Sinnoh

Dawn glared at him, hands on hips and with two cold blue eyes piercing against his own green ones. Her Piplup had fainted and returned itself to its PokeBall in a flash of red and white meanwhile, across the battlefield, Barry felt a shiver crawl up his spine.

He had made a terrible mistake.

"You son of a bitch!" She growled, her words like a hammer striking a nail.

"It was a fair fight." Barry tried to defend himself and raised his arms up. "You're the one who wanted to battle!" He insisted but that just made her mood even worse. Now he had blamed her and that was the worst thing he could have done.

"Oh, so it's my fault?" Dawn lifted the PokeBall up and placed into her backpack.

"You win some, you lose some." He shrugged. "It's just one match, Dee."

"Don't call me that!" She waved her hands into the air and turned away from him, folding her arms tightly and staring into the distance. "Ugh! If I can't beat you then how the hell will I take on the gym challenge!" She kicked a rock over and it landed against the tree branch. "Bloody hell."

"Hey! That rock didn't do anything!" Barry exclaimed at her but she ignored him. "Calm down! Come on. Let's get back to the Lab."

"Just leave me alone." Dawn turned around to face him and then in one swift movement sat down on a tree branch, her arms still tightly crossed. "You know what," She started. "I'm so tired of you."

"Me?" Barry pointed at himself with his thumb. "What did I do?"

"You existed." Dawn bumbled out.

"That's it?" Barry challenged. "Is that really why you hate me so much?" He felt the frustration of all the comments she made, all the glares and frowns, all the snarky insults and sarcasm. "You know what, Dawn, screw it!" He turned and felt his hands roll up into fists. "I worked hard to try and be friends with you. I moved into a new region, a new way of life and the first person I met was you and I just wanted to be friends with you straight away." The girl turned to him, confused. "But you just pushed me away!" He barked. "Everything I did wasn't good enough for you. Every bit of research I did was wrong or foolish or whatever!" Barry pointed a finger at her and scowled. "You didn't even give me a chance. You didn't want to get to know me, you didn't want to help me. You made my life miserable, and for what?" Barry asked. "Is their even a reason?"

Dawn couldn't look at him, instead fixing her eyes onto the cold dirt. She began rubbing her arms with her fingers and swallowing her full lips so he couldn't see them tremble.

"Is their?" Barry insisted. "Is their even a reason?"

Dawn felt a volcano erupting inside her stomach. Her arms shook and her knees rocked up and down. She felt chilly breeze against her bare legs as the lava inside her bubbled and boiled. Suddenly everything hit her at once. The new neighbour who was smarter, better, strong, faster. The new neighbour who was the talk of the town, a challenger to the champions throne. The battle they had had just proved how strong he was. Proved how weak she was. She couldn't take it anymore.

She erupted.

"Your better than me!" She screamed. Not a scowl, not a bark, not even a roar, but a full on scream.

Barry stopped and took a few steps back but it was too late, Dawn was on fire with rage. "I have worked my entire life to get to where I am today, and you come along and managed to out do me in every single way. You catch Pokémon, bigger and more powerful than ones I could even catch myself. You bring in amazing new research, amazing discovery's. Thing's I couldn't even dream off. And now you take my last dream away from me. You didn't just beat me Barry, you destroyed me and my entire team with two Pokémon! Do you have any idea what it's like to get so close to your goal and then have it ripped apart by someone who's only been around for a year? Do you have any idea how hard it is to watch someone exceed you in a sixteenth of the time it took you! Do you have any idea-"

Suddenly a string of web took Dawn by the waist and sucked her up into the trees above. She screamed but her voice was muffled by the sound of the tree branches snapping and shaking as she was dragged up towards a huge, massive Ariados who snapped at her with its huge pincers menacingly. "Barry!" She screamed as the Ariados approached her face but just as it was about to make the final blow a large plume of fire erupted from the ground and smashed into the Ariados causing it to flee away into the foliage.

Dawn let out a sigh of relief.

That was, of course, until she released she was till thirty feet in the air and upside down. She began to panic and pulled herself up towards her pink boots which had the Ariados's tight and strong webbing wrapped around them.

"You good?" Barry shouted up towards the tree tops.

"No!" Dawn replied trying to rip the webbing. "I can't get down!" She pulled it as tightly as she could but it was no use. "Damn!" She let go and was flung downwards towards a tree trunk but managed to stop herself from head butting it and knocking herself out. "I can't get down!" She screamed. "I'm stuck."

"Okay! Just don't panic!" Barry called out to her but she let out a loud sigh and tried to find him with her eyes.

"How can I not panic?" She asked as if the answer was an obvious 'no'. "I'm stuck in the air, upside bloody down and i'm about to be eaten by a giant bloody-"

"It won't eat you!" Barry interrupted, hoping it would calm her down.

"What do you mean it won't eat me?" Dawn shouted at him like he was an idiot.

"They don't eat humans, Dee." Barry replied, actually putting her at ease for the briefest of moments. "What they do is much worse." He added quietly.

"Worse!" Dawn screamed. "What could be worse?"

"Well, Erm." Barry scratched his neck and huffed.

"Barry! You tell me what I want to know right this instant!" Dawn commanded.

"Fine." Barry knocked his head with the palm of his hand, regretting saying anything at all. "It will use you as a vessel." Barry started slowly. "For its eggs."

"Oh my, Arceus!" Dawn screamed. "Are you freaking serious?"

"Yep." Barry replied hesitantly. "But, don't worry, that isn't going to happen!"

Dawn felt herself trembling, vibrating like a ringing PokeNav. She wasn't really scared of death, but endless torture? Being used? That terrified her. She bit her lip and looked down, finally making eye contact with Barry who had began to climb up a large tree. "Barry!" Dawn called out, grabbing his attention. "If this thing gets to me before you," She paused, closed her eyes and took a moment to reflect on her life before she spoke. "I need you to kill me."

"Don't be so dramatic." Barry blurted out as he swiftly reached her position. "You'll be fine. We just got to take this nice and slowly." He glanced around the webbing wrapped her boots and scratched his head.

"How did you get up here so fast?" Dawn asked. He turned to her but kept his attention on helping her down.

"I use to climb a lot of trees, I guess." Barry laughed. "Back when I lived in Johto." He pulled out a stone object. "Now, stay still, this is a fossil from the Sinnoh underground and it's very sharp." He began cutting the webbing but the process was slow.

Dawn watched and leaned her head back, trying to distract herself from the predicament she found herself in. "Why did you use to climb trees?" She asked, trying to change the flow of her mind.

"Huh?" Barry kept cutting. "Oh!" He chuckled to himself. "I didn't have any friends." He explained, causing Dawn to frown. "No one my age lived near me and such so I just entertained myself."

"That's," Dawn paused.

Dammit. She thought.

"Sorry to hear that." She mumbled just loud enough so she could hear. Instead of worrying about being an egg machine she was instead feeling unbelievably guilty. Barry was a nice guy, she knew that, and she had treated him like dirt just because she was jealous. "I'm such a bitch." Dawn grunted out, lifting her head so she could see his. "I'm so sorry, Barry. I was just jealous."

He didn't say anything but his ear twitched slightly, as if he was listening. Instead he carried on cutting the webbing, getting closer and closer to freeing her.

"I just want you to know that I think your pretty cool, alright?" Dawn nodded to herself, still watching him and his green eyes working on the webbing. "So could you please find some way to forgive me-"

Rapidly she started to fall away from the webbing and slam towards the earth but something caught her hand and pulled her up before she could slip away.

"Oh my word." Dawn let out a sigh of relief as Barry held her up with all his might.

"Even?" Barry asked with a smile as he pulled her up onto the tree branch.

Dawn settled into the strong bark and glanced at the webbing which had been successfully sliced apart. She turned to Barry and managed to form a smile, something she had never done before. "Thanks, man." Dawn elbowed him happily. "Say, do you want to start again?"

"What?" Barry asked but then nodded in approval, "Oh. Sure."

"I'm Dawn." She held out a hand and Barry shook it with his own.

"Barry, nice to meet you." He laughed. "So, tell me Dawn? Do you always spend your time hanging upside down from a tree?"

She looked at her new friend with a genuine smile as the two laughed together overlooking the beautiful forest below them.