Over the next few weeks I was unbelievably impressed to see Jessee's plan actually working. Every few days we would have some sort of mission simulation or assignment and almost every time she was able to leave her teammates in the dust. And every time this happened, she somehow managed to woo Viper into assigning her a new partner. She had the charisma, I could give her that…! I was so impressed with her plan that I started to implement it myself. I was able to ditch Damian and the Machop in a couple days, (which, honestly, was not hard at all) and got assigned to a new partner, whom I also got rid of." Finally, after four weeks and about 10 or so partners on Jessee's part, Viper called us into his office. With a look of extreme exasperation, he told us, "I have spoken to the Head about your…'concerns,' and we decided that we would slightly bend the rules to allow you two to be on the same team, IF you agreed to follow a few stipulations."

I leaned my hands against his desk. "And what might those stipulations be, Sir?"

"First, Jess, you will be allowed to be on the same team as Jessee, but upon graduation you will be classified as a grunt. Meaning, you will be considered in the books as a solo unit, and should you be called away from your sister on an assignment, you HAVE to go."

"And what is second?" Jessee prodded.

"Second is, that you, Jessee, will still need to acquire a partner who is NOT related to you. Jess will be allowed to travel with you and help, be a sort of off-the-books partner, if you will, but you will still be required to have a non-family human partner, and one pokemon partner. Those are the stipulations. Take them, or leave them." Viper finished, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

Jessee and I were silent only long enough for us to glance at each other. "It's a deal." I replied.

"Fine." Viper said, sighing with exasperation as he sat up and wrote something on a form in front of him. "In that case, Jessee, you will have one last chance to find a partner, and if this one doesn't work out you will both be discharged. Is that clear."

"Yes, Sir." Jessee and I replied in unison.

"Good. Go back to your dorms, and I'll see who I can scrounge up to be your partner. You are dismissed."

Jessee and I stood on the balcony in front of our barracks, overlooking the rest of the camp. The sun was just setting now, casting everything in a heavy shadow and giving the world an orange glow. Jessee turned to me. "Jess, do you think we did the right thing…?"

"What, about taking Sgt. Viper's offer? Yes, I have no doubt about it." I turned to her. "Why? Are you starting to have misgivings?"

"It's not that, it's more along the lines of, what if they make our lives miserable, or give us the absolute worst partner possible, or if they force you to go on solo missions all the time just so that you won't ever be around…"

I scoffed. "I"m sure that won't happen. It'll be fine. They'll probably make me go on solo missions a few times here or there, but I doubt it'll be very often, or for very long. And so what if our partner sucks. We can take him." I gently shoved Jessee's shoulder with my fist. She gave me a small smile, but then went back to staring at the sunset.

"Jessee." The voice behind us made us both jump. We both turned to find Viper standing behind us. He addressed my sister again. "You are to grab your gear and report to the training hall for team building exercises."

"You mean you found me a new partner?" Jessee asked with a hint of both excitement and trepidation in her voice.

"Yes, and I assure you it wasn't easy." Viper replied. "Allow me to introduce you to your partner, James." He gestured to a figure leaning against the corner of the barracks, still hidden by the heavy shadows.

My heart stopped. James was the name of our new partner? How were we supposed to work with someone with the same name as our missing brother…the missing brother that by now we had practically failed! That would just be a constant reminder of the family we had already lost…!

Jessee's eyebrows lowered, her jaw tightening in anger. "Listen, 'James,' I just hope you're good, because we're not going to carry you." She snapped.

The figure chuckled. "No one's carried me since my mama."

Jessee crossed her arms. "Funny and confident…? Let's just hope you can back it up, little guy."

"You'll have to excuse Jessee," Viper offered, "She has a history of not getting along with her partners.

"Then perhaps she just hasn't found the right one yet," The figure replied, pushing himself off the wall and taking a step forward into the light. He tossed his silky blue hair, a single strand falling again into his emerald green eyes, the setting sun catching the small flakes of teal in them.

Jessee caught her breath. My whole body went numb. I had to grab hold of the railing to keep from falling to the ground. Could this be real? The chances had been so infinitesimal I hadn't even bothered to add them into the realm of possibility. Nothing, in any way, had prepared me for this.

"You two are to collect your gear and be in the training hall in 10 minutes. Jess, while they are training you are to pack your and your sister's things. You are moving into the partnered barracks. Do you think you can handle that?"

"Y-yes, Sir," I managed to choke out.

Viper turned and left. As soon as we thought he was out of earshot, Jessee and I both ran to James and fell on him, hugging him so tightly he could hardly breathe, and sobbing almost uncontrollably.

"What are you doing here?!" Jessee hissed, pulling away long enough to choke a breath and wipe her eyes. "How did you get away from Dad and that witch?"

"I never stopped planning a way to escape." James replied. "After I managed to slip out, I found a recruitment poster and saw it as a way to stay hidden, as well as possibly find you two. Just the other day I happened to catch a glimpse of you're picture on Viper's clipboard so I volunteered to be your partner."

"B-but how?" I asked. "The deal was that the person they chose to be our partner couldn't be related to us in any way."

James pressed his index finger to his lips, lowering his voice to hardly over a whisper. "They don't know. When he asked about the same last name, I lied and said Newken was a common last name around where we're from."

I took a long breath, biting the inside of my cheek. "So we're going to have to play this out…" Not that I wasn't happy to have my brother back, but lying was not my strongest quality. We were raised to have morals…

"Not a problem." Jessee said, confidently. "Once we get through all of this and they make us permanent partners on paper, there won't be anything to worry about anyway." She stood up, reaching down to help James up with her. "Come on, we have to get to the training hall before Viper starts to suspect something is up."

James stood, and I followed. While they were going to be going through extensive partner training, what was I going to be doing? What did being an "Grunt" even entail? "You two get going; I'll get us situated in our new barracks."

We parted ways, and I headed off to the Red Team bunks to gather our things.

When I got to our bunk I was relieved to find it empty. I leaned down underneath the bed and whispered. "Pikachu, it's clear to come out now."

I saw two long ears poke out from where he'd been hiding between my saddlebags and a small pile of clothes. He poked his head up. "Pi?" He sniffed the air for a second, and satisfied at not smelling anyone else in the room, he leapt into my arms, snuggling happily. "Pika chaaaaa!"

"Guess what, Buddy," I said, "We're moving on up. We get our own private room now. Soon I think we're going to be leaving this place in the dust!"

"Pika?" Pikachu chimed wistfully.

I nodded. "But we still have to hide you for just a little while longer, so just put up with it a little more, and then you can be out and about again like the good old days." I set Pikachu on the ground and pulled out my and Jessee's things from under the bed, opening my saddle-bags and arranging our clothes and things into them in such a way. Finally I turned back to Pikachu. "Alright, see if that's comfortable."

Pikachu nodded and jumped into the pack in a single bound, nuzzling down into the bed of clothing, turning and adjusting himself. Finally he poked his head up just slightly. "Pi!"

"Sounds good to me." I closed the flap over his head, leaving just the tiny tip of his nose sticking out for fresh air. I then hoisted the bag over my shoulder, keeping the pack with Pikachu close to my chest so no one would notice his tiny black nose. Then, together, we strode right out of those boring barracks and straight to the private, partnered barracks on the other side of the establishment.