Disclaimer: These characters belong to Game Freak, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company.

Sorry for the long wait.

May God bless you all.

*Yawn* "What time is it?" Said Mela as she stirred awake. Looking at her Rotom phone she realized it was about 4:00 am. She had awoken at 4:00 am!

Then again it was kind of hard to sleep with all the bodies around. These research stations were few and far apart and weren't that big. They each had dorms with a few bunk beds but there weren't that many. About six beds in total and there were only two sleeping areas.

Since there were more than six girls in the group Mela had been one to volunteer to sleep in a sleeping bag, which was comfortable, but the floor space was so little that her bag was almost touching her neighbor's bag, and her neighbor just happened to be Nemona. Who apparently talked in her sleep.

"Florian let's battle, please." She said.

Mela Groaned as she exited her bag and headed to the bathroom. After finishing her business inside she noticed something strange. Walking to the window she saw…

"Is… what is he?" She asked before opening the door and heading outside.

"Florian?" She asked as she approached him.

"OH… hey Mela." Said Florian as he turned to face her. He was currently sitting against a tree near the station, staring at… a pokeball.

"What are you doing up?" She asked as she took a seat next to him.

"Hard to sleep with all the bodies around." He said.

"Same." She responded.

"So what? Pondering releasing him there?" She asked referring to the pokemon inside.

"That's just it." Florian responded. "He won't come out."

"Really? Something wrong?" She asked.

"I think he's afraid…" the boy replied. "…Something or this place in general seems to scare him."

"Really? Scare him?" She asked. "What would scare him? I mean he's huge."

"I know, and that is what makes me more nervous about what we may have to face when we get to the bottom." Florian warned.

"Really, you nervous?" She asked. "You don't show it."

"Well everyone came here to help me and Juliana so I have to make sure no one freaks out… especially while we are here." He told her.

"Putting on a brave face… I know what that's like." She told him.

"What?" He asked.

"Back when I was a Team star leader…"

"You can't tell anyone this… not even your sister." She warned bringing her face within inches of his own.

All Florian could do was nod in response.

Mela turned to face the horizon.

"Back at school I was always being picked on… until finally one day I decided I was going to have to stand up for myself. I always had to go out so hard so that no one would mess with me. However, when I became team leader it all got so real."

Mela took a breath. She couldn't believe she was telling him this but… for some reason she trusted Florian. Plus she needed to get this out. She had been holding onto it ever since she became a squad boss.

"They looked up to me you know. They depended on me, I couldn't let them down. So I always had to act like I was in control like, I wasn't afraid of anything." She said.

"I think you were a goo…"

"Don't interrupt!" She snapped. "I'm bearing my soul here."

"Yes, sorry." Florian nervously replied.

"Well, I was… I was afraid all the time. Afraid they couldn't go back to school. Afraid the bullies would return, and Afraid… well that some strong trainer would come in and completely wreck me in front of everyone."

That last remark Mela emphasized more so as she stared Florian dead in the eye and made sure each word came out slow and precise.

He gulped in response.

"But in the end, when you beat me… I felt relieved." She told him. "Like I was mad definitely, but a bit after I just took a deep breath and… cried."

"Not out of grief mind you but just knowing that I was no longer responsible for all of them… it just left me feeling… like a huge burden had been lifted off my shoulder."

"In any case…" She concluded. "…I know how you feel."

Suddenly Mela felt two arms around her.

She looked to her left and saw Florian's face not too far from her own. He was hugging her from the side.

The shock only lasted a brief moment as she returned the hug.

"Thank you." He said. "You made me feel better."

"If you tell anyone about this I'll break you in half." She quietly responded.

After a brief moment, the two separated and both stood up as Florian put Koraidon's pokeball back in its place.

"Well, we better try to get some sleep before we head out in the morning." Florian said.

"What is this!?" A familiar voice shouted nearby causing the two to turn to her.

"Oh no…" Said Mela as she looked at the black with a little bit of green hair staring at them with a look that could only be described as It was super effective.

"What are you two doing!?" She asked.

"Nemona, why are you…"

"Are you cheating on me?" Came the question.

"What!?" Florian shouted.

"Wait are you two…" Mela started before being interrupted by the girl.

"Yes…we are rivals!" She shouted. "And here you are sneaking off to a night battle with her! You don't have to sneak had you woken me up I would have battled you!"

"I think there is a mis…" Florian began before a devious Mela decided to grab him by the throat in a headlock/hug.

"That's right Nemona you've been replaced." She told her.

"What?!"

"Yup, Flor here said he's gotten bored of battling you and would like to move up to a real girl trainer." Mela taunted.

"Flor!?" Said Nemona. "You've even got nicknames!"

Mela laughed. This was great.

Florian tried to respond but she made sure anything that came out of his mouth was unable to be heard by the girl in front of him.

"NO!" Nemona shouted. "I'll prove I'm the only one worthy of being your rival!"

"You and me Melam, pokemon battle right now!"

"What's with all the shouting?" Asked a shorter girl nearby.

It was then that Mela noticed that practically the entire group had gotten up.

How long they had been there and how much they saw and heard God only knows.

"Um…" Said Mela. "Sorry, just a misunderstanding."

After dropping Florian she walked past Nemona and headed back to the dorms without saying anything else to anyone.

"Let's get back to sleep and please keep it down Nemona." Said Arven as the group headed back in behind her.

Mela didn't go back to her sleeping bag right away. She knew there possibly be questions so she went into one of the offices at the research station.

Better wait until they fall asleep. She thought to herself.

To pass the time she looked around the office. There wasn't much left, but there was a entry log. Most of the entries seemed basic stuff like "we found a strange pokemon…" or "…It rained a lot last night…"

However, one entry caught Mela's eye. Most likely due to the fact that it mentioned Arven by name. "We were fighting again… she keeps telling me we'll go back after our work. But the more we discover the deeper our research goes. Sometimes it feels like it will never end. I want to see Arven, yesterday he turned four and we had to wish him a happy birthday through a video call. He asked when we were coming home and she told him soon, but when is soon? She ignored my idea that one of us should work while the other went to stay with him saying that the load was way too much for just one person to handle. Perhaps if we had another set of professors down… yes just maybe… no but they would have to be brought up to speed and that would take much longer… maybe… yes… if there were two of me… or maybe even two of her… or

…two of us.

Thank you all who made it to the end.

May God bless you all.