DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokémon. All characters herein belong to Nintendo. I'm just a fan having a bit of non-profit fun and exercising my lazy imagination...

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm sorry, nothing absolutely catastrophic or exciting happens in this chapter. Just as a side note, I fixed a few errors in previous chapters, most of them just stylistic things.

FOUR

In spite of the uncomfortable heat and the hard floor, Dawn somehow managed to fall asleep. Team Galactic's transportation department obviously didn't spare any expense on the suspension: although they were travelling over bumpy mountain roads, Dawn barely felt a thing, and the hum of the engine and the warmth gradually lulled her into a dreamless sleep. She was lying on her side, her bag beneath her head like a makeshift pillow and Shinx nestled against the curve of her stomach. She was awoken by a sudden noise and a faint vibration from underneath her ear. Forgetting where she was, she stretched and felt the restricting metal walls of the van against her hands and feet, then the moistness on the underside of the sheet on top of her, where her breath had condensed upon it.

"What's that noise? Is that your phone?"

A voice from the seat in front of her made Dawn gasp silently. She instantly became still, but it was no good: the sound was coming from inside her bag, a simple but melodic tune. She only wished that she could vanish into thin air along with whatever was making that noise. Please don't let them find me.

"It sounds like it's coming from back here. Okay, who left their phone in the back?"

Dawn heard a sigh and a rustle. A few seconds later, her protective canvas hiding place was pulled away and she found herself fearfully gazing up into the astonished eyes of a young woman with short, aqua-coloured hair. "H-hey! Who are you? What are you doing in here?"

In the seat beside her, a man with identical hair turned around and glanced over his shoulder. "Huh? Isn't that...? She's the kid from the lake! Stop the car!"

The driver swerved sharply and the van came to a violent and sudden stop. The motion made Dawn bang her head against the wall and she hissed in pain, but she was too worried to think about it for too long. Two pairs of arms reached out and made a grab for her. With a yelp, she scrambled away towards the rear doors of the van. Awoken from its deep sleep by all the fuss, Shinx rolled over and found itself being seized by two Galactic Grunts. If Dawn had had her memory, her blood would have been boiling at the sight of one of her beloved Pokémon in the hands of these cretins.

"Ow! It just zapped me!"

"Get the rubber gloves!"

While the couple in the back were struggling to restrain Shinx without being electrocuted, the other two got out of the van. Within seconds, the rear doors were yanked open and Dawn more or less tumbled into the arms of her captors. They didn't seem like seasoned kidnappers. They stood back in alarm as she went rolling out of the van, and when she hit out wildly, they made no attempt to stop her. The rain was beating down heavily, and so were Dawn's fists – and her bag, which she was using as a battering weapon.

"You don't need to go crazy at us, kid!" one of them yelled, shielding his face with his arms. "You were the one hiding in the back of our ride!"

His companion became serious and looked at Dawn suspiciously. "Maybe she's a spy."

The two of them exchanged glances and appeared as though they were trying their best to look angry and intimidating as they rounded upon Dawn. Although she wasn't exactly afraid, she backed away. "So," one of them said, "you thought you were going to intrude upon our plans, did you?"

"It's a good thing we caught you before we got to Headqu...I mean, to Veil...to where we were going."

"Veilstone City?" Dawn suggested.

"Damn it, she already knows!"

"Who cares?" One of them gave Dawn a firm shove, hard enough to make her lose her balance and go crashing into the muddy grass by the roadside. "Let's just leave her here and get going."

They slammed the rear doors of the van and scurried back to their seats. Climbing to her feet angrily, Dawn watched the van speeding away. She took off her gloves and hat, which were already wet by now. They weren't going to provide much protection from the rain. Wiping her face with the back of her hand, she set off walking in the same direction as the van, not expecting to catch up with it, but hoping that she would find her way to this mysterious Veilstone City place in time for the 'fun' – whatever that meant.

*****

"Still no answer," Barry murmured sadly, putting his phone down onto the table.

"But it rang?" Lucas asked. He stared at Barry's phone intently. "That means she's not in the mountains anymore." He glanced at the man sitting across the table. "Doesn't it, Professor Rowan?"

"Yes," the professor replied, not looking very happy at this revelation, "but that begs the question...where is she? I already telephoned the mountain rangers in Snowpoint City. Should I ask them to cancel their search?"

"Did you tell Johanna?" Barry asked.

"No!" Rowan answered at once, and sharply.

He didn't often raise his voice like that; the two boys looked at him in surprise. He let out a huff and tried to come up with a plausible excuse, one that didn't say that he felt partially responsible for what had happened to Dawn. Only partially, because after all, he had asked her to travel to Lake Valor. But something equally terrible could have happened to her if she had obeyed him. What was I thinking, sending these youngsters to face the likes of Team Galactic? What will I tell Dawn's mother if we don't manage to fix this?

"I think," he said at last, "we should try to resolve this before we go upsetting Johanna. She knows that Dawn is travelling, she expects her to be away for some time..." Professor Rowan couldn't quite believe that he was thinking along such deceitful lines. His voice trailed off and he shook his head at himself. He was almost glad when Barry spoke again.

"What if Team Galactic have got her? They might have found her near Lake Acuity and taken her as some kind of hostage. They could have done that, right? I mean, they're evil enough to do something like that, aren't they?"

"Well, their hearts are certainly in the wrong places, put it that way," Professor Rowan said grimly. "But their brains seem to be absent altogether. Maybe we can use that to our advantage."

"So, uh...are we going after them?" Lucas asked. His voice betrayed his nervousness. He hadn't much enjoyed the crushing humiliation of losing to Commander Mars at Lake Verity; he didn't particularly want to repeat it.

"We have to!" Barry declared. "Especially if they've got Dawn – "

"We don't know that they've got Dawn," Professor Rowan interrupted, holding up a hand as a signal for Barry to calm down. "But I think something must be done about them, nevertheless."

"But..." Barry's face fell, not in response to the professor's 'calming' gesture, but something else. "We don't know where they've gone."

"Lucas might have some idea," the professor said with a wry smile. He nodded at his assistant.

"Me...?"

Lucas was stunned for a moment. His mouth fell open in surprise and he stared at the professor, hoping for some clue. A few moments later, it came to him. He'd had his own run-in with Team Galactic, long before that day's events. The last time he'd been in Veilstone City, a couple of their thugs had robbed him in broad daylight. They'd taken his Pokédex. How could he have forgotten that? He'd never been so afraid in his life – afraid of what Professor Rowan would say when he found out. Compared to that fear, sneaking onto Team Galactic's territory to retrieve the Pokédex had been like a walk in Amity Square. He wouldn't have done it quite so easily without Dawn's help, however. And, to his relief, the professor hadn't been very angry at all. Rowan had even laughed at his account of how he and Dawn had made short work of the Galactic Grunts.

"They've got that huge building in Veilstone City," Lucas said at last. "Is that...could that be where they're heading?"

"Then that's where we're going!" Barry said, leaping to his feet. "Come on, who's with me?"

The professor sighed wearily and wiped his brow. "I think you have enough energy and determination for all of us, young Barry."

The idea of tackling Team Galactic alone didn't bother Barry in the slightest, even though he had lost to one of their commanders that very day. He had already picked up his satchel and was rushing to the door when Lucas, in a rare moment of impulsiveness, decided that he couldn't resist the urge to follow.

"Barry, wait! I'm coming with you!"

"Then you'd better hurry up!"

Lucas glanced at Professor Rowan hesitantly, as if seeking permission to leave, but the old man only smiled. "I think you better had. Don't worry, I won't tell your father."

*****

Team Galactic's headquarters – or the Galactic Veilstone Building, as it was officially known – was more than just a series of offices. It was the hub of the whole organisation. As such, it included a sprawling laboratory, an expansive warehouse, a huge garage and hangar, even residential quarters for its workers. This was one of the reasons why Team Galactic tended to attract people who were down-and-out, people who had nowhere else to go. They came for the decent pay and the 'glamour' of being part of a mysterious group, although the mystery didn't exactly get cleared up after they'd joined. They came for the room-and-board at the Veilstone Building, but what they didn't realise was that they wouldn't see much of their beds: quite often, they'd be made to work all night as well as all day.

This was one of those times. Actually, it was the busiest time in Team Galactic's relatively short history. Over the course of that day, the three squadrons from the lake missions had returned, all of them successful. Saturn and his group had been the first, by road, with Azelf firmly restrained in one of their black vans. Judging from their speed, they hadn't encountered any opposition whatsoever at Lake Valor. A few hours later, almost at the same time, two helicopters had arrived: one from Lake Verity, the other from Lake Acuity.

The three commanders were soundly pleased with what they had accomplished, but they knew that they wouldn't be receiving any congratulations from their boss. Not yet, anyway. The capture of the lake guardians was just a means to an end, and an end that Master Cyrus was impatient to achieve. Tomorrow he would deliver a speech to the Team Galactic masses before setting off for the Spear Pillar. Before then, the only people who would see him would be Charon and his team of scientists. They had already begun their experimentation on Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf, and they would probably be working throughout the night in order to have the two red chains completed by morning.

But it didn't matter. These days, Master Cyrus barely slept, and the world revolved around him. Figuratively speaking, of course. But he was close to making it a literal reality. Not that anybody else was aware of that.

*****

Dawn was shivering and drenched to the bone by the time she came across anything resembling shelter. Countless cars had passed by, but aside from a few unhelpful beeps, none of them had paid any attention to her. At last, she came across what looked like a small restaurant by the roadside. It had a red and white, café-style canopy over the door and even an outside seating area, both completely at odds to the dismal weather. As Dawn walked up the path through the metal tables and chairs, she wondered why anyone would want to sit outside in this torrential downpour.

When she opened the door, a small bell announced her presence, making her jump. She closed the door behind her and gazed around the room. A few tables with coverings to match the canopy outside were placed here and there. Directly ahead was a counter with a glass cabinet, filled with cakes and pastries. Behind it, a woman in a headscarf was humming whilst putting crockery away.

"I'll be with you in a minute, dear!"

Dawn swallowed the awkward lump in her throat and continued to look around, taking in the striped wallpaper, the modest chandelier on the ceiling and the radio playing quietly from the counter top. After putting away the last of the plates and wiping her hands, the woman gave Dawn a warm smile.

"What can I get for you? Will you be sitting in? Nasty weather outside, isn't it?"

"I..." Now that Dawn thought about it, she did feel hungry, but she forced herself to concentrate on the matter at hand. "I'm trying to get to Veilstone City."

"Well, you're on the right road. This is Route 215. Which way were you going? Where are you travelling from?"

"Uh..." Unable to give a proper reply, Dawn merely pointed in the direction in which she'd been going after being abandoned. "I was walking that way."

"Then that's the right way," the woman replied. Her smile faded as she noticed the water dripping from the bottom of Dawn's coat. "But poor you, walking in this weather! It's still quite a way to Veilstone City. Are you all on your own?"

When Dawn nodded, the woman automatically searched the girl for any sign that she might be a Pokémon trainer. Aside from trainers and Pokémon rangers, it was rare that people walked along this route – and even then, they were usually on bicycles and often took the high road for its views and Pokémon-catching opportunities. Someone like Dawn was an unusual sight, and she didn't seem to be wearing a trainer's belt.

"Not even any Pokémon to keep you company?" the woman asked, trying not to sound too nosy.

Dawn suddenly remembered the Pokémon that those people in the van had taken – she didn't want to say that they'd stolen it, seen as it wasn't hers, but it had definitely been following her. She only hoped that they weren't planning on causing it any harm. "No," she replied. "I don't have any."

"Well, you'd better take care of yourself. Are you sure I can't interest you in something to eat? Or a hot chocolate, maybe?"

Dawn shook her head and began backtracking towards the door. "No," she replied uneasily. She was starving, but couldn't recall having any money with her. "But thank you for the help."

She left the restaurant and braced herself against the wind and rain again, jamming her hands into her coat pockets in an attempt to keep them warm, even though her satin-lined pockets themselves were already cold and damp. She felt her screwed-up hat in one pocket, her gloves in the other – and beneath her gloves, her fingers brushed against cold metal coins. So, she'd had money after all – but where had it come from? There it was again, that same vague fuzziness in her head. It had been bothering her for...as long as she could remember, which wasn't very long at all. Dawn felt clueless and lost beyond words. Why was she travelling to Veilstone City? Because she knew of no other place, and she hoped that she would find something meaningful there.