Part Two


I honestly have no idea how such a large crowd appeared in the waiting room of the Olivine Hospital, I only called Ethan and her mother. I somehow ended up with Ethan in a chair with his face in his hands, her mother pacing back and forth anxiously, Lance trying to reassure the worried Ms. Soul, Green sitting beside Ethan while he attempts to sooth the boy and Red standing motionless by the door to her room, his crimson eyes never leaving the entrance for a single second.

Where am I? Well, I'm standing directly opposite to the young man who took down my father all those years ago, engaging in an unoffical staring contest with the dead-silent man. He's back in his usual attire now, still preferring to wear his red jacket and faded jeans he always had. He's even got a few wet spots on his shoulders from where the snow sank into the fabric. His Pikachu is sitting anxiously at his feet, ears twitching every few moments as he strains to listen to the doctor inside of the room.

I narrow my eyes and let out a sigh as I lean against the wall, the seemingly eternal wait dragging on and wearing the six of us out. Who knew it would take so many hours for a simple D.N.A testing? I certainly didn't.

"...I can't believe it." I find myself muttering my thoughts out loud, attracting the attention of the others in the room—with the exclusion of the pacing mother. "...This seems just so..."

"...Too good to be true." Red finishes my sentence with a frown and looks down towards me. "I feel the same way about this."

I turn to look over my shoulder and find Green nodding his head while patting Ethan's back. "But if it is true, it'll be the biggest mystery solved since Red's disappearance." Ethan slowly peeked out of his hands and sat up, running a hand through his messy hair and knocking his hat down to his lap.

"But..." Lance gave us all a stern look, unable to bring himself to say what we're all thinking. We can't get our hopes up on this. The odds are just too slim for this teenager to actually be the long-lost Kotone Soul. I shake my head and slowly turn my attention to my feet.

"But, if this is her..." I look back up to find Ethan staring at his feet with downcast eyes. "...We have to at least try. After all," He looked up slowly towards the door, his gaze going straight through both of the guards in front of it. "This is the only thing we've heard about her in six years."

Ms. Soul let out a choked sob before wiping her eyes on the back of her hands, the conversation obviously upsetting her. We all shut our mouths with apologetic expressions as Lance gives us another hard glare.

And so we wait in silence. The hours tick by slower than they ever had before, Celebi seemingly entrapping the six of us in a never-ending cycle of waiting, pacing and sighing. Every once in a while, someone will ask what time it is and we'll all flip out our Pokégears and find it only a few minutes since the last time someone asked. I've never been the most patient of individuals, but this is getting ridiculous.

Just how hard is it to stick a needle in someone's arm, take a stinkin' blood sample and check the database for a match, anyway?! It shouldn't take so long to see if she's actually Kotone Soul or not for Lugia's sake! I find myself tapping my foot and growling as the time drags on, unable to wait any longer for the news. Red gives me an amused look before placing a hand on my shoulder, startling me out of my fume.

"...Hey. Calm down, Silver." I look up at his somber face with puffed-out cheeks, just as Kotone had always done when we were kids. "They'll let us know eventually. You just have to hang in there." I narrow my eyes at his crimson irises and slowly let the air out of my cheeks.

"But it's taking them hours! I can't stand all of this waiting! When will they tell us at least something—!" I was cut off by the door opening beside us, making us both quickly back away to allow whoever it was to enter the waiting room.

A tall woman with teal hair and a gentle smile stepped out, dressed in a white variation of Nurse Joy's uniform to show she was a human nurse instead of one for Pokémon. She gives us all a short bow of apology before standing up straight with tired eyes.

"I'm sorry to keep you all waiting." I take a few steps closer as she begins to speak with a soothing voice, as if she was a Milotic in a swarm of Carvanha. "The test results have come back positive." The room falls silent and motionless at her words, all of us seemingly holding our breath in disbelief.

"Y-You mean..." Kotone mother turned to the woman slowly with a look of awe on her face. "She's...She's my..."

The nurse nods and gives us all a beaming smile. "The D.N.A sample came back as a match. The girl is Kotone Soul, there's not a single doubt about it."

I suddenly bolt inside of the room without a second thought, the only thing on my mind being that Kotone has finally come home, that she's not dead and that I suddenly have my best friend back in the world of the living instead of just the realm of sleep. I find her sitting inside of the white room on a small bed, a look of shock on her face as I stopped before her.

She slowly eases into a smile and lifts her arms into the air for a hug, allowing me to dive into her grasp and just pull her closer, as if she'd disappear if I let her go. "Silver...I've missed you so much." I feel the tears streaming down my cheeks as I just tighten my grip and let out a choked sob.

"Why didn't you come home?" My voice was barely a whisper, cracking like a burning log as my lungs seemed to be squeezed by an outside force. "We waited for six years to hear from you."

She pulls her head back away from my shoulder to give me a tear-filled smile. "I got lost. Unova has this large desert called 'The Desert Resort' and I ended up getting lost in there for nearly two years." My mouth falls open slightly at the image of tiny little Kotone Soul shielding her face from billowing sandstorms and trudging through blinding sands, wandering around aimlessly for years.

"Why didn't you call?" My voice squealed under the pressure as she slowly looked down at her lap. "Why didn't you send mail or come back or something?!" I tighten my grip as she looks to her left, diverting her gaze from my own.

"I tried." Her voice chokes on her own tears as she slowly tightens her grip around my chest and pulls closer. "Unova won't let you leave or send any type of correspondence until you beat the League. It's a standard rule."

"Well it's a stupid rule!" I pull her closer, nearly shoving my face to her shoulder. "We thought you were stinkin' dead, Kotone! We thought you got on that boat and just dropped off the face of the earth!" I hear her let out another sob as a few tears hit my skin.

"I-I'm sorry..." Her apology is more of a whimper as she buries her face into my neck. "I'm so sorry...I really am..."

I don't say anything, just hold her tighter and thank Lugia that this is actually Kotone Soul, the girl who seemed to disappear without a trace. That this is the girl who would laugh until she cried from the pain in her gut, the girl who would help anyone out without a second of forethought or hesitation. This is the girl who had left the world for nearly seven years, leaving both friends and family behind in a pained void.

She suddenly pulls away and reaches into her back pocket. My eyes grow wide as she pulls out a badge case with strange symbols on the top, surrounded in a both black and white background. She slowly opens it to reveal six gleaming badges in fancy shapes with bright colors that shimmered in the overhead lights.

"...I finally beat them this summer." She sniffs in and shakes her head. "The Gyms there are tough and extremely confusing." She gives me a weak smile and shakes her head again. "I think I spent a good five weeks challenging Brycen in his Ice Gym alone." I give her a disbelieving smile and just pull her back into a hug, letting the badge case fall onto her lap and snap shut.

I don't let go, not even when the others slowly fill the room with smiles of relief and loud exclamations of joy.


Author's Note: Halfway point. Seriously though, did anyone else get lost in the so-called 'Desert Resort'?! I got lost in there for two actual days! I'm just lucky I had enough medicines on hand to find my way out of there...

...And I have no trouble with Unova's Gyms...Alright, I have trouble memorizing Unova's native species. It's hard to memorize such complicated Pokémon names and who the heck they are!