Gary had to pack a pretty large trunk if he wanted to have a proper vacation with all of his comodities in his hometown, so he practically had to move out of the Sinnoh lab headquarters, but chose to leave some stuff behind so nobody thought his room was abandonned. Umbreon was being curious about the box he always put his necklaces in. G ever since he could remember, but couldn't place the moment they began to be an important part of his appearance for him.

Umbreon started sniffing the box and pulled out a Ying-Yang pendant Gary hadn't used in a while and brought it to its trainer. Umbreon poked Gary behind the knee like the dark-type Pokémon often did when seeking attention. He had the necklace hanging from his snout.

-Uuumb! -she poked his trainer again-

-What is it, Umbreon?

-Umbreon, Umbreooooo! -she wagged her tail, amused-

Gary eyed the ying yang symbol in his Pokémon's mouth. That Umbreon sure had an intuition; she often guessed what he was thinking about. That was his first necklace! His grandfather had given it to him when he was about seven years old, but he had to think pretty hard to remember the context. He grabbed the Ying Yang symbol and tried to remember how he got it, but a scary sensation got into him every time he tried to remember it...

-Umbre? -Umbreon sat down in front of Gary and decided she'd help her trainer; he seemed very deep in thought and couldn't seem to fully concentrate, because what he tried to think about seemed to be... dark.

So, time to use her abilities! She'd have to get the dark to be big enough to be noticed...

Umbreon used Heal Bell!

Trainer Gary is no longer confused! Blocking thoughts were cleared!

Trainer Gary used "What are you doing?"

It doesn't affect Umbreon...

Umbreon used Dark Pulse!

Trainer Gary is looking at the ceiling!

Umbreon used Dark Pulse!

Trainer Gary's eyes shine in recognition!

Trainer Gary's eyes widen!

Trainer Gary used Grab my Own Head and Clench my Teeth!

But it failed!

Umbreon used Moonlight!

Trainer Gary remembered something!

Trainer Gary is frozen solid!

Trainer Gary fainted!

Umbreon gained ... no, you don't gain exp. points for making trainers faint, that's cheating.

Umbreon made sure Gary didn't hit his head when he finally colapsed on the floor by substituting a cushion as he fell, but it hurt her backbone, since his head was pretty heavy to begin with, and Gary had fallen from about 1.70 m onto her back. She started howling to attract the other Lab residents to the scene; she couldn't move right now!

Gary woke up at the infirmary. At first it was hard to remember how this had happened or why he was here, but he had a slight headache and felt drowsy. Out of the window he saw it was already dark. The nurse would probably be at dinner with the other scientists. He sat up on the infirmary bed and saw the stars, trying to ignore the dizziness the whole movement caused him. Apparently, he hadn't gotten any serious injury; all he saw was a bag of ice in the sink, so he assumed he hadn't got hit on the head but somewhere less dangerous. How?

All he remembered was Umbreon decided it would be cool to use her dark powers on him... but why? He was looking at a necklace gramps had given him and trying to remember what had caused that event... and given Umbreon's intuition, she probably knew it was something dark before he did and tried to remind him.

A rough move, for sure; he remembered everything at once... it was impressive, how he had completely forgotten about the crazy-evil clown monster that nearly got him and Ash killed more than ten years ago in Pallet Town. Did Ash remember? How could he have forgotten? Oh... that's right! The thing made you forget, especially once you grew up.

The nurse came in after a while.

-Professor Gary! How are you feeling? You're pale...

-I'm ok, but I just remembered something... I need to phone a friend -Gary got off the bed but lost his balance and the nurse grabbed him by the shoulders so he wouldn't fall again-

-Professor, you must rest; you can't jump out of bed like that after fainting! Besides, it's 11pm... I'm sure your friend is asleep by now. You need to eat and drink something; I brought orange juice... do you like it?

Gary usually shared the bed with his favorite Pokémon, Umbreon, like Ash shared his sleeping spot with Pikachu, but tonight it wasn't an average night. Gary felt the need to cling onto his four-legged friend and make sure Umbreon didn't leave the bed without him.

It had been a long time since he was last scared at night; actually, it hadn't happened since he was a child! It's a good thing Umbreon wouldn't be able to tell anyone about his current state of mind. It was like the thought of Pallet Pond and the park trashcan wouldn't get out of his head. Even if he, to this day, still avoided any place that smelled like trash with a passion, he couldn't understand what had really happened there.

He tried to convince himself that he and Ash had really beaten the evil thing all those years ago, and that they both really saw it sink into the depths it couldn't come back from... but hadn't something similar happened to his memory right now? There wasn't any guarantee the clown-thing wouldn't be back after new children's flesh and souls to eat. He hugged Umbreon tighter unconciously, and she protested,

-Breoooon! -she bit his forearm lightly as a warning and nuzzled it off

-Sorry Umbreon... I guess I'm just a bit uneasy about something, but it'll pass; it's not like I can be awake all night -he forced a chuckle. He didn't want to worry the Pokémon too; he saw no need to- I'll try not to squeeze you again, stay here, ok?

Umbreon shot him a skeptical look that looked a lot like his trainer's own eyebrow-rising gesture. Gary smiled a little and stroked Umbreon's long ears. He was right about his theory about how Pokémon took in traits and gestures of their trainers.

But he wasn't right about not being able to be awake all night.

The sun came up slowly as he stared at the gap between his lab bedroom curtains and he felt like not doing anything. He grunted at the orange sun beams that hit his eyes after a while and sat up on the bed. After a few minutes of rubbing his seemingly swollen eyes, he stood up, took off his pajamas, which he kicked into the trunk and put on his travelling clothes and the Ying Yang pendant. He didn't bother washing his face or teeth; instead, he headed straight to the dining room to get breakfast, thinking maybe dying could be an option for today's activities. He felt awful. Umbreon was still curled up and asleep at her usual spot near Gary's stomach on the bed. He was so jealous the Pokémon didn't have to report for anything that morning like he did.

First he had to go explain the other Sinnoh Lab resident scientists about not having finished his part of the Lab protocol last night because of his sudden fainting. Not like they didn't know, but he'd better say it himself.

After that, he'd make the last preparations to go to Pallet town. His balance and sight were so bad today he'd rather call a taxi instead of driving himself to the airport. He'd try sleeping during the flight...