Xander couldn't stop pacing back and forth in front of the police station. The Litten was lost in his own doubts for much longer than anyone reasonably should be, and would second guess himself every time he stopped in front of the door. If any Pokémon happened to look at him– Xander would quickly pretend to be on his merry way, walking to nowhere in particular until he had the chance to swivel back around to the station.

Xander knew he'd have to confess some pretty serious personal information if he wanted any help digging up his past. Discussing one's own amnesia was a distressing enough activity in its own right, but Xander had no idea how the police would react to this type of information. And with Melrose now in school, he was tasked with doing it alone.

With nowhere else to turn, Xander knew his personal quest started with opening that door. If Xander didn't take care of this today, he would just psyche himself out until the end of time. The Litten took a deep breath in– then slowly let it out.

"Alright, here goes nothing," Xander muttered to himself as he finally nudged the door open with a hesitant paw. He slowly made his way inside and met the gaze of Officer Jennifer, who looked up from her paperwork and smiled.

"Ah, Xander. Good morning." The Aranine stopped reading the documents below her and scooted the small stack of papers to the side. "How can I help you today? Everything alright?"

Xander mustered a smile for her as he made his way to the front desk. It was comforting to know Jennifer had remembered his name, and also didn't ask why he was pacing around outside. Xander hoped she just failed to notice him out there. "Sorry to bother you, but I wanted to let you know I got my money back from Nickit."

"Wait, what?" The Arcanine stood up from her seat, and Xander placed the bag of coins on the desk as proof. Jennifer's eyes widened. "I'd be impressed, but I'm more-so concerned."

"Don't worry, everything turned out fine. The thief snuck in with a few others to steal something from Red Academy. I drove them off with the help of another Pokémon, and Nickit dropped the bag after he turned-tail and ran. I've already opened it up and counted; money's all there." That was a half truth, Xander wasn't exactly sure what each coin was worth… so Icarus had to help him count. He would have asked Melrose, or even Gloria, but Xander wasn't exactly sure who he was ready to talk about the encounter with.

Jennifer grabbed the crime log, which Xander recognized from his last visit, and started to write a few things down in a new entry. "Thanks for letting me know, kid. I trust you, but I'll also have to run an investigation on the matter. I especially need to bring this up to R.E.D.'s Guildmaster and Captain Rosaline. Thieves like that shouldn't have even been able to sneak onto the property…" Jennifer sighed as she rubbed her forehead with a paw. "This adds a whole new chapter to what was just a little mugging."

Xander's ears flattened against his head. The Litten really didn't want the Headmaster to find out about this, but Xander supposed Zephyr needed to know about a breach in security whether he liked it or not. Xander rubbed the back of his head as he watched Jennifer continue to massage her own scalp. "Would it be out of line for you to imply Red Academy needs upgraded security?"

Jennifer sighed as she turned her head towards an adjacent wall. "Believe it or not, this same band of thieves were reported to have broken into Castle Drakkenburg itself. As you can imagine, the Castle of His Majesty is guarded pretty tightly. We suspect Team Outlier has methods to get into places undetected…" She huffed to herself. "But, don't worry too much about it. Seems they never actually get away with anything." The Arcanine laughed dryly.

"If you say so…" Xander mumbled while looking up at the officer with a frown.

Jennifer closed the log book before giving Xander a coy look. "But, I can't imagine this sort of thing being what made you look so anxious when entering the station. That's not the only reason you came here, is it?"

To avoid showing how stricken he was by being called out like that, Xander grabbed his money off the counter and placed it back in the satchel Gloria and Remmy lended to him. "Yes, you're right. I just don't know how to talk about it, I guess."

The police officer gave Xander a motherly smile, a strangely soft expression for an officer of the law to be making at him. "I'm all ears if you have something you want to tell me. It's my job to help out folks, after all."

The kind expression on her face helped Xander feel a little better, but the Litten still tucked his head into his chest. The golden necklace around his throat choked him slightly, but Xander didn't care– he just wanted to hide his face away. This was a mistake. I should just leave. There's no way she'll believe me. "Actually, nevermind, I should just–"

"Xander," Jennifer sat back down in her chair. "If you can face a band of thieves, then you can work up the courage to tell me what else is going on. Can't you?"

Xander looked back up at the large Fire Type, and the both of them briefly connected through eye-contact. The Litten shrunk back into himself. What was it that made talking to Jennifer so intimidating, but not facing that Nickit on his own? Or, what about jumping into action when Melrose was in danger– when they met at Nightshade Grove? Xander performed the same breathing exercise as before, then braced himself for the reveal.

"About a week ago now, I woke up in the middle of a Mystery Dungeon with amnesia." Jennifer's eyes widened, but she stayed quiet– allowing Xander to continue. "A few things came fairly naturally to me, but I don't remember anything about this kingdom… or even myself."

"I see." Jennifer nodded her head succinctly.

"So, when you started to talk about record keeping the other day, it made me think that maybe… there could be records of me somewhere? I haven't told this to many Pokémon, but I really need help. I don't want to keep feeling like a mystery."

Jennifer mulled things over for a second, tracing a claw along her desk. As Xander started to worry that she was doubting him, the Arcanine gave a slow nod. "It certainly isn't impossible, just difficult." Her ear flicked as she stood back up and walked over to one of the cabinets, opening it carefully and grabbing the metal basket with her mouth. She placed the paper filled basin on the desk and skimmed them over, searching for a particular document. "Sorry, give me a second. None of the Magnemite are here right now."

Xander tilted his head to the side. "How come?"

"I sent Percy out to practice patrols, but I can't let him do it on his own quite yet. Ah– here it is." Jennifer pulled out a paper from the middle of the pile. "This is sort of like a permission slip. The two of us will fill this out, then I'll mail it to the Prime Minister. It's necessary to request special business with him."

Xander's stomach tightened. "The Prime Minister? Hold on– it's not that important!"

Jennifer gave the little Pokémon a stern glare coupled by a playful smirk. "Uh, actually, it's a pretty big deal. What if you're an outlaw on the run, who just so happened to get bonked on the head and forget everything?" She held her leer for a few moments, but let up when Xander actually started to tremble. "Sorry, sorry! I was joking! Took that one a bit too far, yeah? Noted."

Xander exhaled slowly. "It's fine…"

"Anyways, important or not, Prime Minister Aster has the biggest collection of records in all Constella. If there's something that shows who you were before you forgot everything out there, it would be in Aster's possession."

"Still, that makes me pretty nervous…"

"I can specify in the letter that the two of us should go through the records together? Aster's a pretty stand out Prime Minister, but I can see why you might be uncomfortable with going alone."

"I'd… like that a lot, actually. Thank you." Xander smiled once again at the Police Arcanine. She smiled back before starting to fill out the document, and Xander peered over the desk to see if he could read the upside down text. "Anything I need to sign or fill out?"

"Yeah, one sec–" Jennifer used her claw tip dipped in ink to write a few things down and check a few boxes. She then dipped a few of her paw pads into the ink to leave a signature at the bottom of it. "There we go," the Arcanine turned the paper around so that Xander could sign it.

Xander could now get a better look at the document, and tilted his head when seeing what Jennifer had just signed. "Uh, it says that your signature is to confirm I left mine."

"Pfft, yeah. It's fine, I know you're gonna sign it." Jennifer chuckled. "Don't worry about it."

Xander shrugged and dipped his paw in the ink before pressing it down on the paper.

"All set then. I'll write a letter and get this delivered A.S.A.P., okay? And, don't worry about coming to the station. I'll go fetch you when I receive a letter back." Jennifer slid the paper to the other side of the desk and shook her paw so the ink on it would dry and not make a mess. "Can I ask you a few questions about this?"

Xander smiled sheepishly, "I was sort of expecting you to question me already, so go ahead."

"Well, you said you woke up in a Mystery Dungeon. This creates a possibility that you were a wild or twisted Pokémon… However, if you were a wild Pokémon, you would remember being one. Same goes for if you were civilized before and then twisted by the distortion… so, be honest with me. You don't remember anything at all?"

Xander shook his head no, even if that was technically a lie. He did know one thing about himself, but Xander really wasn't feeling confident enough to share with Officer Jennifer that he was certain he wasn't a Litten. "I don't remember anything about myself before I woke up. It even took me a while to recall my own name."

"Alright then. One more question, just so I can make sure. You woke up in the Mystery Dungeon, and you were alone?" Xander nodded his head this time, and Jennifer clicked her tongue. "Okay, then I'm almost entirely sure you weren't a wild Pokémon. Usually, you have to be snapped out of a feral state like that by another Pokémon who isn't frenzied. Still, that makes you pretty mysterious."

Trying not to mope in front of the police officer, Xander glanced back down at the floor sheepishly. The Litten's eyes were drawn back up to Jennifer when the Arcanine cleared her throat. "Did you need anything else, Xander?"

Xander thought for a second, then shook his head no once again. "That's everything. Thank you… so much."

"Of course." Jennifer smiled, her sharp teeth making such a sweet face rather frightening. "Have a good day, alright?"

The Litten waved goodbye before making his way out of the station. Despite still not having answers, he felt a huge weight lift off his chest. Finally, some sort of direction he could go: a direct investigation into who he is. However, the anticipation was already killing him. How long would it take for the Prime Minister to get their notice? Would he even help Xander? The short-lived relief was already starting to fade, and a dull headache began taking its place.

As the Litten started aimlessly walking on auto pilot back to the Drowsy Munna, his ear flicked at the sound of someone falling onto the stone road. He turned his head towards the vaguely familiar sounding mischievous laugh, and wasn't too surprised to see it coming from Nuzleaf. The Pokémon on the ground was Percy, and the three Magnemite accompanying him helped the Machop back to his feet. Percy growled, "What was that for?!"

"Hmm? I have no idea what you're talking about." The Nuzleaf kept laughing. "You're the one who ran over my extended leg."

Percy balled his hands into fists, and all the Magnemite were giving the sales-Pokémon the stink eye, but none of them did anything otherwise. Xander huffed to himself. What was this guy's problem? Without giving it much thought, Xander crossed the road and stood next to Percy. "You okay?"

"Oh, hey… Xander?" The Machop gave him a sheepish smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. We Machop have really tough skin. It takes more than being tripped to scrape my knees."

The Nuzleaf gave both of them a weird look before rolling his eyes. "Alright, you bozos are cramping the style of my stall. Scram."

"You're the one who tripped a Pokémon right in front of your market stand." Xander's tail lashed. "So, deal with it."

"Pfft, I ain't taking flack from some dumbass kid who got robbed in broad daylight." Nuzleaf laughed.

The fur on the back of Xander's neck spiked out as he started to growl, but Percy interrupted him before he could give Nuzleaf his selection of choice words. "Don't talk to him like that." The Machop placed his hands on his hips. "Or else I'll make this a police matter, good sir!"

"Oh Arceus! No! Anything but that!" Nuzleaf pretended to tremble for a moment, before laughing so hard that he had to lean against his stall. "Kid, you can't arrest me on account of hurtin' your feelings."

Percy pouted and looked down at the ground. "Hmph, you aren't worth my time." He pulled his head back up to look at Xander. "I'm heading back to the station. Don't waste your breath on this guy." The Machop sighed before continuing his walk, all the Magnemite following him.

Xander started to turn away from the laughing jerk, but stopped when he caught a glimpse of what the Pokémon was actually selling. His wares looked… odd, to say the least. They were large, colored disks that glimmered with a strange power. Xander moved closer to the counter to get a better look.

Nuzleaf crossed his arms and raised a brow. "What? You ain't ever seen TMs before?"

Xander stayed quiet for a second, but gave the Nuzleaf a genuine look of curiosity. "That means Technical Machine, right? I…" Xander huffed, his head starting to hurt a little more now. When the Nuzleaf gave him a skeptical look, Xander played it off by waving one of his paws downwards. "Don't be stupid, of course I've seen TMs before."

"Hmph, well then. Can you tell me what they actually do?" Nuzleaf smirked.

"Yes. They teach Pokémon new moves." Xander paused for a second before his tail suddenly stood on end. "Wait, yeah! They can teach Pokémon moves!" Xander hopped up excitedly and placed his paws on the counter. "Do you have any fire type TMs?"

"Pfft. Maybe. But, they aint cheap." The Nuzleaf reached under the stand and took out a box that had red tinted TMs inside. "Nobody has figured out how to make them, not even the bigheads. The only place you can get these bad-boys is inside Mystery Dungeons."

Xander leered at him, "Then how did you get your hands on them?"

"Trade secret." Nuzleaf's smirk widened. "Anyhow, I got some pretty good ones. This one is Burning Jealousy, here's Sunny Day, Fire Punch–" Nuzleaf laughed. "You definitely can't learn that one."

"Well… what do you have that I can learn?"

"I ain't ever had a Litten customer before, but my best guess would be–" He dug through the box carefully for a moment. "These two: Will-O-Wisp and Fire Fang. But, you probably already know Fire Fa–"

"I want it. How much?"

Nuzleaf held back a laugh. "You can't be serious. Kid, let me tell you something about TMs. Sensible Pokémon use them to learn moves that aren't a natural part of their Natural Learnset. If you ain't know Fire Fang now, you will soon enough."

Xander's tail lashed again. He didn't want to have to explain himself to this guy. "I don't care. I want it, alright. Just tell me how much it is."

"Fine, whatever. Sixty-five hundred Pokécoins for Fire Fang."

Xander winced upon hearing the price. Nuzleaf was right, that was really expensive. Xander glanced down at his bag. inside was the 10,000 the Headmaster had given him– the money he had only recently recovered. The money meant to secure him a roof over his head. The money he hadn't told Gloria and Remmy that he got back…

Xander sighed. "Thanks, but you were right. I can't afford that right now."

"What the hell? You bust my chops about getting a move you can learn already, then chicken out of buying it?" Nuzleaf leaned closer, and leered down at the Litten below him. The smarmy vendor started to growl, and practically spit in the Litten's face. "Quit wasting my time!"

Xander failed to hold back his hiss. This must have startled Nuzleaf slightly, because the Pokémon suddenly stanced up to engage in combat. Nuzleaf's finger-tips glowed as he readied an attack, but before the Grass Type could unleash his move– a wave of electrical energy flew at him. Nuzleaf suddenly locked up, only able to occasionally spasm, as a Magnemite rushed over to the scene.

"W-w-what th-the…" Nuzleaf growled through his stiff teeth.

"RELAX, CITIZEN. THE EFFECTS OF THUNDERWAVE WILL WEAR OFF MOMENTARILY." The Magnemite turned down to look at Xander. "STREET FIGHTS IN CONSTELLA ARE STRICTLY ILLEGAL."

"I wasn't going to fight him! I was just on my way–"

"BZZT. I KNOW. WHY DO YOU THINK I PARALYZED HIM AND NOT YOU?" Magnemite looked back at the Nuzleaf. "I AM LETTING YOU OFF WITH A WARNING, BUT DON'T THINK I COULDN'T RECOGNIZE THE MOVE 'THIEF' FROM A BLOCK AWAY."

Nuzleaf grumbled something, but Xander couldn't quite catch it. The Magnemite rolled its singular eye before giving Xander a small nod– which was done by bowing its whole body. "BETTER BE ON YOUR WAY. GOODBYE ONCE AGAIN."

The Magnemite floated away, back towards the direction Percy left, and Xander waved despite it not being able to see him anymore. The Litten stuck his tongue out aggressively at the paralyzed Nuzleaf before returning on his walk back to the inn. I'll just find someone else who sells TMs.

"D-don't think you've w-won, Litten." Nuzleaf snarled through his still paralyzed teeth. "All of C-Constella's underground knows you're easy p-p-pickings…" He mustered a laugh. "G-good luck when you ain't got nobody t-to save ya…"

Xander's ears flattened against his head as he picked up the pace, refusing to look back. This guy was obviously full of it.

When Xander made it back to the Drowsy Munna, the inn was even more quiet than usual. The elderly owners could usually be found near the front or in the kitchen, but Gloria and Remmy were nowhere to be found. Xander started to worry, but while he inspected the front desk, the Litten found a "be back soon!" note left by Gloria. Now much less concerned, Xander figured he should start on some of his daily chores before the two of them got back.

As Xander was filling the watering can in the sink, the bell at the front door jingled– signifying that someone had entered the inn. Xander almost splashed himself with water as he got startled by the noise. It was strangely the same reaction he would have as if he was doing something naughty… when he absolutely wasn't. An unfamiliar voice called from the entrance. "Hello? Is anybody there?"

"One moment!" Xander called back. Of course Pokémon he didn't know would waltz in here while the owners were gone. The Litten shut the sink off and brought the watering can with him to the lobby, setting it down on the ground before finally taking a look at the strangers. Looking down at him was a very polite looking Girafarig and a grouchy Skarmory. The Girafarig smiled, but looked nervous to start making inquiries. Xander sighed quietly to himself; the two of them were at a socially awkward impasse.

The dull headache forming in the back of Xander's head made him much too impatient to continue humoring the stand-still, so the Litten mustered a customer service smile and parked himself behind the front desk. "Can I help you?"

The Girafarig blinked a few times, a blush peppering his face. "Sorry! I tend to overthink these things. I don't want to ask… the wrong way? That probably doesn't make any sense–" He laughed, clearly embarrassed that he confessed that. "My partner and I are looking for a place to stay. This is an inn, yeah?"

For some reason, Xander hadn't yet considered that these were possible tenants to the inn, and the Litten suddenly perked up. "YES–" He cleared his throat and lowered his voice, "Sorry, yes. This is an inn. Welcome to the Drowsy Munna!" Litten shuffled around some documents on the desk, digging around until he located the book the owners kept track of their check-ins. "How long will you and your boyfriend be staying in Constella?"

The Skarmory snapped his head towards Xander while the Girafarig blushed even harder. "O-oh! Uh– We're not–" He was trying to laugh away the awkwardness, but that left him unable to speak. The Skarmory grumbled quietly before stepping up closer to the counter.

"You're mistaken. The two of us aren't romantic partners. We're an Exploration Team."

"Oooh…" Xander rubbed the back of his head. "My mistake. I'm sorry about that. Glad you told me. I might have accidentally booked you both a room with one bed…" Xander laughed at himself, trying not to crumble under the weight of his own embarrassment. "Let's try that again: how many days will the both of you be staying in Constella?"

"Probably four…" The Girafarig finally spoke again. "However, we should only need three nights."

"Sounds good… That will be 350 Pokécoins a night. So…" Xander tried to do the math quickly in his head. "1,050 Pokécoins for a three night stay."

"See!" The Girafarig looked back at his teammate. "I told you this place would be cheaper."

"Yeah, yeah." The Skarmory growled as he started digging through his Treasure Bag for the money.

Xander dipped his claw in the ink bottle, just as he watched Jennifer do. "Can I get your names, please?"

"Mirror," the Girafarig pointed a hoof towards himself, "and Silver–" he said with a smile as he pointed at Skarmory. "Team Reflection!"

Xander nodded his head as he filled out everything in the book, taking his time to make sure he did things just as Gloria and Remmy did. It did make the Litten write pretty slowly though, and Silver gave him an impatient stare after setting down the team's payment. Xander shook the ink off by flailing his paw. "Let me go fetch your key."

The little Fire Type hurried into the office to locate the room keys, which were all hung up neatly on the wall. It was surely much easier to get the keys off their hooks with telekinetic powers… but Team Reflection was just going to have to be okay with one of the easiest to grab room keys. Room 3A? Sure.

Xander maneuvered a desk chair over to the keys, hopping onto it once it was against the wall. The Litten still had to stretch his arms out to snatch room 3A's key, but as he removed it from the hook– one of the rickety chair's legs gave way and snapped. Xander didn't fall far, but it was definitely enough of a tumble to hurt his backside.

After such a loud clamor of broken furniture and falling Pokemon, Mirror called towards the office from the lobby. "Are you alright in there?"

"Y-yeah! Everything is fine!" Xander called back, trying to hide the pain in his voice with a laugh. These are their first guests in ages… I can't screw this up!

Xander hurried back to the front desk despite his aching muscles and placed the key down using his mouth. Mirror was giving him a concerned look, but Xander mostly ignored it "Third room down the hall, on your left. Tug the rope by the door if you need anything." Xander gave them a smile before collecting the money, sliding his arm across the counter to collect it all into his satchel. The Litten had no idea where they kept the inn's earnings, so Xander figured he would just give all the money to Gloria when they got back.

"Thank you so, so much!" Mirror chimed as he started to trot towards the hall. Silver grabbed the key with his beak only moments before his Girafarig teammate tripped over the watering can Xander had left on the floor– spilling water everywhere. "Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry–"

Xander's claws dug into the floor as the fur on his back spiked and his tail lashed. The Litten then took a deep breath in and slowly let it out… for the third time that day. This time, it really didn't help him calm down much. The headache was starting to pound against the back of his skull. "I'll clean it up. Don't worry about it, ha-hah…"

Mirror frowned hard, "B-but…"

"It's his job, Mirror. C'mon, I want to put all this crap down." Silver spoke while the key still hung from his beak. The Girafarig seemed ready to keep pouting about fixing the mess himself, but was shoved by Silver over to their room. Once the both of them were out of sight, Xander growled to himself.

It's not a big deal. Gloria and Remmy will be back soon, anyways. Then, I can just go back to my chores… and the two of them can deal with all the social stuff.

Xander re-dipped his claw in the ink so he could finish writing down the details that needed logged, then shut the book with a huff. He needed to find a towel or something to clean up all the water, but the only towels he knew they had were the nice ones for tenants. Xander's ear twitched; that would have to do.

As Xander hurried along to the back where the Laundry Room was located, his ear picked up the sound of the room service bell. The Litten scrambled to a halt. Already? What the heck could they need? Xander grumbled as he turned around quickly, trotting to the guests' room and knocking– already prepared with his fake smile. "You call?"

Mirror opened the door, "Yes, sorry… I just had a question. Does the Drowsy Munna have complimentary meals?"

Xander tried to withhold his irritation as he shook his head no. "We have complimentary teas, coffee and biscuits at breakfast time. Other than that, no."

"Oh… okay." Mirror turned back to look at Silver. "We should go make dinner reservations somewhere! I was thinking the restaurant over by–"

Xander tuned Mirror out as he about-faced back towards the end of the hall. Thankfully, there were clean towels (that needed to be properly folded and put away) already awaiting the one-man-staff. The Litten grabbed a fresh towel from the pile and carried it along with him to the puddle.

It was easy enough to clean, especially thanks to the inn's hardwood floors not absorbing the liquid. Xander figured the water was clean enough for the plants, so he just squeezed it out back into the watering can. The damp towel and the process of wringing out the water was very uncomfortable on the Fire Type's paws, though.

As Xander was taking the damp towel back to the laundry room, he could hear the bell ring again. You've GOT to be kidding me. The Litten let out a frustrated huff as he picked up the pace, chucking the dirty towel onto the floor of the laundry room before rushing back down the hall to the guests.

Silver was the one to open the door this time. "The King of Spills drenched his linens with a Max Elixir. Think we could get new sheets?"

"Haha yep! Nooo problem!" Xander sang, but when he turned… the Litten was gritting his teeth. The mental exhaustion was already cumbersome, but the slowly exploding migraine wasn't helping much either. Xander marched his way back to the laundry room and grabbed a fresh set of tacky bedding. It was hard for the little Pokémon to carry it all, especially when his lower back still hurt, but he somehow managed to keep everything piled on his shoulders as he walked back to room 3A. Mirror sheepishly took the new bedsheets from Xander while giving a plethora of apologies, but Xander just kept insisting it was fine. It was fine.

Freed from room service, Xander grabbed the watering can with his mouth and carefully approached the closest of the potted plants. The Litten took a calming breath before tilting his head enough to sprinkle water on the little tree. There we go… all nice and watered…

Then, the bell chimed once again. Xander growled, yelling out "WHAT–"

This, of course, made the Litten drop the watering can. It hit Xander's front paws and spilled water everywhere once again, including his sensitive fur. Xander lost it; yowling and shrieking with a mix of rage and surprise. The Litten felt his whole body warm with an intense heat, especially his head and chest. Just breathe, just breathe, just breathe–

But, he couldn't. Xander felt extremely angry, irrationally so, and it sent his body into a state of hyperventilation. The room closed in on him, and Xander felt like he was suddenly choking on smoke as everything became dark.

What's happening to me?! Xander's thoughts pounded against his skull like a hammer. There was a sensation of burning in his mouth that, no matter how hard he tried, it would not stop. It was as if he was vomiting his guts out, but instead of puke it was searing gas. The Litten's body was shrinking in on itself painfully, a sensation Xander considered to be similar to a star about to combust.

When Mirror peaked around the corner to see what was wrong, all he saw was a blinding ball of fire staring back at him.