Gardevoir and Rob had arrived to Verdanturf Town that was at best could be described as a small village. They could only see one big building, the Pokémart and Pokémon Centre, and a few homes. They walked through, while Gardevoir just kept quiet following Rob, as they passed through Route 117 which was near the forest, a few ponds being around with various other people doing exercises, though while passing through, Gardevoir's pace slowed down. She came to a complete halt when she saw a fence by a building. "Hey. You see something?" Rob asked as Gardevoir approached the fence, looking into it to find various Pokémon in there from old to young, enjoying the peace.
After a minute of silent staring, she felt herself shaken back to reality by Rob. "Hey! Are you alright?" he asked again, worried about her spacing out like this. "G…Gardevoir," she stammered out after realizing she had nearly drifted off into her own memories again. He cast a glance into the Daycare, wondering what she had been staring at, only seeing a Numel out in the open, resting and basking in the sunlight lazily. "You know somebody in there?" he asked. Gardevoir just shook her head. Rob looked over his shoulder. "Well, Mauville is up ahead. We're making great time," he reassured, putting an arm behind her as they walked. She was just gathering her thoughts, her leg pain just throbbing and aching like she should have rested a bit along the way.
They entered into a small city, the gym just near the entrance that had a huge thunderbolt dangling on the roof along with the casino right across from it. Various citizens wandered around, casting glances and minor looks at the duo just for being a new face in town. "Look. Why don't we go to the Pokémon Centre and heal you and Surskit up?" Rob suggested. She looked over to the red building. "Garde," she nodded, agreeing to it. She followed him into the Pokémon Center. It was pretty empty today, and he knew that she will probably need her leg looked at again as well. He walked to the counter to get Surskit treated first at the healing machine. Gardevoir just took a seat on a nearby chair to wait, thinking back to the Numel that she had seen. Everything around her was just felt fading, like she had given up on reality.
It was a dark night over a forest on another area of Hoenn. A young green haired Pokémon that had two red horn objects poking from its head and had green and white color to its body. It was Kirlia, Gardevoir's prior form, and the form that came after Ralts. She was aware she was having another memory flashback, but she wanted to enjoy it, recognizing the scene herself. She saw the moon shimmering alongside the stars down on a small campsite, and by the burnt out campfire was a black haired man who looked in his late forties. He had sideburns, and he was lying nearby a big Pokémon that was red furred and had two grey stone volcanoes on its back, and blue rings on its sides.
Kirlia approached it. She had come out of the Pokéball on her own in the middle of the night to enjoy the environment, but it was cold. She patted the big red Pokémon's head. It opened one eye and looked at her. "Rupt?" it spoke. She pointed to the fire. It breathed a puff of smoke through its nostrils and nodded. Kirlia picked up a stick and held it up to one of the higher areas of its back, letting it breath out a small puff of flames to ignite the stick. She threw it back on the rest of the sticks to see them all relight ablaze, illuminating the area of trees. With that, she sat down beside Camerupt, leaning back on it, resting on it like an over sized doll. It had been slower than usual lately, but their trainer Jones had been riding it to get through mountainous terrain that had been obscuring the routes lately.
As Kirlia rested, she started to hear a strange sound of bushes rustling and leaves crinkling. Sensing something was wrong, she stood up immediately and looked around. "La-Kirlia!" she shouted, Camerupt opening its eyes to wonder what she was panicking about. It growled, beginning to force itself onto its feet with a lot of effort. "Ugh… what is it, Kirlia? You have a nightmare or something?" Jones questioned while sitting up, seeing the lit campfire that was at least a nicer welcome, but he could tell the green haired Pokémon had been startled by something else. He stood up, backing up closer to the campfire. Appearing before them was a long necked part-Grass, part-Flying type Pokémon, Tropius. Alongside it, a few Linoones coming from various sides. At least five Linoones were surrounding them, clearly they were being led by the Tropius in some attempt to steal food from trainers.
"Sorry to exhaust you like this, Camerupt but I think we need to fight," Jones said, Kirlia getting ready as three of the Linoones immediately dashed at them. "Camerupt! Earthquake!" he shouted, watching his over sized red camel Pokémon raise its left legs and then stomp them hard on the ground. The area began shaking as large chunks of the ground began ripping up and cracking. The Linoones were trapped in the tremor and injured badly, crashing into the disrupted terrain or being shaken into fear.
Jones smiled, seeing that three of them were defeated already. "Psychic, Kirlia," he pointed at one of the other Linoones. She focused on it, closing her eyes. Linoone's head began to throb in agony before a shock wave of pain surged through its head, disabling it. That was when he finally noticed something, that Tropius had the leaves on its back glowing brightly, its mouth open. A bright yellow ball was beginning to appear. The trainer knew it was nothing good. "Kirlia, quickly! Hypnosis!" he ordered. Kirlia was about to do as ordered until the last Linoone decided to surprise them, having used Quick Attack to speed straight toward her and hit her from behind. She fell to the ground.
"Kirlia! Quick, Stomp, Camerupt!" he ordered. His Pokémon Camerupt used Stomp to slam its left foot on the Linoone's back, easily rendering it unconscious. The area got brighter as they watched Tropius' wings glow brighter. Its neck straightened, facing its foes, and a giant solar ray shot out of it. Camerupt moved as fast as it could to get in between the beam and its trainer who had Kirlia in his arms, trying to help her up.
The Solarbeam hit Camerupt directly in the side, as it was actually being moved from where it was standing from the force of it without orders. It just reacted on instinct as it fired huge bursts of fire from its back. Jones looked up. Above him was the sky that was being filled with flames from huge burning rocks. He learned that Camerupt was using Eruption. It was a move he could call omnipotent, but he still disliked to use it, since it usually damaged the area. Tropius got pelted by the heavy fire that burnt it heavily, along with lighting multiple of the trees on fire. The Solarbeam stopped, and Tropius fell onto its side, having been even more injured from the super effective fire.
Camerupt fell onto its stomach in pain, Kirlia staring at her fellow Pokémon that just was looking back. She could recognize the look in its eyes, which showed true agony from its injuries. "Wow… you did great my friends…" Jones smiled while putting Kirlia back on her feet, glad she wasn't injured badly from the sneak attack. Usually, hordes of Pokémon were easier to handle. Jones wished he hadn't gotten caught off guard. He looked at Camerupt and sighed. "Look… why don't you just take it easy? I'll call you back out when I need you again," he said. His green haired Pokémon nodded, allowing him to recall her to the Great Ball she occupied.
Her memory seemed to skip from there. Kirlia's eyes were blinded a bit, and it took a moment to recall out, that was when the memory caught back up. It was day time, and now the linoones had left the campsite. She saw Jones sitting near Camerupt that was lying on its side. He had something on his head, though it was a very pretty butterfly Pokémon known as a Beautifly, a small grey wolf like Pokémon, which she recognized as Poochyena. They were both sitting alongside him.
"Kirlia?" Kirlia gave a wave to her fellow Pokémon. They all seemed glum, though. She saw the trees that had been hit by the eruption, which were now heavily burnt, and on top of that the trees and bushes were destroyed, nearly as well as the ground that had been ruptured and damaged from the earthquake. Jones motioned her to step over. She did so, approaching the team she had been with for years. He wrapped an arm around Kirlia, pulling herself close. His other hand was stroking Poochyena's head. "A tough time came upon us… last night, we got attacked. I should've called you all out… I don't know what I was thinking… the stress of it all was all he could take," Jones said. Camerupt lay in front of them, its eyes closed and unmoved since last night his trainer had an expression of depression. One pile of empty bottles laid nearby. Most were Super Potions or just regular Potions.
"…I didn't get my Pokémon like the rest of the class. I went with dad to the mountain when I was eight. We got separated, and then a wild Pokémon attacked me. And there he was. That Numel just came out of nowhere and saved me, even when he got beaten up, I was just some random kid… he took the pain for me back then and now. I will always be thankful for keeping me safe and helping us all," Jones gave his small speech in honors of the Camerupt. Kirlia could guess that he had spent all night making the fire-ground type's final moments as painless as possible. It felt like her fault that they had gotten hurt. If she had watched her back more, she could have just put Tropius to sleep, and no one would have been hurt, but she knew the Camerupt was probably just a few years younger than his trainer, death might have been inevitable.
The last thing Kirlia saw was a hand with a few Rare Candies held out for her. "…this isn't a reason to be sad. It might not have ended the way he wanted, but I'm sure he's glad he spent his final days with us…" he added. Kirlia hesitantly took one. The last thing the memory of hers had was her putting the rare candy in her mouth, whilst her memory began to get foggy.