This isn't the longest chapter of the story, but I still think it's a good length. Also, I want to highlight the milestone we hit the other day: 1,000 views. That means a lot to me, shows that some people are enjoying this. Whether you have been here from the beginning or just stumbled across this story today, thank you. May there be many more thousands.

In other news, I've been having to get used to my new laptop after my old one's trackpad got bashed in. Whoops.

Here's the chapter.

Why would she lie?

That question was likely to haunt my dreams for the foreseeable future. It did not matter that I didn't know who "she" was; it was a frightening piece of information all the same.

Secretary Flowers and I walked to yet another clearing. This one contained what passed for a parking lot in Chilly Waters, though it consisted of sand and gravel rather than asphalt. Only one vehicle was parked in the area: A rather large black limousine that stood out amidst the overall emptiness of the clearing.

"Here's your ride," Flowers told me. "I will come with you into the city. And until we arrive at our destination, you are to speak only when spoken to. Do you understand?"

I nodded. "Yes, sir." It was hard to be anything other than submissive when you were a short quadrupedal creature talking to a human.

"Very well," the secretary replied curtly. "Get in the limo."

I had never ridden in a limousine before. To me, it was the sort of thing you'd expect in the lifestyles of the rich and famous, not some backwater nobody like Lucas Teller. The sleek black vehicle, painted so efficiently that it barely reflected any light, was the most exquisite one I'd ever seen.

"Why are you standing there like that?" Secretary Flowers asked. "Just get in the car and close the goddamn door."

Knowing that it would be unwise to disobey such an official, I clambered into the limousine, where the door shut automatically behind me. And once I was inside…

"Wow" I mouthed quietly.

The vehicle was even more extravagant on the interior than it had been on the exterior. The seats were black leather, the kind that you just know cost a pretty penny to put in there. There were even fancy lights on the ceiling that switched colors every few seconds.

But once I saw the two men on either side of the limo, I wasn't so naive and full of wonder anymore.

These men might have been brothers, perhaps even twins; they were almost identical, with light brown skin and sunglasses. Both were also very muscular, so much so that they might have been able to take a full-grown Pyroar in a fight.

"Are you two Secret Service or something for the Mayor?" I asked.

"Shut up!" Secretary Flowers bellowed as he climbed into the passenger seat. "What did I just tell you, Lucas?"

"Uh…speak only when spoken to?"

"That's right! So be quiet!"

The man behind the wheel switched on the engine, which did not sputter at all as it roared into life (unlike some of the vehicles in Forrest County.) And then the radio turned on.

"Avenged Sevenvulpix, huh?" one of the shaded men said. "You have good taste in music as always, Secretary Flowers."

The blue-haired man frowned. "I do my best, but the music isn't the principal focus of this trip. Take it away, boss."

Before long we were on the road to Fula City, which led into increasingly sparse forest and then onto the coast of the Fula Region.

To put it mildly, it was breathtaking. Giant waves crashed against the tall cliffs bordering the sea, with thickly forested mountains on the other side of the channel. The early afternoon sun sparkled against the pure blue waves.

The scenery may have been stunning, but not every aspect of the ride gave me pleasure. Most importantly, the traffic was bumper-to-bumper, and if not for the driver's insane patience, a fender bender would have been inevitable.

"Goddamn it!" Secretary Flowers exclaimed at one point, banging his fist against the door. "I swear, it might be faster to walk there!"

"Thirty miles, sir?", one of the dark-skinned men asked. "Please do not be so impulsive, boss. Traffic could start moving at any moment."

"It's not a matter of 'could'" Flowers replied sharply. "I understand why it's so congested. A lot of the roads on the island have been closed."

"Then you have no option but to wait until we get there," the other guard pointed out. "I'm afraid there is no faster way."

The novelty of riding in a limo for the first time wore off in no time at all. Within minutes of hitting our first traffic jam, I was tempted to fall asleep. I might have been able to, in fact, if not for the stupid horns.

I swear to Arceus, those horns were honking a mile a minute, and they were absolute hell on my sensitive ears. I would have given anything to see a bird's-eye view of this highway, just to laugh at how insane the situation was. At least, I would have been laughing were I not stuck here.

"That's it!" Secretary Flowers exclaimed. "I'm getting out!"

"Don't you dare!" the driver snapped briskly. It occurred to me that this was the first time I'd heard him say even a word.

"But we haven't moved half an inch in ten minutes. And I'm sure new cars are still getting on the highway! This is getting ridiculous."

Throwing my earlier caution to the wind, I decided to switch up the topic. "Who were you talking about, Secretary Flowers?"

Flowers was probably so shocked to hear me speak that he didn't even chastise me for doing so. But he still didn't sound pleased with me.

"It doesn't matter," he muttered. "You'll find out when we get there."

"I think I have a right to know," I replied bluntly. "It's my life."

Ferguson: Mr. Teller, did you truly believe that you had a "right to know" when you were in that limousine with Secretary Isaac Flowers?

Defendant: Maybe. It's been a year since then. I can't quite remember what I had in mind.

Ferguson: You seem to have a good memory for everything else. Moving on, how much did you suspect during the ride? Did you have any strong feelings as to whom the secretary was referring to?

Defendant: I did. Kind of. I mean, I probably assumed it was probably Janelle. I can't remember.

Ferguson: That's a whole lot of "probably", Mr. Teller.

Defendant: Well, I can't be 100% sure. How can you be 100% sure what you had for dinner a year ago today? It's just like that.

Ferguson: Okay, let's move along. You suspected Janelle Wilson was in Fula City. By all accounts, you two did not get along well on your first date. So why did you go with Secretary Flowers?

Defendant: He gave me no choice.

Ferguson: But making you go somewhere against your will - that's kidnapping, Mr. Teller. Do you realize what sort of accusation you just made?

Defendant: It didn't feel like kidnapping to me. It seemed like the right thing to do. I didn't fight.

Ferguson: With your penchant for breaking the law, if you had to do it again, would you make the same decision?

Defendant: That's not important.

After what must have been a couple of hours, we arrived at the city limits, where the first thing I noticed was that the sign saying WELCOME TO FULA CITY!, complete with exclamation point, was still fully intact.

Unfortunately, that was the only part of the city that was still fully intact.

Fula City had clearly once been beautiful. Buildings in a veritable rainbow of colors had stood from the edge of the mountains to the edge of the sea, with plenty of public parks amidst all of the offices and apartments.

Alas, I use the past tense here for a reason. What had evidently once been one of the cleanest cities in this world now looked like a battlefield. I'm not kidding, it was like there had been lots of urban warfare within the city limits.

I must have been tearing up, because one of the guards glanced at me with a pitying expression.

"You see a lot of terrible things when you're a Secret Service officer," he told me, rubbing his forehead. "Assassinations, attempted assassinations, bomb threats, and more. But you have to keep on trucking, no matter what you witness."

"Yeah, but nothing like this" I responded, furrowing my brow. "It's just…who did this?"

"Some would call it an act of Arceus" Secretary Flowers muttered from the passenger seat. "We don't have any better way to explain it, other than through the disappearance of Zeraora."

I vaguely remembered Chief Leopold mentioning that this morning, but in all honesty, so much had happened since then that I'd almost lost that memory.

"So we have to find Zeroara", I said, "and bring them back."

Flowers shook his head, turning to face the rest of us as much as his seatbelt would allow.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple," he replied. "In ancient times, when Legendary or Mythical Pokemon vanished without a trace, it would take years if not decades to bring them back. Sometimes they just needed to sleep for some time."

"Who needs to sleep for a decade straight?"

"Time doesn't pass for Legendary Pokemon the same way it does for mortals" Flowers explained. "But that's enough about that. What matters now is that you're reunited with your girlfriend."

At the G-word, I felt steam be ejected from my nose and ears.

"If you're talking about Janelle, she's not my girlfriend" I snapped, narrowing my eyes. "In fact, I don't have a girlfriend. I never have, and I probably never will."

"Not with that attitude, Lucas," one of the guards said in a taunting tone. "You never know what might happen."

"Whatever" Flowers snapped. "Anyway, Lucas Teller, here we are in the Financial District of Fula City. Why don't you step out of the limo and have a look?"

I did as I was told, this time without hesitation. And I had a look at the city.

We were standing in a square park roughly a hundred meters in each direction. On one side was what looked like it had once been a house of worship.

"First Church of Arceus - Fula Diocese", one of the guards muttered quietly. "Terrible, terrible, terrible. An important cultural heritage site - a war crime, had this disaster occurred as a result of conflict. But there's no one to hold accountable here - how do you punish a God?"

I didn't have an answer other than to give a long, sad look at the ruins of this cultural site.

Secretary Flowers patted me on the back. I was about to object to being treated like a pet, but I didn't have time to, for Flowers then pointed me in the opposite direction, at the most massive pile of rubble I'd ever seen.

"This was once the tallest building in all of Fula City," Flowers said. "It was an office complex, where many of the biggest lawyers and bankers in the world worked. And now it's just rubble and debris."

A number of emergency vehicles stood around the heap of rubble that had once been the office tower, and the siren of an ambulance sounded as its vehicle zipped by, a stark contrast to the "speed" at which we'd traveled on the highway.

"That's really bad" I said, not knowing what other words to utter. With my head in my paws, I tried not to be overcome with grief at the thought of all those innocent people, well-respected professionals, losing their lives in such a horrifying manner.

"Yes" one of the guards concurred. "The retrieval efforts shifted from rescue to recovery a few hours ago - I got the news alert on my phone. This building collapsed yesterday, during one of the aftershocks."

I gasped. And in the midst of all this tragedy, I hated to ask this question. I knew it would make me sound insensitive at best, absolutely malicious at worst. But it was knocking on the edge of my mouth, like someone rapping on a door in an attempt to be allowed inside.

"Was Janelle in the building when it collapsed?"

Flowers frowned at me. "You just said she wasn't your girlfriend."

"That doesn't mean I want her to die!" I all but wailed. "She doesn't deserve that, no matter how much we might disagree!"

Slowly, Secretary Flowers nodded. "Reportedly, she appeared on the top floor of the tower, where nobody works. And when the aftershock occurred, so powerful that even this building couldn't withstand it, the structure toppled over."

"Oh no" I said softly, not being able to accept the truth. Janelle was almost certainly dead - who could survive a fall from such a great height?

"Well, the good news is that she survived the fall. The bad news is that - ".

"What is it? Will she never walk again? Is she in a coma or something? Oh no, this can't be happening!"

I was well aware that by sounding like I cared so much about Janelle, I'd only make the others more suspicious that I had, um, feelings for her. But that hardly mattered at this point.

Secretary Flowers sighed. "Well, you'll see the bad news once we get you to the hospital to visit her. Or, well, what's left of the hospital."

I remembered that while I was growing up, one of the reasons my parents cited for never wanting to travel abroad was that the quality of care at the hospitals wouldn't necessarily meet US standards. Perhaps the hospital I was going to visit now would have given them both heart attacks.

"Okay" I said, trying not to sniffle. "Let's go…go to the hospital. Let's visit her."

And then it was back to the limousine; this time, only for a short ride across town. Nonetheless, it took at least ten minutes to cover a distance that might have only taken three without traffic.

Not only were many of the streets blocked by debris, but the sirens of emergency vehicles also blared nonstop. Every so often, the limo would have to pull over to the side, since ambulances always have the right of way.

"So how did she survive?" I asked during this drive.

Secretary Flowers grimaced. "That's related to the bad news. I'm afraid I can't tell you that yet."

As curious as I was, as ravenous for answers as I may have been, I knew better than to get on this man's bad side. If he wasn't going to hand over the information, then there was no reason to continuously beg him for it.

We arrived at the hospital eventually, at which point comparisons to a war zone seemed even more apt. The lobby was crowded with stretchers containing people and Pokemon, many of them with grievous wounds from the rubble.

My stomach lurched as I saw some of the injuries. I won't describe all of them, just so that you can keep your lunch down. Because if I did provide the gory details, you wouldn't want to read any further.

Anyway, the woman at the front desk, whom I assumed was the hospital's receptionist, kept barking out orders at both the doctors and the patients. When she saw us, she looked very tempted to facepalm.

"Would you really come in here and take up valuable resources like that?" the receptionist enquired threateningly. "It's like, Arceus, we've got enough critical patients as is, and now we have people coming in with just flesh wounds!"

"Actually, ma'am, we're not here because of an injury. We're here to visit a patient." That was one of the guards speaking, and he didn't take off his shades.

The receptionist's brusque manner did not change. "Due to the overwhelming influx of patients, visitors are not allowed at this hospital or any other in Fula City. I hope you can understand that and respect our rules."

Just then, Secretary Flowers stepped out from behind his guards. It was like a scene from a superhero movie, where the main character reveals his presence, sending out his cape to billow in the wind.

"Here's my business card," Flowers told the receptionist. "We're here so that Lucas the Litleo, Lucas Teller, can visit a patient."

The receptionist scratched her chin as she looked over the small object, roughly the size of a credit card, that she'd been handed. Overall, she didn't look pleased, though this may simply have been from the stress.

"Secretary Isaac Flowers…you work for the Governor of the Fula Region, do you not?"

Flowers nodded, bobbing his bright blue hair up and down. "That is correct, ma'am. And this is official business."

"Very well, then. I can make an exception for you four. Except for one of you, you're only to be allowed fifteen minutes by her side. And that's non-negotiable. Janelle Wilson needs rest."

If I'm being honest, I would have been relieved to learn that we wouldn't be allowed to visit Janelle at all. Not doing so would be tantamount to running away from my problems, yes, but sometimes it's just not worth it to face things head-on.

But now, we'd have to face each other. It may have been less than two days in real time since our "date" (seriously, how?), but I already would have been fine with forgetting it had happened at all.

And then there was another nagging mystery, one that would consume me if I didn't get it answered.

"Secretary Flowers, how did the receptionist know we were talking about Janelle? There are probably hundreds of patients in this hospital."

Flowers didn't even hesitate in his response.

"The receptionist saw the interview, she has to have seen it. It went viral, after all. Probably the biggest news story of the last few days."

"Wait, what interview?"

To think that they'd been hiding such an insane secret from me for the last several hours was just unreal. I wanted to believe it was literally unreal, but a viral video isn't the sort of thing you get away with lying about.

With every footstep down the hallway, we got closer to Janelle's ICU room on the third floor. Each step served as a chance to back out, to run away from the truth.

But running away from my problems didn't mean they weren't there. And I hated to refer to Janelle as a "problem."

"Wait, so how much do you guys know?" I asked quietly, hoping the delirious man lying on a gurney with an infected leg wound didn't hear me.

"About Janelle?" Secretary Flowers responded with a question of his own.

"Yes," I replied. "How did you learn about our past?"

"Well, apparently she met you on Tinder," Flowers said. "I've heard that's a sort of dating app in your world, and a pretty…ah, mediocre one at that."

"We more or less met each other. One week before our dinner together. Before then, I'd never heard of Janelle Wilson."

"For someone you've only known for a week", one of the Secret Service guys replied, "you sure seem to care a lot about her. What gives?"

"That's enough!" a nurse from one of the adjacent rooms exclaimed, stepping into the corridor as she did so. "Please be quieter in the hallway! Litleo, Lucas, whatever your name is, you may visit Janelle Wilson for fifteen minutes. The rest of you won't get a chance to visit - we have rules here in this hospital, and you guys just forfeited your right to benefit from them."

Then, turning to me, the nurse said, "Lucas Litleo -".

"My last name is Teller, not Litleo."

"Janelle Wilson's room is down the hall and to the left. She may be asleep when you arrive, in which case I would make as little noise as possible. Fifteen minutes - make them count."

I didn't waste any time. I followed the nurse's directions to the correct ICU room, past several patients lying on gurneys. The walls of the hospital were slightly cracked, but the building overall didn't seem as heavily damaged as the rest of the city.

The ICU room I'd been directed to was simple in appearance. Though I'd never stayed overnight at a hospital, I assumed that this is what such a room could be expected to look like - sterile, with machines on one side of the bed that contained wires attached to the patient.

I approached the bed softly, with significant trepidation. I didn't want to wake Janelle up if she was sleeping - I cared enough to allow her what she needed to recover. Still, I needed to see her, to know she was okay.

Secretary Flowers mentioned bad news earlier. Please don't tell me she's permanently disabled as a result of this - I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

As soon as I reached the far end of Janelle's hospital bed, I realized another problem: I couldn't see over the guardrails. So I stood on my hind legs and looked at the patient lying in bed.

The patient was a female Litleo covered in bandages. Her eyes were closed, but it was hard to tell how deep her slumber was. Her chest rose and fell gently, with each rise and fall resulting in a beep from the nearby heart monitor.

In the split second it took me to process all of this, I nearly fainted. I couldn't deal with this new reality; I just couldn't.

How could Janelle have become a Litleo?

Ferguson: To this day, Mr. Teller, do you know how Janelle Wilson became a Litleo?

Defendant: I…I can't say that, Your Honor.

Ferguson: Why not?

Defendant: There are certain things I just couldn't allow myself to believe at the time. For instance, was I responsible for her disappearance from the human world?

Ferguson: How did you know she was no longer in the human world?

Defendant: I had a dream…and no, not like that old speech. I saw what happened to Janelle's parents once she was gone. And it didn't look pleasant.

Ferguson: Please explain this dream sequence. It sounds like some New Age mythology that doesn't work when it's scrutinized by reality. It doesn't even make sense on paper.

Defendant: There are some things that just can't be explained, Your Honor. I don't pretend to know it even now.

I'm not sure how many minutes passed as I sat in the chair next to Janelle's bed. Although it was probably longer than my allotted fifteen minutes, it seemed that the nurse was overlooking the guideline she'd made me follow.

And I don't know whether to laugh or cry about that.

Eventually I decided that I'd better leave the room. I needed to give Janelle some privacy - if I were somehow responsible for her ordeal, the least I could do would be to leave her the hell alone.

I was just about to step through the door when I heard a low moan.

"Janelle? Is that you?" I blurted out, whipping around to face the bed.

I jogged back over to the bedside and stood against the railing once more. And sure enough, her eyes were open.

"Uh…hello" she groaned softly, blinking as she glanced at me.

"Hey" I said quietly. "It's Lucas."

Janelle gasped. "Lucas?", she exclaimed with as much energy as she could muster. "The one I went to dinner with at Altomare's?"

"Guilty as charged."

"I just don't get it," she said. "As if it's not crazy enough to end up in a different world, to have a different body…now my Tinder date is in this new world with me! How did this all happen?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again."

Janelle grumbled a decent amount. Then she said, "This is just not real. Please tell me it's not real."

"Unless we're all in a simulation for some reason, it's real," I told her. "I hate to break it to you."

"You're not helping," she muttered.

My better judgment told me that it would probably be best to leave right now. To come back another day, when Janelle could be more clear-headed. Certainly it wasn't a good idea to relitigate everything that had occurred the other night.

But if you must know anything about me, it's that I don't always act logically.

"Do you remember that kid at the restaurant?" I asked her. "The one who…".

"That boy who asked his mommy if the lightning storm was Zeraora?" Janelle scoffed. "Yes, I remember that all too well. What about him?"

"Well, I didn't wake up in the same building as you did. In fact, I wasn't in the city at all."

"You're more of a nerd than I am, Lucas," she said. "I don't know this world at all. I don't know what the city's even called -".

"Fula City" I replied. "It's called Fula City."

"Huh. Sounds like somewhere in Hawaii. But this clearly isn't Hawaii, is it?"

"Nope. The water's far too cold. In fact, the place I swam to from the dinghy was called Chilly Waters. What a creative name."

Janelle shook her head, an action that appeared to cause her great pain. At that moment, I felt a pang of guilt for having pushed her so far in this conversation.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I just can't do this anymore right now. I can't."

"It's okay," I assured her. "I can come back and visit tomorrow if you'd like."

For a moment, I thought she would yell at me. I fully expected Janelle to exclaim, in the form of a violent tirade, that I was the very last individual she wanted to talk to. That would have been easier to take than what she actually said.

"You don't have to," she told me softly. "But…you can if you want to. Just know that I might need some time to process it all. If you'll give me that space, that would be great."

I sighed, stepping back from her bed. "I'll do that. Whatever you need."

Janelle snorted. "There's no need to act so chivalrous, Lucas. You don't have to act like you must give me everything. That's not how friendships work."

"So you consider us friends?"

Those words forced themselves out of my mouth, just like a clown in one of those wind-up toys. I was about to clamp a paw over said orifice when Janelle chuckled.

"Maybe, Lucas. Maybe."