When in the world of Pokémon training, one tends to make friends and enemies. "Rivals" would develop over time, posing challenges along one's journey to collect gym badges. Gray had one such rival in a man named Lex Wilson. They hadn't grown up together, but instead, met on the road when both their journeys had begun. They crossed paths and battled too often for it to not develop into a rivalry. Lex was probably one of the few people Gray had a positive opinion of. In fact, he missed him when Lex had left Johto to go to Alola. And now, for some reason, he was back.

Atena felt a bit dejected, admittedly. She followed closely behind her trainer, glancing a few times at Lex. She almost hadn't recognized him. She'd only recently evolved into a Kirlia when he'd left for Alola. He'd been a scrawny, blonde-haired boy with a mouth that seemed a little too big for his face. Now he had a bushy beard to cover that up, and his golden hair was a bit darker, almost like it was dirty, and it reached down to the middle of his back, appearing somewhat ratted. He walked with a notable limp, favoring his right leg, and he was beginning to develop a gut. There was no comparing the 16 year-old she remembered to this 24 year-old man. Lex invited them to his place for dinner. It was politely declined by Gray, on account of their pizza, but Lex was insistent on the company. "An hour, just to catch up," was all he asked for. Gray agreed, and now they were headed for Lex's apartment.

It felt like she'd covered a lot of ground today. She held Gray's hand, at the very least. She talked with him about her feelings, to a degree. She just missed the chance to bring it all together with a confession. A part of her was glad they'd been interrupted. Pokémon/Human relationships were very much against the law. That didn't stop some people, but Gray wasn't the type to go against the rules. He liked to play things by the book, and if the playbook changed, so did he. Even if he reciprocated her feelings... would he be willing to risk his license to pursue that? On one side, she hoped he would. On the other side, it was simply too risky. Your license would be revoked, your Pokémon would be taken away, and you'd be incarcerated, no exceptions. The rules in place were so content with treating all Pokémon like wild animals. People refused to acknowledge that some, like her, were just as capable of human emotion, thought, and intellect as any of them. Humans had respected that in the past. She'd read stories of marriages between humans and Pokémon. Now those in control just wanted to cover it all up for whatever their agenda was.

Atena glanced down at her hand, imagining the feel of Gray's rough palm in hers. The simple thought of it was enough to quell her annoyance, at least by a bit. She looked up toward the two men in front of her, who were busy discussing the changes to Blackthorn City from what they'd been taught in classrooms.

They arrived at the apartments where Lex was staying. He brought them up to the fifth floor, and into his room, which smelled of musty carpets, cigarette smoke, and body odor. And here she was thinking things couldn't get worse than the smell of the city itself. Her head spikes lowered in recoil to receiving the undesirable odor, and she folded her arms under her empathy horn, glancing up in disgust at Lex, who didn't take notice.

"Sorry for the mess," Lex grunted, offering an apologetic smile. "I don't get visitors often."

"It's... fine..." Gray replied, and he shared a look with Atena, who felt satisfied they were on the same page about this. The mess Lex spoke of wasn't much of one, at least not as bad as expected, judging from the smell. He didn't seem to have many belongings. A small couch, a coffee table, a box television, stray socks and underwear, and several full ashtrays on the coffee table. He had heavy blinds over the windows. A door to the right led presumably to his bedroom and bathroom, while an open doorway to the left opened up into a small kitchen, where dishes piled high, and some takeout food was left out on the countertop to decompose.

The mess in question was his bedroom, as the floor wasn't visible beneath clothes, and the stench of body odor was heaviest inside. He had a twin-sized bed within, but no frame, the mattress lying on the ground, almost buried beneath the dirty clothes around it, and in the corner of the room was a desk with a computer, a chair in front of it. The desktop was awake, showing a picture of a family. A man, a woman, and two daughters, with several Pokémon around them. She recognized some of those Pokémon, and it took her a moment to realize the father in the image was Lex himself, clean-shaven, and wearing non-stained clothes of shorts, sandals, and a flower-printed button-up. He had short hair, which was brushed smartly, and pearly white teeth flashing at the camera.

Atena looked away from the room to stare quizzically at Lex, who had pulled some beer from his fridge to offer to Gray, who declined the offer. Lex popped the top off and took a swig, before he shook his head, shaggy hair flopping about his face. "Take a seat, make yourself comfortable," he told Gray.

Gray, like Atena, had been soaking in their surroundings, and his brow furrowed with confusion. "Lex, what happened to you?"

Lex looked back at him with his dark green eyes, his smile vanishing. He blinked, before he took another swig of beer. Finally, he looked away from Gray, breaking eye contact. "Long story," he replied. "Bad stuff went down in Alola."

Gray didn't have a response as Lex brushed past him, before plopping down in his chair, some beer sloshing out of the glass to trickle onto the man's hand.

"It's a nightmare out there, Grayson," Lex said, his tone flat and serious, his beard shifting as he bit at his lip. Atena could feel a swell of anxiety and fear rushing off the man. "You know how it is."

Gray shared a look with Atena again, who shared his concerns. "Uh, no," Gray replied, "I have no idea what you mean."

Lex blinked again, before he looked at Gray, his bushy eyebrows creasing, his eyes narrowing. "You... you've got no idea?"

Gray shrugged.

Lex cleared his throat, and shook his head again, before he took another swig. "I dunno how to even start telling you THAT."

"From the beginning, I guess?" Gray offered. "If it's something you want to share."

Lex again looked at Gray, eyes seemingly boring into the man, before he sniffed. "You need to see it, Grayson. It hasn't taken Johto yet, but it's about to, and Blackthorn City is ground zero."

Atena got the impression Lex was speaking like some sort of conspiracy theorist as the man got back to his feet and set the beer down on the coffee table, before he marched into his room, gesturing for Gray to follow. Reluctantly, her trainer did, so she stepped in after him, trying her best to ignore the overwhelming stench.

"Is that your family?" Gray asked, staring at the computer monitor as Lex took a seat in front of it. The man smirked, then nodded, spinning the chair to face him.

"Sure is," his tone was proud, and he started to point at the screen. "You'd remember Bruno," his finger jabbed at a rillaboom. Then he called out others. A chansey named "Happy," a toxicroak named "Jimmy," and a graveller named "Boss." Then to his family. A wife named "Maria," and two daughters, the oldest named "Cassie" at three years old in the image, the youngest named "Diana" at barely a year old, held in her mother's arms.

Contrasting that image to the state Lex was in now, Atena felt that the man had been through one helluva wringer to get to this point. She almost felt sorry she'd been judging the state and smell of his home.

"This was taken four years ago," Lex said, staring fondly at the image, before his smile dropped, and grief came off of him in waves. "If I knew then what I knew now, I'd have gotten them out of there."

"What even happened? Are they okay?" Gray asked.

"My family should be fine, for the most part," Lex assured. "A year after this image was taken, they took my Pokémon from me, though."

"Who?"

"Rinsik."

Atena frowned. The name was vaguely familiar, but she couldn't pinpoint the source of where she'd heard it before. Gray was in a similar boat, as his face screwed up in concentration. Seeing this, Lex continued. "That government that took over the Tripus region. We learned it in school."

Recognition registered on Gray's face, though Atena was still mostly in the dark. She'd heard it used somewhere else. "Rinsik, right. What about them?"

"They're not just in Tripus anymore, man. They hit Hoenn and Alola hard. They're taking over every region they can get their mitts on, enforcing their policies everywhere. Now they're in Galar, Kalos, Unova, Paldea..."

Gray seemed to come to the same "conspiracy theorist" conclusion Atena had, as he cleared his throat. "Um, Lex-"

"I know how it sounds!" Lex interrupted. Atena could hear the desperation in his voice. "You gotta believe me, man! The changes in Blackthorn? This is just the beginning. Their takeover of Johto and Kanto starts here, then Sinnoh will be the last one standing. They're wiping out thousands of years of history and culture everywhere! They're destroying Pokémon training and battling. Leagues are falling, we haven't had world championships in seven years, and some of the big names have started disappearing. May, Cynthia, Calem, Steven, Lucas, Ethan, Lance, Hilda, Kris, Brendan, Dawn, Leon, Silver, Elio, Gloria, Red-"

"Red's fine," Gray interrupted quickly, shaking his head, and continued before Lex could respond. "My dad's fine, too. Lex, have you—this is really kind of... a lot to take in all at once."

Atena was in a similar boat. This was all a bit difficult to buy. Lex, however, quickly spun back to face his computer, and pulled up his browser, where dozens of tabs sat open. "It's really not easy to get into," Lex said. "Ever since they took my Pokémon from me, I've been doing my research, digging up anything I could find."

"Lex," Gray's voice was insistent. "Are you sure it wasn't some organization? We've been hit by Team Rocket before."

Lex's jaw seemed to set, and he cast a glance at Gray, eyes darting briefly to Atena. "Who'd they take?"

"My dusclops, Karon."

Lex shook his head, muttering something, before he scrolled through the pages, searching for something. "Rinsik works with Rocket, y'know. It's the only reason why Rocket's still around."

"What?" Gray frowned. "How do you know?"

"Research," Lex insisted, tapping his monitor, "Rocket steals Pokémon, sells them to Rinsik, who "repurpose" their "products"—their words, not mine."

That part got to Atena. It was almost like getting slugged in the face by a Machamp. They'd come so close to finding Karon, only to learn he'd been sold overseas to an unknown buyer. That connection seemed to shut Gray up, too, who got a lot more interested in the topic, now staring at the screen in interest. "You're saying Rinsik has Karon?"

"It's more likely than not," Lex nodded, before he stopped at an article, squinting at it. "This one talks about Rinsik's buying of overseas manufacturers, right after the war."

He clicked over to more articles, showing off each one. "They kept buying up more and more. Devon Corp, Lysandre Labs, Silph Co, Altru Inc, Macro Cosmos, Aether Foundation, the list goes on. All under-the-table deals, hush-hush, shady business. They've been building a monopoly in secret for the last fifty years. Now that they control most everything, they start to take over everything else. They buy up land, they control taxes, they manage the infrastructure, they manipulate society to their whims.

"They're everywhere, and they're so powerful now that they've finally taken on the one thing that seemed too big to bring down: Pokémon Leagues. And they're winning. Grayson, I talked to your dad last week," Lex swiveled back to face Gray. "Red is missing. Your dad can't get ahold of him. Nobody can. Everyone knows he did that already forty years ago, but it's not like him to do it now. It can't be a coincidence. All these people, great and renowned trainers, going missing? Rinsik is taking over everything, right under our noses, and they're systematically dispatching every person that could pose a threat to them. It's an authoritarian regime, Gray, and they're not coming to take Johto. They're already here."

Silence followed. A long and heavy one. Both trainer and his Pokémon had to digest what they were hearing. It continued to sound absurd. Crazy, even, but there were parts that made sense, that connected the real to the surreal.

Lex sighed, leaning back in his chair. "I hid Happy, when they took my Pokémon," he said. "Took them a month to learn the pokéball I gave them was empty. They hit so hard and fast, I didn't have time for the others. When they finally came back, it..."

He paused, eyes distant as he rubbed his leg, the one Atena had noticed he limped on. "They posed themselves as the Aether Foundation, but I knew who it was at that point. They still took Happy in the end. Then they forced me to relocate here. Haven't seen or spoken to my family in years. I know they're watching me, but I don't care. I want them to know I'm onto them. I want them to know they're not as slick as they thought."

His gaze hardened as he looked back at Gray. "They'll come for your Pokémon, Grayson. Just like they came for mine. You don't have the advantage I did. You don't have a home and a family. You live out there. It makes you disposable to them. You'll disappear, like Red, like the others. Then they'll... "repurpose" your Pokémon. I still don't know what that means, but I do know you still have a chance to keep that from happening."

Gray shook his head, taking a step back, trying to understand all he'd taken in. Atena could feel his confliction. "Where would I even go?"

"The Arbos region is still almost completely unexplored, uninhabited," Lex offered. The hopelessness he carried in him had surfaced. Atena had mistaken it for fear earlier. "It's the perfect place for you."

Gray swallowed, stall shaking his head. "You've gone off the deep end, man. This is... crazy stuff."

Lex stood up. The desperation in his voice now shone in his eyes. "I'm not lying to you, Grayson. You need to act now, before it's too late."

Gray stared back at him, before one last shake of his head confirmed that he wasn't a believer. "It was good seeing you again," he said plainly, "but we really need to get going." With that, he turned and walked out of the room. Lex didn't seem to have the strength to stop him, simply watching him leave, a great sadness weighing the air.

Atena wasn't sure how much of what she could believe from Lex, but she knew he believed in what he'd said, and that his emotions about it were real. She didn't want to believe what it, but she was having a much harder time than Gray in brushing it off as conspiracies now. Lex grabbed a slightly crumpled paper off his desk, before he held it out to the gardevoir. "Before it's too late." He repeated.

She accepted the paper, looking it over. It was a map of Sinnoh, some places circled, notes written in chicken scratch all over the front and back. Nothing she could decipher right now. She stored it in her pocket dimension, before giving Lex a short curtsy, to let him know she believed him, at least somewhat. It had to be enough. He gave her a nod in return, and she left the room to catch up with Gray.

Back onto the street they went, once again headed for the gondolas. She could feel the conflict in her trainer's heart. She had a feeling holding his hand wasn't going to quell this particular anxiety. His mind was on Karon, she knew that. They'd spent so long searching for him, then mourning him, it was like reopening a very wide and very fresh wound. Even if Gray didn't believe what Lex had said, it had compelled her trainer. She knew he wanted to go back to Team Rocket, now.

When they finally climbed inside of the gondola, she sat beside Gray. The sun had set by now, and there was no moon in the sky tonight. Only a faint, blue-ish ambiance settled in the world around them. The dim lights inside the car allowed her to see her trainer, who was picking at the scabs on his hands absentmindedly.

[You want to go back to Team Rocket's hideout.]

His shoulders tensed, then relaxed.

[Yes.]

[We won't find the answers we want there.]

[How can you be sure?]

[Because Rinsik doesn't want to be found. Rocket won't know where to start. They don't know who they're selling to, we already knew that.]

He was silent for several long moments. [You're probably right. I don't think I want to go back to Lex, either.]

Atena was about to summon the map she'd been given, before her trainer continued.

[It's bullshit, anyway. Nothing's changed. We'll train, we'll beat Clair, and we'll prepare for the Indigo Plateau.]

She hesitated, before reluctantly decided not to show him the map. Another time would be best. If they were going to be targeted, they'd need the training to prepare anyway. She just hoped, when he was ready to accept what she had, that it wouldn't be too late. Despite her better judgment, and her reservations, she placed her hand over his before he could pick off his scab. His shoulders seemed to relax even more at her touch.

He turned his hand around, and grasped hers in kind. She'd expected it to fluster her, but at the moment, it felt more bitter-sweet than anything. Even if his feelings for her weren't romantic, he still appreciated her company, and her affection. If only to make him feel better, she leaned against him, pressing her cheek against his bicep, cherishing the feel of his hand in hers as they rode the gondola to the top.