Author's Note: This is part two of the Saviors series. In order to understand what this story is about, make sure to read part one first.

Icirrus Arc: For a Visit

The storm had finally subsided and the girls were finally capable of continuing on their way to Icirrus. "Hm... Oh, by the way..." Mari seemed to remember something and turned towards her friend. "While we're here, why don't we pay Maki another visit? I promised her I would, after all",
"Ah... Now that you bring it up... That's right." Jacky nodded. "We should probably get this done in a hurry. After all, Route 7 isn't far, so a little detour won't kill us.",
"Exactly." The two of them booted off to the Weldins' house on Route 7 and Mari knocked on the door. "Flaaa?" A voice filtered through to them from inside, and when the door opened, a small, pink ball of wool peeked up at the two. "Hello, Mareep. Oh..." Mari leaned down to it and petted its head. "I'm sorry. Flaaffy. You've grown, haven't you?" The Pokémon nodded proudly and giggled.

"Mari... my dearest, hello!" Lyra, who had opened the door, smiled brightly upon seeing her niece and gave her a tight hug. "It's so good to see you...",
"Hi, auntie." Mari chuckled and hugged her back. "Yeah, we were in the vicinity, so we figured we could drop by before we move on.",
"Where are you headed?",
"Icirrus. We're going to take a small break there before we continue on to Opelucid.",
"Ah, I see..."

"Flaaffy, where are you?" Maki skipped down the stairs to the hallway, brush in hand. When she reached the doorstep and spotted her cousin, she beamed. "Mari! You're back!" She happily stormed past her Pokémon and her mother and fell around her neck. "And you're okay!",
"Woah, slow down!" Mari laughed breathlessly, as she had just been released from another lung-squeezing hug. "Yeah, I'm perfectly fine, don't worry.",
"I'm so happy to see you again!" She didn't want to let go of her at all. Jacky noticed that the young girl didn't look as pale and skinny as she had when they had freed her from Hypno's clutches. She looked healthier.

"So, you've been training with your Mareep, I see?" Mari inquired, refraining from making a face even though Maki was currently squeezing her chest like a rubber ball.
"Yes, I did!" Maki replied proudly.
"...Just like that?",
"Just like that! It was a beastly effort to even get Mareep to move a few feet outside my arms without standing rigid with fear. But the more we practiced, the stronger and braver it got!" Now she did let go of Mari and patted Flaaffy proudly. "And it was really fun! Now I know what you're doing all the time! It's super cool! Although I don't think I'm cut out to be a badass superhero trainer like you are."
Mari laughed while the giant Centiskorch of embarrassment crawled up and down her spine. "Badass superhero trainer...? Now, you're clearly exaggerating...",
"I'm not! I caught up on everything that happened while I was, uhm... gone." She shortly cast her eyes down. "You won the Pokémon World Tournament's Junior Cup! It was amazing! Your victory sent goosebumps up and down my entire body! And, I mean... you saved me... and the Sinnoh Region as well!",
"...is there anybody in this world who doesn't know about that...?",
"I fear not!",
"Oh brother..."

"How about a cup of tea?" Lyra asked, interrupting Maki's fawning attack. "We could sit in the garden",
"Yeah, why not." Mari nodded in agreement.
"Great. The usual flavor, dear?",
"The usual flavor.",
"What about you?" She looked at Jacky. "What kind of flavors do you prefer?",
"Uhm... something sweet would be great", Mari's friend answered politely.
"Oh, you HAVE to try my favorite!" Mari clapped her hands. "Oran Berry Muffin Tea! It's amazing.",
"Oran Berry... Muffin... Tea...? I've never heard of that kind before.",
"Well, it's pretty special because there's only one brand that makes these, but they're freaking good! They have multiple kinds of these special kind of flavors. Caramel Applepie, for example. Rawst Berry Cheesecake. Pecha Berry Panacotta.",
"Those sound... adventurous... But... sure, let me try one.",
"Alright then. Please wait." Lyra smiled and headed off to the kitchen to boil the water.
"Oh, I know! I'll make some snacks for you!" Maki announced and followed her aunt.

They waited until the tea was ready and listened to the little birds chirping in the trees. Maki soon after carried a tray with cookies and berry sandwiches to the table in the garden. "Freshly baked cookies and berries from the forest!",
"You really made an effort." Mari leaned back. "Say, Maki... How are you feeling? Are you okay so far...? After the incident, I mean.",
"W-Well... I'm... I'm attending therapy", the girl admitted. "I'm... still having terrible nightmares sometimes... And... I was afraid of going into the forest for a while, but I kept reminding myself that Hypno is no longer around and... well, then I thought of trying to train Mareep as a way to beat the fear! After all, when my Pokémon is strong enough to fend off possible threats, I won't have to be scared anymore, right?",
"Right." Mari smiled. "You're brave, Maki.",
"Hehe..."

Lyra put the tea cups on the tray and sat down with the girls. "Dig in."
Jacky excitedly grabbed a cookie and tasted it. "Woah, these are yummy.",
"I borrowed Mom's recipe book because I really wanted Mari to have her favorite cookies when she got here! I waited every day and the wait was not in vain!",
"So you've literally been making these each single day?" Mari inquired with a smile.
Maki nodded. "That's right!",
"Haha, okay... Thanks, Kiki.",
"Kiki?" Jacky looked at Mari in confusion.
"Yep. Kiki. That's what I used to call her when we were young.",
"And Mari was Riri for me!" Maki added. Jacky had to laugh. "Riri...? Hahah... Oh dear... That's a cute nickname for someone like her.",
"What's that supposed to mean?" Mari threw a questioning side glare at her.
"Ah, uh... Nothing! Nothing at all!" Her friend quickly and defensively waved her hands around, which caused Mari to raise an eyebrow at her.

"It's always so nice and quiet here...", Maki said. "Sometimes I talk to trainers who pass by. Most of them are really nice!",
"That so?" Mari crossed her legs. "Made any acquaintances?",
"No... not yet. Most of them just say hi and talk about the weather before they move on. Have you?",
"Oh, a handful." She nodded. "Most of them from the tournament.",
"That's great! Aaaaand... have you gotten yourself a boyfriend by now?",
"H-huh?!" She turned red in an instant. "What kind of question is that?",
"Well, I'm just curious! Did you?",
"..." Mari sighed quietly and covered her face with her hands. "W-well... Yeah...",
"Really? What's he like? Is he hot?"
Jacky almost choked on her tea as she tried not to laugh at that. "Right, Mari, do you think he's hot?",
"Not you too..." she grumbled and bit her lip. "Well, I would say he doesn't look TOO bad...",
"That's a vague answer..." Maki mumbled disappointedly and pouted.
"I'm not obligated to go into detail. It's nothing otherworldly, really. He's just a nice guy who we happened to meet on our journey and we get along quite well.",
"Well, it wasn't always like that", Jacky chimed in and grinned. "Actually, at the beginning, she would yell at him a lot-",
"QuIeT!" Mari rammed her elbow into her ribs and Jacky winced. "Ow!"

After a while, Mari looked at her Xtranceiver and got up. "It's 4 pm. We gotta go now.",
"Ooh, already?" Maki pulled a sad face. "Too bad...",
"Well. We have to cross Twist Mountain to get to Icirrus, so we can't afford to take our sweet time", her cousin apologized.
"Well, true... At least I got to see you again.",
"I'll be sure to come back sometime.",
"Promise?",
"Promise.",
"Good! And don't you dare break it! See you next time!",
"So long!" A hug and a wave later, Mari and Jacky were back on route.

"Alright! On to Twist Mountain then!" Mari said as they walked the rest of the way there, but she seemed concerned. Jacky noticed that. "What's with that face of yours?",
"Nothing. I just wonder... How do you think Jayden will react when he learns the truth?",
"Hopefully, he won't run away and think it's a lie...",
"I don't think so... He's not the type of guy to do that.",
"I guess he'll need a while to digest it...",
"Yeah... I just hope he's gonna be okay..."

Soon, Twist Mountain loomed before them. They entered a cave that led into it and looked around to get an impression of what they were dealing with here. The whole mountain looked like a single mine, and it was quite gloomy inside. They could barely see anything, but Mari quickly solved that problem by asking her Combusken to light the darkness up with a flame. "Here's a sign", Jacky said. "Direction of Icirrus is this way. I hope there will be more signs like these... this place looks like we couldn get lost quite quickly."

They followed the signposted way and soon lost their orientation in this system of cave walls and stone paths. It felt like they were constantly walking in circles and it looked the same everywhere. After a while, which seemed like an eternity to them, it became within the cave. "Hey! We're getting close to the exit, I think!" Jacky shouted and started running.
"Hey, wait, don't-!" Mari shouted warningly, but didn't have the time to finish her sentence and had to chase after her. Jacky jumped out into the open and suddenly had the deep valley in front of her. "Huh?!" She stopped, stumbling, on the wooden planks that were attached to the slope of the mountain. "What the...?!" She stepped back slowly.

"Yeah, that's why you shouldn't storm out of here like a headless Torchic..." Mari stopped next to her. "One wrong step and you'd go tumble down the mountain like an avalanche." She looked around. "We're on the other side of the mountain. We have to get back down somehow. The sign says go left.",
"We... have to... walk... on these... things...?" Jacky turned pale.
"They're quite stable, so I don't think we'll encounter any issues. Come on." Mari went on ahead, following the wooden boards. Jacky tailed her hesitantly. "I hope we really won't fall...",
"The way is wide enough and they are regularly maintained. They are perfectly safe, otherwise we wouldn't be lead this way. Although... rumor has it that many a worker didn't come back from his day's work here...",
"Stop it, you're really scaring me!",
"Hahah! I'm just kidding!",
"That one wasn't funny!" Jacky followed Mari across the boards, glaring imaginary daggers at her that were ready to stab her in the back.