Pokѐmon Journey II: Gwyn's Passage

by Halloween Witch

It's been three years since the disbandment of Team Rocket and Gwyn Jalen is beginning her pokemon journey as well in the Johto region. Things seem normal until she encounters a red haired boy gazing into Professor Elm's laboratory and a young woman who seems like she could kick everyone's asses. And is it fight or flight when an old enemy of the young woman's come into play?

6. Encountering Tristan

Pokѐmon Journey II: Gwyn's Passage

Chapter 6: Encountering Tristan

Gwyn's Point of View:

When I felt myself come to, I groaned at the headache I felt in all areas of my brain. I turned my head gently to the side and it seemed to hurt worse. I settled back into my head being upright and the back of it against a pillow. I lifted my hand and rubbed it over my temple to try and remove some of the pain.

"Quil!"

"Flaa!"

I cracked open my eyes and watched as my two pokemon came into view. Both Cynder and Shocker were looking at me in worry as I continued to rub my temple before I fought off the pain and sat up. I had to close my eyes from how much it hurt.

"Oww…" I groaned.

"Well that's a big frickin' duh, you were the one who decided to go off on your own to face Team Rocket and get poisoned by them." I felt someone push their hand lightly on my shoulder back onto the bed and I was able to open my eyes this time. Aaron sat there next to my bed with his own pokemon and my egg in hand.

"What time is it?" I sighed as I tried to wave off the dizziness in my vision that was now coming at me full force. "Better yet, what's the date?"

"It's been a few days since you were in the Slowpoke Well and Team Rocket tricked you to get out of there." Aaron handed me the clipboard at the end of my bed. "You were also poisoned in there. You and the girl, old man, Cynder and Shocker all had to be treated for it."

"I was?" I looked at the chart he gave me and noted that he was right, I had been poisoned. But how? The last few things I remembered was that the Rocket Executive had used smokescreen by his pokemon that, I was shocked, didn't burn when fire hit it like the smokescreen Cynder uses…!

"That's it! It was that Rocket Executive's koffing!" The daze was finally starting to wear off now and I sat up. "It was his koffing that let out a smokescreen to escape, since it was created by a poison type, it must have has some poisonous gases mixed in it which is why it didn't blow up when Cynder blew fire at it, only smokescreen by a fire type can do that! And oww my head hurts!" I let my body fall back onto the bed while I tried to milk away the pain. Aaron sighed while my pokemon tried to make me feel better.

"That's what you get for going in alone." I blinked in surprise as he said that before he crossed his arms while he set the egg on the bed so I could take it from him. "You should have let me go with you! We're only beginning trainers Gwyn! You could have seriously been hurt! Or raped! Or who knows what else!"

"Excuse me?" I snapped at the boy, but he didn't seem to falter. "You think I couldn't handle them?" I sniffled and turned away from him. "It hurts that you don't believe in me Aaron…"

"Gwyn! I'm not trying to be your enemy here, but you should have known better! We're not strong enough to take on Team Rocket right now!"

"Violet was!" I grabbed the egg and held it close to my chest as the tears flowed from my eyes. "Violet was attacked on the dang first day of her trainer career and she took down the entire organization!"

"But that's Violet Vilmos! We're not her!"

"It doesn't mean that we shouldn't help out when others needed our help! Were you just going to let that old man get hurt while trying to save his granddaughter?"

"Well… no… but-"

"But nothing Aaron! Even if I might have lost to them, at least I would have tried and bought some time for the police to arrive! You should have known better then to just wait around here in town!"

"What was I supposed to do? You threw your egg at me and took off to who knows where! I couldn't just leave it, what if it hatched?"

"Then I would have dealt with that when I got back, but I just couldn't sit by and let them hurt others!" In fury and in pain and anger, my hand whipped forward toward his face. "You should understand since I lost my dad!"

The room got silent after that. Aaron and I had both lost the will to fight with each other after that last comment and motion. My childhood best friend held his cheek in shock while he gazed at my sobbing body as I held my egg and my pokemon curled in my sides, trying to calm me down.

"Gwyn… I'm so sorry… I didn't know…" Aaron tried to say something to make up for what he said before, but it was far too late. "Gywn… I was so worried about you that-"

"Get out…" He froze at the words I spat out at him. "Get out! I can't think straight right now! Get out!"

"Gwyn, wait!" Aaron raised himself to his feet and tried to reach for me and I shrunk away from him. "Gwyn! Let me explain-"

"Get out!" I screamed at him. "Get out of here! Just go away! I don't want to talk or see you right now! Get out!"

Aaron tried to make another move at me but this time my pokemon got between us. Shocker sparked his ears and tail while Cynder's body was in flames. Aaron backed away from them and just before he got to the door, a nurse rushed inside.

"I heard screaming, what's going on here?" She took one look at Aaron and then over at me before she gasped. "Oh my..."

"Get out! All of you get out!" I screamed again and Shocker finally jumped before me and started letting loose larger electric charges. "Just get out and leave me alone!" Shocker let loose and electricity went all over the place. It fried most of the entire room, and especially the door that Aaron and the nurse had hidden themselves behind.

When he was done and his sparking had ended, I pulled him into my arms and he instantly relaxed there while I cried into his wooly coat.

"Let's get out of here." Both of my pokemon looked at me worriedly before I got up from my bed and found my bag and clothes on the side of the room that wasn't totally destroyed and changed out of the hospital gown.

HalloweenWitchHalloweenWitch

Without waiting on anyone else's consent for me to go, I'd left the hospital with Cynder, Shocker and my egg. We were on our way to the gym to face Bugsy Arachnie, the gym leader here in town to get my mind off what happened with Aaron and get more focused on moving forward. I hadn't exactly said much since we left, no had anyone tried to talk to me as I roamed around town in search of the gym. It was nice to have the sweet silence to clear my head, and it made me re-think my actions that I threw out toward Aaron. He was only worried, I shouldn't have been so hard on him… then again… he had no right to doubt me either, I might not be Champion Violet, heck I wouldn't want to be exactly like her, that would just be wrong, but unlike him, I can't just sit around and let others suffer when it's possible to help them.

I kept second guessing myself. I couldn't make heads or tails if I should forgive Aaron and blame myself for being so stupid, or if I shouldn't and blame him for not having any faith in me and not helping others. I hated how I kept doing this since it only hindered me when I kept constantly looking back on the past when there was no need and the conflict or problem had been resolved. But my brain and my heart could just never let it go; it always kept thinking how things should have gone differently. My father used to say it would be my hindrance and my salvation at one point or another and to be careful with this apparent gift of mine.

I sighed and finally looked down at my pokemon that were walking at my side. Poor Cynder and Shocker kept their heads low until they felt my gaze on them. I bent down on my hands and knees and kissed both their foreheads. They looked up at me, shocked to see my mood had changed.

"Sorry for making you guys worry so much, I just needed some time to cool down." I took a deep breath before I looked over at the side and there appeared the gym before me, not magically or anything, but I finally noticed that we'd just been walking around it in circles since the beginning, which must have been what worried them so much. "Alright, now that my head's on a bit more right, let's go challenge Bugsy and get our second badge."

Both of them agreed easily and Shocker begged me to let him face the gym leader first. Cynder didn't seem to mind at all, all she cared about at that moment was myself, so she didn't care who went first, only what I wanted. I didn't particularly care at all, so I let Shocker do as he pleased and allowed him to go first in the battle. We entered the gym, ready for a good battle, and a good way for me to blow off some left over steam that may still be inside me from earlier.

Once we were side, I was shocked to see that there were trees inside this gym, there also was webs and nests around, that meant that fighting with Cynder would be effective here, but I didn't want anyone getting hurt that shouldn't be in the battle. Cynder noticed this and let the flames on her back get thinner and lower, right against her skin to make sure she didn't light anything on fire.

Shocker didn't seem to mind the layout, though that didn't surprise me since he grew up in areas such as this and probably knew how to work in it well. Bug types are all around the region in forest like areas, so he likely knew how to get around them or how to deal with them.

"Awesome! My next challenger finally arrived! ...But wait, I thought you were in the hospital?" I looked ahead to a trainer box across the room from me in the middle of this forest like area, there was a kid about my age that seemed to carry a large net, had cropped and layered purple hair, blue eyes and a green researcher's outfit. He worriedly watched me on the other side of the apparent field we were now on either sides of.

"I know, I left." I shrugged at him, feeling the dread from the fight earlier on taking its effect on me, dampening my mood slightly. "I felt fine, so I got out of there. I'm perfectly capable of battling if that's what you're worried for."

"Well… if you're sure…"

"I am." I looked over to Shocker. "Let's go Shocker, you're up." My flaaffy nodded and stepped out onto the field. His cheeks sparked and his tail swung back and forth as he grinned over at the kid gym leader.

"If you say so." The young gym leader pulled out a pokeball. "But I don't plan on going easy on you just because you're a girl and you just got out of the hospital!"

"Good, it'd make me feel worse then I already do about myself if you did." He blinked a time or two and I waved it off. "I had an argument with my best friend before I left the hospital. Ignore what I said and let's start this battle."

"Al…right then?" The trainer scratched the side of his head in confusion before he pulled out a pokeball. "And just so you know, all the greenery in here is just a set to help out my pokemon, no other pokemon lives in here, so you don't have to worry about hurting them." I nodded, inwardly sighing in relief that I don't have to be as careful as I thought we'd have to be. "So let's go Kakuna!"

Out from his pokeball came that cocooned brownish yellow pokemon with entirely black eyes that watched Shocker with a calm demeanor. Shocker tried to stare him down, but the cocoon pokemon didn't exactly have to work hard at starting back at my pokemon.

"Calm down Shocker, you'll get your chance to blast him." My pokemon broke its eye contract with the pokemon and joined it with me for a moment before he nodded and turned back to the field. My wool pokemon was ready to fight.

"First move to the challenger," Bugsy told me while gesturing to the field.

He's really going to regret that. I shook my head at my own though before I felt myself almost connect with Shocker as he waited in anticipation for my order. "Alright Shocker, lets start off with thundershock!" My electric pokemon nodded and he grinned before sending a wild amount of charges over at the cocoon pokemon.

"Kakuna, use harden!" I saw a flash appear over the cocoon pokemon before the sparks and charges hit it head on, it hadn't moved an inch. It flinched slightly from the shock that it took and the electricity that jumped across its body, but other then that, it stood strong.

"Uh oh…" This was not good, and I don't mean for myself.

"Ha! You think that only that little attack would stop my Kakuna?" Bugsy laughed as he looked out to his pokemon. "I guess we don't have to worry about the electric pokemon after all!"

I flinched as I watched a vein literally snap on Shocker's forehead, just under the white patch of wool on the top of his head, before he snarled and hissed before he started gathering up a whole lot of electricity. His body nearly turned a yellowish white from all the electricity that he had stored around it.

I sighed, well, there's no way to stop him now, better just go with it. "Shocker, use thundershock!" Shocker unleashed all his energy onto the kakuna and fried it to the point where I thought I saw its eyes nearly pop out of its body. Bugsy stood in shock as his pokemon was fried.

Eventually, Shocker let up on the attack, keeping stored what energy he had left while storing some more for later on. He huffed at the other pokemon as it fell over and was charcoaled blacker then its own onyx eyes. I couldn't even tell if it had eyes when it was done. I sighed once more as I watched my aggressive pokemon huff and puff about. Well, that's Shocker for you…

"Okay… maybe I should have thought that a bit more through." Bugsy slightly cowered as he was suddenly placed under the gaze of my pokemon.

"Well, what can I say?" I shrugged at him. "Shocker has a real problem with losing or anything about him being called weak. You might want to be a bit more careful from now on."

"Right…" He returned his pokemon to its pokeball and then pulled lout another. "Let's go Metapod!" Out next came the green cocooned pokemon with white eyes and black irises. It lounged about before it stuck itself to a tree and cowered from Shocker. Shocker huffed at that and a gentle beam of lighting next to it from his pent of electricity and anger, instantly frying the tree and causing it to turn to dust. The metapod flipped out and leapt back as fast as it could to Bugsy's arms.

"Shocker! He's afraid to battle, calm down!" My electric pokemon's ears fell and he instantly calmed himself. I sighed. "I'm sorry for shouting, but the poor pokemon is afraid to battle, let it be and don't torment it."

"Flaa…" he apologized over to the pokemon and it nodded, but it still shook in terror and fear of him.

"Its okay Metapod, the fact that you were willing to try was good enough, we'll work on this later and what not, Scyther will avenge you and Kakuna." Bugsy returned his pokemon and pulled out another pokeball.

"A scyther?" I blinked at that and pulled out my pokedex to hear about that pokemon. The pokedex showed me a large bug pokemon that had condensed wings, edged with the coloring of its entire body, a bright green. It was apparently much taller then myself and had red colored eyes. Spikes were on the back of its head and its arms were actual scythes.

Scyther, the mantis pokemon. It slashes through grass with its sharp scythes, moving too fast for the human eye to track. It hides in grass; its protective coloration makes it invisible. Scyther nests are very rare and tend to only be seen on occasion in the National Park.

I heard Bugsy throw out his pokeball and out came the bug pokemon he spoke of just a moment ago. It was the same one that was described on my pokedex. "Scyther!" It cried out and scratched its blades against one another.

"Whoa…" My eyes widened at actually seeing the pokemon up close like I was now. Even Shocker took a slight step back once seeing the pokemon in person before he puffed out his cheeks and stepped forward ready to fight.

Shocker would only have part of an advantage in this fight. Scyther's from, from what I saw on the pokedex information told me, was a bug and flying type, so Shocker would have the advantage of electricity over flying. On the other hand, Shocker isn't as fast, and this pokemon has lighting fast abilities with its speed. If we can't hit it, then it doesn't matter if we had the type advantage or not.

"Shocker, I'm not sure if you can handle this pokemon's speed, but if you wanna try, I'm not going to stop you. What do you want to do?" I questioned my pokemon as he actually pondered for a moment to think about fighting this battle. Even in the short amount of time I knew Shocker, he never did that.

My pokemon finally nodded to me and looked out onto the field, ready to face the scyther. I sighed and nodded, almost relieved at his answer. Now that's the Shocker I know and love. I felt my heart calming itself now, all my previous pent up emotions and anger seemed to be slipping away from me as the battle drew on further and came to its close. It seems that battling and my pokemon can really help me get over my emotional moments, that's good, I'm going to need help like that in the future.

"Alright Shocker, let's start this out with thundershock!" My flaaffy nodded and sent more of his left over charge at the bug pokemon before us. In an instant the pokemon was gone while the attack merely hit the ground. "It avoided it? Man that's fast!"

"Flaa!" I quickly turned my head to the side and saw where the scyther came out of nowhere and started to swing its blades at Shocker. The first one he managed to miss before all the rest of them afterward kept hitting him.

"That's it Scyther!" Bugsy called. "Keep using fury cutter!"

That's it! A sudden plan to hit this pokemon suddenly came to find and I turned to the field where Shocker was taking a beating. "Shocker! Grab onto any part of the scyther you can!" Shocker nodded through the pain as he kept getting hit by the blades, leaving cuts all over his body. He suddenly grabbed onto the blade of the scyther with his mouth and teeth and hung on for dear life as the thing tried to throw him off. The big pokemon suddenly lifted itself into the air and threw its arm around into any wall it could reach, or the ground should it have gotten close enough, and threw Shocker into every one of them. But still he hung on, waiting on my order.

I never knew that battles were this gruesome… I'm shocked that people aren't scared by it. These sudden thoughts made me think back to the first time I met Violet, when she told me I'd never faced a real battle yet when she saved from that pidgey and hoothoot flock. Was this what she was talking about, or was there even more to it?

"FLAA!" I was shaken from my thoughts when Shocker called out to me, he seemed to just barely be hanging on now with his arms, lets, tail and mouth while I had pondered for too long.

"Sorry Shocker! Use thundershock now!" I saw my flaaffy sigh before he unleashed all his energy into that attack.

"Scyther! Get out of there! Knock that flaaffy off!" But it was too late, even Bugsy knew it as he shouted out. Shocker took and fried the bug pokemon as it continued to fly about in the air still trying to knock it off, but soon was taken in too much by the attack and had taken on too much damage. It stuttered and cried out before its wings stopped working and it fell from the sky above to the ground. Shocker leapt off its body just it time as it landed and he breathed heavily as he watched the dust cloud swarm around the scyther.

"Are you alright Shocker?" My pokemon nodded his head as he got to his feet and breathed heavily as he watched the bug pokemon squirm in discomfort from the attack. It still somehow got back up to its feet and twitched about its wings, trying to get up into the air again.

"Hang in there Scyther!" Bugsy called out.

"Let's finish this up Shocker! Thundershock!" Shocker cried out and from his body came another wave of electricity that sparked about in the air as it zipped it way up to the scyther. It hit the pokemon dead on through one of its wings and the pokemon was turned black because of it.

"Scyther!" Bugsy called out to his pokemon, but was down for the count. I let out a sigh of relief as I realized the battle was over and we'd won.

"We did it Shocker! And I feel a whole bunch better then when we first came in here!" My electric type turned back to me and nodded while it wobbled over to us. Cynder jumped from my side and slid her body under Shocker's to help him over to me. He tiredly looked up at me and I pulled out his pokeball. "You did great Shocker, I'll take you back to the pokemon center and get you all healed up before we head out to the forest, I really don't want to stay here longer then we have to, and I know you don't want to be in your pokeball much at all, but I don't have many more free hands." I kissed his forehead and sighed, whispering by his ear, "and I really don't want to face Aaron just yet."

My pokemon nodded to me and relaxed in my arms before Cynder jumped up onto my shoulder and I returned Shocker to his pokeball. Bugsy returned his own pokemon to its pokeball and then hurried over to me while I shifted my egg wrapped in blankets in my arms.

"Okay, as weird as the conversation we had before this battle, it was one of the best battles I've ever had." Bugsy told me once he stepped before me. "This battle with you showed me a lot that I need to work on to become stronger. Thanks for showing me that." He then paused for a moment and tilted his head in confusion. "By the way, what's your name? I don't think I asked you that."

"It's Gwyn Jalen," I told him. "Falkner told me he's let you know I was coming your way."

"Oh yeah! Duh! I should've remembered that!" Bugsy shook his head sighed. "Man I should have remembered that! I even knew it was you when I asked you why you left the hospital earlier today, but I guess I blanked out during the battle."

I shook my head at him. "Don't worry about it Bugsy, it happens every now and then."

"Yeah well… I hope giving you my badge maybe will make up for it." He held out his hand before me and opened it to reveal a badge that looked like the spotted back of a ledyba's back, entirely red with a little sliver of black at the top and three dots on it that were also black. "My badge is called the hive badge, respectively after bug types."

"It's an honor to get this from you Bugsy." I took the badge from him and put it into badge case with the help of Cynder who got it out of my bag and opened it for me. "And thanks for helping me calm down from earlier. I was really mad at Aaron."

"Aaron? As in Aaron Verin?" Bugsy asked and I nodded. "I battled him yesterday when he came by here and you were still resting in the hospital, he was really worried about you."

"He told me that too, but not in as pretty words as apparently he told you," I told him sourly and Cynder got a bit growly on my shoulder. Bugsy help up his hands in defense.

"Relax, I was just telling you what he told me. Wait," Bugsy stopped for a moment. "Was he the guy that made you all upset earlier today?"

I puffed out an angry huff of air. "Yep, and I don't want to see him again for a long while." I sighed and turned away from the gym leader. "I'm sorry for being so mean Bugsy, but today has been painfully taxing on me, Aaron brought up some things that he promised to never bring up and I just would rather put off the subject for now." I headed out toward the exit. "Thanks for the battle, and good-bye."

I didn't give the trainer a chance to question me at all before I all but ran out of his gym and headed anywhere but back there. I hated being an emotional person, even more I think then a normal girl. Tears already formed on the edges of my eyes as the conversations were replaying over in my head.

"That's what you get for going in alone. You should have let me go with you! We're only beginning trainers Gwyn! You could have seriously been hurt! Or raped! Or who knows what else!"

"Excuse me? You think I couldn't handle them? It hurts that you don't believe in me Aaron…"

"Gwyn! I'm not trying to be your enemy here, but you should have known better! We're not strong enough to take on Team Rocket right now!"

"Violet was! Violet was attacked on the dang first day of her trainer career and she took down the entire organization!"

"But that's Violet Vilmos! We're not her!"

"It doesn't mean that we shouldn't help out when others needed our help! Were you just going to let that old man get hurt while trying to save his granddaughter?"

"Well… no… but-"

"But nothing Aaron! Even if I might have lost to them, at least I would have tried and bought some time for the police to arrive! You should have known better then to just wait around here in town!"

"What was I supposed to do? You threw your egg at me and took off to who knows where! I couldn't just leave it, what if it hatched?"

"Then I would have dealt with that when I got back, but I just couldn't sit by and let them hurt others! You should understand since I lost my dad!"

"Gwyn… I'm so sorry… I didn't know… Gywn… I was so worried about you that-"

"Get out… Get out! I can't think strait right now! Get out!"

"Gwyn, wait! Gwyn! Let me explain-"

"Get out! Get out of here! Just go away! I don't want to talk or see you right now! Get out!"

"Get out! All of you get out! Just get out and leave me alone!"

It hurt. It hurt so much to keep hearing those words in my head. My breathing started to get labored and I kept rubbing my eyes to rid myself of the tears, but no matter how furiously I did away with the old ones, more new ones just kept falling from my swollen eyes.

"Whoa, that's quite a bit of water works there little miss." I halted mid-step and looked up at the man that was before me. It was the same one that I'd seen a few days ago with his two granddaughters where one of them had been trapped in the well by Team Rocket. The two girls were situated on either side of him and they all looked at me concerned like.

"Hey," the older girl that had been kidnapped said. "Why don't you come over to our house, we'd like to thank you for what you've done for us… and we can help you clean up a bit."

I just wanted to forget all those painful words said, so I nodded to her and allowed her and her family to lead me back to their house on the edge of town before the forest that led to the next large city.

HalloweenWitchHalloweenWitch

"So that's what happened." The older girl, one that I've come to learn was named Kala, said to me at their table situated in an older style, more workshop then house like home. Kala had assured me that it was more house like upstairs, but they're grandfather worked down here most of the time, making appricorns into special pokeballs that trainers use to catch certain pokemon. His name was Kurt, while the younger granddaughter's name was Kaylee. "What do you plan to do now?"

"Head into the forest, I guess. I don't plan on staying here overnight and have another chance for Aaron to tell me how wrong it was for me to go and save you and make sure no one else got hurt." The girl looked at me with a pair of sad, yet understanding eyes and she placed a hand of her own over mine that was on the table, still gently having a hold over my egg.

"I'm glad you came to the well; if you hadn't… well… lets just say it would've been a little hard to walk straight for a while." The girl turned back to her sister. "Hey Kaylee! Is her pokemon done healing yet?"

"Oh yeah Sissy, he's all set!" Her younger sister had been kind enough to use a personal healing machine like that in the pokemon center's to heal my wounded pokemon from my battle with Bugsy so I wouldn't have to go to the pokemon center. She handed over my single pokeball that I'd given her and out popped my electric type once it was in my hands. He shook out his wool and grinned when he saw me, happily finding room someplace in the edge of my arms to curl up into and rest for a short while.

"Nice to see you too Shocker." I then released him and the egg on the table and pulled forward my bag to pull out the appricorns that I'd gathered before. "Here, give these to your grandfather so he can make them into pokeballs to hand out to other trainers."

"You mean you don't want them?" Kala asked, quite shocked if I do say so.

"I'm not staying in town." I sighed as I pushed the strange fruit toward her. "As much as I would have loved the pokeballs to use in the future, I do not have the time to stick around and wait for them to be made. So please take these and I better get going." I lifted myself from the chair of their home and my pokemon easily stood after me, ready to get going in the dead of night.

"Just hang on a second Gwyn! Please?" Kala begged me. I was startled a bit by her sudden outburst so I continued to stand there and she took that as I sign that I'd wait. She rushed over to her grandfather's side and pushed at him. "Grandpa! She's going to leave! Aren't you done yet?"

"Almost… there! Done!" The elder man proudly finished and put down the pokeball he was working on before putting it and a few others into a small bag with a card in it as well and then handing them off to his granddaughter, who she in turn put them in my bag. "Here is one of every kind of pokeball I can make from the different appriconrs that I had left over, I hope this will help you on your journey and assist you, and also pay as a little thank you for saving my granddaughter, myself and all the pokemon in town"

It took me a moment to reply, but after that, I nodded to them. "I better get going now, thanks for the pokeballs and I'll try to visit again when things are under better terms with my friend and I."

I ducked out of their home before I received a reply.

HalloweenWitchHalloweenWitch

I ran as fast as I could away from their house and in the dark edges of the town as I headed toward the forest that led away from here and to the north. My pokemon had gotten tired and I'd returned them to their pokeballs to rest while I planned to head into the woods and find us a good spot to rest of the night. As soon as I got close to the gate I had to pass through to get into the forest, I saw a shadowy figure moving around through the woods that was going to go around the building. As soon as I saw a flash of red from the figure's hair, I followed after them, knowing fully well who it was.

Tristan took off and ducked behind a few sets of trees before three pokemon released themselves from his belt. The first one I recognized as a zubat, the poison and flying type little bat pokmeon that was a dark blue color and didn't have any eyes.

The other two I didn't recognize that much other then the one that looked similar to tododile that was still blue and reptile like, but was now taller and had a bit of a tummy on it along with almost a caveman set of cloth over its body, colored tan with darker large dots on it. I pulled out my pokedex to see what it said on this pokemon. Croconaw, the big jaw pokemon and the evolved form of tododile. It opens its huge jaws wide when attacking. If it loses any fangs while biting, they grow back in. There area always forty-eight fangs lining its mouth. There are no croconaw nests in this region.

I blinked, Tristan and Tododile must have gotten along really well if it was able to evolve. I shook my head and then looked over at the last of his pokemon. It was dark in coloring, a black floating head of some sorts with a dark purple gas like fog that hovered around its body, but didn't fog out the face for me to see, it also had bright white eyes and a black pupil. I turned my pokedex to it next. Ghastly, the gas pokemon, With its gas-like body, it can sneak into any place it desires. However, it can be blown away by the wind. Despite lacking substance, it can envelop an opponent of any size and cause suffocation. Ghastly nests are few in this region and tend to only be found at night in these locations: Sprout Tower, Bell Tower and the Safari Zone in Cianwood.

I suddenly felt a hand reach out and slammed itself over my mouth and it pushed me forward further into the side woods that led into the forest. With my mouth still covered I was then twisted around and thrown into the nearest tree to us. My eyes met with the dark black ones, who's white iris nearly glowed in the night with anger and confusion as they glared a me.

"What the hell are you doing out here?" Tristan growled. "And why are you following me?"

I couldn't exactly speak with his hand over my mouth. He seemed to realize this a moment later and looked at me intently, his glare becoming harsher.

"I'll pull my hand away, but you better not scream." I nodded to him and he slowly pulled his hand away, placing it against the tree to trap me between him and the leafy growth of nature. "Now answer my questions."

"I was bringing this back to you." I slipped my hand into my pocket to pull out his card when he took one of his hands and shoved it in there as well, making sure I wasn't calling someone. I gasped at first and blushed at his action, but he showed through his eyes that he wasn't playing around. I quickly pushed my feelings to the back of my mind and I pulled out the trainer card that I'd kept from the police. I pushed it into his hand and I pulled his hand out with the card in it so he could see for himself. When he looked at the card and then back to me a few times, his face softened to that of a surprised look.

"Wh-what?" he stuttered as he looked at the small piece of plastic. "But I thought…"

"I didn't give it to the police if that's what your wondering." I sighed and relaxed into the back of the tree. "I told them I'd only gotten a quick glimpse at it before you snatched it from my hands and ran off. I would have gotten it back to you sooner, but you ran off the last time I ran into you before I could give it back." Tristan didn't say anything as he took and pocketed the card in his hands.

"Do you know what my real name is?" he finally asked me after a moment.

"Only you're first name, but only with the help of a friend did I figure it out." His eyes lit up like a blazing fire when I said that and he grabbed the base of my neck, but he didn't grip it harshly. It startled me and I used my only hand to grip his wrist should I have needed to pull his hand away.

"What is my name?" I could feel his body shaking through his fingers as he questioned me.

"Tristan," I replied softly. He tensed and his body shook more as the rage and fire grew in his eyes.

"And who helped you figure out my name?"

"I don't know her last name-" he cut me off with his fingers slightly squeezing in more on my neck and I couldn't move them away with his overpowering strength. "But I know her first name, its Violet."

He suddenly froze and his hand instantly came backward, releasing me. He also leaned away and I was free to run, but I didn't. "Violet?" he questioned me. "As in Violet Vilmos? The champion of Kanto?"

"I don't know, I'm not good at putting faces to names, plus, I haven't seen a picture of the champion or a video of her since over a year and a half ago."

"What about her pokemon? You must have seen at least one of them or know their names."

"Well, I saw two of her pokemon, her raichu named Amber and her umbreon named Chalcedony-" I suddenly cut myself off when I realized what was going on. Champion Violet has those exact same pokemon and exact same names on her team, and the rest of her pokemon never came out since they didn't like too… or maybe it was so that Violet Vilmos was never found by the public.

Tristan seemed to notice too that I'd finally figured it out and took a step back from me. "So Violet knows I'm here?"

"I think she's known for a while," I whispered gently. "She's been searching endlessly for you for a long time, but at some point, I think she found you, but saw how happy you were to be free from your past that she didn't want to hurt you and left you be." I looked away from him and turned my eyes to the ground. "She's been protecting us all she can from Team Rocket you know."

His eyes widened when I uttered that name and he shoved me painfully back against the tree, his wrists gripped tightly at my upper arms, startling me and almost forcing me to drop my egg. Both of my pokeball's opened up and out came Cynder and Shocker who angrily stood at my feet, ready to hit Tristan with all they had. His pokemon then came around him, ready to hit them.

"Stop it! All of you back off!" I used my foot to push back my pokemon and prevent them from attacking. "Everyone is alright, no one is hurting anyone!" My pokemon growled, but stayed at my feet, Tristan's pokemon also continued to keep growling, but did indeed back up behind his feet. I looked back up to Tristan's face. He still had a furious look on his face.

"What are you talking about?"

"Team Rocket's been after our pokemon and our pokedex since just about day one that we started our journeys." I felt my chest swell with sadness and fear when I thought back to what happened in the cave, and what it led to today. "You were going to be attacked on the day you'd left Violet City, a small group of them were going to ambush you and she hit them up for information. You, me, and Aaron, we're all their newest targets. Violet told me first, and then Proton did in the Slowpoke Well when I faced them."

"What?" I whipped my head around to the side and my eyes widened when I saw that it was Aaron who stood over to the edge of the woods. "You lied to me!"

"Aaron…" Oh miltank crud…

"So you feel satisfied with telling him that Team Rocket's been chasing us but not me!" He stomped up toward us and Tristan backed off into the woods and out of his reach while he closed in on me. "You choose a total stranger over your best friend that you've known for years? Yeah, thanks for telling me! And what the hell is up with you keeping that trainer card? You should have given that to the police! That's against the law!"

Tears streamed down my cheeks and I turned away from him. "I don't need to explain myself to you!" I turned to walk away from him when I felt his hand grip around my upper arm, painfully. "Let me go!"

"Hey!" I turned my head and so did Aaron and Tristan. A young man began running toward us with a large group of police behind him heading toward us. "Stop that! All of you cut it out!"

I sucked in my breath before I reared my foot backward toward Aaron where it hit him where it hurts and he dropped to the ground before I felt his hand release me and I took off into the woods, ignoring the post gate that I should have passed to the side of me as I jumped over an old fence that led into the Ilex Forest.

"Stop!" I heard the voice fade as I rushed faster into the forest. I suddenly heard a rustling to the side of me and I turned worriedly to see Tristan keeping up with me, his pokemon must have been all returned to their pokeballs other than his ghost one that followed him around by phasing through the trees. I looked downward and away from him and saw Cynder and Shocker somehow keeping up with me as I ran. Suddenly I heard Tristan gasp and he suddenly halted in his tracks before taking another path. I suddenly looked before us and saw a woman dressed in a dark black cloak before us. I tried to stop, but I was much too close.

I suddenly felt a large tug on my body halt my movement and I gasped before I was lifted slightly into the air. The woman had not moved, but I saw a red glowing under her hood, just at the base of her neck. She pulled down her hood and reviled the older woman that I'd become friends with and her dark type that for once was wide awake in the dead of the night.

"Violet!" I sobbed as I hug there in the air with my egg in my arms. Another pokemon of her's came out of her pokeball and suddenly pulled my egg from my arms and I suddenly felt swallowed in a warm body and a soothing set of arms.

"Rest now Gwyn, just rest, we'll work things out in the morning when you feel better, and I'll explain everything then." I nodded to the woman while I relaxed in her arms before I felt myself drift into blackness and my knees fell out below me.

I wasn't able to tell if she caught me or not.

Witch's Note:

Yahoo! Another chapter done! And now we've had some more time to talk with the boys and an emotional Gwyn! Maybe it was a good thing she didn't tell Aaron, maybe it wasn't. What do you think? Who's the real victim?

So who was that guy that came with the police? Did Tristan notice that Violet was standing out in that clearing and that's why he wandered off? Is Aaron going to continue being a jerk to his best friend or will he just let it go and forgive her and beg her to forgive him too?

Okay now everyone! As you know, I love all your kind words and what not in Reviews and PM's so please remember to send those to me along with Questions!

Love you all and see you next week!

Halloween Witch