Molly and I walked towards the house the next morning. We were having so much fun the previous evening that we were both in need of some serious sleep. I felt like I could sleep all day. Molly groaned.

"Lucky you," She said. "You can take the day off."

"It's still the holidays, Molly," I said. "You're acting like you have school."

"No, I don't," She said. "I'm helping Matt by showing him around the city."

"You know, you never told me why you took interest in this guy, Molly," While it was nice that she had a friend her age, and…well, human, I knew nothing about him. In every father, this triggers an unexpected 'overprotective' state, but I had every reason for it. "All I know is that he just moved here, and he goes to your school, starting next semester."

"He…he saved my life, dad," We both stopped, but we were in front of the house anyway.

"That's impossible."

"How else would you explain how I got help when we were ambushed in Johto?" She had a point. "Oh, I guess I never told you…when I was stuck in the rain, he found me and took me back to the pokémon center for help. He released me a few days later. I owe him my gratitude."

"I'll have to thank him myself," I mumbled. "Well, he has a good heart…he's brave, I must say that…but I still have to talk to him, you know…man to man."

She groaned. "Dad, don't send him running for the hills."

"Okay then, I'll lead him there," I grinned. She shook her head and walked up the canal. I unlocked the door and went inside.

I knocked on the door at Matt's house. His mom answered. "Oh, hello again…Molly, right?" I nodded. "Matthew! Your girlfriend is here!" There was a loud thud on the upper floor. "Come in and wait, it'll be a while."

"Mom!" He yelled. "She is not my girlfriend!"

"That's what they all say!" She yelled back. My face was glowing with embarrassment.

Amidst the chaos of packing boxes and furniture, I found a metal chair and sat down to wait. In the corner next to the door, I spotted a mannequin, with some fabric in a box next to it. "You sew?"

"Well, it's not that much, but," She pulled up the box, revealing a lavender dress. "I made this myself."

"It's beautiful," I looked at it. "Are you a designer?"

"No, it's just a hobby," She said, holding the dress. "It would be nice to pursue something like it, though…I heard that this city was all about the arts, so that's why we moved."

"It is," I said. "My dad opened his restaurant here ten years ago, and he just won an award."

"Really?" She asked. "Wow, I don't know…are you sure I could do this for a living? I mean, who would want to buy hand-made clothes?"

"There are a lot of people in this city, and it's a well-known tourist attraction," I said. "You'll be in business in no time."

She thought about it. Matt, ready to go and followed by Cora, came and joined us. "Hi, Molly."

"You two enjoy your day," She said. "Molly, thanks for the chat."

I nodded, and we waved goodbye. It started to snow again.

"What was that all about?" He asked.

"Your mom's sewing," I said. "She's really good, and I was talking to her about it."

"Well she is good," He said. "She made this shirt."

"A lot of boys don't usually say that, but alright," I looked at his shirt. There was no way I could tell it apart from a name-brand shirt, except for the fact that there was no tag. "I have an idea."

"What?"

"Your mom should open her own store!"

"Isn't that expensive?" He asked. "I mean, when your dad started his restaurant, didn't he have to pay out of his pocket?"

"You have a point," Dad got lucky. When he was a trainer, he happened to win at the Indigo Plateau and Silver Conference before he retired and got married to mom, and used the winnings to buy both the house and the restaurant from its original owners. But dad never regretted the decision, nor did he ask for anything else. Winning an award after all these years spoke for itself. But times weren't as simple as they were anymore. "We have to think of something…but for now, I have a city to show you."

Matt, Cora and I walked through the city, and for some time I felt like a tour guide. I mentioned a few things about the buildings, relaying only what my teachers taught me. As the day rolled on, we stopped by a few places such as the museum, and the statues of Latios and Latias. Matt and Cora looked at them with admiration, also warming themselves up from the mist of the warm water the fountain was using.

"Don't stare too hard," I giggled.

He looked at me. "Wow, they protect this entire city…Molly, I know this is a stupid question, but…do you know anything about them?"

"You're just in luck," I said. "I met them a few times."

"Really?"

I wasn't trying to push it or anything, but it didn't hurt to describe them. "One's red and one's blue. Brother and sister. It's really an honor to meet them in person, but other times you may not even know that they're here," He seemed confused. "I mean, they're shape shifters. They can change into the form of anything they choose, specifically humans."

"Oh, wow…so they could take the form of anyone here?" I nodded. "I wish I could meet them."

"Heh," I chuckled. "Stick around and you might get your wish…"

"What was that?"

"Never mind, let's go," I grabbed his hand and walked along the edge of the city. Eventually, this street lead to the docks. "I know this as a shortcut to a great sandwich shop."

"Hey Molly, look," There were a group of people up ahead, looking down at something, probably in the water. "What's going on?"

"I don't know. Let's go see."

We ran up to the crowd, and muscled our way through to see what they were looking at. "What's going on?"

"Down there," We looked down into the ice-filled waters, and spotted a Dragonair lying on the rocks, visibly unconscious. "I spotted it this morning, just before the ships started coming in."

"I got an idea," He said, kneeling down to Cora. "Cora, use your vines and bring up that Dragonair," Cora nodded, and ran to the edge of the dock and extended her vines down and wrapped them around the Dragonair.

Within seconds it was being reeled in until it was high enough to be picked up by a few people. It was hurt badly; there were painful looking burns on its skin, plus random cuts and bruises, probably from the rocks at the bottom of the dock. There was something oddly familiar, and when it started to open its eyes I jumped back.

"Molly, what's wrong?" In fact, it sprang to life, causing everyone else to jump back. "Never mind!"

It looked around frantically, almost as if trying to avoid something, and when it realized it was out of danger, it sighed.

"You…" I knew who this Dragonair was. She looked at me, and started to tear up. I wanted to show sympathy for her condition, but I became overwhelmed with anger. She squinted, and fell to the ground again. Matt ran up to her.

"She needs help. Fast."

Due to her length and weight, it took four of us to carry her back to the pokémon center. Four hours passed afterwards, as doctors rushed to treat her. Matt had his arms folded, leaning up against the wall as I took to a sofa.

"Molly! Matthew!" Dad called from the entrance. "What happened?"

"We found a Dragonair at the docks," Matt said. "It was in pretty bad shape, so we brought it back here for help."

"That's it?" He turned to me. "I thought it was much serious than that."

A doctor came out to us. I got up and joined him.

"She'll be fine," Matt sighed in relief, but I didn't. "She's suffered some serious burns, almost as if inflicted from battle, but she'll be fine to leave in a few days. Who am I releasing her to?"

"Wait, why?" I asked. "Doesn't she have a trainer?"

"Well I checked, but so far, I can't find any recognition of a pokéball," He continued. "This generally occurs if the pokéball has been severely damaged."

Damaged, as in destroyed. Mixed thoughts rolled around in my head over this. Why would her trainer just release her like this? She obviously took no remorse by leaving me to die in the rain. Something didn't feel right here, and I had to investigate. She might be trying to lead us into another ambush.

"I'll do it," Matt said, stepping up. "You can release her to me."

The doctor nodded, and led us to the recovery room. We peered through the window at the bandaged and sleeping Dragonair. "I've sedated her for the recovery, but it will wear off in a couple of hours. You're welcome to stay if you wish," And he walked away. Dad looked through the window for a moment, and then gasped.

"Molly, can I speak to you for a minute?" We walked to a separate hallway. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That this could all be another one of Morgan's plans to try and lure us into another trap?" I scoffed. "I know him too well, so sending his pokémon here for our sympathy seems a little too…expected."

"Okay, so you're not thinking what I'm thinking."

I frowned. "Not you too."

"Molly, there's something I didn't tell you when we were imprisoned in that mountain," He said. "Shortly after Mismagius freed me and I found the sword, she gave me Rayquaza's inescapable pokéball, which I destroyed, and didn't raise the alarm when we escaped."

"It doesn't make sense. Why would she help you?" I asked. "She tried to kill me."

"No, she didn't" He said. "Come to think of it…she hasn't attacked us since that ambush, and even then she didn't put up much of a fight. When you were attacked in the rain, she told me that she was only trying to immobilize you, but that Infernape took it too far."

"Yeah, and broke my ribs," I rubbed my chest. Most of the pain had gone away, but that didn't mean that I was about to forgive and forget.

Matt spent every day at the pokémon center with the Dragonair until her discharge on Wednesday. Me, having been deprived of sleep, went home and waited for his return. It was a peculiar thing about him. He cared for me and the Dragonair almost as if we were newborns, and our sizes never bothered him…much. I thought about it as me and dad walked to his house that same morning.

Dad knocked on the door. Matthew's mother answered it. "Good morning, Ms…?"

"Please, call me Caitlyn," She said, waving us inside. "You must be…Calvin, right? My son has told me all about you."

"That's weird. I don't remember saying that much to him," She chuckled. I shook my head and went to find Matt.

Eventually I found him sitting in the living room. This is where most of the boxes had been dropped off until they could be unpacked. Matt had long since cleared an opening and the Dragonair was laying in it, but he was nowhere near her.

"Remember that Tyranitar I told you I was looking after?" Vividly. "Even she had a better mood than this Dragonair."

"I couldn't see why," She heard the anger in my voice, and squinted. It almost looked like she couldn't bear hearing the disappointment. "Matt…what do you plan to do with her?"

"Well after I decided to look after her I finally realized…my mom would kill me," He said. "Strangely, that didn't happen, so I think it'd be great if we could keep her."

'Not you too,' I groaned. Cora came out to us, rolling a berry up to the Dragonair. She looked at it for a moment before starting to cry. Matt went to her aid.

"The problem is," Matt tried comforting her by rubbing her neck. "Ever since she left the hospital and came here she hasn't moved from this spot, and she's been crying a lot," He got up. "It's like something's bothering her."

I refused to show her any sympathy, I just couldn't do it. I waved Matt goodbye and left with dad to go to the back to the house to talk it over. He had had a good conversation with Matt's mother, mentioning my idea of her marketing her work. Finally getting something different to think about, I told dad about my idea with Matt about opening her own store. The day rolled by, and before I knew it, it was evening. Grandma was sitting on the sofa reading a book. Maybe she could help.

"Grandma?" She looked up.

"What is it, dear?"

"I want to ask you something," I sat down next to her, and rested my head on her shoulder. "Say, hypothetically, a person has hurt you in the past, and you refuse to trust them when they come to you for help…what do you do?"

She took a deep breath. "Wow, I've never heard that one before…it takes time, dear. They may try their best to convince you otherwise, but it's not that easy. Do you, hypothetically, feel that you may be in danger for showing sympathy?"

"Hypothetically, yes."

"Yes, it's a phase," She went on. "If that person is in dire need of your help, then the right thing to do would be to help them. I mean, if you think about it, don't you think there's a reason they came to you instead of anyone else?"

I sat up. "Wow…I never thought of it that way," She looked at me, confused. "…hypothetically. Thanks, grandma."

"No problem, dear. Sleep well."

I got up, and walked up to my room. Wow, that was another point. Why would she come to us for help? Of course, that only defended my thought that she was planning another trap, so with mixed thoughts, I drifted into an uneasy sleep. Hours had passed, and when I woke up again, it was 1:21 in the morning. The window was open, and it was freezing cold in my room. I closed the window, eventually realizing that I never opened it…

"What the…" I spun around. The Dragonair was curled up in a corner of the room looking directly back at me. There wasn't sorrow, or pain in her eyes anymore. "I knew this was a trap!"

I ran for the door but she wrapped herself around my body so tight that it actually began to hurt my ribs again. I bit my tongue and tried to scream, but she covered my mouth with one final wrap. We fell to the floor with a thud.

I heard a slight scream, only to have it muffled quickly. My eyes shot open and I jumped out of bed, grabbing the sword. Burglars…no. Nightmares…Molly didn't have any recently that I knew of…pokémon fooling us with a sob story to let our guard down long enough to lead us into a trap? Seemed likely.

"I hate it when she's right!" I ran across to her room and pushed the door open. Molly was wrapped up in the body of the Dragonair and was being painfully strangled. Her mouth was covered to prevent any noise. "Get off of her!"I pulled on her tail, unraveling her from Molly, and she backed into a corner. I held up the sword. "I warned you."

"Please, wait!" She cried. "I just want to talk!"

"So strangling my daughter to death counts as 'just talking'?"

"I was trying to keep her from making any noise! The last thing I want to do is wake up the rest of the people here."

I inched closer to her. She wasn't getting off this easy this time.

"I had no intention of harming your daughter," She said. "If you still do not believe me…then do as you wish."

The tip of the blade was inches away from her, but something didn't feel right. I obviously couldn't do anything with this sword at such close range, and she had every chance to counter attack and she didn't. I lowered the sword.

"Dad!"

"It's okay, Molly," I whispered. "She's telling the truth."

She sighed.

"Why don't you start by telling us why you're here?" I asked.

"Five years ago," She started. "When I was born…my parents were captured by poachers. They tried so desperately to escape, but their efforts were wasted. They were…killed for the orbs on their necks and tails. I tried defending them, but as a baby, I couldn't even defend myself. They tortured me with their pokémon before escaping, but I couldn't survive on my own. Beaten and alone, I washed up on a beach, and for two days I lay there, slowly dying, until Dr. Morgan found me."

"He nursed me back to health, and as an initiative, gave me a place to stay while I could grow up. But he wasn't exactly what I was expecting," She continued. "For the next four years we trained night and day, against brutal obstacle courses that no one in my place could've survived. Eventually I came to rank with that Infernape. But he was my ice breaker. When I looked at him, I started to realize that Morgan didn't raise me out of love or affection, but just to use my power as a tool to help him further expand his dream. That's when I heard him talking about you."

She looked at me. "Me?"

"His plan was to create the perfect army of pokémon out of humans. Only, you had rescued all of the people he had kidnapped. Since then, his sole purpose was to make you suffer, and that was my primary objective," She went on. "All the things I had witnessed in the years leading up to now finally made sense, but before I could escape, we had a mission to complete. And that was when I finally met you, and your daughter. I looked at you and I wondered. How could one person go up against this man and prevail so easily, and yet I couldn't? I refused to attack. I wanted to show you that my intentions were right, but I couldn't in time, and when I saw her lying on the ground, injured and dying, I knew I had to make a choice, now. And that is why I helped you escape your confinement."

"You were just looking for the easy way out," Molly said. I turned to her. "But how did you end up here?"

She closed her eyes. "Everything comes with a price. After Morgan learned of my betrayal he released me, and sent his Infernape to kill me. After he gained the upper hand he tried to land the finishing blow, but I just barely escaped to the water, which led to the ocean, which eventually led me back here. Hopefully someone would find me—"

"—and that someone would be us," I finished, getting up. "Now I understand…"

I looked at Molly. Whether she chose to believe her or not was unreal, but it was her decision. I couldn't pursue it any further.

The sun rose very early the next morning, or so we thought. The snow proved to be a real pain, reflecting all the light from the sun and blinding the hell out of me. I got dressed, to try and see if I could open the restaurant today, but there were no promises. I left my room and walked over to Molly's. Her bed had been made up, but she wasn't in here. Shortly after, I could hear laughter from downstairs, and the smell of breakfast lured me to the kitchen.

"Mom, where's Molly?" I asked. She pointed to the sofa and continued cooking. Molly was sitting on the couch with Matthew, and the Dragonair. "Everyone okay?"

"Yep," Molly said. She looked happy, so I figured everything was okay. "Matt came by, worried about her this morning, so I told him that she was here, and now we're just talking."

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow. Ironically enough, 'just talking' got us into that situation this morning. "Just talking? So Matthew, when did you get here?"

"Well I came over at around 7:30," I checked my watch. It was 9:53.

"So you were 'just talking' for exactly two hours and twenty-three minutes, is that correct?" He nodded slowly. "Something you could've done over the phone?"

"Not unless he doesn't have one," Molly said through gritted teeth.

"Ah, excuses," I chuckled. "Do you mind if I borrow your Dragonair for a minute?"

"Um…no…?" She followed me to the kitchen.

I sat down on a stool and looked at her. "You know—" I looked at mom, who had continued cooking even through my entrance. "Mom…could you excuse us for a minute?"

"If the bacon burns it's on you," She said, and walked out to the living room.

I turned back to the Dragonair. "Look, I know you don't want to go back to your previous life with Morgan, so I'm going to let you stay here. In Alto Mare," I exercised, before she could get excited. "I want you to stay with Matt and his mother. He's the one who saved your life and looked after you while you were recovering, so he deserves the benefit of the doubt. As for Molly…she went through the same thing you did, as you can see…she's a perfect example of what Morgan did to those people. It took me years to get her back to her normal life, and I'm not going to see it fall apart again, and even though you proved yourself as an ally back in Johto, you still haven't gained her trust. Trust me, I can see it in her eyes. So if you want to ever get on her good side, you're going to need to do it gradually and carefully, and as for me…" I got up, and rubbed her head. "Look, I know what it's like to lose someone you love. You, having enough will to break free of Morgan's madness and figure out wrong from right has officially put you on my good side. I'm sure your parents would've been proud."

She started to cry. I hugged her for comfort. The whole moment was ruined when the smoke detector went off.

"What the hell…?" I looked up at the stove, as the pan with the bacon became engulfed in fire. "DAMN IT!"