Unfortunately, there are only going to be two points of view in this chapter; Ralts' and Alexa's. Why? Because Jack is currently not making sense in my mind; you'll see what I mean later. Shameless advertising will come later in the chapter. I'll let you read the rest of it first.

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It was morning again when I woke up in the room the Pokémon Center had housed us in for the night, rubbing my eyes as sunlight poured in from the window. We didn't have curtains so really it was impossible to stop from waking up at sunrise, that theory proven with a groan from my current companion, Greg. I then hesitantly slid my feet over the side of the bed to stand up; it was really hard to do it without waking up Ralts or falling onto my face. As I found out through the night, Ralts was a pretty light sleeper.

A silent yawn was blocked by my hand as I went into the bathroom, shutting the door before pulling out new clothes from my bag; I had to change clothing some times, right? I brought a few sets along with me because I thought the Pokémon Centers ahead would be few and far in between; doing laundry when I did run into one was a must because of it. When I put my dirty clothes in the machine (my old jacket had to be thrown out because of the Mightyena bite on it) I got dressed in the ones taken out, leaving the laundry room for the moment in favour of the bathroom.

Everything was in order once I had brushed and flossed my teeth before I started on my hair. It was really messy and all over the place, but (more than likely) the oddest thing about my hair was that it was neon green. I dyed it to stay that way every so often, my natural hair colour was actually white-blonde (though not as white a Greg's; his is more silvery where as mine, from what I can remember, is on the golden side). Big blue eyes were looking back at me while I continued to brush out my hair before tying it back into a low ponytail, bangs of hair draping themselves around the sides of my face.

I couldn't help but sigh as I looked at the clothes I wore; they didn't really make my favourite outfit: Black jeans with buckled boots underneath, a navy-blue tank top (that showed a bit of stomach, something Dad disliked greatly) and a dark green blazer. I loved the boots and the pants but the blazer and t-shirt weren't exactly the most favoured items in my wardrobe. I put on a black base-ball cap with the visor low above my ponytail, a sigh leaving me before my eyes closed. I guessed I was ready for the world again, but now it was probably time to go and watch the laundry machine. It was only seven-thirty in the morning after all; Greg and Ralts probably wouldn't be up for another hour.

When I plopped down onto the bench in front of the washing machines and stared at the devices, I couldn't help but get lost in thought about a conversation I had with Greg the previous night. He was asking me a lot of questions, quite a few of which were really personal...

"Alexa, I don't get why you don't just return Ralts to his pokéball. If he's going to be that light of a sleeper, he might wake up for no reason and run away on you," Greg was sighing at me while sipping on the remainder of his soda, shaking his head before turning to me, "Honestly, it just doesn't make sense."

"I want to get to know Ralts better. It's nothing more than that," I was irritated with him by this point; wouldn't he just simply shut up about it? Of course, there was probably nothing I could do to get the idiot to stop with the questions, but then I thought that explaining myself had a small chance of making him stop talking, "It's not the best thing in the world to lock away your pokémon in those things all the time. They need fresh air and, in this case, quality time with their trainers. Don't tell me you don't let out your pokémon once in a while..."

"I do, but not when they're this hesitant around me," Greg sighed while flipping away the elongated bangs of his hair away from his left eye, blood-red shirt shifting with his movements before he opened his eyes and looked at me again, "Ralts seems to be upset because he's apart from the other one. Maybe it was related to him or something..."

"I think that might be it. I guess that means I'll have to make a pit stop in Verdanturf Town; I heard that's where Wally went to. When I get there I can let Ralts see his friend again..."

"What's with all the 'I' stuff? You're saying it like I'm not going to be there."

I stared at him for a while when he began to sip on his soda again, he was actually planning to come with Jack, Ralts and I? When Greg stopped drinking the soda in favour of looking at me again I coughed and closed my eyes to avoid his gaze, "I'm sorry, I thought I heard you wrong. I thought you just said that in a way like you expect to come with me and my pokémon."

"I do expect to. I don't see why not; you're a beginner and need help, I might as well be the one to help you," Deep brown eyes were looking at me in dead seriousness when he said this, I could feel my cheeks burning in response; for once, he said something stupid and I didn't get pissed at him. For the moment anyway. He wasn't being egotistical when he said it, maybe that was why; quite on the contrary, it seemed more like he was actually worried about what might happen if I was on my own.

Thoughts like that stopped almost immediately though, I shook it off and stared determinedly at one corner of the wall before I answered, "I'm not going to be alone. I have my pokémon."

"I know. But don't you think having someone you can actually have a conversation with is more convenient than trying to understand a pokémon's name all the time?"

This time he hid under the table, meaning that he had expected me to hit him after saying that comment. But, unlike when I had first met him, he didn't get a slap; he got a swift kick instead, "Ow! Yeesh, I'm sorry! I didn't think you hated other people that much!"

"If it was anyone but you it wouldn't be that much of a problem," I smirked while he came up to the top of the table again, I stuck my tongue out at him while he merely frowned at me, "Fine, come if you want to. But if you do get annoying, be warned now I will kick your ass."

"As if I don't know that already," Greg rolled his eyes at me, but then he stopped when I laughed again; it seemed to surprise him. Considering that he'd only seen the violent side of me so far it wasn't too unexpected for him to be shocked at seeing a friendlier version of me, "... I didn't know you could laugh without beating up something or seeing me in pain."

"There's a lot you don't know about me. And, to be fair, I don't know all that much about you either."

He ended up talking to me about where he grew up and junk like that (as it turned out, he was Professor Birch's son and had been training for about six months at that point. Started out with a Mudkip and had caught a Lotad (evolved it into Lombre), a Mawile, a Taillow (now Swellow) and a Sableye that he kept with him since then), but then it was my turn. When I told him that we only moved to Littleroot Town recently, he stopped me and asked, "You said you and your Dad moved here. What about your Mom?"

"...I'd rather not talk about that right now," Surprisingly, he seemed to grasp that he had struck a nerve and kept quiet after that. It was soon after that we ended up sneaking back into our room and (while somehow not waking up Ralts) going to sleep.

"Alexa! What're you doing in there?"

I blinked when I was called back to reality; I must have been sitting there for the whole hour before Greg had shouted at me. I could also hear Ralts' growling; the idiot must have woken him up when he yelled out for me. Quickly my clothes were thrown into the dryer before I stormed out of the room, pushing Greg out of my path while I was heading towards Ralts. Once I reached it I ended up scooping up the little pokémon into my arms. Ralts stopped growling and struggling then as I began to speak again, "Hey, sorry for him waking you up like that. We have to go soon though, is that okay Ralts?"

I got a nod of confirmation from the pokémon at this point, and in turn a smile tugged at my lips; at least he wasn't too mad about being woken up so abruptly...

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I had been having a nightmare before Greg had woken me up. I kept seeing my parents being slaughtered by Houndour and Houndoom, along with my little brother shrinking in terror behind me. It was relieving that horrific night, but something had been different about that dream; the humans controlling the pokémon weren't the ones who I had seen one year ago... they were the human child who had captured my brother and Alexa. And they were both laughing so cruelly, I couldn't believe things were going like that. Alexa had been too kind to me to ever do something like that...

But when I woke up, Alexa came in and pushed Greg out of the way before picking me up to try and calm me down. Which was probably good, I would have thrashed the boy around again had Alexa not stopped me. I didn't know why I had such a dream about her though... she was so kind to me; I could tell that, by the gentle way I was held, hurting me was probably out of the question, "Hey, you wanna go meet Jack? He's going to be travelling with us as well, he's just recovering..."

Who was Jack? I ended up becoming curious when he was mentioned and tilted my head towards Alexa; was 'Jack' a human or pokémon? "I'll take that as a yes. Come on, let's go."

I was placed near the ground before I began to float above it again, following Alexa as I heard Greg finally getting up and groaning behind us, "Geez... You've really gotta stop throwing me around like that. It hurts, you know?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Innocently Alexa spoke back to the other human, causing him to flush a little while I grinned, "You take damage too well for it to really show anyway."

It took a minute or two before a woman with red hair handed Alexa a pokéball, the former smiling at me while I simply stared at it. Okay, so Jack was a pokémon. And I was (more than likely) going to meet him in a couple of seconds, judging from what Alexa said anyway, "Nurse Joy just told me, Jack got over something stupid he did earlier. He should be okay now, but there's only one way to find out. Come on out, Jack."

Before me in a flash of red light, a Treecko appeared on the ground before me. And, just as the light faded, the Treecko's hands went to the sides of his head while a groan left him, "Damn... that was great Oran Berry Juice but you really feel it in the morning..."

"Oran Berry Juice? That stuff does weird things to your mind," I stared at the grass pokémon while he stumbled to the side; he almost fell from that but he ended up catching himself at the last second. After I had said my piece though he grinned at me, falling backwards onto his tail before he talked back to me.

"What better reason to drink it? Now don't squeak so loudly; my head's still killing me from yesterday..."

"Idiot," Muttering this under my breath I shook my head at the Treecko before turning to him again, approaching very slowly at this point, "So I take it you're Jack?"

"Unless Alexa changed my nickname without my knowing... and just who're you?"

"Ralts. Alexa caught me yesterday, presumably while you were knocked out."

"Explains a lot, like why I don't remember who the bloody hell you are."

The language Jack used confused me a bit but I could tell immediately that pursuing the subject would be pointless; Jack had gotten to his feet and swayed again before Alexa ended up returning him to his pokéball.

"I'll let him out again later... when he's not so hung-over."

"Might as well let Ralts meet Mudkip as well," Greg nodded to himself before pressing the big button on his own pokéball; soon enough another pokémon was seen before me in the same flash of light Treecko had appeared in, "Ralts, this is Mudkip. Please be nice to her, she doesn't have the same tendency to piss people off as I do."

At that comment I looked at the black eyes of the Mudkip before me as she started speaking to me, "So I guess you're new. Did Greg catch you or was it the girl with Greg?"

"Alexa caught me yesterday," I nodded to confirm what Mudkip was asking me, but then I noticed something, "Did you get into a serious fight recently?"

"You could say that... Greg made me battle against another trainer's pokémon yesterday, and those pokémon were a lot stronger than I was. I managed to take down a Spinda but a Vigoroth did me in."

"At least you're still alive; it's good to live to fight another day, right?"

"Yeah, you could say that," Mudkip sighed before shaking her head and sitting down beside me, "But it also means I'm not a very strong pokémon yet. I hope that I'll get stronger though, I like to fight for Greg..."

"He strikes me as a bit of an idiot. But I suppose different opinions merit different..." I stopped to look around the area, but so far there was only one human near us; the human with the red hair. I had to pause and ponder over that...

"Ralts? What's wrong?"

"Where did Alexa and Greg go?"

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"I hope they don't get too angry with us over leaving them there at the Pokémon Center," Greg groaned at me while I continued to walk ahead of him, determined with a set destination in mind. I was going to find out if Dad really was mad at me or not; if I didn't, I'd probably be still feeling guilty by the time I actually challenged him for his badge. Or worse, he wouldn't let me challenge him because of it.

"Where's Norman?"

When we entered the Gym, I saw immediately that Dad wasn't in that room; I only saw the Gym attendant that I had run into from the previous day. When he noticed Greg and me he nodded and jerked his thumb towards the door, "Alexa, your father wanted to have a word with you if you came back. May I ask you to wait here please, young man? This is a conversation Norman wanted to keep private."

I could see from the corner of my eye Greg nodding while I swiftly began to make my way through the maze of rooms. Then, there was that final door painted with words, 'Gym Leader's Room; See what awaits you!' I'll definitely be seeing what's awaiting me in there, I took a deep breath before my hand gripped the handle of the door; this was it. Whatever was waiting for me, I had to take it now because I had come too close to turn back.

When the door slowly opened, I looked to see Dad waiting at the back of the room. He nodded towards me before I slipped in and shut the door behind me. I couldn't really wait all that long though, I just had to know, "Dad, why are you so mad over what happened in Littleroot Town? They were just a bunch of Poochyena-"

"And the bandage on your arm?"

I winced when he had said that, it was a barely controlled calm I only saw when he was i really /i pissed, "I kind of got attacked by the same Poochyena on the way to Petalburg City. They brought a friend..."

Dad stared at me for a full minute after I had said that before sighing and closing his eyes, "Alexa, come here."

You could only imagine the fear I was feeling as I gulped hard, right before approaching as ordered. What was he going to do...?

"Alexa," Even more nervousness was mounting now; I swore I was close to fainting then as Dad spoke again, "... don't travel without your pokémon. If they become loyal you'll be protected from such things."

What the hell. He didn't shout. I stared at him before meekly nodding, but what happened next was something that was completely unexpected; he stood up and immediately hugged me tightly, "Alexa, I was scared of losing you. I lost your mother because she was separated from me when that Ursaring attacked her, I don't want to lose you the same way. Please... don't make me go through that again. One man can only take so much."

Hot, salty water was beginning to form around the corners of my eyes before I ended up clamping them shut; that was what it was about? He was scared of losing me? Mixed relief and numerous other feelings began to overwhelm me as I returned a tight hug to Dad, "Dad..."

There was nothing more to say. I just stood there and cried into Dad's chest while he held me close; I still don't know why I started to cry then, it was something I hadn't done since Mom left us...

"Aww, how sweet. Why don't we leave father and daughter alone so they can have their moment while we steal father's pokémon?"

I jumped at the voice and stared at the door where I had come in from, a darkened figure was standing there; I couldn't see any of their features, there was too much light behind them for me to tell much more than the fact that they were a woman.

"My pokémon? Just who are you to steal pokémon?" Dad roared at them after letting me go, eyes narrowed angrily at the mention of someone stealing his pokémon. Honestly, I couldn't blame him; I'd probably punch out the woman if she threatened to steal mine.

"Ah, I'm sorry; I suppose I'll have to introduce myself. But, since I have to keep some privacy in terms of my identity, you may only know me as Kujaku of Team Rocket."

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Hah! Told you that I wouldn't only stick to the Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald plot!

So now we have an appearance established for Alexa, I'll have to get into more detail with Greg later. I'm sorry for not including Jack's POV in this chapter but I can promise you this; chapter 6 will feature a lot more of him. That is all I can say without spoiling it.

And now, shameless advertising! Read Tales of Flame by Buwaro and Anomaly by Dark Magician Girl Aeris already! They are good! They are fantastic! And, if you don't, Jack will probably pour Oran Berry Wine down your throat until you get alcohol poisoning. ;) Also, review my fic! I wanna know what you guys think of it! Until next time...