AN: This is another chapter I like to look back on. I actually wrote a version of it a long, long time ago, before I started writing the fic proper, and I enjoy going through both the old version and this one to see how much changed. It can get pretty nostalgic.

I revised the dialogue in the middle of this chapter a lot more than I did in the others. It was probably the chapter that needed it the most.

"Wh-whoa… This is so cool!"

Kevin resisted the urge to laugh at Chikoro. The kid's regular voice was high-pitched enough, but in fanboy mode he barely sounded over the age of five. The Chikorita currently had his face pressed against the glass of the boat's window, shielding the view from Kevin.

"I mean, I've heard about the Battle Frontiers everywhere, but I've never actually seen one before, and it all looks so awesome and—"

"I know! You've been saying that the whole way here!" Even though it was funny, Chikoro's repetitiveness was taking its toll. "I'm excited too! But what I'm here for is the Shade, not the Battle Tower, or Pyramid, or whatever."

Chikoro turned around, unimpressed. "There's no Battle Pyramid in Sinnoh! And you call yourself an expert at battling," he muttered.

Kevin shrugged and dragged Chikoro out of the little cabin and into the main hall. "Like I said, whatever. Let's just get off the boat already."

In reality it was still another five minutes before they would reach the docks, but Kevin wanted to be the first one off. The two marched up onto the deck, where they did nothing but tap their feet impatiently until they hit land.

Once a sailor opened the gate to let everyone off, Kevin speed walked to a nearby tree with Chikoro close behind. He clenched his fists.

"Okay. We're here," he said. He looked at Chikoro. "Um, where do you think the Shade is?"

Chikoro shrugged. "I don't know where he lives, don't you?"

"Uh…" Kevin glanced around, looking for something that would give him a clue. Oddly, he saw a volcano in the distance, overlooking the entire island. "That volcano, maybe…"

"A volcano? Well, I guess you guys are fire type. Still, that looks like a long walk. We'd better get moving." Kevin nodded.

The two walked, Kevin lost in thought. He didn't expect to see a volcano all the way out here. Then again, his mother had mentioned the Northern clan in passing a lot when he was a kid, and that Iffy guy had said he was from "Stark Mountain". It seemed the most likely place for Kevin's uncle to be.

If only he'd had the sense to look more stuff up on the internet. But after the whole Pokéball mess, Kevin didn't really like computers all that much. He was glad he didn't have to use them much for the league, at any rate.

Suddenly, he bumped into Chikoro. "What the— Chicky," Kevin said, frowning.

"If you have to shorten it, use Koro," the Chikorita replied.

"I don't care. Why'd you stop, anyway?" Kevin asked, glaring.

Chikoro held up a pair of sunglasses, grinning. "Check it! Someone left these rockin' sunglasses sticking up in the ground here." He put them on. "Oh yeah. So cash."

Kevin blinked. "You sound ridiculous," he said flatly. "Whatever, finders keepers, go you. Let's just keep going, okay?" Why had he agreed to let Chikoro follow him, again? So he could be used as cannon fodder against the Shade?

The pair of them continued on. Aside from lots of trainers, well, training, there wasn't much to the non-battle part of the Battle Frontier. Sure, there were palm trees and fruit, which were a delicious break from the norm, but otherwise, the area was pretty uncivilized and one could see plenty of wild Pokémon running amok, particularly children.

"I wish I grew up here," Kevin remarked as a Rattata dashed past him, playing tag with a Mankey. After a second, he revised his statement. "Wait, scratch that. I wish I were a normal kid who grew up here."

"Mm," agreed Chikoro. "It's like they don't have a care in the world…"

Kevin wandered over to an apple tree. In it, a Spearow pecked at one of the fruits, but he didn't seem to mind as Kevin climbed up to get one for himself. Kevin picked one and smiled.

"Where's your sweater today, Mr. Shade?" asked the Spearow.

Kevin looked up, surprised. "What? Oh, um, I'm not him," he said.

"Really?" said the Spearow, his head quickly twitching in the manner bird's heads usually did. "Then why are you in Mr. Shade's special apple tree?"

Kevin smiled nervously. Special apple tree? What, was the Shade supreme dictator or something? "Um… I'm hungry. Can't I get an apple, too?"

The Spearow considered this. "I think you should ask him."

"Great. I'll do that the next time I see him," Kevin muttered.

"Uh, Slickky?" asked Chikoro. "Maybe you should get out of there, you know, just in case?"

Kevin sighed and dropped out of the tree, apple in hand. "It's no big deal. How was I supposed to know that Shady would have a random apple tree marked as his own?"

"Apples are his favourite," chimed the little Spearow.

"Yes, they really are delicious."

Kevin froze. He recognized that voice from the radio. The Shade was right behind him and Chikoro.

"You can go now, Farow. I can handle this myself," the Shade said.

The Spearow looked happily behind Kevin. "Come back tomorrow, Mr. Shade!"

"I will," he assured. He waited until the child had flown off, and then cleared his throat. "Are you going to turn around?"

Kevin narrowed his eyes. Taking his sweet time to casually change direction, he stopped midway.

No.

That didn't… No.

"So," said the Shade, his expression quickly turning bitter. "First you disappear. I decide to go look for you – because you were the only goddamn friend I had, even if you sucked at that – and I wind up getting captured and pretty much thrown in prison. I spend three frickin' years on dollar store kibble and finally manage to break out, except now I'm horribly scarred and have to hide it with something even more conspicuous. Oh, not to mention I had to leave my best friend behind!"

Kevin blinked. Hell no!

"And then, I decide to hide out in Canalave City, so Rowan can't find me. A nice lady takes me in, but then what happens? Wham! She dies! So I salvage what little hope I have left and decide to go through with a stupid idea, find some other human-speaking Pokémon and form the Shades. All seems good, right?"

How could he be such an idiot?

"No! The media decides I'm either a public monstrosity or a hoax, and they spend six months trying to catch me and put me in another lab! Finally they quit it when someone – I'm sure you've heard who by now – makes some pill that lets all the poor Pokémon speak human, but then, I'm not special anymore, I'm just that crazy Shade guy who may or may not be a criminal!

"And if that wasn't enough," the Shade spat, "when I decided to let some more people join the Shades, one of them's a complete psycho who wants me and Kari dead, all while smiling and singing his frickin' poetry crap! I don't even know how I got out of that one!"

He was panting now, his body trembling, ironically similar to how Chuno's had. "And then you show up again, with a new name challenging gyms, and you say you hate me and everything I stand for. What. The. Hell." He growled. "That's my story. So, what have you been doing for the past ten years, Kevin?"

Kevin wanted to answer. He wanted to explain everything, to make everything okay. But as he tried to open his mouth, no sound came out. His voice had disappeared… Just like he had, back then.

"I'm not being rhetorical or anything, you know!" the Shade said, taking a few steps closer. "I want an answer, Kev!" He tried breathing, to calm himself, presumably, but it didn't have much of an effect.

"I…" Kevin managed to say. He didn't have time to say anything else before the Shade punched him in the face.

Growling, the Shade shook his head. "S-stupid! Why are you always so stupid?" He stared at Kevin for a second before adding, "And why are you shorter than me? And who the hell is this kid? Huh, Slick?"

Kevin gritted his teeth. "Shut up! How am I supposed to tell you anything if you keep freaking out?" he yelled.

The Shade folded his arms, biting his lip. "All right, fine! Explain!"

Kevin let out a breath. He studied the person in front of him carefully, looking for anything that would prove the Shade wasn't who he appeared to be. After finding nothing, Kevin conceded. "Okay. First off… Kyle, is that really you?"

The Shade spat out a flame. "What, is there someone to confuse me with? Obviously it's me, Kev." It was obvious. Even with the deep voice and evolution, Kyle's face was still remarkably similar to the way it had been. Not to mention the fact that he was still somehow incredibly underweight.

Kevin tried to shove his nagging conscience out of his mind, as it was currently reprimanding him for being such a damn idiot. He sighed again. "Okay… Um, listen. None of this was my fault—"

"Don't you dare try and play that card!" Kyle snapped, pointing an accusatory finger. "If you hadn't decided to actually take me seriously and go halfway across the world, none of this would have even happened!" The Shade glared at his feet. "Ever since we were kids, you've always been doing stupid stuff and blaming everyone else for it. Can't you be responsible for once?"

"It wasn't my fault!" shouted Kevin, clenching his fists. "You think I wanted this? Hell, you don't even know what happened, so quit pointing fingers until you do!"

"I thought you'd died!" yelled Kyle. "Do you know what that feels like; to think your big brother – no matter how stupid he is – is dead? And now you're just waltzing in like it's no big deal! So what is your excuse, anyway? The hell could be so important that you'd disappear for an entire decade?"

"Someone caught me," Kevin growled.

"Oh, and what a lovely experience that must've been for you! Surely my three years in a lab weren't nearly as awful as going around the country doing the exact same thing you intended to do when you left!"

Kevin felt flames tickling at his throat and spat out some fire. "Ten years ago," he added.

"Your point?" asked Kyle, clearly furious.

"Goddamn it! Have you even looked at me?" Kevin shot back.

Kyle raised an eyebrow. "So you're short. What else?"

"I'm still fourteen, dumbass! Doesn't that confuse you at all?" Kevin snarled.

"What—" Kyle blinked. "What?"

Kevin laughed, throwing his arms up in the air. "I got caught and stuffed in a box. I'm finally released after forever, and it turns out everything else has aged ten years but me! Funny, isn't it?"

"What?" asked Kyle incredulously. "What the— Who in their right mind would buy a story like that? Is that really the best excuse you have?"

"I'm telling the truth!" insisted Kevin.

"Yeah, well," Kyle spat, "you've cried wolf one too many times in my book, so I don't care." He narrowed his eyes. "Those are mine, by the way. Of course, Kevin here was too much of a complete moron to notice."

With a swift motion, Kyle swiped his sunglasses off of Chikoro's head and placed them in his sweater pocket. His deep eyes then turned to glare at Kevin. "Maybe Chump really was a good nickname for you, you know?"

"Oh, great. You going to start calling me a demon like everyone else now, too? 'Cause the last person who did that—"

"Got you disqualified from the Pokémon League, I heard," mused Kyle, looking at a tree. "Whatever. You don't scare me anymore, Kevin."

Growling, Kevin threw a Mach Punch, hitting nothing but air as his brother side stepped. Kyle gave Kevin a disgusted look before backing away.

"You can't hit me," he called.

"Oh please," Kevin sighed. He jumped up and went straight into an Aerial Ace, aiming to slash at Kyle's head. The Shade countered by using his own Aerial Ace to deflect the move.

He shook his head. "I have that move too. You can have all the power in the world… But that doesn't mean a thing if you can't hit your opponent."

Kevin noted a bit of a smug tone to the last comment, as if Kyle truly believed he'd win, unlike every other battle the two had ever had. So the kid had gained some confidence in the last ten years. Kevin smirked. He could use that to his advantage.

Kevin went for a Flame Wheel, which Kyle sidestepped every time he got any close. After a few laps around, Kevin stuck his leg out and attempted to trip his brother. Kyle easily sidestepped it as well.

"You don't get it, Kevin. I know your battling style. I'm faster than you. I can dodge," He smirked. "But you can't, can you? You don't know how I battle at all, since you never gave me the chance to hit back. That means I win."

Kevin threw another Mach Punch. At first it felt like it actually connected, but Kyle had just caught it in his hand.

…His left hand.

"Go to hell," Kevin muttered.

"I hate you too, Kev," said Kyle. And before Kevin could blink, his little brother had delivered the quickest Close Combat the world had ever seen. Twice. And then he was on the ground with The Shade standing over top of him.

"They called me a demon too, you know. It hurt me just as much." Kyle stood up straight and started to walk away.

Kevin sat up immediately. "Hey! Where do you think you're going?"

Kyle didn't even turn around. "We have nothing more to discuss. I'm going back to work," He tossed a small object behind him, which Kevin caught. A quarter. "Why don't you call Mom? Even if you won't tell me the truth, I'd think she deserves to know, don't you?"

And with that, the Shade ran off, the trees and other greenery hiding his path.

Kevin spat.

"So let me get this straight," Chikoro said, pacing around the apple tree. "You'd never seen the Shade in a picture or anything, so you assumed he was your uncle based on his voice?"

Kevin rolled his eyes. "My brother used to have a voice like yours! How was I supposed to know that it got that deep?"

"That's the other thing," Chikoro stopped and tapped at the ground with his foot. "The thing you said earlier, about spending ten years in a box… What's that about?"

Shrugging, Kevin looked up to the sky. It had been turning from bright blue to orange rather early, Kevin noticed, until he remembered it was the day after New Year's. "It's no big deal."

"It sounded pretty big," the Chikorita replied.

"Well, it wasn't," Kevin muttered.

Chikoro shook his head and walked up to Kevin, giving him a stern look. "What? Just because Kari's not here means you won't spill?" He paused, then added, "The Shade mentioned her, too. He knows her?"

Kevin grimaced and leant back against the bark of the tree, still staring upwards. "I trust Kari. Not you. And yeah… He knows her." He felt really sick for some reason, saying that out loud.

"You sound absolutely thrilled," Chikoro said.

"He—" Kevin said. There wasn't really a pleasant way to put it, was there? "…Likes her."

The Chikorita raised an eyebrow. "Likes her, likes her?"

"That's what she told me," he confirmed. Kevin suddenly remembered his joke-fantasy where his little brother and Kari were eating apples on a date and grimaced again.

"That doesn't make any sense," Chikoro said. His eyes got shifty. "Can they even… Uh, you know…?"

Kevin somehow brought himself to laugh, "Arceus, no. Um, at least, I don't think so." He blinked. "Then again, neither could Uncle Nick and Aunt Lily…"

"Does this run in your family?" Chikoro blurted out, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"Huh?" Kevin asked.

The Chikorita shook his head. "You're a quarter human, your Aunt and Uncle can't mate, and your brother likes a turtle. Are you all like this?"

Kevin stared at the nine year old, unsure how to respond. He'd never really thought of it that way. Then again, it wasn't like he thought about it that much at all.

"I mean, if you're going to be weird like that, at least be able to have kids with it," Chikoro went on, "like that Skitty and Wailord couple on TV."

It took Kevin a moment to respond. "Skitty and Wailord can breed?"

"Yeah," said Chikoro.

"And Monferno and Gardevoir can't," said Kevin.

"Your aunt and uncle?" Kevin nodded. "Weird. Uh— Hey! You're supposed to be telling me why you spent ten years in a box!" the Chikorita said indignantly.

Kevin frowned. "What's there to tell? I got caught, was in a box, I come out and it's not 2000." He felt no reason to inform the Chikorita why it had happened. After all, the logistics behind it were hard for Kevin to swallow himself, and if Chikoro was still hung up on him being part human…

"So when you registered, you really meant it when you said you were born—"

"In eighty-six? Yeah. Same year as Kari, I think." Yeah, Kari was twenty-four, right?

Chikoro looked pensive. "I don't get it though. Why didn't you go home? Why did you come up with this 'Slickky' thing, and go around claiming the Shade's beliefs were wrong and stuff? Why did you keep doing it when you found out?"

"I…" Kevin thought about it. There wasn't really a clear reason. Well, except, maybe… "I guess I liked it. Being on an adventure, I mean."

"An adventure?" Chikoro asked. "You mean, across Sinnoh getting badges?"

"Yeah, I guess. Look," Kevin sighed, trying to figure out the best way to word what he wanted to say. "It was so boring in the woods. Everyone hated me, even my brother. So I went out on a journey, battling people and sneaking in to watch contests in Hoenn. And that was okay, I guess, but…"

Chikoro tilted his head. It seemed like he was actually concerned. Kevin scoffed.

"Arceus. When I got caught and was released in Sinnoh, I wanted to go home right away. But I didn't know how to do that, so I just went along with Lana and the team and tried to root out information from them. Kari figured out I wasn't… Er… She knew who I was. So she started dropping these hints that I was too much of an idiot to figure out, and eventually I heard what year it was, and then I realized what was going on.

"But by then, I had heard about the Shade, and Kari had become my first real friend, and… I told her I'd go kick his ass for leaving her behind back when they tried to escape the lab together. And here I am now, not even able to land a single hit on that scrawny little brat. And he's the same one I'd always beat up as a kid. It sucks."

There was silence. Good, Kevin wanted it that way. He had just spilled his guts to some kid for no reason. Arceus. He felt so damn weak.

Chikoro's eyes were narrow. "Get up."

"What? The hell are you mad for?" Kevin growled.

"I hate people like the Shade," he said, "for leaving the people they love behind or whatever. It's disgusting." He turned around. "Come on, get up. We're going to kick his ass, just like you said."

Kevin raised an eyebrow in slight amusement. "I had no idea," he muttered.

"I have a story too, you know. Unlike you, I don't tell anyone and everyone who gives me the evil eye." Well. What an arrogant little prick.

…But sometimes, it could be nice to have someone like that on your side.