It lunges out of the ocean, both avian and aquatic in nature, it is a terrifying sight to behold. I know I am looking at some rare, some great, revered beast that has a name probably only whispered as a half-forgotten hope or nightmare maybe. The Pokemon parts its mighty, hand like, silvery white wings to expose a light blue stomach and a pair of powerful feet. Its hooked, beak like mouth parts and a high-pitched, sonar like sound emerges.

I can hear people murmuring, gasping and yelling in fear. There are mutterings of 'Legendary Pokemon' along with uncertainty over what exactly it or its intentions are.

In the confusion I see a blur of objects descending rapidly from the sky. For a moment I wonder if they are a strange attack from this Pokemon until I see Pokemon emerge from them and I realise they are Poke Balls. Glimpsing one before it opens, I see it has been modified with metal spikes that form a star shape about it.

The Pokemon move to attack Team Rocket's distracted Pokemon and I realise that they have the right idea, now is the time to take an advantage while everyone is caught up with whatever leviathan hovers above us.

I seek out Petrel in the hopes of getting back our Poke Balls and feel fresh astonishment as I see another sneaking up on him. It is Koga or at least it looks like how Petrel looked in disguise as Koga. I am too confused to do anything except stand and stare. I have always believed that people can be too hasty to act, it's better to wait and assess situations.

The man moves in a crouch and his gloved hands dart out in a nimble blur, pickpocketing the Team Rocket Executive without him once noticing.

A yell of pain draws my attention back to the deck. Kenji is turning red as the Arbok squeezes him. In an instant he goes limp and the scream from Ellie is deafening.

"Arbok stop!"
The Arbok vanishes back into its Poke Ball in a beam of red light with Petrel's cry and Kenji hits the deck. Proton hastens over to him and drops beside him to begin an attempt at a resuscitation.

"Ellie enough!" I glance over at Morty's yell and see him running towards Ellie but his gaze is skyward. Seeing the fear in Morty's eyes makes me afraid to look up but I do it anyway.

The giant Pokemon in the sky has its dark plated gaze turned down towards Ellie. As her screaming for Kenji continues I see it swing back its wings and beat them forward.

The world moves in a sickening, tumbling blur as I find myself rolling through the air for the umpteenth time today. My body moves so fast there is no time for motion sickness. I catch an upside image of the ship tilting to one side before I am shocked by the icy feel of the ocean as my body is submerged by it.

For a moment I am at the mercy of the waters. Through a dark, bubble plagued haze I glimpse the mighty steel body of our ship beginning to descend. I wonder dumbly if this is some weird dream because I cannot make sense of what is happening or has happened.

My eyes widen as I glimpse the small Greavard struggling to swim in a panic. It is a grim image in the dark water, barely visible with its candle snuffed out. It is sinking fast, weighed down by the handle of my briefcase in its jagged maw. Baffled and touched by its devotion, I fumble in my drenched jacket for its Dusk Ball and tug it out with relief. I reach out to grab the briefcase as I call the Greavard back into the safety of its ball. I secure the ball in my inner pocket and realise my folly as the briefcase starts to weigh me down. I'm not exactly a great swimmer.

The world starts to grow darker as my body sinks down. I can feel an ache in my lungs and try to muster some energy to fight against it. Is Mia safe? Did she hear what I confessed to Troy? I don't know and I'm going to drown here not knowing.

There is a darkness at the edge of my vision and I am choking on the salty waters as they clog up my nostrils and trickle down to my throat.

The painful thwack of a hand on my back is my first clue that I have not drowned. The second is the taste of sea water as I start to regurgitate it onto the rubber base rocking beneath me.

"Ah good, you're alive then you idiot." I do not recognise the mocking male voice addressing me and have no chance to answer as a hand smacks me on the back again.

I wince as my body spasms and a large amount of salty water spills out of my mouth.

"You are a tad over attached to that briefcase Larry, er no?" I cannot believe how relieved I am to hear Looker's voice right now.

"What happened?" I query hoarsely.

I fumble across a rubber floor and feel a rush of dizziness as the floor rocks beneath me.

"Well the Legendary Pokemon Lugia up and appeared out of nowhere just as I arrived to take some revenge on Petrel," the man I do not know speaks.

I glance over my shoulder to seek the man out and my vision wavers and doubles for a moment. "Ninja," I say the word calmly.

"Koga," he corrects me in an unimpressed manner. "The real one," he adds sternly, "not that your cop friend here will be convinced."

"Well you look the same as he did," Looker answers haughtily from my left, "it was a very good disguise, perhaps yours is too. Hmm but I don't know what this Koga should look like, what if he doesn't look much like you at all?"

"What if I don't even exist?" Koga answers sarcastically. "I got all your Pokemon back, remember."

"All of them?" I query. I am not hopeful, it would be the first good fortune we have had in a while.

Koga cocks his head slightly and frowns at me before nodding. "Yes, all of them. Not sure whose is whose mind but that is the least of our worries."

"How did you know this Petrel had them?" Looker demands.

"I was there in time to hear him brag about it but I had to wait for a distraction before I could act as I was outnumbered otherwise."

"Quite terrible, very convenient though."

Koga folds his arms and shakes his head. "Not really, it would've been better had I caught you on the docks instead of having to get my Venomoth to fly me out to that ship and sneak me on."

"Why was he disguised as you then?" Looker demands.

"To trick you lot, that seems obvious surely," Koga scorns Looker with a condescending stare to match his tone.

"And where were you then?"

"A guest of Giovanni's," Koga grumbles back. "He knew Lance summoned me to help with a psychic girl so he sent Petrel instead."
"Guess your cover's blown then," I point out calmly as I turn round to collapse against the edge of what I now realise is a lifeboat. I wonder who this Giovanni is, I know I've heard his name before and venture he is a boss in this Team Rocket group but I'm certain Lance and Looker implied he had been ousted. I think he was a Gym Leader once like this Koga person.

"You think," Koga answers sarcastically. He frowns over at me. "It was inevitable I suppose."

"Why er...well why did he let you live?" Looker blurts out what I'm wondering too.

"Well, Giovanni is not exactly in the habit of killing people," Koga explains. He glances out to the sea briefly. "Also, we were good friends once."

"I knew you'd be a criminal, just like that other gangster Kenji!" Looker cries out in a 'a-ha' moment as if he's just discovered something about Koga rather than been told it directly by the man himself.

Koga glances to me like he wants confirmation that Looker is a little deluded over his discovery.

"Did Kenji survive?" I wonder curiously. "And what about Ellie?" I sit up in a moment of panic and turn out to the ocean. I can see orange objects bobbing in the distance indicating other lifeboats but I cannot tell from here who might be on them.

"I saw Kenji spluttering along with Proton, he'll be back with Team Rocket now," Koga says calmly. "And Ellie, the psychic I presume who probably brought the Legendary Psychic Pokemon to us, I think she was with some blond man."

I nod as I hope Koga means Morty and that they are okay. I don't even want to think about the implication that Ellie brought this Lugia to us, did she do it intentionally? Why do I feel it would be worse if she didn't? Because that would be a lot of power without control?

"What will happen to Kenji?" Looker queries. I can hear the concern in his voice despite his attempt to temper it.

"Not much," Koga comments carelessly like it doesn't matter. Maybe it doesn't to him.

"What do you mean?" Looker demands. "He betrayed them and they know it."

Koga flashes a taunting looking grin at the sea before turning his dark brown gaze upon us. "He saved the psychic girl when she was young, tried to get her out of a Team Rocket hideout all by himself at no age, luckily he bumped into me and I got them the rest of the way. Ever since he's wondered and worried about her, I imagine it's less of a betrayal of Team Rocket and more of an infatuation with this girl."

I grit my teeth to resist saying something as I feel a fresh flash of anger at the thought of any feelings between Ellie and Kenji.

"And they're not going to care about that?" Looker queries with confusion.

"They as a whole? No." Koga shakes his head. "The boss, Giovanni, Kenji's big brother, he'll let it go so the rest of them will have to as well."

There is a moment of silence. It ends as Looker snaps out of his surprise to yell, "his brother?!"

Koga nods calmly. "Yes, Kenji is Giovanni's younger brother. So you can relax over him, Troy might give him a few bruises, he's done that before unfortunately but no worse."

"Why did you help her?" I demand. "Why then and why now?"
Koga fixes a careful stare upon me and smiles again, this time there is a tenderness to it that I was not expecting. "I have a daughter around her age, Janine, she took over my Gym, wonderful, brilliant girl. I saw the little psychic girl that day and Janine was all I could think of, how if she had been in her place I would have murdered every last one of them and wanted someone, anyone to take pity and help her. I thought of how the psychic too had a father out there once as Janine had me and I knew it was me that had to help her. Well me and Kenji."

"Thank you," the words come out of me before I consider them, soft but still heard. "Her name is Ellie by the way."

The ninja arches his dark eyebrows in question and his stare becomes serious as he studies me with it. "Ellie huh? Did the silver haired boy give her that name then? I saw him on the boat, good she found a life with him then. Or did she decide to change her name? It was Mia when I met her, not that she'd know it after all the trauma Troy put her through with his Psychic Pokemon.

"My little me," I murmur quietly.

"What trauma?" Looker pries. "That is, how do you know she's forgotten her name?"

Koga shrugs. "Because she'd forgotten it the night I took her to that boy and Lance. She'd forgotten everything before. Too traumatic, her own mother and Pokemon were murdered in front of her, she suppressed it all and then Troy had his Pokemon eating her dreams and messing with her mind, no surprise considering she's a psychic that she just blocked it from her mind."

Is this then why Mia doesn't remember me? Because I am part of the before, before her mother got murdered and her Houndour. Kenji came after so perhaps then that is why she could recall him. How then will I get her to think of me without conjuring up nightmarish memories of her mother's murder?

"You gave her your scarf," I say the words dully. Koga, Ellie remembers him too.

"Yes," I glance up and see him smile, "did she mention it?"

"She still has it."
"Really?" His smile widens and he reaches down to pat the soaked crimson scarf resting beside him. "What an odd thing to keep. So anyway, this has been quite enough about me. Who are you and why are you in this mess with her?"
I consider my options and realise wearily as I lean back against the rubber edge of the raft that I am done with omitting the truth.

"I'm Larry."

"That's informative," Koga sneers at me.

"He's a Gym Leader and Elite Four member in Paldea," Looker says quickly.

"Huh. Why both? Isn't being in the Elite a promotion over there?"

"I like to be busy," I admit.

"And how and why did you manage to take a break to come here then?" Koga continues to pry.

"I'm Mia's father," I admit.

I see Koga's dark eyebrows rise up as his brown eyes widen as well. He studies me anew, probably looking for some hint of psychic powers that isn't there.

"Ah." He nods. "Explains the boat to Paldea then."

"She doesn't know, none of them do," I continue with my confession. "I've been waiting on her remembering me but she doesn't."

"Well if you told her that would help," Koga says stonily. "How can you not tell her? If she doesn't remember you and she's still with that silver haired boy then it's been what, ten years since you seen her?" His voice starts to grow louder and angrier. "How could you not have grabbed her the moment you saw her again, hugged her and told her who you were? How long have you been here with her now keeping this facade up?"

I give a smile before I can help. Facade, yes, that's exactly what this has been. "What if she rejects me? I've taken ten years to find her and I wasn't there when she was taken."

"And what? You've found her now, how can you waste time over this? How have you not told her?" He shakes his head. "I don't understand."

"I failed her. I worked hard, all the time, I thought it was to give them a good life but it meant I wasn't there, I missed so many things and I wasn't there when I was needed the most."

"What a downer you are," Koga scoffs. "What's your plan then? Take her back to Paldea and tell her there?"

I sigh. "I just wanted her safe from Team Rocket, they keep finding her and maybe in Paldea she would start to remember things."

"Well now that she's summoned a Legendary Pokemon you haven't a hope. Troy already had an obsession with her, he'll be worse now, he'll follow her to Paldea."

"I have people who could help protect her there."

"As Steven would have in Hoenn," Looker pipes up unhelpfully.

"Steven ran, we can't keep running," I insist.

"Let's get to shore first," Koga advises.

"Yes, we need to regroup," Larry agrees, "and find another ship."

"Anyone have a water Pokemon?" Koga opens up his vest to expose the Poke Balls."

"No," I answer, "but my Staraptor can probably get us there with some wind."
"Good start."

"Are you going to be travelling with us?" Looker asks.

"Back to shore? Think I should swim on my own then?" Koga mocks him.

Looker frowns and shakes his head. "I meant to Paldea!"

Koga waves off his scorn. "I know what you meant and yes. Lance asked me to help protect the girl."

"You'd leave the country for him?" I ask.

Koga smiles my way. "For her, not him. She suffered a lot Larry and she escaped and that should have been it but it's not. She'll not survive Troy twice. Lost her family, her Pokemon and her home all in one night except her dad survived it seemed. You need to tell her."

I nod. I know I do but I am so afraid of how Mia will react when I do.