In which a familiar character returns, much to Victor's disappointment.

Once the kids had reunited with Leon and went to dinner (and eaten the most expensive things there, on Rose's tab), things went back to normal. The next day, Victor prepared for the final round of the Champion Cup, where he'd fight his way to Leon.

He didn't expect what he saw when he got to the stadium.

There were reporters on the way there, once more bombing him with questions. This time, though, they were polite enough to go one at a time.

"Victor! Do you have anything to say to your fans back in Postwick?"

Victor really couldn't think of anything to say, so he raised a hand to the camera like he was waving. "Hi, Mum."

Back in Postwick, the mother in question facepalmed when she saw it on TV. In Wyndon, Victor flinched as if he could feel her disappointment, but another reporter saved him from the embarrassment as soon as he took another five steps to the arena.

"Challenger 123, do you have any plans for your public appearances if you do the impossible and defeat Leon?"

"Not really," Victor admitted. "I'll probably give my friend Gloria's parents jobs as my meeting organizers. I'm fourteen, I can't think too far ahead."

"Then why not answer a question about the past?"

Victor was nearing the arena now, and he squinted to see which of the reporters had asked. There was a large crowd gathered there, giving the battlefield a decent amount of distance but pushed too close together to see. Seeing that his opponent had yet to arrive, he shrugged it off. "That's fine. Go on, ask."

"How do you respond to the allegations of kidnapping, attempted murder, and selling one of your rivals for pocket change?"

Victor fought to keep the annoyance out of his voice when he answered. "For the last time, no comment."

"Really?" The crowd parted, and Victor recognized Opal's Gym trainers too late. The middle-aged women were giggling like schoolgirls as they made a dynamic entrance for the teenage boy that Victor hadn't seen in a long time. Bede ignored the trainers and focused only on Victor, mouth twisted in fury. "I myself have several comments."

If Victor had ever known true fear, it was now. "Hello, Bede," he said as if he were greeting an old friend and not his accidental victim. "How've you been?"

"Angry," Bede answered at once. "Mad, really, in both definitions of the word. Do you have any idea what I've been through since you did those things to me?"

Victor held up his hands. "We didn't tell the Rotom living in my phone to try to kill you, it did that on its own. Since I never captured it, I cannot be held legally responsible for its actions. The kidnapping was accidental, and Gloria was the one who sold you to Opal."

Gloria went pale as Victor admitted her crime on live TV, and his own actions as an accomplice. She was going to run for it, but Raihan's laughter from behind her made her realize that she couldn't run fast enough.

Luckily, Raihan had a different train of thought. "Remember when I sold you, Leon?"

Leon laughed with him. "Good times," he agreed.

Gloria almost asked. However, Victor asked a question of his own that the microphone picked up.

"Are you wearing a dress tied up to look like a shirt?"

"Yes." Bede's answer was a quiet hiss, but he was clearly wearing a microphone of his own because the single word echoed through the stadium.

As a result, Victor couldn't find it in him to laugh or even to comment that he could have just cross-dressed and not bothered to tie it. "You look...like a Wooloo in a candy floss costume." It was the closest he could come to saying 'cute' because the press would have a field day with that, and he really didn't want Marnie to think he was into Bede.

And when someone in the crowd, probably Hop, called out "Yeah, he does!" it just made Victor feel more vindicated.

Bede stepped onto the stadium, not caring about the gasp of shock and excitement from the crowd. "We'll settle this the old-fashioned way, Bradley!" he called, selecting his first Pokémon. "We'll make a wager on a Pokémon battle. If I win, I take your spot in the Champion Cup."

"And what if I win?"

"If you win, I will retire from being a trainer and leave you alone."

Victor perked up. "Forever?" he asked hopefully.

Bede noticed, and his eyes narrowed. "For now," he clarified.

Victor decided to take what he could get.

Victor chose Fraxure first, only to realize too late that Opal had forced her prisoner to change his type specialty. Victor could no longer Crunch his way to victory, and Fraxure gave him a death glare moments before the Mawile took her out in one Play Rough. But Victor got smart and released Dash to destroy his opponent with a Pyro Ball.

Bede replaced his Mawhile with a Gardevior, and Victor swapped Dash for Excadrill. The Gardevior managed to get a Psychic attack in, but it then fell to Excadrill's Metal Claw.

Gloria smiled to herself from the audience, looking down at one of her Pokeballs in her grip. "Stabitha's gonna have a field day."

Bede's Rapidash was able to attack with a Psycho Cut, but Excadrill stayed standing to deliver another Metal Claw. The Rapidash was barely able to survive in order to take Excadrill down with another Psycho Cut. Corviknight took the field and finished the pony with a simple Peck.

Bede took his final Pokeball, and it glowed with Dynamax energy. Victor called his bird back to do the same, and his giant Corviknight was facing the giant Hatterene. The Fairy-type used a Max Mindstorm to do significant damage to Corviknight, but it responded with a Max Steelspike, and the Hatterene was down.

Bede took the moment to absorb the fact that he didn't even get through half of his opponent's team. His hand met the center of his forehead as he cursed his captor once more. "I told the old bat that I needed more variety in my team for this match, but NO! My old team wasn't 'pink enough' to represent the gym!"

"Calm down," Victor said quickly, moving forward to offer the traditional handshake of sportsmanship. "You don't have to give up being a trainer. Just leaving me alone would suffice."

"I was going to take my chance at the Championship," Bede said, more to the ground than to Victor. "And even if I lost, I was going to use retiring as an excuse to get away from that old lady. But then you!" His head snapped up, and Victor was surprised at how angry he really was. "You ruined it!"

And he charged, pushing Victor to the ground. Marnie froze in shock. Hop screamed in rage.

"Bede uses Take Down," Raihan commented, as casually as if actual brawls were common in the Champion Cup. "And it's super effective."

"Victor retaliates with Low Sweep," said Leon, as Bede went down right before Victor pushed himself up.

"Sir," said a Macro Cosmos employee, and Leon looked up, slightly irritated at the interruption from the fight. She didn't pay it any attention. "We've been looking for you everywhere. With the chairman...occupied...you'll have to open the ceremony."

Leon took one look at the field, noticed that Gloria was heading down to interrupt the fight, and decided that he could go along with the employee and not miss much.

Gloria enjoyed watching fights. She encouraged Victor and Hop's playful matches, and occasionally got in a few rounds herself. But this was different - this was an actual brawl. As a result, she jumped onto the battlefield just as Victor smashed his fist into Bede's face.

"Knock it off!" she screamed, even as Bede wiped blood from his lip before moving to knee Victor where he knew he'd drop him. Victor jumped back in time, and moved to do the same to his opponent, but Bede knelt down to block the shot and grabbed Victor's ankle, yanking him down once more. He stopped, and so did Victor, when Gloria forced her way between them, as if breaking eye contact had been enough to break the anger blinding both boys. She made eye contact with Bede, his own rage reflected in her eyes. "You've lost. You've got no right to attack my friend. Now get out before I send Stabitha after you."

"What in the name of all things pink and unholy is a Stabitha?"

"Don't ask," said Victor, which was all Bede needed to know.

"You don't get it," Bede hissed. "I accept that I lost. It's everything else that I need to get off my chest."

"I say let him," Victor agreed. "I've wanted to knock this bloke's teeth out since the first battle. My Pokémon have had all the fun for too long."

"Then take it outside," Gloria snapped back, and both of them remembered where they were. And the fact that neither of them had lost their microphones. And the fact that it was only the crowd's cheering at seeing a human battle that was saving both reputations. "You can't just up and knock each other around when it's shown across the region."

Her voice was picked up by Bede's microphone, too. He scowled, but didn't move to attack her.

"You don't get it," he said again. "Sold against my will to a Fairy-type boot camp. Dragged around town by some old bat screaming about pink. Quizzes and battles every moment of my life. Dressed up in fairy colors like Peter Pan mid-puberty!" His voice cracked at that moment, emphasizing his point. He didn't even care. "I spent two days brainwashed into thinking that I was a fairy princess! A beautiful fairy princess!"

Gloria's eyes narrowed. "So you're beautiful."

She said it in the same way she'd spoken when they had their 'life sucks' contest, but all three of them realized the words she used at the same time. And, surprising even himself, Bede instantly dropped all remaining hostility.

"You think I'm beautiful?" He did not sound like he was continuing the contest. He said it like it was the first actual compliment he'd heard in years.

Gloria's face turned slightly pink. Hop's rage dropped, too, and he looked displeased but accepting as he studied them.

Finally, Gloria shrugged it off. "You were," she said, as if stating a fact. "Then you went and got your face beaten in. Have to say that ruined it."

A chuckle rippled through the audience. Bede didn't seem to notice. "Oh," he said quietly, his entire attitude shifting. "I...you, too."

They stayed there in awkward silence for a moment.

Then someone, probably Hop, screamed "Just kiss already!" from the stands, and the entire stadium burst into chanting their demand for a kiss. This brought both of them jolting back to reality, and Bede, realizing everything that had happened, bolted from the stadium as fast as he could go.

Gloria looked back at her friend, face still pink. "I will pay you to pretend that never happened," she said, so quietly Victor's microphone only picked up a mumble.

Grinning like a maniac despite his developing bruises and possibly dislocated shoulder, Victor shook his head. "You think he's pretty," he mouthed, taunting her.

"Like a little slice of pie," Gloria confirmed in the same quiet voice, before patting him on the back. "Well, my job's done. Good luck, future Champion."

And she scurried back to her seat.

As soon as she was gone, Leon arrived, a taco in his hand and a Macro Cosmos employee beside him. "What did I miss?"

"Why do you have a taco?" Victor asked instead of answering.

"Taco stand is outside," Leon explained. "I needed to come here. Figured I'd eat while I was lost."

"I'm disappointed in you, Bede."

Opal's voice was less grating than usual, probably because she'd brought him ice for his face, so Bede allowed it. "Goes without saying," he mumbled, and somehow, the old woman heard him anyway. "With what in particular? My list of complaints? Storming the stadium uninvited? Threatening to retire and not take your gym?" He scoffed. "Or the fistfight?"

"What do you think?" Opal carefully sat down beside him on the locker room bench. Bede didn't pay her much attention, until she spoke again. "You should have just kissed her."

The ice slipped from her apprentice's grip, landing on the floor with a wet thud. "What." The word wasn't even a question.

"Why didn't you kiss her?" Opal's mouth twitched as she fought a taunting smile, and Bede groaned, putting the ice back on his eye.

"Because I didn't want to."

"An excellent answer," Opal said wisely. "But is it an accurate one?"

"She sold me for pocket change!"

"As if you wouldn't have done the same to her, if I'd chosen her as my apprentice instead." Bede grunted. Opal assumed that meant she was right. "I very nearly did. She's a lesser shade of pink, nearing purple. Much like that coat of yours."

"My coat is purple nearing pink." He may have retreated back to fairy boot camp, but he was going to insist on that until the coat in question fell apart.

"Fine, then. Somewhere between your coat and her dress. It doesn't change that you're a teenage boy, and I'm sure you have some questions that the chairman never got around to answering..."

His stared at her with his good eye, mouth hanging open. "Are you...are you giving me the talk?"

"Would that bother you?"

"Yes!" The chairman hadn't gotten around to it, but Bede was not an idiot. He could get to a library. And if he had kissed Gloria - not that he wanted to - he would have left some of his blood on her mouth. Disgusting. She wasn't even the one who would make a hot vampire.

Well...now that that image was in his head...

Nope. He was not imagining Marnie and Gloria forming a coven of gorgeous teen vampires. Nope. Not happening.

Definitely happening. And he hated how the thought fascinated him.

"Can we talk about something else?" he asked, unable to keep the desperation out of his voice.

Opal finally let the smile show. "Of course. What do you want to talk about?"

Bede thought about things that a Fairy-type specialist had to know. "How do you evolve Eevee into Sylveon when there's no such thing as a Fairy Stone?"

Opal wasn't so bad, he reluctantly decided. She was demanding and liked to ship and was probably insane, but she also made him feel welcome when off the clock, giving him food and advice. It was almost like she'd decided to be his overbearing grandmother.

And she remembered his name, which was always a plus.

Victor: Dash (Cinderace) Corviknight, Drednaw, Excadrill, Fraxure, Grapploct

Gloria: Ace (Inteleon) Dishwasher (Obstagoon) Rogue (Thievul) Hattie (Hatterene) Harry (Grimmsnarl) Stabitha (Pawniard)