Cody: Bastion (Wartortle), Mars (Diglett), Colossal (Pupitar), Antonia (Skarmory), Mars (Diglett), Reflet (Eevee)

Heather: Somnos (Poliwhirl), Feathers (Pidgeotto), Nadine (Nidorina), Bella (Gloom), Smaug (Vibrava), Sasha (Eevee)

Jared: Charmeleon, Servine, Croconaw, Onix, Nidorino, Mightyena

Chapter 42: Alone in the Crowd

A first-round match at the 2012 Diamond Beach Tournament was coming to an end. It had carried on for nearly twenty minutes and the obvious end was in sight.

Twenty-seven year-old Daryl Jones looked confident this time around. Dark-skinned, long dreadlocks, a scruffy-looking beard, a black tank top (considered slightly informal for the event) exposing multiple black tattoos, and black sunglasses; not what would come to mind when people thought of a Diamond Beach winner, but he couldn't care less. He smiled a smug little grin.

He had competed at Diamond Beach three times before. The first two times in 2004 and 2005, he didn't even make it out of pre-bracket pools. The third time in 2006, he made it to the bracket, but lost in the first round. This wasn't unexpected. At the time, he was considered talented, but nothing special in comparison to the rest of the competition. After that, he disappeared to travel the world and compete in other countries across the global circuit. Six years later, he was back home; older, wiser, and smarter.

Boss, his Slaking, stood proudly on the battlefield. He was Daryl's first pokémon from when he was a teenager, and now, the light-brown, apish-sloth was pure muscle and a brilliant battler, not even requiring frequent direction from his trainer to fight. Training a Slaking was no easy feat. Though they were powerful pokémon, they were also intelligent, head-strong, and lazy, and even some of the best trainers couldn't always control them in battle. But not this Slaking. Fourteen years with his trainer, and the two of them has formed an unbreakable bond. They both wanted the same thing: to win. And this Slaking had just run through two of Julie's pokémon without breaking a sweat.

Julie Cheng did not look so confident. The eighteen year-old Asian-Skitrexian had collected all of her badges in four years, a respectable amount of time for accomplishing such a feat in the region for a beginning trainer. It did not look like she would make it out of pools until she pulled an upset win over her pool's leader, just barely claiming the second spot after him. But now, in the bracket, her Cinderella story was coming to a close as Terror, her Arbok, her last remaining pokémon, stood forth against Daryl's Slaking. Even if the cobra pokémon managed to defeat the Slaking, it still had two other, fresh pokémon to deal with on Daryl's team. She'd need a miracle, but there was an old saying that Arceus didn't play favorites when it came to pokémon battles. They'd have to earn it on their own.

For one brief moment, Boss looked back at his trainer. Daryl gave him a short nod signaling him to continue. In one quick burst, the Slaking was charging at a speed one would not normally expect from such a bulky pokémon.

"Poison Fang!"

Julie knew that a crippled beast was an easy target, and so the purple cobra quickly slithered towards her foe, its poisoned fangs bared. But she was outclassed in terms of speed. Before she could bite, the Slaking punched her in the face with one of his meaty fists. The astounding force sent her flying back, but the blow would not be enough. The Slaking knew this, and he followed up his punch by launching himself into the air and coming down with his fists slamming into the earth. A perfect Earthquake; the earthy battlefield shook, fissures formed, jagged pieces of earth shot up. Against a poison-type pokémon, this could spell doom, but not for Terror. She was agile and flexible, twisting and turning between the hazardous terrain. Again and again, the Slaking kept pounding his fists into the earth, but Terror bided her time until she was given a new command.

"Slam!" That was what she was waiting for. The cobra used her muscular, streamlined body to strike forwards towards the sloth between quakes, only to be sent flying by him swatting her with a backhand. She tried again, only to be swatted back once more. If approaching this monster wasn't hard enough, the earthquakes had made the terrain uneven and difficult to maneuver. The advantage was on Boss's side.

"Focus Energy," Daryl called out, finally giving an order. In his mind, it was time for the finish. His Slaking followed by focusing his stance, ready to strike, but the trainer was surprised to see that the Arbok was focusing as well. After her direct assault failed, the Arbok was now ordered to coil, ready to spring.

"Now!"

The Arbok launched again. While the Slaking did hit her, she didn't fly backwards, as she had fastened herself into the sloth's other arm with her fangs. The poison's effect was quickly made apparent as the Slaking's attempts to yank the snake off of him became sloppy. The Arbok then wrapped its long body around the three other limbs of her foe, constricting the Slaking's blood flow as she continued to inject the poison. This was a brilliant strategy that Julie had trained her pokémon to perform; along with immobilizing the Slaking's other limbs, cutting off circulation to the Slaking's other extremities kept the poisoned blood in the sloth's head and torso, closer to the brain and heart. Against most pokémon, this strategy would win the day, but not against this Slaking.

Boss's eyes grew bloodshot and he let out a guttural roar as his thrashing picked up again. He had been taught a technique for this sort of situation: Façade. It was a move that became more powerful when his immune system was stimulated through injury, sickness, or infection. Thrashing about, he finally managed to pull the cobra off of his arm before pinning its head and neck against the ground in a chokehold. Terror redirected her body to wrap around the Slaking's neck, and the two were in a double chokehold. However, Boss now found himself at a disadvantage, as he had poison running through his veins. Even though it strengthened him briefly, it would cause him to pass out on his own if the lack of oxygen didn't get to him first. But he was not out of options.

"Boss, I need you to do your thing!" Daryl called out, keeping his order vague enough so his opponent wouldn't understand. He wasn't worried. Even if his best pokémon were to fall, he still had two more left, but he wanted the world to see that a little bit of poison was nothing to his pokémon.

"Buwaugh!" the sloth bellowed. Still choking the snake (while being choked himself), he rose to his feet and his body began to glow yellow. He bent his knee and using a good portion of his remaining strength, he jumped fifteen feet into the air, taking the snake with him. As gravity took over, the two came back down to earth, the Slaking crashing its full weight and a large sum of additional power behind him. The Giga Impact was a direct hit.

It didn't take long for the referee to make the call that Terror was unable to battle. Having won, Daryl entered the battlefield to shake his opponent's hand and to greet the cheers of the arena's attendees, but he was more concerned with his friend. The bulky Slaking had taken a knee, trying to conserve his energy as the poison continued to spread across his body. But as Daryl touched his pokémon's shoulder, his Slaking looked up at him and gave him a haughty grin. He knew that he had done well, taking out half of the opponent's team on his own. The two raised their fists to the sky in unison, bringing about another thunderous applause.

"Five more rounds," Daryl chuckled. He was going to enjoy this.

A week had passed since the trio started their journey through the wilderness once more. For their first week back, things had been relatively uneventful. There were not as many trainers in the woods as Cody had hoped there would be, so he kept running drills. There weren't many pokémon that caught his eye in those woods either. Even if there were, he wouldn't be able to catch them anyway, thanks to a call that he had received from his mother earlier that day. He continued his search for Diglett colonies, though it was a futile attempt, as there were no known colonies in the area.

Despite all of that, he was happy to be on the road again. It just felt so right, as if he had been doing it all of his life. He also felt far more content, being away from people that he thought were staring at him. Even with the Brotherhood's promise that he would be forgotten someday, he constantly felt that people were staring. Always staring. Hell, his paranoia even made Jared seem trustworthy by comparison.

Speaking of Jared, he found that the two of them barely shared a conversation over the past week. Considering how incompatible they were as people, that was definitely for the best, but he knew eventually, the pot come to a boil. Thankfully, what might as well have been a miracle occurred.

"Cody, can we talk?"

"Hm? Oh yeah, what's up?" The younger trainer was busy brushing down Elesa. The Zebstrika had battled earlier that day in on a dry plot of land and a lot of dust got into her coat. The problem was keeping her still. She was still wired from earlier and she just wanted to run. Frustrated, she snorted and stamped her foot.

"Yeah, I just wanted to talk with you about… well… how do I say this…"

"Just spit it out. It can't be any worse than anything else we've been through before." Deciding that Elesa couldn't hold it in much longer, he gave her a pat on the back. Rearing back, she neighed and ran into the woods for a quick trot. He then turned to face Jared. Though the older boy had also grown somewhat taller since he first saw him in Tempest Valley, they were far closer in height now. Other than that, he still looked the same, except he was now spiking his brown hair with gel. It made him look better in Cody's opinion.

"Okay. Well…" The guy was choosing his words at an incredibly slow pace. "You know, you and I… we've had our differences in the past… differences on how we should do things in the group, differences in religion, philosophy, the decisions we make... Truthfully, if it weren't for Heather, I wouldn't-"

"Put up with my bullshit?"

"Well, that's not the way I would have phrased it, but yeah, that's it," he admitted sheepishly.

"So what's this all about then?" Cody questioned.

"Okay, essentially, I think we need to make a truce," he suggested.

Cody chuckled. "Like that's worked in the past."

"No, this is different," Jared continued. "Heather was always pushing us to be friends or at least friendly. Personally, I don't see that working out, as it hasn't in the past, so I think we need to try something different: I say that we just completely ignore each other."

That's your plan? That's what I've been trying to do since you first started traveling with us. But he was curious to hear Jared's side of the story. "What did you have in mind?"

"Basically, as long as what you say or do doesn't involve or affect the group or myself in any way, I don't care. We won't talk about any touchy subjects. I'll ignore your vulgar jokes, your irritating mannerisms, what pokémon you choose to train, when you get into your weird and twitchy moods, when you start acting weird in your sleep, et cetera. In return, you stay out of my business. Sound fair?"

"I see…" He immediately wanted to test him. "So if I become a serial killer, you won't say or do anything about it as long as I'm pointing the knife in a different direction?"

As expected, Jared rolled his eyes. "Is it impossible for you to take anything seriously? I come to you with a solution, and you-"

"Alright, alright, you really need to loosen-" He stopped himself. Don't ruin this for yourself. "You know what? Yeah, I can do that."

"Great, that's all I wanted to hear." He held out his hand. "We shake on it?"

What followed was the most satisfying handshake of Cody's life. This week keeps getting better and better.

"Actually, one more thing," Jared began, a flash of realization in his eyes. "You still won't tell me where we're going? I've noticed we've been going north-east as of late. Ashlin is more north-ish, you know?"

"Yeah, I know. You'll just have to trust me. It's my gift to the group." He could tell that that wasn't the answer Jared wanted, and immature as it was, he was glad he could still annoy him with his vagueness.

"Whatever. As long as we get there soon, I don't care if we take a detour. I just don't." He did care, but he was doing his best to accept the lack of response. This time, Jared was about to walk away for real when Cody realized that there was something that he needed to ask him.

"Hey, one more thing," he called out. Jared sighed and turned back to face him.

"Yes?"

"You have ten pokémon, no? Where do you keep the ones you're not using when they aren't with you?"

Jared cocked his head. "I never told you? I keep them at the Hogran Research Center. Why?"

"Well… long story." And it wasn't one that he wanted to tell Jared. It would only stroke his ego in the end. But he had to add some sort of context. "Cortez is at home right now, and ever since evolving, he's been a…" He pondered for a moment to find the right words. "A sneaky pain in the ass. Yeah, that's it." Nailed it. "Anyway, my mom called me today to tell me about how he thought it would be funny to set her begonias on fire. He wouldn't listen to her when she told him to stop, so she sprayed him with the garden hose until he did." He smiled to himself. "Pretty brilliant, now that I think about it. But anyway, she called me to tell me that I need to take him back as soon as I can and never leave him at home again, because if I do and he acts like this again, she'll, and I quote…" He cleared his throat to adjust his voice to sound like an exaggerated version of his mother, "find a way to kill that flaming bastard, even if he's a ghost." Switching back to his normal voice, he continued. "Knowing her, she'll find a way."

Jared shook his head at him, basking in his sense of superiority. "That's what you get for having a gho-" He stopped himself, remembering the deal. "No, I don't care."

"No, I'll give you that one. Still, you still have that Gastly I gave you."

"He's a Haunter now, and he's not a complete jerk, so it's hardly comparable," Jared pointed out. "Anyway, I guess you're asking me about where you can keep the team members that you aren't using?"

"Yeah, well… I can't ask my parents to look after them anymore. Even though they're fine with some of them, like Reflet, Elesa, and Bastion, they already have enough to deal with." He left that last bit vague. He had mentioned to Jared before that his parents were always at each other's throats, but he was hoping that the older boy had forgotten. "So, how does that work, exactly? What are my options?"

"Well, you've heard of daycares, right?"

"Yeah, of course I've heard of daycares, but those bills add up, don't they?" He had heard horror stories of trainers who dropped their pokémon off at daycare, but were unable to pay the fees when trying to retrieve them. He made enough money from battles that he wasn't worried, but as battles got harder, he knew he couldn't overestimate his abilities.

"Yes, they do," Jared agreed. "I used to use them too, but they really cut into the money I was making. There are other options though. Individual pokémon sitters are popular with some trainers, but most people who do that can only watch so many pokémon at a time and they aren't always experienced enough to watch all pokémon."

"Mmm…" He could only imagine having to call up and coordinate with multiple sitters, as well as cursing some poor, amateur sap with having to watch Cortez. "What about breeders? Don't they pay you to borrow your pokémon for… breeding stuff?"

"Breeding stuff?" Jared shook his head at the words he used. Even the littlest things Cody said got to him. "Yes, but they only use your pokémon if they think they have good genes. Win a championship and they'll be begging for your pokémon's gametes. Even if they did want your pokémon, they'd want to hold onto them until they fulfill their "contractual obligation." For the males, that would be pretty flexible, but for the females… your Zebstrika could be out of battling commission for however long her gestation period would be, followed another period of recovering from birth."

"Yeah… that won't work." It was worth a thought.

"I'm surprised you even considered that. I thought you said you wouldn't want to be a breeder after you threw up while watching that Donphan-"

"Okay, let's not relive that." He felt his stomach churn at the very idea of the "miracle of life", but it was made worse by that little smile on Jared's face. Apparently, the new truce had some leeway.

"So, I use research center," he told him. "Those places are government funded. Or in other cases, they test certain pokémon products on trained pokémon and their products are what make them money. I still have to pay to let my pokémon live at Hogran, but it's incredibly cheap. Unfortunately, research centers can be pretty exclusive. You'll have to set up an appointment with one that has vacancy."

"Huh, okay…" Something suddenly occurred to him. "But wait, testing? That's a bit… is that safe?"

"Most of them are, but do your research. I'm not Google." He looked back into the woods. "Can I go now? I was going to see if there are any other camps around so we don't have to sleep out alone."

Welp, I overstayed my welcome. "Sure, thanks, buddy."

"Yeah… no problem." Jared left pretty quickly.

That last part probably got him. Elesa had just trotted back into the clearing, looking refreshed from her run. She nuzzled Cody's shoulder as he ran his hands over her black and white striped coat, smiling to himself. "I guess that leeway works both ways." He just had to remember not to overdo it.

Birds fly, fish swim, dogs walk.

That doctor was right. But that logic applied to every pokémon. Reflet needed to walk. Elesa needed to run. Bastion needed a daily swim whenever there was a body of water available. Mars needed to dig. Cortez needed a dark space to relax. Colossal needed time to rest and grow from a pupa to his final form. And Antonia needed to fly. By far, that was Cody's favorite.

On the back of his bird of iron, legs clutched tightly around her body and his hands wrapped around her lower neck, he soared with her, letting the rushing air crash into his face. Flying up, she soared downward at an angle, gliding above the peaceful lake below.

At one point, Antonia disliked it when her trainer flew with her. She disliked the additional weight and having somebody telling her what to do and where to fly. Now, she loved it, relished it, desired it. As she grew accustomed to carrying that additional weight when flying at her fastest, she grew stronger. So much stronger that when she battled without his weight, she flew faster and hit harder. That was why she liked him there: it made her sturdier and swifter. It was also when the two of them felt the closest. Their relationship was rocky once, but through their battles with each other, they had come to see each other as equals. And while Cody cared for her, she desired to grow stronger for him.

He raised his arms perpendicular to his sides, feeling that ecstasy charge through his veins as they soared, shouting at the top of his lungs as a futile attempt to drain him of his rushing emotion. With a subtle adjustment of his body weight, he signaled her to climb higher. Aiding her momentum with a brief dip, the Skarmory began to climb higher and higher into the twilight tinted sky. Gravity pulled Cody towards the lake, but he clung to his iron maiden as she climbed. All that gravity working against them was a good work out for his pokémon. But he loved the part that came next.

Here it comes.

Finally, she stopped flapping her wings. For the briefest of moments, they hung there in the sky, above the world that they held dominion over. And then, the gravity took them into free-fall. He felt his adrenaline pulse again as they returned to the earth, feeling that weird sensation in his body (mainly in his groin) as they fell. From far away, he could hear Heather screaming. To her, it probably looked like something was wrong, but she had no idea. They fell as far as they could until finally, Antonia ended the game, regained her balance, and flew low, just above the water, her talons skimming the surface.

Beside them, Bastion leaped out of the water as he swam next to their flight. In his natural environment, he was even faster than normal; fast as Antonia in her streamlined flight. If Cody could capture that moment in his mind, he would have seen the look his Wartortle give Antonia. A look that said, "you call that speed?" Antonia saw that look though, and her eyes narrowed. There was no challenge that she wouldn't accept. She flew even faster, and Bastion upped his speed. The two ran parallel across the lake, neither relenting. They would have gone for hours if they could, as they were both relentlessly competitive with each other. However, there was only so much lake. They reached the water's edge before curving opposite directions before they hit the bank.

Antonia's falcon-esque vision then allowed her to spot something in the water: dinner. Fish swam in the water, both pokémon and lesser fish. She skimmed the water again and caught a fish in each talon; a Magikarp in her right talon and a fat catfish in the left. Skarmory didn't normally fish for their meals, but Cody taught his to for an easier meal on days they had a pond to fly over. Satisfied, she flew back to the bank where they had left Heather, slowing her momentum by using her armored wings as drags. Finally, she landed on the bank and Cody hopped off as if what he experience was normal for everybody. But to him personally, it was.

"My love," he whispered as he kissed the side of her beak. Lovingly, she nuzzled him. She was a selfish pokémon, wishing that his others were gone. She wanted him all to herself, so these moments they shared were precious. But she was also hungry. She took her talon off of the catfish for Cody before driving her beak into the Magikarp's skull. He was glad his bird chose the pokémon: Magikarp had more bones than flesh.

"You are insane," Heather finally said, breathing heavily as she sat near the small fire that she made while he was flying. "Falling like that… you could kill yourself."

"You're just jealous," Cody teased as he sat down next to her and Nadine, the Nidorina, who slept by her trainer's side. He reached into his pack and found his swiss army knife, complete with a knife that was specialized for scaling fish.

"Okay, I'm a little jealous," she admitted with a giggle. "But once Feathers evolves again, we'll be flying circles around you two."

He laughed again. "I would love to see you try." He began scaling. Nearby, he saw Somnos coming out of the water, carrying a fish in both hands, one for him and one for the fire. Antonia was busy picking at her meal as Sasha and Reflet, the two Eevee, sat nearby, begging for scraps. Antonia wasn't willing to share until she was done, but she gave the two of them a light squawk, rather than a crueler screech.

"Huh, I thought she'd be meaner," Heather commented, noticing Antonia's nice treatment towards the Eevee.

"She likes her… well, sort of… she seems to tolerate her more than the others… she also likes my mother, randomly enough," Cody shrugged, now gutting his catch.

Heather grinned slightly, tilting her head. "It's so weird." She took one of the fish from her Poliwhirl and began the cleaning process herself. Cody had been teaching her the skill, and although she was squeamish about the task, she wanted to learn. She was a sponge for that sort of knowledge, he had noticed. "You and her used to fight all the time. Like, literally, she was once trying to kill you. But now-"

"Are we talking about my pokémon or my mother?" Cody interrupted. But he knew what she meant. "But me and Antonia still fight," Cody interrupted, laughing. "I love my baby girl, but she can still hold a grudge. Whenever we disagree, instead of attacking, she just stares at me before giving me the cold shoulder, acting like everything's fine." He sighed comically. "Just like a real woman."

Heather playfully punched his shoulder. "You are such a pig. You know, not all women are like that."

"But most are." He got hit again. I definitely deserved that one.

"Well, I'm not. If I'm mad at you, you'll be the first to know."

"Mmm, and that's why I like you. You're the exception to the rule."

"Cody, you are such-"

"And why are you defending them?" he continued, playfully digging the hole deeper. "Everybody knows that the one thing women hate more than men is each other."

"Yeah, and all men are either pervs or assholes," she shot back, smiling at him. "Which one are you?"

Cody put down the knife for a moment and put up his hands in surrender. "A little from column A, a little from column B. But hey, at least I can admit it."

"Only a little of each, huh?" she asked, her tone filled with doubt. Her attention turned back to their work. "I sharpened some sticks while you were gone. You ready?"

"You bet."

They skewered their fish and dug the bottoms into the ground so that the fish sat over the fire. Cody sat back, leaning against Colossal, he sat by his side. Thankfully, the Pupitar had no problem with his trainer leaning on him. In fact, considering he had no arms to hug his trainer with, it was the physically closest way they could embrace.

"Did Jared say when he was getting back?" Cody asked, not so eager for the other boy to return. He enjoyed his alone time with Heather, even though it was painfully platonic.

"He's on his way now. He ran into some other trainers and he asked them if they wanted to camp out with us. We can probably get some battles in this evening, but I think we'll need some more fish."

Hearing the word "fish", Somnos jumped back into the water to search for more food. As he left, Bastion arrived with a few minnows in his mouth. They were too small for anyone else, so he gulped them down before sitting next to his trainer, letting the warmth dry his skin.

"He told me something else; about the deal you two made…" She shook her head in dismay. "I don't even know what to say."

"You could say that it's genius," Cody suggested smoothly. "If things work out, we won't be fighting anymore. Isn't that what you want?"

"That's only half of what I want," she admitted. "I want you two to be friends too."

He sighed. "Heather, you can't put peanut butter on cooked beans and expect people to like that. Some things are just incompatible."

"I actually know people who eat beans and peanut butter together," she pointed out, turning the fish slightly to cook the other side.

"Well that's just weird. Just accept that we could work things out," he demanded softly.

"Fine," she shrugged. "I just didn't think you were a quitter."

Despite the bit of playfulness in Heather's voice, Cody shot her a look, getting serious for the first time in their conversation. "Don't try that bullshit with me; it's not going to work."

" Fine, fine," she sighed, shaking her head. "I just things could have worked out between you two."

She was obviously disappointed. For a moment, they sat in silence, focusing on their dinner. Finally, Heather spoke again. "Did he tell you of his plans?"

"No… what plans?" This was the first time he heard about this.

"Jared needs the Inferno Badge, but after that… he has the Cerebral Badge already, which is the next closest badge after the Inferno Badge, geographically speaking… He says he wants to fly east and get the last three badges out that way."

Cody nodded. "Good, he should. No sense in tagging along with us if he needs to head out that way." He didn't mean that in a malicious way. He knew that Jared needed those badges. He needed them for himself; for his sister. It only made sense

"Yeah, but about us…" She broke eye contact with him, knowing that what she said could be upsetting. "Cody, he asked me to come with him."

That happy, elated mood that Antonia had left him in was suddenly gone, as Cody felt like he was falling again, but this time, without a bird to carry him. "And you said yes, didn't you?"

She nodded slowly. "I know that this is coming out of nowhere, but I hope-"

"Fuck."

"Cody, I-"

"You what?" he snapped. "What was all that you were saying about all of us traveling together again? We talked about all that and-"

"Cody, he's my boyfriend," Heather interrupted, shooting back. "What, am I gonna say no?"

"Well why'd you have to get my hopes up like that?" Cody shot back, frustration seeping into his voice. "If you wanted to go fly away to the eastern islands, the least you could have done was tell me, so I wouldn't have had the rug swept out from under me!"

"Cody, he just asked me last night. I didn't know that he-"

Something clicked in Cody's mind as he stood up, disturbing Colossal's lean against him. Antonia stood up as well, leaving the picked bones of the Magikarp for the Eevee pups. She picked up on the fact that her trainer was mad, and now, she was mad too. Had she have been younger and wilder, there might have been a problem between her and Heather.

"He's doing this on purpose," Cody hissed, mostly to himself. "He made that truce so I wouldn't confront him about this. Well I'm not going to give him the pleasure of breaking it, but… I never agreed to this so he could pull one over on me. Fuck that."

"Cody," Heather tried again, her patience being tried, "we never said that you couldn't come with us. You can get badges out there too. The league has a tiered system for a reason, you know."

"Oh yeah, just abandon all of my plans and get dragged along like the third wheel?" He suddenly knew what his father meant when he was talking about him traveling with the couple.

"Don't be stupid, you were never the third wheel," Heather said crossly. "Besides, plans? What plans?"

He was already digging through his backpack, pulling out the map. "These plans!" He unfolded it, revealing all the penciling he had done. When Heather looked closely, she could see all the smudges and erasing he had done as he planned out the route.

"What's all this?"

"You might not have realized this, but I take my job as "map guy" pretty seriously," he bitterly told her. "Whenever we see cool sites, go to places where good trainers gather, look to catch cool pokémon, that all goes into the mapping. But I know we can't dawdle, so I plan the best routes. I spent the better part of the past few weeks planning this." He pointed to a spot in the north-east from where they were. "Solomon's Pit." His finger dragged to another spot. "Autropolis." He dragged it again to one last location that he knew she wouldn't recognize. "You see this? You texted me about how you wanted to catch a Flabébé, and there's a huge colony of them right here." He threw up his hands. "But screw that, I guess." In his frustration, he let the Delcatty out of the bag. "You know where we're headed right now? Moss Creek. The Moss Creek Festival is this week, the biggest fair slash carnival in Skitrex. I thought to celebrate all of us traveling together for a year, we could all go there, you know? That was my big surprise, but I don't even care anymore." He put the map down crossing his arms.

A brief silence followed. It sounded like Antonia was growling, but the ringing in Cody's ears had intensified.

"Cody… I'm sorry you went through all that work, but sometimes, plans have to change. He-"

"He knew our deal last year," Cody interjected again. "I beat his Servine, meaning that I get to be in charge of where we go. He's doing this shit on purpose, I just know it. He's trying to undermine me, like always."

By now, Heather had had enough. "Is that what this is about? Some sort of macho, alpha pride?" She threw up her hands and turned away from him. "I can't talk to you right now, you're being irrational. If you really think he's trying to dick you over, you're crazy."

"No… no, I knew that this would happen." His tone had softened just as quickly as it had risen. "That he would go off and take you with him. Of course you're going to choose your boyfriend over me. It makes sense and I should have realized that." Mentally, he was counting backwards from one hundred, trying to calm himself.

"Cody…" Heather was trying to be calm too now. Her Nidorina was by her side, eyeing Cody wearily. "The deal's not off. I know you were upset, but you can still come with us-"

"No, I don't think so. The whole thing is just soured for me now." Slowly and methodically, he folded up the map and placed it back where it belonged. "Once we get the Inferno Badge, we'll split ways, I guess. Unless you guys want to leave now. I've been on my own before. I can do it again."

"Cody, we're not going to do that," Heather replied calmly. "With the Brotherhood still keeping tabs on-"

"They're not going to bother me because I'm not going to bother them, just like that paper that Casper showed me said," he answered coldly.

"And you really believe that?" Heather asked, not out of condescending doubt, but just because she was trying to assess where he was in the whole situation.

"Hey, they may be douchebags, but at least they've been honest and upfront with me. No bullshit."

Heather looked as if Cody had just thrown a dagger right into her heart. Her pale expression and her slightly agape mouth told the whole story of how she was feeling.

"That really hurt, Cody," she lamented, her voice barely rising over the crackling of the fish and fire.

"Well Heather, now you know how I feel." That angry, irrational, hurt part of him wanted her to feel the pain too. They would have both stood there in silence if a new sound hadn't penetrated the thick tension.

"Luuuuuu-oooooooo!"

The sun was setting and the moon hung low in the sky. Above the lake, peculiar, crescent-shaped pokémon with long, pointy beaks levitated in disorganized clusters. Most of them were brownish-tan in color, a few deviating in pigment, but they all had red eyes. Or at least Cody assumed that they did. The nearest Lunatone floated near the banks. It looked at them and its mouth opened as if it were about to speak. But instead…

[A pair of humans and a cluster of their trained. A pair of humans, making noise and starting fires. A pair of humans at a lake, knowing not what they are.] The moon-shaped pokémon slowly floated away, it's psychic pulsating creating a small ripple in the water below him.

Psychic pokémon are so weird, Cody thought to himself. If they weren't snarking, they were busy being strange.

"You know… I always wanted the moon," Heather murmured, her tone awed, yet indignant.

Cody wasn't sure if she was talking to him or not. If he were in better spirits, he would have made a reference to It's a Wonderful Life, saying something about how he'd lasso a Lunatone for her. But he was in no mood.

"Well, you got a whole lake of them to pick from," he muttered.

"Yeah. I guess I do," she replied in monotone. Signaling to Somnos, who was in a shallow bank, she began to walk along the bank, followed by Sasha and Nadine. Reflet tried to follow the other Eevee, but gently, Antonia picked the Eevee up by the scruff of the neck, carried her over, and dropped the pup in Cody's lap. As far as the Skarmory was concerned, all of Heather's team was to be seen as antagonists as well, and she would not have Reflet associating with them.

"Hoooome," the Pupitar hummed.

"Yeah, she can do whatever she wants. See if I care," Cody answered his pokémon. Jealousy and anger were never good when mixed, and Cody could feel them both intertwining. He slowly turned the fish on the skewer. It smelled good, but the way he was feeling, he had a hard time caring. The first week back on the road had been alright, but it had just blown up in his face.

It was a bright, summer day. Cody was sitting by a nameless cliff side, letting his feet dangle over the edge. Next to him, Angie was resting in his arms, resting her head on his shoulder. If that wasn't a giveaway that he was dreaming, nothing was.

He had this dream from time to time. It was strange, because he had gotten over Angie a long time ago, and they were just friends; no hidden bullshit or anything. So why he still had this dream… must have been some remnant in his subconscious.

He could always tell when he was dreaming now, ever since Darkrai started happening. He could always recognize that off-ness that a dream had; things were always a little bit foggy. It allowed him to lucid dream, but he usually didn't do so unless he was bored. He spent so much of his day making decisions that he'd rather just let his dream body work on auto-pilot. Sometimes, he just tuned it all out. Other times, he used the time to think. And boy, did he have a lot to think about.

He thought about Heather. He was still mad at her. He was even madder at Jared, convinced that he had screwed him over intentionally. But while he dreamt, he saw how much of a raging lunatic he probably came off as. He was just so angry at his sudden loss of control. He missed Heather so much over the summer, and now, she would be swept away, and he was too proud to give up his control to go with her. And was Jared scheming? Or was he just wanting to do what anybody would do: win badges and travel with his girlfriend. The uncertainty was killing him. His jealousy fogged his judgment. He remembered the very early days before Jared when he traveled with Heather, being able to do as they wanted without somebody else's agenda interfering.

"Something on your mind?" Dream Angie asked him. She inched her head closer to his neck, nibbling on it lightly. It tickled. The dream may have been outdated, but he still liked the perks.

"Heather," Cody admitted. If this were real life, he would have been slapped for mentioning another woman, but Dream Angie was far more agreeable than a real girl. "How is it possible to be so infatuated with somebody and irritated by them at the same time?"

"It's probably because you're a human," Angie answered with a cute giggle. "Human emotion, while fascinating, is one of the things that makes your kind weak."

"What are you talking about, you're human-" His eyes widened. That phrase… where had he heard that phrase before? Then, he knew. "You sick fuck."

Dream Angie pulled away from him, stood up, and her form lost all color, from her light skin to her red hair. Her features quickly changed into looking just like Cody, except he was monochrome… save those eyes. Those red eyes…

"What?" Darkrai asked him, amused. "You're not going to buy me a drink?"

"I was hoping you'd stay gone…" He said as he stood up. The Dark One hadn't appeared in his sleep for a prolonged visit in months. Occasionally, he'd pop in, scare him a bit, and then disappear, but no monologues or anything. He figured he was busy with his new "client".

"Well, that other human… the one I told you about… It's strange, I've never seen a human so welcoming of my visits." He shook his head. "He's a good backup, but he's too chaotic. Too unpredictable. But you-"

"I'm not sticking around." For the first time, Darkrai appeared to him in a real dream, rather than one of his dark dreams. And he picked a dream right next to a cliff, the idiot. Without another thought, Cody leapt off the cliff. After hitting the jagged rocks at the bottom, he'd wake up… that was the plan, at least. He found himself crashing right on the cliff where he had jumped from. It was like he fell through a wormhole. And the pain… the pain felt like he had fallen off a cliff, but he wasn't waking up.

Darkrai laughed like a giddy child. "That never gets old. You think humans haven't tried that with me before? That's dreaming 101." He reached down, clutching Cody's head and pulling him to his feet. "Any other clichés you'd like to try, or can we get on with it?"

"Be lucky that wasn't a real cliff, or you'd have to settle for your second choice," Cody sputtered, clutching his chest.

"But you won't do that. I know you won't. Think of what your poor mother would do if she found out that her last son was dead. Even if you were… I'm not just here to scare you. I'm here to change you as well."

"Change me?"

"Change this," Darkrai answered, dragging his right index finger across his victim's forehead. "How you think. I can make you more suggestible. More obedient. It's not perfect, but it increases my odds. It's already at work, as you can see."

"What…?" He suddenly got it. Darkrai had breached an actual dream. A personal one at that.

"This is such a nice dream. You, a human you care about… perfect fodder to infiltrate." He let go of Cody's head and took a step back. "You have my full attention again… well, almost full. There are the others. My plans A, B, C, and so on. But guess which plan you are?" He moved his head closer to Cody's ear. "Stella won't be here for you anymore. You surround yourself with friends and pokémon, but you are alone with me. Nobody can help you. Nobody can save you. Nobody-"

Cody punched the specter in the nose. Darkrai doubled back for a moment, but he returned the punch with one of his own. The blow shattered Cody's face into a thousand fragments, but he still wouldn't wake up.

"Pain will break you like it has done to many before you. Little by little, night by night. It's only a matter of time. And even if you fail to live up to my expectations, I don't need you. Remember that. Remember what you are to me." And then, the world caught flame.

He sat up in his sleeping bag, breathing heavily and sweating gallons. His sudden jolt woke up Reflet, who was sleeping on his stomach. The Eevee propped herself up, placing her paws on his chest and looking into his hollowed eyes.

That… that was unexpected. Darkrai appearing in a dream that wasn't his creation took him by surprise. It shouldn't have, considering he was the pokémon of nightmares. Even so… his sudden reappearance shook him, even if it was brief compared to his endless monologues of the past.

As his heartbeat began to slow down, he looked around the camp to see if anybody had noticed his sudden rise. Heather and Jared were still asleep, as were the few trainers that they had battled earlier who were camping with them. There was one camper who noticed though. A young, blonde, fourteen year old girl that Cody had beaten earlier was staring at him as she sat next to the fire. It must have been her shift to be on watch.

"You okay, dude?" she asked cautiously. "You were tossing and turning in your sleep and you just sort of sat up all of a sudden."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good." He was feeling a bit better already, but he wasn't going to be able to fall back to sleep for a while. "You want me to take over the watch?"

"No, I just started fifteen minutes ago. I can't go back yet," she answered him.

"Fine, I just…" He stood up. "I need to go for a walk." With Reflet at his feet, he walked back to the banks of the lake. He heard a soft thumping sound behind him and he saw that Colossal was following him too. Maybe he couldn't sleep either.

The lake was at least a sight for sore eyes. Not only did the stars and moon reflect on the peaceful water, but the Lunatone were all glowing like the moon itself. They hummed softly as the circled the lake , slowly spiraling towards the center and back out again. Those that floated close to Cody and his pokémon paid them no mind. While they seemed peaceful, they were definitely competent battlers. The one that Heather caught gave her quite a fight.

He didn't know why he was walking. It wasn't as if he needed fresh air; he was outside already. Going for a walk or just stepping outside was a habit that he had built over the past year whenever Darkrai came to him. But there was another reason: perhaps he thought he'd run into Stella.

"No… she's not coming." He knew this. The old woman had never appeared to him whenever he was in the wilderness, but only in towns and cities. He had a few guesses as to why. Even though she inexplicably was able to appear wherever else he was in the past, he imagined that being as old and decrepit as she was limited where she could go. But he also remembered that the last time they saw each other, she said that they stood at a fork in the road and that it would be some time before they saw each other again. He guessed that she was probably near that other person that Darkrai had mentioned who was unstable. Or maybe she was with somebody else. For all he knew, she could be dead. That was vile to consider, but it wasn't impossible. She was pretty old, after all.

Regardless of where she was, her absence left a void in his life, as he had nobody to talk to about the problem. Heather didn't believe that Darkrai was a thing (even if he could talk to her about it, he didn't want to in that moment), Jared was not an option for multiple reasons, he had never brought it up with Laurence, he'd never talk about it with his parents, and that psychologist he had visited, while helpful, only thought that the whole thing was a manifestation of stress. If he knew how to identify others like him (like Stella could), maybe he could talk to them, but there was no way that he could. He almost wanted to go back to camp and talk with that girl who was still awake, he was so desperate, but that would probably freak her out. No, the only thing he could tell was his dream journal, but at that point, he was only doing that out of habit. He didn't feel like the writing was helping him at all.

"You surround yourself with friends and pokémon, but you are alone with me."

He looked at his pokémon. As much as they cared for them, and they for him, telling them would do him no good. They were incapable of understanding. The only one who could was probably Cortez, since the Litwick line had human level intelligence and language comprehension, but he did not want to. His Lampent probably wouldn't care. For all he knew, his pokémon would probably make a jest of the whole thing. And even if he understood, he couldn't talk with him anyway.

"Ah geeze." He sat down on the rocky bank and stared off into the center where the Lunatone flowed towards. He looked over at Colossal, who stood next to him on the bank, staring intently. The pokémon never displayed his affections much, but this staring was his way of trying.

"Would you believe me if I told you that an ancient pokémon was haunting my dreams as a way of bring about destruction of the current balance of the universe?" Cody asked. Wow, that sounds ridiculous when said out loud.

The Pupitar blinked. In his own way, he was trying to care, but he couldn't convey it in any way. If he were to evolve again, maybe he could; Tyranitar had human level intelligence and moderate speech comprehension, as the final evolution enhanced their brains. But for a trained Pupitar, it usually took about two years before one would be ready to evolve again. He could only provide the comfort of his presence, though that was at least something.

"How about you?" he asked Reflet as he held her at eye level.

The Eevee blinked before playfully licking him on the nose. It made him smile, but he still felt uncomfortable.

"No? Okay…" He set her down by his side and continued to stare into the distance. In one day, he had alienated one of his best friends and he found that he had nobody to talk to about that beast in the night. He could always see another psychologist, but the way he saw it, he was lucky that Dr. Stahl hadn't committed him. No matter whom he surrounded himself with, he would have to face that inner demon alone.

So be it. That was what he told himself. He just hoped that he could keep that conviction. The more he knew, the more doubt he had.

The next morning, they were up and walking again by 7 AM. The early rise was actually Cody's request, despite the fact that he was usually the one that wanted to sleep in. But that was all that he asked. Nobody spoke amongst the trio as they walked from the wilderness to the freeway to the rural lands, passing small settlements and farms. For three and a half hours, it went on like that. He didn't feel like talking to either of his traveling companions and they said nothing to each other, leading him to believe that they talked about the argument from the night before. Nobody wanted to say anything that might be the match over the oil field.

I don't even care anymore. Moss Creek was supposed to be a fun little detour to start off the new year, but the idea of spending the day with them no longer sounded like fun. Once we get there, I'll try to ditch them for a bit. Clear my mind, eat some junk food, take out my aggression on some of those games… He also considered ditching the two of them in general. Just leaving Moss Creek after he lost them in the crowd so he could head on to Ashlin alone. He could probably cover more ground that way… or just travel at his own pace. Entertaining the thought for a moment, he quickly pushed it aside. He give two shits about clearing the air with Jared, but Heather was worth it, even if he had no plans to give in and fly with them out to the eastern islands. He would talk with her later when he was later and hope she would accept his apology, even if he wasn't sorry for a hundred percent of what he had said.

"Moss Creek, huh?" It was Jared who finally said something. As they reached the town's outer limits. The suddenly quiet rural lands were quickly forming into roads filled with cars as people funneled into the usually quiet town. "I gotta say, when you said you had a surprise, the festival wasn't what I had in mind."

Though Cody didn't see it as he looked ahead, he heard a soft thud. He assumed it was Heather elbowing her boyfriend in the side.

"I… it's a nice gesture," Jared added, obviously forced.

"Yeah… I agree," Heather said as well, genuine, but sheepish.

"Before I left home, I reserved a motel room for two nights. It was a pain in the ass to reserve anything, considering how busy this place gets this August, but hey. If you guys don't want to do carnival stuff, there are going to be trainers crawling out of the woodwork, so go crazy."

He turned his head to see Heather give him a curt nod, not accompanied by a smile or a frown. Was that her poker face, or was she completely numbed to him in that moment? Not trying to guess, he looked forward again. He just needed to separate himself from them in the crowd. That didn't make him feel comfortable either, as the statistical probability of him being watched by Brotherhood eyes at one of the biggest events in east Skitrex was high. No matter how he thought about the day, it troubled him.

Just gotta hope I get something out of this.