...

Nearly a week went by;

Lance and Maya did not speak.

Luckily for Maya, her and Kadabra's production assignments were enough to keep her busy. They had run cameras for a number of events around the region that week, including a local Psychic-type tournament in Saffron, a new Alolan restaurant's opening ceremony in Celadon, and the 20th Anniversary event at the Game Corner. Maya could never tell when the plainclothes G-Men security team were on her, but she knew they had to be watching.

But she didn't even know where to begin with Lance, and this Code that he was bound to.

She tried a number of times to think of something to write him, to think of just the right words to say.

But every time she tried, her eyes would well with the tears; her throat would stutter, her tongue would tie with sorrowing frustration.

Late one night, near the end of this very long week,

Maya lay awake in her bed.

The silence in her apartment was deafening. Though the winds on this blustery night were howling across the buildings, whistling against the doors of her balcony like a Flygon in the fury of its own sable sandstorm.

Curled on her side, her eyes wide with thought, she spotted the closed book of the Code of the Dragon still sitting on her desk where she had left it.

Her brows furrowed; she turned to face the other way.

Her mind thought back to the impressive case of trophies she had found in the Dragon Master's Study, the one overflowing with row after row of achievements from his many wins in battle.

Of course, she thought. Because great battling is what marked the will of a Master, according to the "almighty" Code...

PING!

She shot up in her bed.

Her secure G-Men phone had chimed out, from the depths of the bag that hung from her desk chair.

Kadabra, who had been sleeping in its hovering spot near the door, peeled one eye open.

She checked the clock; just after midnight.

Rising to her feet, she tiptoed over to the chair & fished the phone out from her bag.

Her eyes studied the screen, it's blue light shining up to her face.

Her expression widened; her heart began to race...

A text message.

It was from him.

But there were no words,

Only a single photo.

Of a newly bloomed Vermilion Orchid, standing against the blackened midnight fields of Route 11.

She sighed, peering over to Kadabra softly. It gave her a look of softness; of great and pressing sympathy.

She then peered back over to the book, its stately leather cover & gold embroidery shining in the dim light of the night.

...

The winds off the Vermilion coast were impressively burly tonight, casting harshly through the spears of trees & bending them wildly across the forests of Route 11.

Lance's cape billowed riotously with these winds, his ears growing cold now where he stood at the end of the makeshift battlefield, his body as still as a guarding Golurk.

He faced the West, where the winds were kicking in off the waters of the Vermilion port, his thoughts turning back to the first time he and Maya had met here. The flames, the sparks, the words... It was quite a fateful accident.

Dragonite suddenly landed with a THUD beside him. It gave a soft growl, pointing out to the depths of the forest; it must have seen something on its sky watch.

Lance studied the trees cautiously;

Something was parting through them.

The winds howled wildly and the leaves kicked about; the grass was dancing & undulating in oceanic waves across the field.

The last line of the brush began to rustle and part ways.

His silver eyes grew wide;

And his heart began to drum,

when they locked with Maya's cerulean gaze once again, as she came into view.

She parted through the bushes confidently and alone, wearing her black on black trainers gear: A black moto-jacket and long dark cargo pants. Her hair was tied up and away from her face, but the wind was still throwing about the ponytail, tossing it up and around her head as her glare locked onto him harshly.

Her eyes; they were lined in something new, Lance thought to himself. It was something steeped in anger, and a new daring boldness that left her shoulders standing broad, and her body bracing tall in the face of these violent winds; in the face of the Champion of Kanto.

Gone was the softness from her last little kiss.

His face fell with a hint of grief, his thoughts lined in angst:

She must hate me.

Silence; he didn't know what to say.

He didn't know what to do.

But she had a little plan.

She cut her eyes away from him and began stomping confidently across the battlefield, her clothes whipping with the gusts as they crossed upon her. Stopping at the far edge of the field, opposite to Lance's position, she dropped her hanging sidebag to the ground.

Her stance grew wide and firm, her fists tightening.

She locked eyes with him again, her brows creasing together with an intense and intimidating fury.

Lance's heart was pounding; he had never seen her take such a strong stance, studying her petite little body as it raged against the thrashing of the Vermilion winds.

Her fingers found her belt, where she grabbed at a pokeball.

Squeezing it tensely in her hand, her arm suddenly SHOT out, outstretching the ball before her in a bold presenting challenge to the Champion, her arm holding strong through the black of the breeze.

The red of the ball gleamed in the moonlight, her fingers gripping to it so tightly; her teeth began to grind together where she stood, frozen in the field, their eyes still locked in a standoff.

Lance's face softened again as he digested this image of her, in the challenging stance of battle.

He took in a cold breath, stepping out slowly to the field far across the way.

"No," he called over the howling winds, "I will not battle you."

The anger flashed over her face with this rejection, her teeth still grinding as she wound her elbow back and SHOT the ball out from her hand.

It BURST into a sparkling red beam at the center of the field, bringing forth her Kadabra into the fold of the winds.

"Hssssssssss!" Kadabra raised an angry spoon at the Dragon Master, its new fury catching him off guard as he watched it take an offensive position at the ready on the field, its black eyes locking onto him with a wrath he had never seen out of it before.

Dragonite peered over to its Master in question. Lance shook his head.

"I won't battle you!" Lance called out again, "I don't want to fight!"

His words; they stung Maya so badly.

"Kadabra!" She called out over the gusts, "Psybeam! Now!"

"DABRA!"

With the WHIP of its arm, a great and sparkling purple beam BLASTED out from Kadabra's silver little spoon to SEAR across the grass, just inches in front of Lance's feet in a warning shot.

Lance stood still and strong, pacing his breath to keep the calm, the smell of the burnt grass stinging in his nose now as he subtly inspected the scar the beam had left in the field.

Dragonite snarled loudly, once more looking to Lance for instruction, but with a single hand he denied it again.

He found his footing and peered back over to her, locking with her angry cerulean eyes across the grass.

She had indeed read the Code, Lance thought to himself. Only the Code taught of such a power stance in the heat of a high-stakes battle.

His face fell again as he kept his silver eyes locked onto her own, the horrid thoughts rising to interject loudly in his mind:

I deserve this.

"You deserve to be mad," he began, his cape dancing in the winds, "You deserve to be angry!"

He paused, her expression unchanged, finding his words slowly.

"I know I should have told you sooner. I don't know why I didn't, Maya... I just didn't want what we had to end."

Maya tried not to think on his desperate words, on the sad and brutal honesty laced in his husky voice; because if she did, even for just a moment, her face would shatter and her stance would fall and this battle would simply be over.

So instead, she grit her teeth again, pointing an unwavering finger out to her ace on the field.

"Psychic! Now!"

"DA-BRAH!"

Kadabra's eyes began to glow, its body now surrounded in a purple aura as it levitated higher into the sky. With the rising of its spoon, the psychic energy suddenly BLASTED out from its hovering golden body and encapsulated not Lance, nor Dragonite, but around all other stands of nature in the field: around every swaying branch and every blade of grass, freezing it in a bubble of pure psychic energy that instantly and eerily killed off the winds.

A silence surrounded them...

Lance couldn't stand it, this angry look in Maya's eyes as they gazed upon each other in the silence, in the glow of this rageful purple haze.

Kadabra then focused its energy on the loose debris of the battlefield, the hundreds of leaves and twigs and rocks and sticks of the forest floor now whipping up in the psychic attack as it began swirling around them all with the roaring sound of a freight train.

Lance stepped back, the debris now hurricaning around him, shielding his face & blocking his body with his cape.

With a final BLAST, Kadabra released its hold on the debris & LAUNCHED it out above them all, raining it all down over the paths of Route 11. The ocean winds immediately came ROARING back.

"Maya..." Lance called again over the winds, his voice breaking now, "I know... that I deserve this."

Maya's face began to break too;

She hated that it had to come to this. She hated every second of it.

This hatred; it rose in her chest, before filling over all the lines of her face...

She hated every page of the Code, and every damned tenet and rule and decree. She hated being this victim of circumstance; hated feeling like this lost little girl caught up in the swirl of the Dragon Master's Everstone eyes.

And worst of all, she hated what the Code had done to her Champion's innocence. What his Grandfather had ordered, in the name of justice to the Clan and its completely outlandish traditions, to hurt that sweet little boy... who's adoring little smile never came back.

She fought back the tears; she cried out to the winds:

"Psybeam! Again!"

"DABRA!"

With the LAUNCHING purple beam from its spoon yet again, Kadabra didn't hold back this time: the beam BLASTED right out toward Lance's face, aiming for a target in the space between his brows.

But Lance could only stand there, the beam's light reflecting in his cold silver eyes as it raged and flashed wildly toward him, his arms at his sides, ready to accept this hit; ready to accept this punishment.

"ROAAAR!"

CLANGGGG!

The Psybeam SLAMMED into a new invisible wall!

Lance peered up to find: his Dragonite, now standing valiantly before its Master, it's arms up high in protection. A strange glass-like square of light up in front of its massive orange paws had absorbed the brunt of Kadabra's blow.

The beam finally broke through this wall, though much, much weaker; it knocked Dragonite back a few yards, leaving it sliding backwards into the grass, it's tail bracing against the dirt to remain on its feet.

Maya stopped. Her eyes grew wide.

This protective square of light...

It was Barrier!

But her eyes narrowed in confusion; she didn't think a Dragonite could possibly learn this powerful psychic-type defensive move.

But unbeknownst to Maya, this was the latest technique that Lance had taught his Dragon; a technique he had learned by closely studying her & Kadabra's strong defensive skills and unbreakable bond.

Her eyes met with Lances again. They were now brimming with anger; that last attack was too close for comfort.

"You want me to attack?!" he snarled across the field, "Will that make you feel better?"

He pointed out with command to his Dragon.

"Dragonite!"

He yelled out through the winds,

"Hyper Beam!"

With a bellowing ROAR from the Dragon's lungs, it quickly gathered its sunfire energy behind its terrifying jaws and braced its body to the grass, before BLASTING the beam right out to Kadabra's position in the field.

Maya's voice cried out,

"Reflect!"

But it was no use; the beam COLLIDED dead-on with her ace, sending it FLYING backward in a comet of smoke, now tumbling down into the dirt, knocking the wind right out of it.

"Kadabra, no!"

She raced up to Kadabra where it lay motionless in the field.

She knelt down to it, taking its head in her arms, inspecting its bruises closely.

"Dah...Brah?" it whispered out, looking down at itself with surprise as well that the attack had not caused it to simply black out.

That didn't make sense, Maya thought; a direct Hyper Beam from his Dragonite should have ended this in one shot.

Maya helped her ace to its feet, brushing off the dirt and grass from its fur.

Her eyes peered up to Lance's again, their gaze now locked in a standoff of equal parts anger and despair. But his silver shields were so sharp now; he was done playing games.

"You held back," Maya said incredulously, referring to his Dragon's usually devastating beam, "But I guess I should have expected that from you."

He looked away with the sting.

"I wanted a real battle," she went on, trying to hide the shake in her voice, "But you refuse to give me a fair fight. What are you so afraid of?"

The pain in his eyes; it was overtaken by a hot flash of boiling anger as he took a step into the field, unable to stop the words as they began to detonate on his lips.

"I'm not afraid of anything," he snarled, pointing an accusing finger right out to her, "Especially an undisciplined little girl with zero badges, who never took the League seriously a day in her life!"

Maya froze; her eyes grew round.

The words sunk in.

She swallowed hard.

This plan; it was backfiring.

The tears; they were trying to break through to her face, but she held them in deep, swallowed them down strong as she froze into place. He stood there unmoving, his lungs panting with anger in the cold Vermilion wind with the rage in his chest spreading upon him.

His anger...

His pain...

She didn't mean for this.

She never wanted to hurt him...

She took in a deep new breath,

And finally found her voice.

"I read the Code," her eyes hit the ground softly, "It has hundreds of pages, about how battling makes you stronger. That a Dragon Master shall endure 'battle after battle and victory after victory'. To spend the whole year training for them. And that the glory of these battles is somehow the key to getting stronger."

She took another step toward him now, her voice rising with passion as she called over the winds,

"So why is it, that when two people come together to battle... to fight one another, it makes them stronger,"

Her glowing cerulean eyes locked right onto his own,

"But when they come together... to share with one another,

...to love each other...

...it makes them weak?"

Lance's face; the anger melted away from his silver eyes in an instant.

"Is that what you feel, when you're with me?" her voice began to break now, "Weakness? Because that's not what I feel."

His eyes beamed into her now with an expression of raw exposure; of deep, deep regret, breaking down further with her every next word.

"When I flew with you on Dragonite, that first time. Over all the cities. Over all the lights," Her voice shook as she spoke, "It was amazing. And when you took me into Fuchsia... do you remember? We were the only ones awake."

Her voice fell to a hush now as she began slowly marching toward him.

"And when we were finally alone, in the forest. In the Preserve. When you grabbed me. And you kissed me."

She paused with the rush of the memory, of the pulsing ache in her chest.

"...was it weakness, you were feeling?"

Her eyes dared into him,

a single tear streaming down her face,

"Or was it something else?"

The memories flashed before Lance's eyes:

The wonderment on her face in the lights of the Celadon skyline,

Her beaming smile as he opened the hutch to the trio of dragonborn eggs,

Her back, to the tree,

With his lips, on her lips,

His body invigorated by the emerald flash; empowered by the very taste of her,

By the very presence of her,

Where she stood in the luscious backdrop of the green Safari valley,

With the glowing Fuchsia sunrise encompassing around her...

"No,"

He finally spoke, his voice low and dark in the cold ocean air, steeped with sincerity.

"That wasn't weakness,"

His steely eyes dared back into her with his whisper,

"I had never felt such strength, in my life."

A silent crash of honesty; their eyes remained locked. The wind HOWLED; the trees of Route 11 swayed and bowed with the truth of his words.

And somewhere far across Kanto, inside the Greenhouse Gym of Celadon, a sacred flower finally began to bloom.

"Then why does it have to be like this?" Maya spoke softly with the question, "Why put ourselves through this? Won't we wind up just as angry as that Dragonite we found?"

"I told you," Lance's words were sharp in the reply, "That's not how it's ever supposed to be. That Dragonite was angry because it thought its partner had abandoned it. It didn't realize that the time wasn't right."

"But don't you think it feels that way for the entire rest of the year? 364 days, of keeping that anguish inside?"

"It's anguish is something to be honored," his voice grew sharp again, "Its pain is a credit to its discipline, to its loyalty to its home that it swore to protect."

She shook her head,

she hated every word.

"I'm sorry," he hushed out, "That I didn't tell you sooner. I... didn't want to change what we had."

His eyes; they gazed into hers so deeply now, his voice growing raspy as the memories conjured up again.

"That night at the Preserve. I didn't want that night to end."

Her cerulean eyes; they shined at this.

"But the more time I spent with you," he took a step toward her, "The more obvious it became. That there was something else here. Something more, between us."

Maya nodded slowly, her breath shaking with these words of acknowledgement, as if the weight of this massive secret had been lifted from them both to finally be free into the winds of the night.

But she held in her own words, letting him speak his piece.

"I owe my life, to the Code. Following it has led me to the life I've always wanted. To Championships, to Mastership. To my Elite standing as a trainer."

He gripped his fists tighter as he went on.

"But I've always tried to avoid this part. Avoid any companionship. Any relationship. To avoid the whole idea, of the Longing... because I never wanted to put someone else through that."

His eyes dared into her sharper,

"But I cannot avoid you,

I cannot avoid this."

Her heart; it began to surge.

Her face fell with the thought,

Has he really been alone... all this time?

His gaze broke away from her and found the tossing trees along their secret little battlefield, watching them dance in the Vermilion winds. His thoughts turned to the mighty trees of Blackthorn; to the witnesses of his childhood.

"My Father," he hushed out slowly, "Broke the Code. To be with my Mother."

Maya's eyes grew wide at this revelation, watching the Dragon Master turn to fully face the trees as his voice hushed out to them.

"Because he wanted to have a life with her. Because he loved her, so deeply."

He took a new breath, his black cape billowing in the wind.

"And for that, he was banished from the Dragon Clan," he went on, "Banished from Blackthorn. He was happy just to be with my Mother. And he did not regret. But he was devastated. He was exiled to live without his family. To live with this humiliation, for the rest of his life."

Maya couldn't believe this, her eyes still wide and eager.

His Father... broke the Code?

"He never became a Dragon Master. He gave it all up, to be with her. And to raise me. When I came of age, it was my birthright to return to Blackthorn to begin my training. So they allowed him back into the village for this reason only. But he was not allowed to speak to anyone. Not allowed to train. They treated him, like a curse."

Maya stood silently in disbelief.

He turned back to face her.

"And when my Mother left this earth," he hushed out, "I was all he had left. So he made sure that I took my training seriously. That I always followed the Code. So that I could become the strongest trainer in Blackthorn. The strongest in all of Johto, and Kanto. To become one of the strongest, in the world. And become the Dragon Master that he could never be."

Maya remembered the photo she had found in his Study; the sweet family portrait of happier times, before all of his burdens, of a life once lived.

His eyes gazed into her softly now.

"I can not give up my Mastership. I must follow the Code, as I've done my entire life. Because if I broke it too, it would mean that everything my Father did for me. Everything he sacrificed... would be for nothing."

The heaviness; it dawned over Maya now as she gazed into his silver eyes.

She finally understood the choice they had to make.

This Code that she hated... it had shaped the man before her, despite all the anguish and the pain.

And while it had lead him down a path filled with victory and prestige, of stadiums of cheering fans & legends that followed in his name,

It was a path marred by loneliness.

"I leave this choice, in your hands, Maya." His words were lined in resolve, "I will not force you to endure this. And I would never blame you, if you chose to walk away. Because you deserve better, than me."

His silver eyes shot into her, his voice falling again to its whisper.

"But I don't know how not to think of you."

Their eyes stayed locked; the wind kicked in.

Her face; it was breaking so softly.

She wanted to run to him,

She wanted to hold him...

But instead, she peered down to the grass, watching the blades blur together as the tears began to fall.

"So the Dragons are either alone forever," her voice shook out, "or together for a day?"

He shook his head slowly.

"No," he said softly as he took another step toward her, only feet away from her now, "It's not just one day."

Her tear-filled eyes peered up into him, his garnet sprigs of hair tossing in the midnight breeze.

"When two Dragons come together, for that very first time," he hushed out, "When they finally break the barriers between them. It is eternal. It is sacred. And there is no going back. Because after knowing them, and knowing their love. Their life before feels like an empty shell. It may be once a year in the flesh. But it is not just one simple day. It is all days. Because they become bonded, for life. Their two souls, become one kindred spirit."

His words echoed in Maya's ears as she remembered the passage from the Code, from the final lines of the Creed of the Sacred Union:

And two single embers do become one fire,

And two single souls do become one flame,

Never again to part.

His steely eyes shined beneath the light of the Vermilion moon, their brimming little witness to all their days.

She took a deep, heavy sigh.

"I just need some time, to think." She hushed out, peering down to the grass again.

He nodded slowly.

Kadabra suddenly appeared in a teleporting FLASH just beside her, her little sidebag cradled in its arms.

Maya took the bag from her ace, slowly taking a few steps out to the field between them, and placed it gently in the grass.

She then backed up again, resting a hand on Kadabra's shoulder, turning back to face her Dragon Master where he stood on the rinds of Route 11.

And her cerulean eyes locked with his one last time for the night.

FLASH!

In a white cast of light, Kadabra teleported them away.

Lance stood there in the dark, alone again.

Empty. Hollow.

He walked over to the little bag and picked it up off the grass, reaching inside of it to reveal: the stolen Code of the Dragon.

He looked it over softly, its gilded edges gleaming beneath the watching Kantonian moon.

...

...

Thanks for reading! Here's a sneak peak for this Wednesdays chapter, entitled, "Confidant":

"Lance told me you follow the Code too," Maya hushed quietly, "Do you... are you... with anyone? I just don't understand how you make it work."

Clair's brilliant blue eyes widened with a new little smile. She quickly pulled out her Rotom Phone and after a few taps at the keyboard, she brought up a photo on the screen. She placed it on the table and slid it across for Maya to see.

There on the screen was Clair, her face positively bursting with the widest smile, and a man with his arms wrapped around her with pride. He wore a stylish, edgy-looking hoodie lined with white fabric dragon-like teeth along the collar, and a matching edgy orange hat. His eyes; they were the brightest aqua blue that Maya had ever seen, and were slyly gazing down upon Clair with reverence.

Maya recognized him; it was Raihan, the Dragon Gym Leader of Galar!

"That's my Raihan," she said with pride.