"How does Ash decide what Pokémon he's going to use for the next gym?" Tyrunt asked. "I've been trying to keep track but I don't think I've done a very good job, especially because I only saw it happen once. But I'd never met Gigalith before then."

"It's based on who needs development, really," Ash replied. "I try and keep a good idea of how all my Pokémon are doing at improving, and it's more usually the newer team members who need a go, but really it's just who it feels right to use."

"I think it's sort of similar with Showcases, except that I don't have nearly the same problem," Serena contributed. "With four Pokémon I have to choose who to use and who to leave out, but normally that's just what routine is working best. I… know I have a natural tendency to opt for Braixen, but because I know about that I can keep an eye on it."

"Starters are special," Clemont said. "Nobody would say you should ignore your other Pokémon, but… like I say."

Serena reached down to Eevee, lying in her lap, and touched her fur. "I guess the important thing is just to try to avoid disappointing anyone, and talk it out if you're not sure. Which… is great that it's an option."

"Hey!"

Everyone looked around at the sound of a Litleo's voice, spotting the Fire-type prowling up to them.

"Hey, you," she added, pointing a paw at Braixen. "You think you're so tough?"

"Not really?" Braixen replied. "I'm comfortable with who I am, and I certainly don't think I'm bad at battling, but I mostly do performance art."

"I mean as an evolved Fire-type!" Litleo clarified. "Strutting around here near where the pride lives!"

She inhaled, and blew out an Ember, which Braixen reacted to with a little swash of Mystical Fire of her own from her wand. The wispy attack combined with Litleo's larger offering, then the whole mass of flame swirled up at once under Braixen's command before dissolving into thin air.

Litleo stared.

"That wasn't very polite," Eevee said, shaking herself out and getting out of Serena's lap.

"That was incredible!" Litleo corrected. "That was my Ember attack and you just did something to it and turned it into your attack? I didn't know that was even possible!"

She stopped, and glanced back, then shook her head. "Anyway, um… look, is there any chance you could pretend I beat you? I know it's not the usual way of doing things but I'm starting to wonder if this whole thing is some kind of secret test…"

"What whole thing?" Bonnie asked. "Why did you turn up and shoot an attack at Braixen? It seems mean even though she's a Fire type."

"It's my coming of age," Litleo said, tail lashing. "I got kicked out of the pride and have to make my own way in the world! Then I can go back."

"That doesn't actually seem very nice," Braixen replied. "If it's tradition, then maybe it's a bit more explicable, but what about if you're not an independent sort of Pokémon in the first place?"

"I'm meant to be," Litleo said.

Then she shook her head and put a paw down. "I mean, I am! And I'll prove it! And as soon as I work out how then I'll get right on that! I just don't know what specific thing to use to do that."

"Well, maybe learning some more Fire moves would work," Ash suggested. "Like, uh, Burning Jealousy?"

"I did not even know that was a move ten seconds ago and now I think I want to make it my entire vibe," Litleo declared.

"I think it sort of depends on what kind of Litleo or Pyroar you want to be at the end of all this," Ponyta said. "You see, it'd be one thing to decide that you just wanted to be strong, but being strong is a means to an end. If what you want is to be accepted back into your pride, you should aim for being what they want, while if what you want is to be strong so that you're more self-confident then it's different."

Litleo sat down. "That does make sense," she admitted. "But can't I do some of the getting-strong bit first?"

"So, how does this coming of age thing work?" Tyrunt checked, over dinner. "My perspective on natural social behaviours is a bit weird."

"I think it's great, Tyrunt," Dedenne assured him, antennae twitching. "But sure, I'm curious as well."

"So, Pyroar told me yesterday that I needed to go and make my own way in the world, and prove that I was strong," Litleo explained, nibbling on a stuffed pepper. "That's my father – sorry, I should have realized that I need to explain those things… and, I didn't like the idea but he insisted. I didn't know he knew Fling."

She stopped nibbling, then tilted her head.

"Actually, come to think of it, that was kind of a jerk move on his part, right?"

Ponyta looked shaken. "That's terrible… why would he do something like that?"

"Litleo," Ibid reported, turning into a miniature Litleo. "They set off from their own pride and live by themselves to become stronger. The stronger the opponent it faces, the more heat surges from its mane and the more power flows through its body."

He went beep. "Some reports indicate that Litleo are kicked out when they are old enough, but others indicate that it is voluntary. Mew was not very clear about this."

"So…" Serena began, slowly. "What you're saying is that a Litleo living alone becomes stronger, but they also get stronger by battling powerful opponents? So shouldn't it be up to Litleo to choose how to get stronger?"

"And whether to," Litleo added. "I mean, I definitely want to! But both in the way of being able to throw around fire like whoahs, and also being able to do cool things with it like Braixen did back there…"

Some distance away, a Pyroar lay down on the side slope of a rock.

"How do I even work out whether this means she's getting stronger or not?" he asked himself. "We didn't have any of this when I was a cub."

"Okay, so, if I've got this right," Litleo began. "Independence is… being able to make your own decisions and everything going okay, or, at least, you bear the responsibility for what happens if they go wrong. Right?"

Serena considered, then nodded. "That sounds like a good definition to me. It's not the only one, but it's one of them."

"And independence doesn't have to mean being on your own," she continued. "Because otherwise we'd say anyone who wasn't a hermit wasn't independent. It means that if you have someone else in your life, it's because you want to not because you need to."

She flicked her tail. "Glad we've worked that out. Do you mind if I'm independently going in the same direction as you at the same time, all the time?"

"In all honesty, it works quite well," Zygarde contributed. "I can positively recommend it."

"I guess that would be fine," Ash agreed.

"And I'll learn how to control fire in ways that I don't know exist even now," Litleo went on. "Then I'll show them all!"

"Getting a bit megalomaniacal there, are we?" Ponyta asked.

"No!" Litleo denied. "Well. Yes. A bit. But mostly because I'll show them all how cool it looks when I control fire in ways that I don't know exist even now. It's not like there's a point in learning this unless you're going to either use it to do something or show it to others – and I'd rather show off than actually use it to hurt Pokémon."

"You can't deny it was misleading, though," Braixen said, smiling to take away the sting.

"Let me get in a bit of melodrama," Litleo grumped.

Two days later and further down the road, and (though almost none of them had noticed) after Pyroar had given up following them as a bad job and gone home, Litleo was practising into the night.

"Don't forget to keep up on sleep," Ash's Chimchar pointed out. "You don't want to fall asleep in the middle of trying to get a fire move working."

"If I stop before I make some progress, I won't get to sleep," Litleo replied reasonably, then huffed and shook her mane. "Right, again!"

She inhaled, then sent out a jet of flame, and it dissipated without doing anything in particular.

"Hmm," Chimchar said. "You're either getting too annoyed, so you're not able to quite control the flame, or not annoyed enough, so the flame isn't lasting long enough for you to shape it."

Litleo's eye twitched.

"I hope it's not annoyed enough," Chimchar added. "Anyway, let's try one more time and then-"

"We'll keep trying until I get it right!" Litleo insisted.

"All right, not one more time," Chimchar said. "But it's about midnight, Litleo. Sunset was hours ago, and sunrise is going to come around eventually so you really need to get some sleep."

Litleo's tail lashed, then she put her nose up.

"Fine," she said. "So, what should I be doing?"

"Well, for a start, let's just work on making the burn longer," Chimchar suggested. "You're frustrated right now, so focus on that – let it burn like a coal, and use it as fuel."

Litleo spat out a jet of flame that seared a long, smoking furrow in the ground.

"...okay, one, not what we were going for," Chimchar said. "Two, very impressive. Three, I'm going to stand behind you from now on."

When the two of them came back to the camp itself later, with Litleo still annoyed at how slowly she was progressing but also glad to have made some progress, they found that Cresselia was sitting in an outsized deck chair with one arm glowing and the other paging occasionally through a book.

"Is something wrong?" Chimchar asked, quietly. "I'm surprised to see you here."

"There's a Darkrai," Cresselia explained, much of her attention on her book. "It's trying to make everyone have nightmares. I'm making sure it doesn't."

Flip. "Arc paged me, I got here by Hoopa Hole."

"Don't you mean it was trying?" Chimchar checked.

"No," Cresselia replied. "The Darkrai is still out there. I can feel Bad Dreams trying to take effect."

Flip. "They think they can outlast me. Yeah, good luck with that."

"What should we do?" Chimchar asked. "Where is this Darkrai?"

"Don't know, don't actually care much," Cresselia answered. "I suggest you go to sleep, really… I've brought two whole series to go through, so I won't be great conversation."

Flip.

AN:

Trying to outlast Cresselia rarely ends well.