When Lydia and Fiona got back with their rucksacks as full as they could get them, it was almost eleven o'clock at night. Upon seeing the tent, they rushed towards it, wanting to get the massive weight off of their backs as soon as possible, but, when they got closer, they fell to their knees, a sobbing mess. Lydia cried out, "Whyyyy!?" The tents were shut.

Fiona said, "There is no God!"

"Forget 'God'!" Lydia angrily said. "When I find where that bloody harlot, Ruffian Joy, is, I'm gonna wring her damn neck! How dare she send us out on that jaunt in the dark and then lock us out of this damn…farcical imitation of a pokémon centre!"

Fiona said, "Lydia…I…don't think that Nurse Selene would send us to work with someone that would do such a thing," shrugging her rucksack off her shoulders.

"I bet she did this just so that she could be rid of us, so she can focus on Hildy and Vivian!"

"Lydia, you know that Nurse Selene isn't like that."

Lydia sighed and said, "Yeah. I know you're right, Fi. But still, this is beyond what even Nurse Raylene could put up with."

"That is true…" Fiona said. "…which is also probably why she didn't lock us out."

"Then why is the door shut?"

"Maybe there's some secret method or code needed to get inside?"

"Okay. So what would it be then?"

"Hmm…despite being a Ruffian Joy, she is still a Nurse Joy, so…maybe Chansey?" Shockingly, nothing happened. "No? Then, Blissey or Happiny?"

"No," Lydia said. "Ruffian Joy's generally forgo the use of a Chansey-line pokémon. So…it could be…Roving Nurse Joy?" Still nothing. "No? Then how about Healing Pokémon?"

"Come to think of it, traditionally, Roving Nurse Joy have a pokémon related career outside of their work as a Joy."

"That's true. Say! Those pokédexes that she got us might be able to tell us what she is!"

"Oh yeah. They do have a link to the Pokémon League Databases," Fiona said, getting her pokédex out of her pouch. She flicked through the menu system to the 'search trainer history' page and typed in Lana Joy. It returned one record, though it was six years old. Fiona went into it and said, "It says that she's a coordinator and has a brother."

"What's his name."

"Why?"

"I read in an article once that when creating passwords people generally use things that are close to them."

"It seems that his name is Jayce Frances Aiden Joy."

"Maybe a nickname then?" Lydia said. "Jason? No. Frank? No. Not that either."

Fiona said, "Lydia…maybe she read that article too, so made the password something different."

"Then that would mean that it would be something else, and we don't know enough about her to even begin to guess what she could have used."

"True. We would need to know her more to guess…wait! Nurse Selene seemed to know her, so maybe she could help us."

"Oh yeah! I think the latest rendition of the pokédex has a vidphone function too," Lydia said, taking out her pokédex and opening the 'call' function. She dialled in the number for Nurse Selene's room in the Viridian City Pokécentre.

When Nurse Selene answered it, her hair was a mess and her tiredness was more than evident in both her face and her voice as she said, "Who is it?" only barely able to make out the blurry image of a Nurse Joy's hair.

"It's me, Lydia, Nurse Selene."

"Oh! Lydia!" Selene said, her eyes clearing. "How is Lana?"

"The crazy bitch locked us out of the emergency ward she's made!"

"That doesn't sound like her."

"AND…that's after sending us out to pick berries at night!"

"Okay. That sounds more like her. But what do you want me to do about it?"

"We would like you to tell us what kind of password she would use to lock a door."

"Alright, show me." Lydia turned the phone around to show Nurse Selene the tent. In a flat tone, she said, "Lydia. That's a tent."

"That's right. So, how do we unlock it?"

"I'm going to give you some advice Lydia. Fiona, this goes for you too," Nurse Selene said, seeing Fiona move into the screen. "Lana, is tough. There's no doubt about it. But, she also cares and has a very good sense of humour. So, right now, she's probably somewhere nearby laughing her head off at the pair of you," Selene said, hanging up before rolling over and going back to sleep.

When Nurse Selene hung up, Fiona turned to Lydia and asked, "What do you think she meant by that?"

"I…don't know. Maybe she meant that there is no lock?"

"No lock?!" Fiona exclaimed. "But then that would mean that anyone could just come along whenever they want and steal whatever it is she was working on after we'd left!"

"Well, can you think of any other way to interpret what Nurse Selene just said?"

"Hmm…" Fiona sighed and said, "No. But then how do we go about opening this thing?"

"Hmm…" Lydia said. "Maybe we should apply the same process that we were taught about when diagnosing pokémon ailments."

"Alright. So, process of elimination then?"

At the same time, in The Pallet House, Lana was hovering over a blue crystal that had a projection of the two Apprentice Joys' attempts to unlock her ward. Delia was watching too, frowning as she witnessed Lana clutching her stomach as she laughed loudly at them. She said, "Why are you laughing at those poor girls?"

Lana felt something strange in her chest at being admonished by Delia. She said, "Come on, admit it, that's hilarious!" pointing at the image.

Delia firmly said, "Go over there and put an end to their misery, now!"

"Oh, alright," Lana said, getting up with a sigh. As she left, she thought, 'Why don't I like it when she's disappointed in me?' She made her way, slowly, to the tents that she'd spent the day setting up. She got there just in time, as the girls were about to cut into the material of the tent with their scalpels. She said, "Alright, that's about enough of that," in a loud voice, stopping the girls when their blades were just about to cut into it. Lydia and Fiona jumped at the sound of Lana's voice and turned to face her. "Are the pair of you really that blind that you think that you need to cut an opening into it?" The sisters blinked, a blank look on their face. Lana marched over and pointed in the top corner of the door. She said, "See that? It's called a zip!" and unzipped the door. She pointed and said, "Now, in," and escorted the two into the ward.

She told them to put their packs to the side of the door to the central tent. When they had, Lana said, "Alright, now, come," before striding out of the tent and leading them to Delia's house, zipping the door closed behind them.

As they walked, Fiona asked, "Aren't you…you know…worried about thieves?"

"No. Why would I be?"

"Well…you spent a lot of time setting all of that up, so…"

"Well, I have a very good security system in place, so there's no need to concern yourself about something like that."

"What kind of 'security system' could you possibly set up in a tent?" Lydia asked, bordering on demanding.

Lana ignored her and said, "I'll see if Delia can find it in herself to let the pair of you stay with her too, at least for tonight."

"Uhmmm…Delia?"

"The person that I'm staying with while I'm here."

"I see," Fiona said, before following Lana in an awkward silence. After a while she hesitantly said, "So…you know Nurse Selene?"

"Yeah. She and my mother attended the Academy together and have kept in contact."

"So, were you planning on going to Viridian City?"

"No. I actually wanted to keep on going to Hoenn, but it was getting late, so I stopped here. Then I found out that Professor Oak's Healing Machine, was well and truly out of date, so I offered to stay here as a Town Joy until he got a new one here."

"I see."

"And he offered to run an unofficial tournament while I was here so I could get some battle training in too."

"Wait…oh! Right. You're a Roving Nurse Joy."

Lana raised an amused eyebrow and said, "Not a Ruffian Joy?"

Fiona sighed and said, "I know that my sister and I can be a little…off-putting…at times. But, we do truly care about becoming Nurse Joy. And, despite everything, we know that Nurse Selene does do everything for a good reason. But…"

"'But'?"

"Why would you want to be a Roving Nurse Joy?"

"Honestly?"

"Yes."

"My aunt is one."

"That's all?"

"Well…originally, yes."

"And now?"

"Well…to help as many pokémon as I can, of course. But…" Lana sighed. "There are other reasons too, but I'd like to keep them to myself."

"Alright," Lydia said, understanding that some things were better kept private.

When they got to the house that Lana had told them about, Lydia and Fiona went in after Lana, who said, "Delia, I'm ba-ackk!"

Delia came out of the kitchen and said, "Oh good, the apple pie is just abou…! Who are these?"

"These are the two Joys that Aunt Selene sent me to work into shape."

Delia raised an amused eyebrow and said, "Are you sure that that's what she wanted?"

"Well, it's what's going to happen anyway," Lana said, causing Lydia and Fiona to look at each other with concerned, almost fearful, looks on their faces. "In any case, I said that you might consider letting them stay here tonight as well."

"Alright. But it'll have to be just tonight. I don't have the room here for any more."

"That's alright," Fiona said. "Even one night is more than we should really be asking for anyway."

Delia said, "That's fine. I will have a vacancy tomorrow night at the Inn, so you are more than welcome to come as a paying guest."

"Uhh…paying?"

"Yeah. You know…money." Delia looked at Lana and said, "Are they…"

"Serious?" Lana asked. Delia nodded numbly. "Sadly, yes."

"How can they…"

"Nurse Joy are provided food and clothes as a thank you for their services by the pokémon league. My brother and I were quite surprised when we first left on our journeys."

"I see. Then…" Delia bit her lip and sighed. "I'm sorry. Unless you want to sleep in the tents that Lana bought, there won't be much that you can do for bedding, let along dining during your time in Pallet Town."

"That's alright," Lydia said. "We can just fly here from Viridian every day."

"No. It's not 'alright'," Lana said. "What if someone comes in with a severely injured pokémon that needs multiple attendees to fix? Or there's a sudden rush while you pair are flying to Viridian?"

Fiona sighed and said, "You know she's right, Lydia."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"That's true."

"Don't worry about money," Lana said.

"Why? It would appear that it is something that we need to be very mindful of while we're here."

"I've got you covered."

"Are you…sure?" Fiona asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Well…no offence…but you don't seem to…like us…very much."

"I don't need to like you to get the job done."

"I see," Fiona said. She then turned to Delia and asked, "So, where will we be sleeping tonight?"

"The couches over there should suffice."

"Wait! No bed?!" Lydia exclaimed.

"There are only three bedrooms in this house, two of which are occupied, and the third is off limits."

"Off limits?!" Why? What's so special about it?"

Lana said, "Lydia. That is enough," and looked at Lydia, her eyes glowing a raging blue. Seeing the nearly non-existent aura's of the two Joys, Lana realised that she'd subconsciously activated her aura vision, and shook her head, deactivating it, causing the blue glow to fade from her eyes. She said, "Sorry about that," seeing the fear on Lydia and Fiona's faces and something bordering on disbelief on Delia's. She sighed and said, "It's been a long day, so we should probably all get to sleep."

Delia said, "Yes, you're quite right." She stood up, thinking, 'I should probably contact Ash about this.' She then made her way to her room for the night, as did Lana, who bade her a good night before turning into her room and putting on her pyjamas, getting into bed and turning off the lights.

As Lana and Delia turned in for the night, Lydia lay down on one couch, as Fiona did the other, and said, "Hey, Fiona."

"Yeah. What is it, Lydia?"

"What do you think of this?"

"I think that this is the situation that we've landed in and we'll just have to deal with it."

"Yeah. But I meant with those blue eyes just now…"

Fiona sighed and said, "Yeah. I know. That freaked me out too. Any theories on what caused it?"

"Well, I'd say that it's pretty clear that it is somehow linked to her emotions. But as to the original source. Sorry. I've got no idea."

"It kind of reminds me of something that I read in a book written by Melania Joy, over in the Unova Region."

"What's that?"

"I'm not entirely sure because it's been a while since I read it, but I think that it uses some form of energy to boost the innate regeneration abilities possessed by all pokémon. But, it seemed too much like magic to be believed."

"And now?"

"Who knows?" Fiona said, shrugging, "But, like you said, it's just a theory."

Lydia sighed and said, "I suppose it'd probably be easier just to ask her tomorrow, huh?"

"Yeah," Fiona said, rolling onto her side. The sisters were asleep within minutes.

XXXXX

At around five the next day, Lana got up and put on some black, full-length, running tights and a royal blue sports bra and a pair of open-fingered gloves before tying her hair into a ponytail and creeping out of the house, making sure not to wake the two sisters, who were still sound asleep. She put her key above the door frame and then took a run throughout the town alongside Lucario before making her way back. When she had, she didn't go back inside, instead, she stayed outside and said, "Well, Lucario, I think that we'll dial it down for today." Lucario let out a sound of agreement before getting into a fighting stance. They then spent about half an hour sparring against each other using only their physical might rather than augmenting their moves with aura, as, when they did, their 'sparring', usually took up an area larger than they had available in Delia's yard. When they were done, they crept back inside so that Lana could have a shower before getting dressed and going to the temporary pokécentre that she'd finished setting up the previous day.

When Lana reached the tents, she ate a few of the berries for breakfast before setting about sorting the berries that the sisters had gathered for her. When she was done separating them, she wrote down what they had collected, as well as the numbers in a ledger that she had bought from the newsagent near the store that she had bought the camping gear from. When she was done, she read over the list and said, "Well, what do you know. Those two did better than I would have thought." She went over to her satchel, which she'd left there the previous day, and took out two regular pokéballs and thought, 'Should I, or shouldn't I? Hmm…Aunt Selene must have sent them to me to get them some field experience, otherwise she would have just sent them to some other pokécentre for hands-on experience. Given that, maybe I should just have them train one of their current…no. They'll probably only have their healing team, and I don't want to mess with that. Besides, doing it this way will let me get a proper grasp on their skill level.' She then got up from the table that she was working at and went into the central tent and placed the two pokéballs on the table in the centre of the tent. She then went out the back and planted one of each type of berry that Lydia and Fiona had gathered up for her so that she didn't have to send them off to find more and watered them with the SquirtBottle that she'd bought after she'd gotten the cooking berries off of the sisters and planted them.