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?

11. Forever Battling

Pokѐmon Journey II: Gwyn's Passage

Chapter 11: Forever Battling

Gwyn's Point of View:

When the next morning came, I felt quite energized and ready to start the next part of my journey, and get my next badge in this town. The gym leader, who was named Morty, was apparently a ghost type gym leader, so my best option to face him would be Sunrise, since she was a normal type that knew non-normal type moves to beat him. From what I heard, most of his pokemon are in heavy training right now, so he's only using two pokemon, just the same as I am.

I sat up in the bed I was resting in. My pokemon were all resting around me on the bed since they didn't want to be cooped up in their pokeballs, plus they were so small, it didn't really bother me that much. Off to the side was Aaron on the other bed, snoring away with his pokemon all around him, his pidgeotto seemed to have the worst time right now with it being early morning, the time for it to rise and that Aaron probably kept it up all night.

I yawned and sat up from my bed, pulling on my jacket to keep warm for the time being. I grabbed my bag. "I'll be back in a minute." The bird pokemon tiredly looked up at me before it gave up sleeping so close to its trainer and flew over to my bed and curled its body under the covers. I sighed, I couldn't blame the poor pokemon, Aaron could make the most racket, even in his sleep.

I quickly got changed quickly and once I was done getting ready for the day, I stepped out of the bathroom to find the poor bird still cringing at the sounds of Aaron's snores. I whistled softly to it and held out my arm for it. Not even asking what for, the pokemon leaped onto my arm and I led it out of the room, closing the door and the snores instantly silenced. The bird sighed and relaxed on my arm finally and dozed a bit off while I led it down to the first floor.

Like before, Izzy and Violet were already down there and making breakfast when I came down. They blinked when they saw the tired bird on my arm, but I waved it off and sat down at the counter. The bird was kind enough to move its body to the couch where it huddled down as if it was in a nest and put down its head to sleep. I was surprised to see that just off to the side of the bird was Tristan sitting in the chair next to the couch. He looked quite upset over something, but I knew better then to pry.

"Hey Hon, ease the gaze a bit, look much harder at him and you'll put a hole in his head." I turned my head in a rush to Violet's voice as she leaned over the counter to face me. I thought she would have been wearing a grin, but her face was grim.

"Is something wrong Violet? You don't look as… like yourself." She gave me a half-hearted smile and fake smirk before it faded and her face turned grave again.

"Tristan told me that you know everything now, right?" I nodded. "Then it's no harm in you knowing, the news is national anyway." She took and looked worriedly over at him.

"What is it Violet?" She looked back into my eyes and she had the most grave look, as if she was about to be sick.

"Rose, Tristan's birth mother, has been causing a lot of trouble in the recent years; she's murdered mass numbers of people and pokemon with no remorse and has forced others to watch, especially her son in the past. A judge and court from both our regions and representatives of all other regions that are allied with Kanto and Johto have all decided that for the greater good of all of us, Rose is either to be captured or killed, and when captured, if not killed there, will be killed in prison or forced to have life imprisonment."

I was floored as I heard the news. I knew Rose Agustino was a horrible woman and bad to the bone, but death? Does she truly need to be killed? Could Violet overcome the humanity still inside her dominating will to kill the woman? She's never killed before, how could those people ask so much of her at only the age of sixteen?

"If given the chance, I have to take her out, for the good of others…" she let out a shaky sigh. "I don't know what to feel about that. While I know she's not good at all, I mean, I faced her so many times where she was trying to kill me, but I've never tried to kill her, wound her and stop her yes, but never kill." She worriedly then looked over at Tristan. "He doesn't know what to think either." Her words forced me to look at him with my own worried eyes. "She's still his birth mother, even after all that's been said and done. He doesn't know whether to be happy or sad, upset, enraged… he's confused."

"I'm fine Violet," Tristan's darker voice rang out in the quiet room. "Stop worrying, it's about time someone decided that she had to go…"

"You don't really mean that, do you Tristan?" The boy was shocked to hear me ask him the direct question. I shook my head as I approached him. "I know you hate her and your father and all their members after all that they've done, but even so, is death really the only option? What will death solve besides the fact that another life will have been taken that can never come back?"

"Shut up… you don't know anything!"

"I think I know a little about death more then you do!" Tristan's hardened face instantly vanished when he saw and heard the anger in my face, body and voice. "I lost my father years ago; I don't even know what happened to him! All I know is that he's gone! Death doesn't solve a thing! All it causes is more pain and suffering! A connected chain of eternal agony and torture… and is that what you want? To spread the chain? To spread that chain?"

"Gwyn, I know you mean well, but that chain spreads faster with that woman still being on the loose," Violet sighed. "I also agree that death might not be the best option, but after all that's happened, it's now become an option whether we like it or not." I felt Violet's hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off and I felt the tears stinging my eyes.

"I need some air!" I pushed past all of them and rushed into the outside cold air of the early morning. I heard all of them calling out for me, but I ignored them all and rushed off into the town.

HalloweenWitchHalloweenWitch

I'd been gone over an hour or so, I didn't want to return back there without myself calming down first. That was also the first time I'd ever yelled at Violet and Tristan. It was such a strange feeling; I didn't like it at all. I ate out for breakfast and ignored all calls that came to me. I didn't want to speak to anyone, I didn't want to talk, I just wanted some peace and quiet.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but death has never been a big fan of mine. I'm actually a bit of a necrophobic actually, or a phobia of death. Dead plants I can deal with and what not, they don't bother me as much as pokemon or human deaths. I've been known to lash out when someone close to me has perished, or if I see a dead body just lying somewhere, I don't deal well with that. While fighting against people who do wrong doesn't bother me, any side committing murder on any level just purely mortifies me.

"Quil!" I turned my head from where I was resting under a cherry tree and my four pokemon came running up to me. I blinked in surprise, I knew I'd left them behind at the house for rest, I didn't think they'd come all the way out here or run all over town to find me.

"Sorry guys, did I worry you?" Ticky was sobbing in the arms of Shocker who carried her here. She struck out her arms toward me and full out screamed and cried, wanting Momma over big brother Shocker. I sighed and took her from her older brother and she cried into my shirt. "Calm down Ticky, Momma's here now."

"Flaa flaa flaaffy flaa?" Shocker questioned me as he caught his breath now that he didn't have to hold onto his baby sister.

"I left because some issues came up over there that didn't bode over well with me." I sighed. "I argued about death with Violet and Tristan, it wasn't exactly pretty…"

"Eevee ee!" Sunrise stuck up her tail and nose angrily. "Ee ee eevee ee!"

"I'm sorry that I woke you guys then, and for leaving you back at the house without me." My eye caught that of the dark black and purple gym that was behind us that seemed to just give me a calling feeling. "How about we let off some steam and go battle the gym leader? We still need to get our fourth gym badge."

"Quil," Cynder said to me. "Quil quilava quil?"

"Good question, all three of you should be okay for battling him, but I think the best choice would be Sunrise." My normal type grinned at me. "The reason being her a normal type, which all ghost moves don't work against, and she knows moves that could take out those ghosts types in minutes."

"Flaa! Flaaffy flaa!" Shocker called out pleadingly.

"Of course you can battle too Shocker, I promise you'll get a shot." I turned to look over at my fire pokemon. "I hope you don't mind that you don't get to battle this time Cynder."

"Quil," she shrugged at me. "Quil quil lava quilava quil."

"I promise, the next few trainers we'll face are all yours." I then blinked as I thought of something. "I just remembered, why don't we start training Ticky after this gym battle? I think it's well past time for her to at least get her feet wet in the world of battling."

"Toge?" Ticky looked up at me and tilted her head in confusion.

"Yes, I mean you, do you wanna go ahead and do that?"

"Gee!" She cheered and I saw her hands turn white for a moment before a whole bunch of water came splashing down on all of us. I cried out in surprise from the cold liquid, but Ticky stayed all dry since I hunched my body over her.

"And we need to put a lid on that metronome attack before it really turns out to be a strong attack and hurt someone." All my soaked pokemon nodded and shook off the water which I shielded my face and Ticky from before I looked at the gym. "I guess we could wait a bit at least until we were dried off…"

HalloweenWitchHalloweenWitch

Once my team and I had dried out for the most part from our drenching from Ticky's metronome, we hurried over to the gym before one of the others actually found us. I stepped inside the gym doors and I instantly felt a chilling feeling overtake me, and I'd been laying out in the sun for a while and had Cynder on my shoulders. It was cold.

"Welcome challenger- ah, Miss Gwyn Jalen, I was wondering when you would show up." I looked over to the man that was speaking to me, Morty, and watched as he glided through the dark gym. Fog was all over the place, adding to a creepy factor, not to mention that light was only shined on the trainer boxes, the rest of the field was dark and covered with what seemed to be rocks to help with hiding.

I gave him a look. "You know me?"

"Well, I know of you. Aaron Verin talked of you quite often when he battled me and was brought to this town by Alexander Oak. That and I know about Team Rocket and what I hear about you in the news. But that's about all I know." He gave me a playful smile. "And I assume you're here to battle me?"

"Yes…" I blinked. "How many pokemon?"

"Aren't we in a rush?" He only laughed at me and I growled back.

"No… I need to vent some pent up frustration before I lose it."

Morty blinked and all his playfulness was gone. "Do you want to talk about it? I'm a good listener-"

"No offence," I sharply said before he could say anything else. "But what I really want is to get my forth badge and just gently cool off before I head to the next town. Can we just do that?"

"I guess." Morty shrugged. "Two pokemon only."

I blinked at that, surprised. Really? That's less pokemon then the last gym leader, I wonder why?

"Flaa!" Shocker jumped out first onto the field before I could really say anything to him at all.

"Are you sure Shocker? You don't want to wait?" My flaaffy shook his head and sparks flew all over his body. He was ready for a battle.

"Well if this battle helps you feel better, then I'll do everything in my power to make it a memorable one." Morty's smile turned to a smirk and he threw out one of his two pokeballs. "Go Misdreavus!"

From the pokeball he threw out came a small ghost pokemon that looked like a little child with a large head and a tiny dress under her, but there were no limbs, but there was a wild patch of thick hair on its head. Its body was mostly a dark grey and black color with some hints of a darker caribbean blue and some thin streaks of bright pink in its hair. Its eyes were yellow with black pupils and it grinned when it saw me, laughing before it faded into the dark of the field.

"What the heck…" I pulled out my pokedex and pointed it at the field, hopeing I could get a read on this pokemon. It somehow picked up on it and its picture showed up as the device spoke to me.

Misdreavus, the screech pokemon. It likes to play mischievous tricks, such as screaming and wailing to startle people at night. It loves to bite and yank people's hair from behind without warning, just to see their shocked reactions. Misdreavus nests are rare and tend to only be found on the treacherous Mt. Silver or in the Safari Zone.

The pokemon reappeared before me and floated its way over to Shocker. It laughed at Shocker before it grabbed and pulled at his wool and he cried out before electrocuted it. The misdreavus was thrown back and it growled at my pokemon, quite angry that he'd shocked it while it was having its fun.

Shocker was just as equally mad at the opponent. His body sparked and everything about him lit up as he growled at the misdreavus. The pokemon opposing us then grinned madly as it saw the real battle was about to begin.

"Now, now Misdreavus, no need to get so wild," Morty told his pokemon.

"Why are you telling it that?" I snapped at him. "You said you wanted to help me, right? Well, to make this a memorable battle, I want to fight a pokemon at its best, if its best is fighting like this, then I'm game." Morty only sighed at me.

"If you say so… don't say I didn't warn you." Morty looked one last time to his mad pokemon that was still floating on the field and sighed once more before I saw determination hit him head on all over his face. "Alright Misdreavus, use screech!"

The pokemon shrieked out a terrifying cry that echoed in this room. We all raced to cover our ears, but I had to sacrifice my own to save little Ticky's. The ringing echoed from the cry in my ears and I felt I couldn't hear much of anything. But that didn't matter, as long as Shocker could still hear me and obey orders, we were all set. The misdreavus' cries suddenly quieted to a wail, and while the ringing was still present in my ears, we'd move onto the attack.

"Shocker!" My pokemon's head moved up at my voice. "Thunderbolt!"

Shocker nodded and cried out as he let loose a few statics before unleashing a bright bolt that lit up the entire field. The little ghost pokemon cried out, and I saw Morty give it an order, but I couldn't hear it. A beam of bright pink with small strings of other colors came from its mouth and it tried to fend off my pokemon's attack, but somehow it just wasn't working. The thunderbolt attack slammed down onto it and I'm sure the pokemon was screaming once more, but now with my ears ringing as they were, I could hardly make it out.

"Alright Shocker! Now head in with iron tail!" My pokemon heard my other order and ran down the field, its tail turning a metallic color as he leapt in the air, curled up his body, and smacked the tail right on top of its head. The misdreavus was thrown into the back wall behind Morty, and he was shocked to see it there, but somehow the pokemon came lumbering out of the wall, floating barely in the air and floated next to its trainer.

Morty said something else to his pokemon, I have no idea what it was since I still couldn't hear, but from what I saw, it wasn't a good thing.

Shocker looked back to me for instruction on what to do, but without my hearing I didn't exactly know what would happen next. I told him to shock his opponent again, which he did, but the ghost pokemon screeched out again, and this time some sort of red chain like thing connected the two of them. I watched as Shocker was dealt pain from the wounds on the misdreavus, in response I told him one last time to shock it.

I finally was able to hear again and heard him cry out as the chains hurt him. What looked like a form of red lighting to me actually was not lighting at all, for it would have been absorbed by his body if that was the case.

"Shocker! End it with thunder!"

With a roaring cry, thunder shook and cracked the ground and the large bolt of lighting hit it. The small misdreavus cried out and the chain between the two of them snapped before it was thrown back before Morty in the ground, it was knocked out for the count.

Morty stared in disbelief at his pokemon, then back at Shocker and me while I hurried out to the field and caught my pokemon just before it fell to the unforgiving ground, cracked and torn about that would have surely hurt him further.

"Nice job Shocker, take a good rest, okay?" My pokemon easily nodded and allowed me to return him before I walked back to my place.

"I wasn't expecting your flaaffy to be able to take Misdreavus out," Morty sighed as he returned his pokemon and pulled out another pokeball. "Are you prepared for my other pokemon?"

"Born ready." I nodded over at Sunrise and she took the field with her tail up in the air and her nose up high, huffing down on Morty from her spot. He raised his eyebrow at her, realizing how much of an attitude she had toward most everyone except me and my pokemon (also including Tristan and Violet and their pokemon.)

"Then let's go Gengar!" A large a stubby looking, dark purple pokemon appeared with red yes and black pupils. It laughed as it looked at my pokemon before fading into the darkness of the field and Sunrise seemed not to care in the least. She had faith in my advanced human vision.

I watched the field carefully as it was only the two of them out there. Sunrise seemed only to hold her place and didn't move while she waited on my orders. My eyes lingering on anything that I saw that was moving, or that I heard a sound from. My senses were much stronger then the average human for some stranger reason, but it played to my advantage when I needed to find something out of the ordinary.

The shadows didn't move at all, the air was still, but that feeling that something was in the air was here, sending chills up my spine. The ghost pokemon was floating around somewhere in here and all I needed was the slightest sign to find out where it was. Anything could be a sign to it, but it was actually finding it that was the hard part.

I felt the impatience creep up inside my skin, heck I felt like I was turning into Aaron! Maybe my journey was changing me more then I originally thought it would, but then again, everyone's journey changes them. Look at Violet, she started out as just a normal young girl who, while seemingly didn't allow others to push her around, was just a normal teenage girl at the beginning of her adventure. Over time though, as her journey began and she was faced with some of the harshest challenges a trainer would ever have to face: evil organizations, near death experiences, pain of others and death of others; she still managed to become the most powerful trainer in her region of Kanto and stand strong for all those that she loves and cherishes. She was nothing even remotely close to ordinary or normal now like she was at the beginning.

And even… me… while I still have most of the patience I always had for dealing with people and pokemon, I've become slightly impatient, losing my temper and emotions at times when I should have been more controlled. It could be due to the fact that everything bad that happens reminds me of losing my father; it also could be due to the fact of my necrophobia. Who knows, maybe, subconsciously, it may have to do with my encounter with Team Rocket and how I stood up to them, even when I was scared for my life…

I saw a shift in the air and I stilled, my breathing halted and I saw Sunrise stiffen, she knew I'd seen it. I looked to the area with the flash again and watched the shadow become more visible from the side.

"To the left Sunrise! Shadow ball!" Sunrise threw her body into the air by jumping off the ground and spun into the direction I told her to face and she hit the pokemon head on in the mouth and dropped it to the ground. It had become dizzy from the hit and was wobbling on its feet. "Now use iron tail to knock it back further!"

My normal type bound forward as soon as her feet hit the ground and she launched her back feet off the ground, throwing her into a roll and hitting the ghost pokemon head on. Morty seemed almost helpless as he watched his pokemon get beat up before he could even give an order.

"Gengar! Are you alright?" Morty's pokemon slowly got up to its feet from where it had been crushed into the ground by my normal type. I saw some damage on it, but it still seemed to be able to move about.

"Crud…" I groaned as I watched the pokemon as it got ready to go on its own offense.

"Now Gengar! Curse!" The gengar's eyes glowed and I watched as its wounds seemed to get worse while it continued to keep its eyes on my eevee. Sunrise watched in curiosity as the move played out and she felt nothing.

Wasn't curse a ghost type move? I thought to myself as I looked out onto the area before me. No, wait, that can't be right, other pokemon can use curse too. Its that strange move that doesn't have a type listed for it, it's a mystery one… but apparently its properties of normal and ghost affecting one another still apply, since its not harming Sunrise in the least.

"Why isn't it working?" Morty muttered aloud. "Is it because your pokemon is a normal type?"

"That's what I'm willing to bet my money on." His gengar was weaker now and struggling to stand from its painful, and apparently useless, attack on my eevee. It was hardly able to stand.

"Finish it up with shadow ball!" Sunrise grinned on her opponent like it had in the begging, showing it the same smile it'd given her when it first came out. She created the small mass of dark purple and black energy that turned circular in shape and then suddenly flew from her mouth and struck the enemy pokemon. Its weaken body couldn't withstand the attack and was thrown backward, thrusted into the wall, just a few inches from Morty's face. His face on the other had was frozen as his everything was lost to the depths of his mind as he took it all in.

I'd beaten him.

"Alright! Nice job Sunrise!" Sunrise only grinned at me, telling me in own way that she expected nothing less of herself. But she was still proud over our victory, as was I and the others. Ticky cheered in my arms and Cynder gave an almost devilish grin to Sunrise and the two older female pokemon on my team nodded to each other, almost as if they were challenging each other later on, reminding me slightly of Violet's pokemon: Amethyst and Ruby.

"Well… you certain gave me a run for my money." Morty sighed, running a hand through his hair before he gave me a soft smile. "Did your match against me help calm you down?"

"Actually, yes. Yes it did." I stretched while my two wild pokemon at my feet continued there apparent contest and I gave up on trying to control them to talk to the gym leader. "Thank you for that."

"Happy to help." Morty then pulled out a small badge from his pocket. It was in the small image of a wispy ghost, colored a pale dark blue with a silver edging to it. Two slits were in the badge's center that looked like eyes, colored a pale grey. "This is the fog badge, proof that you've defeated me Miss Jalen."

"Thank you Morty." I took the badge from his hands and pulled out my case to place it with the others. "Just four more to go."

"Wonderful, may I say where the next gym leader you face is?" I nodded to the leader and he pulled out a map for me. He pointed all the way over to another island land mass that passed through another city to the far west of here. "This island off to the side here of the region holds Cianwood City, the next place you should go for you gym badge, the leader there is Chuck, he's a fighting type trainer. Then to almost make it easy on yourself…" Morty pointed at the town that I would have to pass through. "On your way back to the main part of the region, you'll face Jasmine, a steel type gym leader in Olivine City, the one city you'll have to pass through before going to Cianwood. Then, you'll come back here for a rest before heading out to the north east to the last two gym leaders, and I can tell you about those two when you get back."

"Well that's awfully nice of you." The atmosphere didn't quite sit right around me while he told me this. Something smelled a bit rotten here, just like a muk. "Why are you telling me all this and what exactly do you want me to do?"

"Now, now, let's not get hostile here," Morty tensed a bit as my two older female pokemon growled at him. "Its part of my job as a gym leader to tell you where the next gym is."

"But there's something else, isn't there?"

We stared at each other for a moment. He backed up slightly when he saw I wasn't kidding. "Fine, fine, I just want you to hear me out on your friend. Now that you've had a battle to calm yourself down, can we please just talk? I promise I'll do my best not to hurt your feelings with what we say, but I think you really just need to calmly talk."

I sighed. To be honest, I didn't really want to do that, but if Morty really thought I should, I sucked up my despairing thoughts and nodded.

"Let's get this over with."

HalloweenWitchHalloweenWitch

"So all of your outbursts and running off leads back to your necrophobia and father's disappearance," Morty summed up of my conversation with him. I didn't respond to him, but he already knew my feelings on this subject. He knew already that he was right. "If your friends don't know about how you feel about this, then you can't exactly blame them. Its over there heads, and Violet, while she's in a high position, still falls to the law and what's decided to that of criminals that need to be brought to justice. I'm sure she'll try everything in her power to not kill her and bring her in alive as to not have that burden on her head, but if it has to be done, you have to accept it Gwyn."

"I know that, I know I need to give Tristan and Violet an apology, they never knew about this…" I shivered. "But Aaron knew, he's always known, heck, he's seen me cower in the face of a single grave! He grew up with me and he's always known about this! But now…" I couldn't get my head around what's been happening between us. "Now I don't get it at all! Our argument this time wasn't even about death or my dad or anything related to it, but he knew it would make me mad, so why is acting like he is?"

"You know, as some boys get older Gwyn, they tend to get a bit thicker headed." Morty shook his head. "I actually was talking to Aaron yesterday, he was telling me how bad he felt about hurting you, he didn't even under stand why he was acting like he was, or at least, that's what he told me. If you ask me… I think he's jealous."

"Jealous?" That sent me back. "Jealous of what?"

"Jealous that he's not the only friend you have anymore." Morty sighed and leaned his head against his hang, as he rested its elbow on his leg while we talked at the stairs of his gym entrance. "You've made a few friends since your journey began, and you've met a lot of pokemon too, four of which are on your team." Morty shook his head. "Aaron told me that before your journeys started, he was your only friend, is that right?"

"Yeah, he was like a brother to me." I turned my head from him and snorted. "And he still is when he's not being a jerk."

"I know, I know." Morty patted my back. "But I think he's jealous now since you have so many friends and pokemon now that you don't have as much time for him as you used to, he's not used to it and doesn't quite like it."

"I… I guess that makes a lot of sense, Aaron always did like being the center of attention."

"Now that you understand a bit more, will you and him try to make up again?"

I didn't look back at him. "I don't know, I'll try, but that's about all I can promise, things have been pretty strange between me and Aaron since he turned thirteen. While he's still my best friend, it only seems like its gotten worse."

"Then now is the best time to fix it before it gets worse." Morty got up and then pulled me to my feet. "Go get 'em girl. Good luck." He gave me a thumbs up before he disappeared back into his dark gym, leaving me with my pokemon.

I pouted. "Well, we better look for them, but first, we need to help Shocker." My three other pokemon nodded and we started to make our way to the pokemon center in town.

Morty's Point of View:

Was it wrong of me not to tell her the truth about her best friend? The real reason behind his changing around her? I watched from a window as the girl walked off with her aggressive and overprotect pokemon in search for her friends and some healing for her team. I sighed, worried that this may come back and haunt me.

And it probably will, I hope she never realizes I never told her the whole truth and that the real reason behind Aaron's behavior wasn't just jealously over their friendship…

But jealousy for her affection and love.

Gwyn's Point of View:

After a short while of walking, we ended up at the pokemon center and had Sunrise and Shocker all healed up before we took off back into the city, heading toward Izzy's house where the others most likely would be and where we could apologize. On our way back, something competitive had come over my two eldest female pokemon and the two of them were wrestling and roughhousing with each other while we continued to walk thought the city. I could only sigh as I watched them and was shocked to see that Shocker never once got involved. He almost seemed to cower from their aggressiveness, which normally never happened. Poor Shocker, being the only boy is hard on him when he's got a pack of girls to gang up on him if they feel like it…

I suddenly saw a flash of red and it caused me to halt in my tracks. I was frozen as I saw Tristan and Aaron both up a head with their own pokemon out and apparently helping them look for me. Suddenly, Crocanaw's eyes caught mine and he pointed off in my direction with a worried cry to his trainer. They all instantly turned and when the initial shock that I was here and okay seemed to pass over, they all rushed toward me with worried faces.

"Are you alright Gwyn?" Tristan questioned me as he was the first to reach me.

"I'm fine." I sighed as I looked away from them. "Look… Tristan… Aaron…"

"You don't have to say anything Gwyn, at least, not to me." Aaron patted the top of my head and I looked up to him before he pulled me into his arms. "I've been nothing but a tauros-shitting bastard to you since before we even started our journeys and its about time I tried to amend for them all, or at least, what ever you'll forgive me for and I'll work on the rest to get your trust back."

I blinked at him in surprise. "Are you feeling okay Aaron? You've never tried to hard to get me to forgive you before." I raised one of my hands that held Ticky in my arms to feel his forehead, and I actually felt it was a bit warm. "You feel a bit warm, are you coming down with something?"

"No… but your embarrassing me Gwyn…" he hissed a bit as some others that were around were watching us. I pulled back my hand from his forehead.

"Sorry." I couldn't do anything right by him, could I?

"No!" Aaron suddenly grabbed the tops of my arms, not enough to hurt me, but enough to startle me and get my pokemon growling, even baby Ticky who was fast learning from her older siblings. Aaron quickly let go but forced me to look him in the eye with a hand under my chin.

"I shouldn't have snapped at you Gwyn, you meant well… ah tauros shit!" He huffed and kicked the dirt as his feet. "Why can't I say this like I want to?"

"Just tell her already, your making me uneasy with the way your acting." Tristan snapped at him angrily, but it was still spoken as if it wasn't supposed to be heard. Aaron growled right back at him and turned to face him. Tristan did the same and I was left to be the third wheel in this argument while they dealt with each other.

"And since when do I take orders from you? I don't even like you!"

"Alright stop it!" I stepped between both of them before they could take it further. "You!" I pointed first at Aaron and he froze, he was under my judgment still and I hadn't said I'd forgiven him yet. "Stop arguing with Tristan, I'll agree to forgive you if you promise to try and get along with him and not provoke him. Alright?"

Aaron sighed and thought it over for a moment before he sighed and nodded. I then turned my attention to Tristan. "And you… I need to give you and Violet an apology." He blinked and both boys took a step back in surprise. "I lashed out when I shouldn't have. I can only blame it on my emotional self and my necrophobia, and for that, I'm really sorry."

"Uh... don't worry about it Gwyn," Tristan nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "We shouldn't have talked about it so roughly this morning, especially since we knew about… your dad."

"No… I really need to get over it." I shook my head and turned away from him. "My dad disappeared three years ago, and as heart breaking as it was, I've hung onto him as if he was still here… I guess some part of me just wants to believe he's still alive…"

"It's not a bad thing to believe Gwyn," Aaron reminded me. "I mean, look at Violet. Her Dad was thought to have been blown up and she didn't hear jack-shit about him for two whole years before she finally found some info on him and then found him."

"As much as I hate to say it, Aaron's right." The two of them glared at each other for a moment before turning worriedly back to me. "Not knowing is better since we don't yet know his fate, it means that it's possible he's still alive, just like Violet's father was."

I hiccuped as I felt the overly-emotional side of my start to seep through at the thought of death once more and the thought about my father. "I know…" I hiccuped. "It's just hard…" I started to have a harder time breathing. "Especially… with my… necrophobia…"

I saw the boys were about to reach for me in comfort when we heard a sudden scream behind us. We all turned back and for some reason, my emotions all just went flat right there and locked themselves up once more before my feet moved without me telling them to and I headed toward the building that we heard a scream at. The boys shouted at me to wait up for them, but with my pokemon fast on my heels, I didn't wait, especially if this was another Team Rocket attack.

My haunting thoughts were proven right when I stepped inside a small private dance arena for the famous Kimono Girls that lived here in Ecruteak City. There were supposed to be five girls, but a lone one of the sisters stood on the stage, dressed in her fancy kimono of gold, red and green, her black hair all pulled back and out of the way and a single pokeball in her hands, preparing herself should she need to. The Rocket grunt on the other hand that annoyingly jumped around the stage and apparently was trying to show off his dancing skills, or dancing skills he lacked. He kept spinning around in circles, only forcing himself to become dizzy.

"What the heck are you doing?" The grunt suddenly pulled himself to a stop on his spinning and looked back at the three of us. His jaw dropped as he looked at the three of us. A sudden, large grin appeared over his face and he suddenly pulled out a couple knives. The dancer next to him gasped from over on the stage and he suddenly threw one up into the air, hitting the main light fixture and temporarily blinding us. I heard multiple screams from a few others bystanders who were also in the dance arena with us while they all shuffled and moved about, many of them bumping into us.

I suddenly felt someone take and slam right into the front of me, taking Ticky right out of my arms. "Ticky!" I screamed out for my baby pokemon.

"Toge!" I turned my head and Shocker sent sparks flying all over his body to provide us with some light to see what was happening. Before me was a sight I never wanted to see. In the arms of the Rocket grunt was my baby pokemon. Her eyes were teared up as she tried to move out of his arms, but he held onto her too hard. She cried out, reaching for me and calling for me. I was frozen in place, I wanted to go to her, but that guy may slit her throat.

"Now this is a rare pokemon, Boss Lady Rose will be happy to get this little one." The criminal laughed as he rubbed under her chin and she tried to bite him. He pulled his finger away and merely laughed at her.

"Let her go! She's only a baby!" Everyone around gasped as they watched my little pokemon in his arms and me shouting at the criminal. "You let her go right now!"

"No can do." He clicked his tongue and smirked, but he got defensive when the boys tried to get closer to him. "Step any closer to me and the pokemon dies!"

Die… Ticky… die? The atmosphere felt stiff as my mind and body took in his words. I felt all of my nerves turn to stone and I felt an unbelievable rage burning in the base of my heart that made its way all over my body. I felt like I was on fire…like I was a fire pokemon, but so filled with rage…!

Ticky's teeth suddenly made a connection with his hand, and the moment he said "oww!" was when I moved.

With a screeching cry, I lept forward across the floor and the grunt was shocked to see me move like that and plow right into him, sending us both flying into the wall, Ticky was safely between both our bodies to keep her safe while the Rocket took most of the hit. I suddenly felt something grab a large part of my hair and he threw me down on the ground. As soon as I felt my head hit the ground, it didn't feel like hardwood floors. It felt like I hit… stone... something rock like and hard.

I heard a scream and my eyes trailed up to my little baby pokemon that was in the villains arms. Her entire body glowed white and she shoved herself out of the Rocket's arms before she floated up in the air and large rocks suddenly appeared around her and flew at him. They smashed into the Rocket and threw him outside of the building while trying to crush him. Once he was outside, I couldn't see what was happening to him, but I could see Ticky. Her body was evolved in a white light. It was her evolution.

So soon? I internally chuckled at the thought. She's hardly been able to be a child…

I watched my little baby pokemon's shape change, her egg middle of her body disappeared, or I should say smoothed out so there was no egg anymore over her body, but the body was there. Her arms and legs grew strait out, even if they still were a bit stubby, they were longer and distinguishable from her body and the shell. Her neck also became very long and her head was about the size of her body. Three spikes were still on her head and I saw tiny wings appear on her back. When the white light disappeared, I saw her coloring was a pale white, her eyes were black and she still retained those blue and red triangles on her body. Tiny gray eye brows were over her eyes. She cried out again and began throwing even more rocks at the grunt as fast as she could make them appear.

I felt like my head was spinning as I tried to move, I felt like I was going to be sick at the thought of trying to sit up. It was truly sad.

"Gwyn! Oh my Lugia, Gwyn! Are you alright?" My eyes trailed over to the side where the boys and my pokemon were all worriedly looking me over. My pokemon became extremely over protective and wouldn't let the boys touch me.

"I feel dizzy… and sick…" I raced a hand to my mouth in case I did hurl. I thought I felt it coming up.

"Don't think about it and don't try to get up, I'm certain you have a concussion and your head's bleeding pretty badly." Tristan pulled out a cloth or napkin or something and dabbed the side of her head. I didn't listen and lifted my arm, which lead to my head hurting a lot. "Don't do that Gwyn!"

I ignored him and kept out my arms for Ticky. "Ticky… stop…" My pokemon didn't hear me. She continued to throw rocks at the man. "Ticky!" Her eyes finally glanced back at me and she halted her attack when she saw me.

"Toge…!" Her voice was a bit deeper now, but it was still child like and had a more majestic flow to it. I kept my arms out for her.

"I'm okay Ticky, just come over here with Momma, okay? He's not worth it, just come be with Momma and your siblings." My pokemon hesitated for a moment before the rocks around her that she's yet to thrown had disappeared and she slowly flew over to me and into my awaiting arms. Despite the pain, I curled up into a ball on my aside and held her closer. "No one's taking you away from us again, okay? Momma's right here."

"Flamethrower Amethyst!" I heard shouting from outside as the cries of the grunt faded off. I saw through the hole in the building that Violet was out there with Amethyst. "Go after them girl! I'll catch up with you and the others soon!"

The next thing I knew I heard a gasp and felt another set of hands on my body, a set which apparently my pokemon allowed. I turned my head slightly, groaning at the pain, to look at the young woman who was looking worriedly over me.

"Oh my Mew… Gwyn what happened to you?" She shook her head quickly. "Never mind! Oh man… Chalcedony!"

The dark type pokemon filtered out from behind the woman's hair and she took on his traits as well before taking one of my hands in hers and Chalcedony walked up her arm to place his paws on my hand too. "Moonlight!" A glittering moon then appeared over our heads, blocking out the light of the sun from the whole in the wall. I felt energy coming back into my body and the dizziness and sick feeling were slowly fading.

"Violet?"

"Hush Gwyn," the woman wouldn't allow me to speak. "Save your strength."

"I'm sorry…" I took a deep breath, "for this morning."

The woman gave me a sorry look and shook her head. "It's alright Gwyn, but we'll talk about that later. I've got you out of the danger zone since you've stopped bleeding, but you still need to go to the hospital and get checked out more." She looked over to the boys. "Get her over there and don't you dare think about traveling until she's well. I want you three together for the time being after what's happened."

Both of the boys nodded with no complaints, not even from Aaron. She then cut off the healing she and Chalcedony were doing and changed her changeling form to that of Amethyst's and grew her wings to fly after her team and headed out of the building.

"Take care of each other! If you need to reach me Gwyn has my number!" She flew off in the next second. We all looked at each other after she left and then it was Tristan who picked me up.

"We better do as she says before she comes back and kills us." I knew he wasn't serious about the phrase, so I didn't go crazy. I allowed him to carry me off and head toward the hospital where I could receive some more treatment.

Witch's Note:

Oh boy… what a chapter, right? So we got Gwyn hurt, Violet gone for who knows how long and Ticky who's now evolved because her Momma was hurt. What a chapter…

So, does anyone have any guesses to what Morty was talking about in this chapter? What's the real reason to why Aaron's been so different to his best friend?"

I hope you guys please Review and send in Questions for me! PM or in a Review, doesn't matter which!

I love you all and I'll see you next week!

Halloween Witch