted it with a look of immense relief. She inclined her head to Mariam in a small nod. A flash of bright green then encompassed the room, blinding Eevee. He blinked furiously, and when his vision returned, Gardevoir was gone.

"What was that? What happened?"

There was a pause before his mother responded. "She was afraid of, me being on my own. She, gave, me that to contact her, in case something happened. I never, had to use it."

That didn't answer what this charm was, how it worked, why she would need it back, what had happened, or any other of Eevee's many questions. Mariam looked serious and concerned, which further heightened Eevee's nervousness. He felt a sudden fear for Sol and whatever she was doing. She always found a way into terrible situations and getting seriously hurt.

"I need to find Sol," Eevee said. "If something is going on, well, she doesn't know the city at all..."

Eevee expected, or he at least had hoped, Mariam would say something to diffuse his fears. That she would say that this was nothing, there was nothing to worry about and they could continue catching up. Instead, she nodded solemnly. Absols were known for their instincts and ability to sense danger. Her continued seriousness was pushing Eevee to the edge of panic.

"I have to go!" Eevee jumped up and ran for the door. "I'll come back when I find her!"

Oh no no no no. There was no reason for Eevee to assume whatever had Gardevoir spooked had anything to do with Sol. Then again, when hadn't anything bad that had ever happened to or was witnessed by Eevee ever since forming the team hadn't involved Sol in some way? Even if she wasn't apart of it now, by the time he found her Sol would have found some way to get caught in the middle of it.

...

In a deep, dark subterranean cavern, Ninetails raised her head upon hearing the summons. Hmm... It had been a long time since she had heard from Gardevoir. Over a hundred years in fact, ever since the death of Callum. She stared serenely off into the surrounding shadows, the soft glow emitting from strands of her pure white fur surrounded her like a halo in the otherwise complete darkness.

Of course, while Ninetails may not have seen Gardevoir since then, this wasn't the first time the other Pokémon had attempted to contact her in that time. She had constructed a charm specifically for that purpose. Ninetails had simply decided not to answer the summons. Over the years, the requests had become fewer and fewer, eventually only on significant anniversaries, before stopping completely when Gardevoir had presumably given up. It had been almost fifty years since the last attempt.

Ninetails closed her eyes and lowered her head once more. It was no matter. She had no intention of ending her self imposed solitude. Except the summons didn't stop. It was a constant hum, ceaseless and slowly raising in pitch and intensity over several minutes. Ninetails cracked an eye open. This was new.

An hour passed. The noise was almost deafening now. Ninetails sighed and rose from sitting, taking the time to stretch out old, tired muscles. Perhaps it was time to check in with the rest of the world.

Wow, I suddenly got a whole lot of followers, which is weird considering how long its been since I updated. Sorry about that, by the way. I went right from work to field school to school without a break in between, so it might have seemed like I died but I'm back now! That said, I did have a close call involving a waterfall, a cliff, a dead tree and a particularly difficult to reach rock outcrop. Field school was pretty intense.

VeeVee The Writer N Artist: I am very glad you enjoyed this fic so much and I'll try to live up to your praise!

Himulia007: Two times? It's great to hear you enjoyed it so much! I'm rather proud of my characters and my writing is usually character driven so I try to put effort into their creation. Dusknoir had to be one of my favourite characters to write right next to Jak, so I'm happy you enjoyed reading about him. If you come across anything else you want to point out, be it something you liked or something you thought I could have done better, don't hesitate! I promise you won't embarrass yourself!

Ralmon: I was trying something new with the last chapter with a style I thought would help further get across the disorientation Sol herself is feeling, but I guess it's not an approach I'm very good at right now. That's always a danger when you try something new. I appreciate the criticism and hopefully I can continue to improve in the future! Please continue to point out things you enjoyed and things you think could be done better! It all helps out a lot!

Mister L: I hope this lives up to your expectations! I always love seeing your reviews and thanks for sticking with this fic for so long!