Riley.

I left them in the Pokemon Center after I got my stuff, running too fast for any of them to hope to catch up. I wanted to be by myself.

Team Galactic had tracked us because of Lee. Lee hung around our group entirely because of me. If I hadn't had been with Dee and Amber, I would never have met Lee at the Floraroma Pokemon Contest...

Lost in my thoughts, I tripped over a rock at the Lake Acuity lakefront. I went sprawling to the ground, backpack and all, and my right ankle twisted sharply to the right.

"Shit!" I shouted, in pain. I couldn't do anything right. My shout echoed in the forested lakefront.

In the distance, I heard a girl gasp, "Ohmigosh, Lucian, that sounded like Riley!"

I laid there for minute, knowing I couldn't walk. Footsteps came closer.

Cynthia and Lucian came running when they heard me.

"Riley!" Cynthia gasped. "Holy crap, are you okay?!"

"That was quite a shout," Lucian added.

I shrugged my backpack off, rolling onto my back. "I-I'm fine..." I tried getting up, and I felt my ankle pop.

Lucian kneeled in the snow, putting his hand on my shoulder and pushing me down just the smallest bit. "Don't try to get up, you'll just hurt yourself even more. Here, let me help..."

He took off his backpack, pulled an ace bandage out. Indecision flickered in his violet eyes.

"Wait, ah, probably should ice that first..." Lucian went at taking my shoe off, and my sock, and set my bare foot in the snow. I winced at the sudden cold.

He smiled. "Sorry, didn't think I'd have to mention how cold snow is."

Cynthia sat on my other side. "Where're the others, Riley?" She asked me. "I don't see Dee, or Amber, or anybody."

While Lucian buried my ankle in snow to ice it, I told them what had happened, starting with our pokemon. Cynthia gasped, putting her hand to her mouth.

"Oh my God, they just took Riolu and Astro?!" She asked. "That's so...terrible..."

"What did Lee do about it?" Lucian asked. "Him and that friend, Mark."

Thinking of it made me feel even worse. "Lee...we think he got caught in a rockslide..." I admitted in a shaky voice. "He went into a cave by himself, and after the roof of it collapsed in, we couldn't find him...Mark promised to help us get our pokemon back, but after we lost Lee, he told us he only stayed in Sinnoh as an obligation to Lee. Mark's long gone, and Lee's...dead."

Lucian shook his head. "That's far too much for a thirteen year old to handle at once..." He murmured. He packed the snow hard onto my ankle, but by then, I was numbed against the cold. "I'm so sorry that you had to suffer all of that, Riley. Truly."

"But where are the others?" Cynthia demanded. "This is no time for you to be left in the cold!"

I laughed hollowly. "I left them after we got to Snowpoint...we met up with Tess' group, and Flint and I, we got into a pretty bad blowout. I told them they would be better off without me, and I left."

"That's pretty presumptious of you, Riley." Lucian's voice was stern. "To assume your friends would be better off without you..."

"It really is true," I admitted. "Ever since I first ran into them, all I am is a bother...I'm not social, I butt my nose where it doesn't belong, and until today, I've always been too cowardly to really do anything I want to or that I know I should."

Cynthia scowled. "I don't think any of that is true..." She admitted. "But I guess if they can't change your mind, we sure can't."

Lucian made a disapproving noise in his throat. "Well, in all good conscience, Cynthia and I certainly can't let you hobble around by yourself with your ankle, can we? I suppose you didn't really have plans after your big walk-out, anyway?"

Hesitantly, I shook my head. "N-no. I don't."

Lucian flashed a smile, closing his eyes. "Well then, I certainly hope you can tolerate the two of us. I can be a little catty sometimes."

Cynthia scoffed. "'Sometimes', Lucie?" She challenged him. "Really, you kiss your mother with that lying mouth?"

"H-hey! I don't tell lies! Who are you to accuse others, anyway?"

Despite myself, I laughed. It was nice to hear people bickering again without it being so personal, or angry.

Lucian let my ankle ice in the snow for a bit, sometimes having to put more snow on it, before he wrapped it tight. He put my sneaker on, muttering that my foot hadn't swollen much.

Lucian stood up again, putting his backpack on. Cynthia held out her hand to me.

"Here, give me your hand," She ordered me. "I'll help you walk. Lucie, carry his backpack."

"Me?" He scoffed.

Cynthia stuck her tongue out at him. "Well, I'm gonna help him walk. Besides, you're the big man, aren't you?"

Lucian sighed, but picked my backpack up with a grunt and put it over his.

It took a little effort from Cynthia's part, but she pulled me up to my feet. I slung my arm over her shoulders and leaned on her, and Cynthia put her arm around my back to steady me.

"Don't put any weight on that ankle," Lucian instructed.

"Yeah, yeah," I answered sarcastically. "Geez, this is gonna be a long way back if we gotta hobble like this..."

Cynthia laughed. "Well, it oughta make up for when you saved my Gible."