Even though Chikoro was anxious to go and beat the crap out of Kyle, Kevin decided to take his time and actually use the quarter that had been hurled at him to call his mother. He'd been meaning to do that since October, for Arceus's sake. The Chikorita grudgingly agreed, though he really was in a sour mood.

Upon finding a phone booth, Kevin marvelled at the fact that payphones hadn't seemed to change at all in ten years… Or maybe no one had bothered to replace them. Whatever the case, Kevin inserted the quarter and punched in his phone number after squinting at the keypad for a minute.

As the phone rang, Kevin's mind started to wonder how his father could have possibly gotten a phone working in a forest, but then again, with people like Bill for friends, things like that were probably trivial. Finally, someone picked up.

"Hello?"

Kevin swallowed. "Hi Mom," he said, hoping he didn't sound weird.

"Kevin? Oh, honey, you're still okay! Turn the video on so I can look at you, okay?"

Glad that the video button was adorned with a small picture instead of a word, Kevin obeyed and switched on the video function of the payphone. He grinned nervously as it came on; his mother could go from super happy to berating in a heartbeat if the situation called for it.

She stared for a minute before frowning. "I really meant to call you back, honey, but you didn't give me the number and you never called again…" Three, two, one. "You never called again! Do you have any idea how worried that made me? I'd almost convinced myself I'd hallucinated everything until Cory called and told me someone named 'Slick' started showing up in the news! Where are you? What happened to you?"

Kevin sighed. He thought he would have felt guiltier, but he was just relieved to hear his mom's voice and see her again, even if she looked older. "Yeah, sorry about that, stuff came up. I'm in the Battle Frontier in Sinnoh. And… What happened is kind of a long story. Um, did you say that—"

"The Battle Frontier? Oh! Are you with Kyle?" his mother asked before he could finish.

"Uh, no," Kevin said.

She narrowed her eyes. "Why not? I know you two aren't the best of friends, but he's your brother, honey, and he cares about you, too. He'd be happy to see you again and find out you're alive!"

Kevin sighed disdainfully. "Look, Mom, we saw each other. It wasn't pretty. Anyway, uh… Did you say Dad called?"

He was asking because as a kid, he was certain his mom had never gotten any phone calls from him at all. It seemed… odd.

"Yes, he did. He said you've been gathering gym badges—"

"But I thought— He called you?"

Kevin's mother blinked in understanding. "Sweetie, your brother went looking for you, after you disappeared. When he went missing too, I just couldn't take it. So I called Bill and made him tell Cory to start calling me." She folded her arms and shook her head. "Honey… Your father really isn't the bad person you make him out to be. He really thinks what he did is right."

Kevin shrugged.

"You admired him so much when you were little," said his mother.

"Whatever. Anyway… I called because if I didn't, Kyle would beat me to it and totally lie about everything like he always does, so listen, okay?" He saw his mother smirk a little while she nodded. "Right… Um, I got caught. I only got out recently. I'm still fourteen, and Kyle doesn't believe me."

His mother looked confused. "You're still…? Well, I guess you look younger than you should. But… Does being caught really do that?"

"Not usually," Kevin replied. "It was some really rare thing or something with the computer system. But the point is, I couldn't have done anything about it. It was a complete accident. Can you please get that through to Bratty McSticklegs so he'll believe me?"

His mother giggled. "I've really missed you honey. And, um, I'll try to tell Kyle, but it may take a bit of work." She smiled.

"Thanks Mom," Kevin said.

"Just come home soon so I can see you in person," she said. She then gave him a wink and hung up.

Kevin walked out of the phone booth feeling significantly happier. If he had known his mom would be that cool about everything, he would have called eons ago.

Chikoro watched him, his face displaying a look of contempt before immediately switching to false gusto. "So your dad's a deadbeat? Don't tell me that runs in your family, too." It was creepy how threatening the kid could make his smiles look.

"It doesn't," Kevin said, gesturing to the northern route ahead. "Let's go follow Kyle."

Chikoro swung his leaf around and strode on forward. "Then why did your dad leave?"

Kevin rolled his eyes. "What's with the interrogation?"

The Chikorita laughed. "Ha! Like I said before, it takes no effort to siphon details out of you. I'm just seeing how long it takes until I can write a book."

"You are one messed up nine year old," Kevin said. "And to think, when I first saw you I thought you were a weak little girl who'd be perfect for a contest."

"As you've surely noticed, there are two different sides of me," Chikoro said, hopping over a few stones on the path. "One's the sweet, innocent little me who shows up when I like something, and the other's, well, what you see right now."

"So in other words, you're like the little boy version of Kari," Kevin said, remembering how cheerful she had become when they'd first started to work together.

"Kari's cool," said Chikoro. Kevin took that to mean he agreed.

Walking around and trying to find the Shade's home proved difficult when Kevin realized he had absolutely no leads other than somewhere near the forbidden apple tree. For one, it took the pair nearly two hours to find it again, and once they did, the Spearow was nowhere to be found, leaving them with no clue for what to do next.

Chikoro had kept on chatting throughout the entire walk, every now and then adding in a prying comment or offhand question to catch Kevin off guard. It didn't work, though – Kevin had decided to do what he did with Kari early on and just insult Chikoro every time it happened. It was working fairly well.

Eventually, after pacing around the tree for the millionth time, Chikoro snapped and shouted, "Hey, does anyone know where the Shade lives?" at the top of his lungs.

At first, there was no reply, but then, a Pokémon Kevin recognized as a Kecleon emerged from a bush to the left. "I think I can help you," she said.

"Really?" Kevin asked, eyeing the girl and doubting she was going to be of any use.

"Mm hmm. I've seen him around. I'll escort you, come on." She gestured with her scaly hand and started walking towards the forest area she'd come from.

Kevin glanced at Chikoro, who shrugged and started to follow her. It wasn't like he had much else to choose from, so Kevin went too. The wooded area felt nostalgic, almost as if he were heading home.

Chikoro broke the reminiscence. "Why didn't you help us out earlier?" he asked the Kecleon.

"Well, for one, you didn't shout out what you were doing until a second ago," she said, raising her finger and wagging it. "Besides, I'm helping you now, so be grateful."

Oddly, she seemed to shut Chikoro up. It was a relaxing change from before, and Kevin smiled. Now he had time to think.

…And though he didn't really want to, all he could think about was how stupid he had been for the last few months.

He had actually made a pretty decent first deduction back in the mining town. After all, he wasn't aware of the fact that the world had aged ten years, and if you ignored that, most of what he had figured made sense. It was when Kevin discovered he'd been stuck in a time capsule that was the problem.

Somehow, he had completely forgotten to update his conclusions with the new information, probably because he was overcome with shock. Therefore, he never added in the possibility of there being someone other than his uncle that could have been the Shade. And thus, he was caught completely off guard when Kyle turned out to be the real deal.

To think that that reporter had actually asked if Kevin were the Shade's long lost son, though, oh, that was hilarious.

Kevin grinned to himself. Even if he were a bit too late in terms of usefulness, having everything cleared up was certainly a breather. The Shade didn't actually want to kill him (probably), and now there was nothing in the dark. All he had left to do was convince his brother of the truth and he could finally go home. And maybe he'd bring Kari along too. She deserved it.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when the three of them came to a stop. Pointing to a sizable rock a few feet away, the Kecleon said, "There it is. It's a little underground thing with a pseudo cave entrance. I'm going to go now."

Kevin squinted. There was a large hole in the rock that could potentially lead to a cave of some sort. "Thanks," he muttered.

"Mm," mumbled the Kecleon before dashing back the way they came, turning invisible in the process. …Kind of rude.

Chikoro sighed. "I didn't really trust that chick. You think this is really where the Shades live?"

"Let's check," said Kevin. He glanced around before picking up a nice-sized rock and hurling it into the cave's entrance. He heard it reverberate with a thud.

"Um… What did you hit?" Chikoro asked.

Kevin shrugged. "Sounded like something solid. Maybe it's just a dead end?"

The pair inched closer to the false cavern. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary emerge from the cave, Kevin opted to walk in, with Chikoro following closely behind. His tail lit up the narrow tunnel easily, but Kevin didn't notice what they'd hit until they got to the bottom.

"Huh. This is interesting," said a hulking Rhyperior. He was tossing a stone in his hand leisurely. "I thought I was the one who knew Rock Throw."

Kevin blinked.

Chuckling, the Rhyperior shook his head. "You must be the big brother we've been hearing about. I'll let you in," He turned around with difficulty (he was so big that it caused him to remodel the surrounding walls) and entered what appeared to be the main room of sorts.

For an underground room, it was surprisingly well lit. There were candles in a lot of nooks in the walls, and a couple of battery-powered light sources were also visible. Along with that, there was actually some furniture. Scattered around the room were a little wooden table, mismatching stools and chairs, what appeared to be a homemade counter, and a worn little sofa, giving the cavern a homey atmosphere.

On that sofa was Kyle, drinking a box of apple juice. Several empty ones lay discarded beside him.

"I told you not to let him in if he showed up," Kyle muttered irritably.

The Rhyperior shrugged. "Boss, you two need to make up. Otherwise, you're going to be like this forever, and the press will think you've gone emo."

Kyle rolled his eyes as Chikoro snickered softly. "The press already thinks I'm a criminal and an alcoholic. Emo isn't that bad in comparison." He eyed Kevin with contempt. "Of course, you'd just love it if that happened, right?"

"By my standards, you were emo the moment you were born," muttered Kevin. "But I don't care about that right now. We need to talk—"

He was interrupted by a blue fox who came skittering out of another room. "Oh my gosh! He's here!" she said, coming to a stop directly in front of Kevin. "The infamous lost brother! Wow, Boss, you weren't kidding when you said you looked nothing alike."

"W-who are you?" Kevin asked.

The fox smiled. "Only Estelle Glacée the Glaceon, famed actress and Shade member! You can call me Stella, that's what everyone else does. I handle all the press releases the Boss doesn't feel like going to and I've even written a few things for him myself!" she exclaimed giddily.

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "…Yeah. You also spill all the beans about Kyle's personal life to crazy people, right?" he said, remembering Chuno's claim that it was some actress who told him everything about Kari. He frowned.

"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Stella. She appeared to be genuinely confused, but then again, she was an actress.

"Whatever. Kyle," Kevin said, walking around the ice type and coming to a stop in front of his brother. "Look. I was telling the truth before, okay?"

Kyle smiled. "Of course you were, Kev, you always are," he said, his voice dripping in sarcasm. "Yep, I can count on you, just like I'm sure that when I end up in hell, I can go skiing," He took a large swig from his juice box, draining it.

"How old are you? You're acting like you're seven," Kevin growled.

"What, lost count? Twenty-two. Two years younger, just like always. That hasn't changed," he grumbled.

Kevin crossed his arms. "Well, that's where you're wrong," Kevin said.

"Really?" asked Kyle absentmindedly.

Kevin leant closer so that he was eye to eye with his brother. "Do I look twenty-four? Think about it before you answer that one," he said with a glare.

Kyle didn't answer. Kevin sighed.

"Fine then. Let's do a survey," he mocked. "Chicky. What do you say?"

The Chikorita blinked. "Uh… The Shade doesn't look like he's in his twenties, either?"

Kevin smacked himself. "Fantastic support, right there. Why did I let you come along, anyway?"

The Shade laughed and got up off the couch. "Cute. Look, Kevin, let me show you something."

He wandered over to a grungy bookcase, bent over, and pulled out a hardcover book. Handing it to Kevin, he smirked. Kevin raised an eyebrow and looked at it.

On the book's cover was a picture of Kyle. Kevin frowned. "What's this?"

"Oh right, you're an idiot. It's a biography. Of me." Kyle glared. "I'm important, Kevin. I've got stuff to do. Life changing stuff. Do you really expect me to sit here and take all this crap from someone who hasn't been around for the last ten years? Do you?"

"I don't care how famous you are," Kevin said angrily, tossing the book behind him. "Pokémon rights, yadda yadda, I get that. What I don't get is why you're so unwilling to accept that I really didn't mean to disappear all those years ago!"

Kyle turned to look at the wall. "I accepted that radio interview a few months ago so I could tell you to get here as soon as possible. Why did you go and do a whole Pokémon League first? Or do I just not matter to you?"

Kevin sighed. "That was the only way I could think of to get here," he insisted. "If I placed high enough, I'd get a ferry pass to the Battle Frontier. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Oh, I don't know, use The Pidgeot Express?" Kyle growled.

"The hell is that?" Kevin asked.

Kyle threw his arms up in the air. "It's one of the first things I actually got people to fund! Public transportation that flies you anywhere, anytime! It's kind of easy, don't you think?"

"If it's that great, why haven't I heard of it? Why did nobody on my team, when I asked how I could get to you, mention anything like that?" Kevin snarled. "You talk really big, Kyle, you do. But since I've been here, the only thing I think you've managed to do is screw everything up!"

Kyle clenched his fists. "How so?"

"For one, basically all of the loopholes and regulations you've supposedly fixed have gotten in my way," Kevin said. "Second, I don't know how you expect people to take you seriously if you're dressed up like that."

"I'm not just wearing this for fun—"

"I know. You're covering up that little run in with the window, right? So tragic."

Kyle glared. "You— Who the hell told you?"

Kevin shook his head. "The little Angel who calls himself the Naturalist knows as much. You should be a little more careful with your information, Ky."

The Shade said nothing. He turned to face the bookshelf again. He stood there for a minute or two, before finally barking, "Stella!"

The Glaceon flinched. "Boss?"

"You leaked it," he said, "to the whole world by telling that rat. Get out before I kill you."

"Yes sir," she said, her head hung. She ran out the doorway without wasting any time.

After she was gone, Kyle took a deep breath. "So, what version did you hear? A cutesy retelling from the rat, or the accurate story?"

"Both," Kevin answered. Kyle turned his head enough so that one eye was visible. Kevin continued. "I heard the cutesy poem, yeah, but I also heard what really happened. You tried to punch a window, and it turned out badly. Sucks."

"You're making it sound like a sick joke," Kyle growled.

Kevin shook his head. "You're not taking me seriously. Why should I bother feeling sorry for you?"

Again, Kyle said nothing. Kevin stared at the back of his brother's head. As angry as he was at the moment, Kevin couldn't help but notice how sickly Kyle looked. When you couldn't see the handsome face, all that remained was a skinny, malnourished little kid. Just like always.

After a long wait, Kyle went back to the couch, picking up a new juice box. He opened it and took a sip, eyeing Kevin carefully. "Fine. We'll talk. Seriously." He turned to Chikoro and the Rhyperior. "Rhyperior, take the kid and leave us for an hour, 'kay?"

"Sure thing, Boss," replied the Rhyperior, who immediately dragged a protesting Chikoro back through the entrance and up to the surface.

Kyle finished his juice and placed it beside him. "All right. I'll go first," Kyle said. Kevin nodded. "And… I'll be mature about it if you are, too."

Kevin smirked. "No promises."

"Like you've ever promised me anything," Kyle said. Despite that, he smiled, too. "Right. Might as well get something out of the way, first."

Kevin waited for him to continue. Kyle rested his chin on his hands.

"I… I think I might be dying."