Chapter 52: Sleeping Beauty

Trainers of Skitrex: it is with great sadness that we announce the passing of a legend. Chien Dao, 77, was found in his apartment by his housekeeper this morning. The cause of death is currently unknown. He leaves his daughter, Cynthia Howard, a formidable trainer in their own right.

Dao has been a member of the Skitrexian Elite 4 for nearly twenty-five years. He won the Diamond Beach Tournament in 1985 at the age of 50. His first challenge against the Elite 4 was in 1986, where his best of five versus former champion Veronica Lee was considered one of this region's classic bouts. The following year, he was offered a position as one of the region's Elite 4. Despite multiple unsuccessful attempts to become champion, Dao was always a formidable foe. While training multiple pokémon during his time as a trainer, Dao had a preference for reptilian monsters, the strongest being Wicked, his Seviper, who has outlived his trainer.

New developments will be released as they become available. In the meantime, in this time of mourning, the Skitrexian Elite 4 will not be accepting challengers. The Skitrexian League Council has announced that they will compile a list of potential replacements for Dao and that an announcement will be made within the coming weeks on who will replace him. In the meantime, this reporter gives his condolences to Dao's family and pokémon. You will be missed.

This is Vivian Gold, Skitrexian Trainer News.

He woke up on a sofa in a pokémon center to the sounds of a news report, but he didn't know that yet in the midst of his disorientation. He figured it was the center in the town they had stayed in the night before, but he was too groggy to know for sure. He was unable to focus his eyes or comprehend anything his senses tried to decipher for him. The bright sun blinded him as it peered through the window and struck his face. Despite that, he was comfortable, his head resting on something soft… it was Brooke's lap. As his sense of touch began to focus, he could tell it was her.

"Hey… time?" He could barely form a sentence.

"It's 3 PM. You've been out for awhile," she whispered softly. "You hungry?"

"No," he moaned, straining to open his eyes. After the night he had been through, waking up to Brooke's smiling face was the ultimate relief. He lifted his hand to touch her tan cheek, letting his fingers drift up to her blonde hair. Her darker blonde roots were showing under the bleach, but he couldn't have cared less. Straining, he lifted his head up to kiss her. It only lasted a few seconds before his head plopped back down.

"How long have you been here?" he asked her, feeling content just to stare up at her.

"Since you got back. The ranger you came in with called the motel's manager, who called us."

Us? "Where's Heather?" he asked, letting out a small yawn.

"Out training. Don't you remember? She was really pissed with you," Brooke reminded him with a sigh, now running her fingers through his hair. "I mean, I was mad at you too, but she looked and sounded like wanted to strangle you."

"She did? Why?" he asked, yawning again, closing his eyes, trying to savor those moments of supreme comfort.

"Do you really not remember? You ran off into the woods after your Venipede without clothes, your phone, a full team, or without even telling us. And if what you and the ranger had told us is true, you were attacked by a cluster of Trevenant. You could have been killed. It was really stupid, what you did." She didn't sound mad, but Brooke didn't sound as kind as she normally did.

"You're not mad at me now, right?" he murmured, not opening his eyes.

"No, I'm just glad that you're okay. I just wish you had a bit more common sense sometimes." A light giggle, but her concern overpowered any amusement.

By then, he was remembering what had happened. The ranger brought his team and himself to his jeep and drove them back to town. From there, he met up with the girls, and Heather did give him an earful before throwing a set of clean clothes at him, followed by her storming off. Then he showered and crashed on the couch, waiting for word on his pokémon… His pokémon! He had almost forgotten. His eyes shot open and he shot up, taking Brooke by shock.

"Where are they?" he asked frantically.

"Relax, they're still with the doctors!" Brooke replied, trying to soothe him with her hand on his left shoulder. "Your Venipede is fine. Cortez was a bit roughed up, but they said he'd be okay. Reflet-"

"Yeah, Reflet, where is she? Is she okay?"

"I… I don't know," Brooke admitted, looking sorry she didn't have any news. "Do you-"

"Yes!" He stood up and rushed toward the front desk of the pokémon center where one of the nurses sat. "I need to see my Eevee! She's- I mean, my Espeon!" Saying that felt so weird and he didn't know why. So many of his team had already evolved, so why was this instance so different?

"Oh, you're up," the nurse replied, startled and annoyed with his demands. She looked over at another nurse who had just entered the room and called her over. "You have time to take him to see his Espeon? You know, the one who's on oxygen?"

Oxygen? He needed to know what was wrong.

Without a moment to spare, he followed the other nurse through the winding halls, Brooke tagging along behind them. Finally, they reached a room with a large glass window looking in on a private room. There was a gurney in the center of the room that his pokémon rested on, covered with a light, white blanket. Reflet looked very peaceful as she slept there, but like the nurse at the front had said, she was wearing an oxygen mask.

"I'll get the doctor. She has they key to the room." The nurse left, leaving Cody and Brooke to gaze at his sleeping pokémon.

"What do you think is wrong with her?" Cody asked, drawing Brooke in for support

"The doctors said she took a few nasty bumps earlier," Brooke answered, trying to give him some relief. But that answer was unsatisfying.

"No, that can't be it. She didn't faint until after she evolved. What if something went wrong?"

"I can assure you, everything's fine."

Cody turned to see who had spoken. A tall, dark-skinned woman with short hair, somewhere in her mid-forties, had arrived. She had tired eyes, probably having been on call all night, but she smiled at him. Cody correctly guessed that she was the doctor. The woman unlocked the door, holding it open for Cody and Brooke to rush inside.

Cody could tell that his Espeon was breathing normally, so maybe the oxygen was helping. But why she had had that seizure following her evolution was beyond him. At least she was fine, according to the doctor. He gently touched her, stroking the length of his right index finger across her neck. Her body was covered in a light purple coat of hair that felt glossy to the touch, unlike the fluffy fur she had as an Eevee. The only fluffy part that remained was the thick hair extending from below her ears, almost like whiskers, although they were on the wrong part of her face to be whiskers. His finger drifted to the red sphere embedded on her forehead. It felt like glass to the touch, very unnatural feeling compared to the rest of her body. He looked at the end of the gurney to see her tail poking out from under the blanket. The once fluffy tail was now thin and lithe, splitting into two at the end. She looked almost feline-like now, but technically, she was still a canine. She really didn't look it though, but nonetheless, even unconscious, she was beautiful.

"She was having a little bit of trouble breathing, but she's stabilized now. All that's left is the waiting game," the doctor said from where she was standing in the corner of the room.

"Waiting? Why? What happened?" The doctor made it sound as if she was dying or something. But she couldn't be, could she? "She evolved and then she started seizing. That's not normal."

"Actually, it is. Take a look at this." The doctor pulled a chair over to where the trainer sat and sat down, holding a textbook out in front of the both of them. It was open to a page that displayed black and white drawings comparing the internal anatomy between Eeveelutions. "Look at the brain in both the Eevee and the Espeon diagrams," she instructed. "What do you notice?"

The anatomy between the two pokémon looked pretty similar overall, but there was one key difference that the young trainer noticed. "It looks like the Espeon's brain is bigger than the Eevee's in comparison to the size of the skull."

"Precisely," the doctor affirmed, placing the book in her lap. "Eevee are about as smart as most pokémon of animal-level intelligence: smart, but not too smart. Most of their evolved forms, such as Flareon or Leafeon, have similar intelligence if not a little bit smarter. However, when evolving into a psychic-type, we see a dramatic increase in brain matter to support its psychic abilities. The same can be seen in Umbreon and Sylveon as well, but her evolution into a pokémon that has human-level intelligence is a huge growth spurt, mentally."

Cody hadn't thought of the scenario like that, but he still had questions. "But how does that-"

"I saw in your records that you have a Pupitar," the doctor continued. " So consider this comparison: Larvitar start out at about the same level of intelligence as Eevee, they get significantly smarter when evolving into Pupitar, and even more so as Tyranitar, at which point, they have intelligence similar to ours, if not a bit lower. I believe that Tyranitar average at about an IQ of 95? That's below average for humans, but impressive for a pokémon. The point is that the evolution of a Larvitar's mind is gradual. With your Eevee, now an Espeon, she skipped straight from point A to point C. It's a massive spike in brain power, so it's almost guaranteed that your pokémon would suffer some immediate side effects from it. Honestly, I would be more concerned if she didn't."

"Wow…" Cody wasn't sure why he had never read that in the handbook. Then again, he hadn't planned on evolving his Eevee into an Umbreon or Espeon. "So, what now? When will she wake up?"

"Probably sometime tomorrow. Until then, she needs rest. You can visit her whenever you want, but she won't be responsive. Do you have any other questions?"

"No, thank you, doctor," he said, extending his hand. She shook it, smiled, and then left the room to attend to other patients.

"Look at you now," Cody said to his pokémon, stroking her glossy fur. From an abused Eevee to a brave defender, she had come a long way. Still, he hadn't expected her to evolve into an Espeon. Considering all her woodland exposure, he had expected a Leafeon. Perhaps, it was the passion of the moment that this evolution took place, but he would never know for sure.

"She's really beautiful," Brooke cooed softly, moving closer to Reflet's head so she could pet her.

"She is," Cody agreed, smiling as he continued to run his hand over her soft fur. He felt so much better, knowing his pokémon would be okay.

"What do you think she'll be like when she battles?" Brooke asked. "I don't know much about Espeon."

"Still a glass cannon, but things will be different now." He took the book that the doctor had left behind and flipped to the page that displayed the Eevee line's muscle tissue. "See, by the looks of things," he began, pointing to the diagrams, "while she has more muscle build in total than she did as an Eevee, it's actually thinner in a pound for pound comparison. Compared to Umbreon and Vaporeon, both of whom have a bulkier build, she's a featherweight."

"So, she can't tank?" Brooke guessed, squinting at the terminology. "That's the word, right?"

"Correct," Cody replied, acknowledging her word choice. "But she'll be very fast. Maybe one of the fastest on my team. Plus, psychic-types have a lot of options. Maybe she'll be good at damage recovery. Maybe she'll be good at setting up barriers to block attacks. It's difficult to say, but we're going to have to rework our strategies." Lifting his hand from his pokémon's neck, he smiled again, weakly. "I just hope she doesn't rebel like Cortez is doing right now. The last thing I need is another pokémon that's too smart for their own good."

They sat in silence for a moment, the only sounds being that of distant business of the center's employees and the persistent flow of the oxygen being fed to his Espeon. Cody would have been content to sit there for hours, waiting for his pokémon to wake up, but a new sound emerged: a growling of his stomach.

"So much for not being hungry," Brooke joked, giving him a slight push.

"Ugh, did I eat anything when I came in?" he groaned, clutching his belly. "I can't remember."

"You literally took one bite of a granola bar and passed out. If I didn't know any better, I would have assumed it was spiked," she giggled, clutching him tightly in a hug. "Do you want to get lunch?"

"No, I should stay here. Make sure she's okay, you know? I'll get something from the vending machine." He placed a hand on the left side of Reflet's ribcage as if to let her know he wasn't going anywhere.

"The doctor said she'll be out until tomorrow," Brooke reminded him, patting his stomach with her free hand. "There's no sense in starving yourself."

"How about-"

"How about this," Brooke interrupted with her own suggestion. "Go get some real food. I'll watch her and if anything happens, I'll call you."

"Look, I don't know," Cody mumbled. "I just got here and-"

"I'm telling you to eat something," Brooke ordered, putting on her serious face, but her smile still shining through, so she wasn't so intimidating. "You're no good to Reflet if you're dead."

"Fine, fine. Actually…" He opened the text messages between himself and Laurence. "I told Laurence we were in this town, and he recommended the diner. Something about there being really good veggie burgers."

"Cody," the blonde girl sighed, giving him a raised eyebrow, "I know you're not a vegetarian. You don't need to impress me."

"No really, says right here." He handed his phone to her and she scrolled to see that Laurence had indeed texted him that, but something else caught her eye.

"Interesting," she commented slyly, as she stared at his phone. "Your friend also mentions something about a waitress working at the restaurant with an ass like a-"

"What, you jealous?" Cody cut in. He gave her a sly smile, but he was panicking inside. He had forgotten that Laurence texted that to him and it had no bearing on his choice in food, but Brooke didn't know that. Thankfully, she was playful with it.

"I don't know," she said, leaning forward and pressing her lips against his ear before softly saying, "should I be?"

"Well…" He stood up and she followed, but instead of turning away, he quickly stepped forward and grabbed her ass with both hands, squeezing as he pulled her in. "I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"Damn, where did this come from?" she laughed, keeping her voice down, but appearing very tickled. "You're really bad today."

"Said the biggest tease in Skitrex." He kissed her, pushing her against the wall. He really wanted to make out with her right there, but he remembered the window to the hallway. Looking over at his Espeon, who motionlessly rested on the gurney, he sighed. "I really hope she can't sense this. I don't want her judging me, now that she'll be able to."

"Right," Brooke said as she was released from his grip. Still, she stood close to him, slowly circling her fingers on his upper chest. "If Heather is willing to watch her later, maybe I can get you alone?"

It took him every fiber in his being to hold himself back in those seconds. If it weren't for the nurse who knocked on the door, he probably would have. But his hormones and frustration definitely showed on his face.

"I'll let you think that one over," she whispered, winking.

"Right, yeah." Letting out a long breath, he turned to see his Espeon again. He lowered himself to kiss Reflet on her jeweled forehead. "I'll be back in a little bit. Sweet dreams." And he left the room with the strange combination of feeling both concerned and horny.

Laurence was right on both accounts: the veggie burger was delicious and the waitress had a nice ass. But truth be told, her looks weren't what interested him. Sure, she had that cute, girl-next-door look about her, but she looked like she was in her early twenties so she would have been too old for him, even if he wanted to try his luck (which he didn't). Not that that would have stopped Laurence, however. He wondered if Laurence had managed to sleep with her, but he wasn't sure. His friend would kiss and tell, but only sometimes.

No, what interested Cody in Madelyn was what she was interested outside of the workplace. In casual conversation, it came up that she was a single mom who worked two jobs, took online college courses, and in her free time, battled.

"Yeah, I've been battling since late high school. Stayed in school and went out and went out for one badge per summer because my parents wouldn't let me go any longer. I have five badges now. I battle in my free time, but maybe in seven years, I can go to Diamond Beach? But it's okay. None of my pokémon need to eat traditional food, so it's not like they cost too much to have around."

He could respect that. In fact, the education would probably be helpful in the end. But at the end of his meal, the two of them made a bet. On her break, they'd battle three versus three three. If he won, he'd get the meal on the house. If she won, he'd pay double for the meal. Simple, low-risk fun. Besides, he only had three pokémon with him and there was one pokémon in mind who needed the experience.

The first battle was between Mars and her Bronzor. It was a tight match-up, but Mars won decisively. Next was her Sunflora, which made quick work of the Diglett, but Elesa picked up the pieces there. Finally, Her Misdreavus emerged to fight. Elesa had barely taken a scratch against the Sunflora, so at this rate, things were looking up.

"You got this," Cody told his Zebstrika, but in truth, this battle was too easy. Madelyn was good, but beating her so simply wasn't a challenge. "On second thought, go! Use Volt Switch!"

Elesa replied with a snort. She hated using the move, as it meant he wouldn't get to fight, although, in that scenario, it was possible that she'd be back out in a minute to finish the job. The electric horse charged forward, crashing into the fleeing Misdreavus before returning back to the pokeball in an electric flash. Cody already had another ball in hand and then he released the Venipede onto the field.

"Wow, I've never seen that color on a Venipede before," Madelyn commented with intrigue.

Yeah, well, let's hope he lives up to the hype this time. "Poison Sting!"

"Tlick!" The Venipede clicked. It didn't move, but it didn't take its eyes off the ghost. The Misdreavus took this time to charge a Shadow Ball.

Come on… do something. He began to think that maybe he had made a mistake. Nothing that Elesa couldn't fix, but he had been very hopeful. Thankfully, his hope was not misplaced.

"Whooooooo!" the Misdreavus chimed as she shot her Shadow Ball at the bug below. But the Venipede was waiting for this. Milliseconds before the hit, he lunged forward and dodged. The Misdreavus wasn't ready for the barrage of Poison Stings that were shot her way. She screamed as the poison-tipped needles hit her ectoplasmic-skin.

"Missy, you need to float higher!" Madelyn ordered.

"Bring her down! Rollout!"

This time, his Venipede reacted immediately. The shiny centipede ran into a roll, bounced off the ground, and struck the long-haired ghost in the face. Before she could rise again, the rolling centipede rolled in a wide circle and charged again. As he rolled, his glowed slightly as her crushed the ghost beneath him. A perfect Steamroller attack. The bug uncurled after that and let out a chorus of clicks.

"Tlick, tlick, tlick, tlicktlicktlicktlicktlicktlicktlicktlick!"

Strange. It almost sounded like the revving of a sports car engine. At the very least, it was an interesting taunt.

"Pain Split!"

The Venipede shouldn't have taken time to gloat, as the Misdreavus cast a spell in which she healed herself by weakening the bug. The Misdreavus rose again and shot a Psybeam, but the Venipede had enough energy to dodge. He was one of the team's fastest, after all.

"Try a Screech," the bug's trainer suggested. It wasn't a move his bug used a lot, but the bug followed through. Unlike Antonia's or Colossal's (as a Larvitar) Screech, this Screech was emitted differently. The Venipede's Screech was a series of eardrum popping clicks, sounding almost cicada-like. The noise's vibrations hit both trainers and the Misdreavus pretty hard, and that gave the Venipede the opening he needed. He shot a barrage of Poison Stings at his foe before she could react. She retaliated with a Confuse Ray, but she missed by a mile and she seemed to sway back and forth in the air. She must have been poisoned.

"Poison Tail!"

The Venipede didn't do as he was told, but he tried something else instead. From his mouth, the bug shot a mysterious green mist at the foe from his mouth. The stream covered the Misdreavus's body and she let out a dreadful wail and fell to the earth. The Venoshock was especially effective against his poisoned foe. It was then that the Venipede finally rushed in, flipped forward, and slammed its pronged spikes into the top of the ghost's head. There was the Poison Tail and there was the win.

"Damn, you actually won something!" Cody walked over to his pokémon and knelt by his side, petting the bug's hump. The Venipede didn't click at him, but just stood there and let him pet him. It was a start, the trainer supposed.

"Wow, you're good," Madelyn said as she approached him, following returning her third pokémon to her pokeball. "I should have known better than to challenge a full-time trainer."

"Hey, no shame," Cody stood up before shaking her hand. "I guess the burger's on the house?"

"Yup," she sighed, smiling still. "I guess it is."

"Great!" he said, kneeling down again, scooping up the frigid centipede and holding him close. He would end up giving the waitress a 200% tip. He had something else to happier about than a free burger.

He never got that alone time with Brooke. While Heather was perfectly fine with visiting Reflet, she wouldn't keep watch over her. She said that it was because it wasn't necessary, considering that the pokémon was always monitored, but Cody knew that it was because she was still mad at him and wasn't willing to play babysitter so he could go have fun. If Reflet needed to be watched, she would have done it, but in this scenario, it wasn't happening.

Cody had been on his current watch for about six hours. He took breaks to go to the bathroom, one to shower, a few to go to the vending machines, and others to visit with his pokémon, but those breaks had been scarce in total, lasting a few minutes each. The longest break was to see Cortez. His Lampent had taken a beating that night against the Trevenant, but he recovered fine with rest. A silver lining to that situation would have been his pokémon calming down slightly, but the trainer wasn't that lucky. The ghost greeted him by spitting smoke in his face again.

If I get lung cancer…

He didn't want to think about that. Instead, he waited patiently by his Espeon's side, waiting for her to wake up. She was finally moving a bit, twitching and fidgeting in her sleep, but she was still unconscious. Cody did the best he could grooming her as she slept, but that was mostly to keep himself busy. While grooming, his fingers passed a few of the whip scars on her back. She was so frail when he first found her and he wondered if the bastard that was her first trainer would have ever expected her to grow so much. He wondered how well she would do, battling in this new form. The only thing that was similar was her speed. She'd be able to run even faster, but what of her abilities? As an Eevee, she battled in an evasive, high risk, high reward physical style, putting her body on the line to inflict damage. But now, she'd have psychic powers. She'd have to relearn everything from scratch. With his other pokémon who had evolved, they battled very similarly to their pre-evolutions, but this case was unique.

He passed the time by reading. The pokémon center had a lot of books on pokémon care for psychic-types, which he glanced over. He had never planned on owning a psychic-type, so he hadn't bothered looking before. From the looks of things, it would be similar to raising a ghost-type in a lot of respects. Most of them were smart, having IQs of at least 100 or higher. And then there were Alakazam who had intelligence that rivaled the smartest humans, possibly even exceeding them. Psychic-types also tended to imprint on the language that they were accustomed to hearing, not only being able to understand it perfectly but communicate fluently with telepathy as well. Beyond that, different psychic types had different abilities, depending on the species and the individual. Most of them had telepathy, and a few of them could read minds of those who weren't willing, but monsters with that invasive ability were far and few between. Most had telekinesis and other abilities included self-restoration, force field projection, teleportation, illusion conjuration, precognition, bodily manipulation of themselves and others, and so on. A psychic-type could potentially learn all of these abilities, but it would take time. Still, they were all wonderful abilities to possess, so the effort would be worth it.

The handbook also provided information on Espeon themselves. Cody found himself rereading it, trying to commit what he read to memory.

While physically frail, an Espeon's muscles are designed to allow increased speeds, aided even more so by psychic propulsions that aid in swift, flawless movement. Espeon use this speed to outrun foes and confuse them with unpredictable movements and techniques. Espeon are capable of learning many different types of psychic-specialty skills, making them a "jack of all trades" psychic-type. However, what they have in abilities range, they lack in attack variety. While Espeon can produce powerful telekinetic blasts and beams, psychic or otherwise, these attacks are limited by their elemental variety. Trainers are encouraged to train their Espeon in developing a variety of skills to supplement both ends of the spectrum.

Contrary to popular belief, one skill that Espeon typically lack is battle precognition. It was believed for centuries that Espeon could see into the direct future and predict the moves that were coming, explaining why they have been successful in dodging point-blank attacks. Espeon typically report no knowledge of said precognition, leading experts to assume that the process was within the pokémons' subconscious. However, it wasn't until the late sixties that Dr. Fillmore Heck, a world renown Ph.D. in battle theory, noticed that in slowed replays of Espeon battles, the pokémon in question appeared to be moving in reaction slightly after the beginning of an attack. Heck's hypothesis was that there was another mechanism in play. In his most famous study, he compared the dodging ability of fifteen regular Espeon versus five shaved Espeon. It was found that the dodging ability of the shaved Espeon decreased by 83.7% (Heck, 1969). Multiple replication studies confirmed these results. The fine hair that lines an Espeon's body is very sensitive and can detect subtle air movement, which allows for them to reflexively dodge oncoming attacks at a variety of speeds. While some psychic energy is used in this detection process, it is not technically precognition, although it is not impossible for a rare Espeon to possess this ability. Trainers are encouraged to keep their Espeons' hair clean and unmatted for purpose of battling effectively.

The grooming did have a purpose after all, not that Reflet would be battling soon. Even if she was cleared by the doctor, she would still need to adjust to her new powers and how to battle with them. At least all the dodging practice they put in the other day would come in handy, now that her capabilities to do so had increased.

"We'll figure it out," he said to himself, smiling at his sleeping beauty. He was about to lean back and try to squeeze in a quick nap when Reflet twitched again. He sat up again out of habit and stared readily at his pokémon.

No, just another reflex. But just as he relaxed again, her eyes opened, much quicker than he would have anticipated.

At first, he thought it was just another reflex, but something told him that that wasn't the case. His Espeon stared at him with large, purple eyes, a shade far darker than her fur. They were lemon-shaped, but that wasn't the word he would have wanted to use to describe them. And while the eyes themselves didn't offer much in terms of expression as they had when she was an Eevee, there was something about them… It was as if he was staring directly into her soul and could feel the emotions she was feeling. Maybe it was because she was a psychic-type and she was telepathically sending him her emotions? He wasn't sure. But as their gazes locked, he saw emotions inside of her that he would never have guessed he'd see when she finally awoke.

Sadness.

Sorrow.

Regret.

Guilt.

He felt a tear run down his cheek, which he quickly wiped away. He wasn't sure where that came from. Reflet wasn't in critical condition and he knew she'd be okay. Why was he feeling so emotional? And why were her eyes glossed over with tears as well?

"Hey," he said, touching her soft-coated neck with his right hand, trying to hide his feelings. "You're awake."

[Cody... I'm sorry.]

Hearing his pokémon speak to him for the first time was so bewilderingly astonishing. He knew that she would be able to talk to him as an Espeon, but hearing it felt unreal. Maybe it was because he never expected Reflet to become an Espeon. Had she become a Leafeon or Glaceon, very little would have changed in terms of her behavior. But another thing that caught him off guard was the voice that her telepathy projected as. It was very feminine; almost melodic in its calmness. But it was hauntingly familiar. He just couldn't remember where he had heard that voice before.

But she was sorry?

He stroked her soft fur. "Why are you sorry? You've done nothing wrong. And you saved us the other night. Don't you remember?"

[I'm sorry that I evolved into an Espeon.]

What? Where is this coming from?

"Reflet, that's nothing to be sorry about. Why would you-"

[The other day, you said that you didn't like psychic-types. You said that they were creepy.]

He did say that and now he regretted it.

"I.. I didn't think you'd remember that." He didn't think she'd remember things clearly from before her mind evolved.

[I remember a lot of things. I remember how kind you've been to me. How you saved me from… from him. Ever since then, I wanted to do good by you. I loved you. But I evolved into an Espeon and I know that's not what you wanted. If I could take it back-]

"Shut up, you have nothing to be sorry about," Cody interrupted, beaming at her with a smile. "I love you like I love my other pokémon. I would have been fine with whatever you evolved into." Suddenly, he felt a little bit less sad. Maybe it was because she didn't look so sad anymore, following his words of relief. However, she cocked her head in doubt.

[Really?] She didn't sound convinced.

"Espeon are very rare in the wild, you know," he said, changing the subject, but with a point. "They say that the only Eevee who evolve into Espeon in the wild are the ones who live on the eastern side of mountains, and even then, it's rare. But when an Eevee evolves into an Espeon or Umbreon when living with a trainer, it's a sign of love between both human and pokémon. Did you know that?"

[No… I can't say I did. But what does that mean?] she asked.

"It means that we're connected. And no matter what you evolved into, that wouldn't be any different."

There was a pause in the conversation. The tears that had glossed her eyes finally streamed down her face.

[I'm sorry. You have been kind to me. I should never have doubted you.]

That voice. He still wanted to remember where he had heard that voice before.

"No more apologizing," Cody ordered. "Just remember. I will always be here for you, no matter what."

[Thank you,] Reflet said weakly. Cody leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead, but unlike earlier, the moment his lips touched her, he was blasted backward by an unbelievable telekinetic force, crashing into the glass window of the room. The glass didn't break or even crack, but Cody felt as if his back shattered on the collision, and falling back to the floor didn't help.

[Oh God, Cody, I'm sorry! I- My powers are still new! I-]

"No… No apologies," the trainer stuttered, unable to even sit up. He looked up at his Espeon and gave her a weak wink, trying to laugh, but his lungs hurt too much. "We'll… We'll figure this out." But as he gasped to catch his breath, he hoped that his training with Reflet wouldn't reach Antonia levels of painful.