"Gray, can I ask you a question?"

Riven didn't even look at him, he just kept shuffling his feet forward in the desert heat. Both of them were walking slower than they had before, partially to avoid disturbing the terrible blisters they'd developed and partially because of exhaustion. Will dragged along a little slower.

"Fire away," Riven said, waving a hand airily.

"What's your name?"

Riven scrunched his face before turning back to Will with a questioning look. His name was Gray. Will knew this, why was he asking stupid questions? Maybe he was trying to annoy him. Seemed like it.

"It's Gray, you knew that already."

Will scoffed and wiped off some sweat from his face before it went into his eye. The little boy was more intuitive than most people, his parents always said that. He would see things that others didn't. "That's a fake name isn't it?" 'Gray' stood a little straighter and paused for a moment. Gotcha. "I knew it. You don't even have to tell me, your reaction told me everything I needed to know."

Riven looked at the little boy, a bit impressed. People watching is one of his hobbies too huh, trainers should take some notes from him. "You're pretty sharp. I thought it was just comebacks and general snarks but it seems you're pretty intelligent. How old are you? Ten?"

Will huffed, "I'm thirteen, almost fourteen."

"Oh. You're pretty short." Riven thought Will was younger. At his age, he was pretty tall. But at that age, he was learning how to stab a guy in the throat, not training pokemon. Aging went by quick. His parents being rather tall helped as well.

"My parents aren't that tall, it isn't my fault. You know genes and stuff." His dad was only 5'7, and his mom was 5'4. There was a very slim chance he'd make it to six feet like Gray. Actually, Will had seen eighteen year olds before, they certainly didn't look like him. If he hadn't told him his age, he'd still think Gray was in his twenties or something. Maybe it was that blank expression he always wore, it made him look older.

Riven had no idea what genes were, so he didn't mention it. That was Steven's department, not his. That lecture back in Rustboro was supposed to be introductory biology, and it still went over his head."Regardless, I'm surprised you caught my alias. What gave it away?"

Will chuckled loudly. "Gray? Really? Come on. What kind of sick parents name their kid after such a boring color? It's so dull! Even black has more spirit. Seriously, what's your name?"

Riven sighed. Amy said the exact same thing. Gray was indeed a dull color but he liked it because it was simple and unassuming. Easy to remember. He should have named himself something like Nathan or Eric. People from this time were infatuated with those kinds of names. 'Riven' was an oddity around here. "Real name is Riven."

"Riven? It sounds cool. What's it mean?"

"Don't know. No one ever told me."

"Not even your parents?"

Riven felt resentful as he thought about his parents. Irene reminded him of how... marginal his parents really were. He never felt warmness from them, only lectures, scoldings, and lessons. In the brief time he had known Irene, she acted like more of a mother than his did. It pissed him off but felt the anger fade away just as quickly as it came. He exhaled soberly. "My parents wouldn't even have the decency to give me the time of the day."

Will noticed that he might have struck a nerve. He backed off, it wasn't worth fighting with him in the middle of a desert anyway. "Sorry."

Riven shrugged. Instead, he just motioned the boy to continue walking. "It's fine, not your issue anyway." Riven looked up at the sky. Not a cloud in sight. Today, he would have to get a good look at the sky and try to find the north star. Then he could use it to find a way to Lavaridge. Hopefully they were near the exit, even near Mauville would be preferable.

"I think you should stick with Gray though."

Riven raised a brow. "Why's that? You calling me dull?"

Will snickered. "Am I?"

"Well, if that's what you're implying, then you're not the first to tell me that."

"That's not what I meant though."

"Then what did you mean?"

Will shook some dust out of his hair and drank a little bit more water."It fits you I guess. I can't really explain why. Riven sounds pretty cool and all but Gray sounds simple, and it's easy to remember."

"Yes, it is."

"Why did you use a fake name? You're not a criminal are you?" It could explain his tendency to threaten things. Will squinted at him.

Riven stared at Will for a moment. He should know perfectly why he was using an alias. Riven recognized that he was more jumpy than a Skitty at night.

Will brought a palm to his face after realizing who he was talking to. "That paranoia is a serious problem."

"It saved us with the water. Speaking of which, how much are you down to?"

Will took out a single bottle. He grimaced as he noticed that in a day or so his supply would be finished. He caught Riven's look and shifted his gaze elsewhere. "I'm not going to ask to have some of your water. It's yours." It was more out of pride than anything, he hated asking for things.

Riven walked up to him and smacked the boy upside the head. "When you run out, tell me. I don't mind sharing. I'm not going to leave you out here so the desert can turn you into a mummified corpse. I can't snark to a dead corpse. That would be boring."

Will rubbed his head and accepted silently. Maybe Riven wasn't too bad for a jerk after all. But he was still a jerk. They still hadn't left the rocky part of the desert yet and those weird cactus things were everywhere, he still felt uneasy around them. Will was fixated on the older boy's blue eye."Why don't your eyes match? One is blue and the other is brown, what's with that?"

Riven thought about it, he didn't really know. He did get a lot of shit for it back when he was a little boy. People kept calling him illegitimate or something. "I was just born that way." It was all he could say. After all, everyone back home thought he was some kind of bastard. No one here did. Although, they did stare quite a bit.

"Pretty weird. Which one is the odd one?"

"The brown one."

"Really? So your parents both had blue eyes?"

"Yeah. When I came out with a brown eye, everyone lost their minds. That's why I cover it up. Some find it intimidating or unnerving. I scared a girl away with it in Petalburg, right before you torched my room."

Will pretended to whistle, but he failed pretty badly. Riven didn't want to tell him he had a crazed bloodthirsty thing in his mind and that his eye turned blood red at random intervals for reasons he still didn't quite know of yet. It sounded very unlikely. It would be best if he never found out. Will didn't speak anymore so they continued shuffling along through the desert heat. Night would come soon.

When the sun went down and the temperature plummeted, they did their usual routine of setting up a fire and such. It was pretty much a standard, except the feeling of being watched came back again. Riven and Will were jumpy as all hell, looking behind them every few seconds. Riven looked up into the sky and found the polar star. He drew a line in the sand to indicate the direction that north was in.

Riven flipped open Charles. The pokedex's blue lights lit up and he was greeted by a smooth voice. "Hello sir, it has been quite a while since you last requested my services."

Riven cracked a smile.

"Indeed."

"What is the occurrence?"

"Oh, you know. The usual."

"What's trying to murder you this time, sir?"

Will's interest piqued. Who was Riven talking to? He moved to the side and saw him talking to…his pokedex? "Are you talking to a pokedex?" Maybe he was insane after all. He heard that crazy people talked to inanimate objects. The desert heat was getting to him, most likely.

Charles' lights flashed. "Ah. I see you have company. I am Charles, an A.I."

Will was surprised that the pokedex talked like it could think and reason. He actually recoiled back. It acknowledged him, that was freaky.

"Is that a new model? Mine doesn't do that."

"Affirmative. I am one of the newest models. I am a product of collaboration between Devon, Silph, and the Institute of Technology in Castelia City. May I ask your name, trainer?" Riven rolled his eyes.

"I'm Will."

"Hello, Will."

"You sound like a person."

"Well, that is the purpose of my programming. My creators wanted my model line to connect with trainers on their travels, and to give them someone to talk to in the wilderness. I am still programmed with the functions of a normal pokedex however."

"That's so damn cool!" Will looked at Riven, who seemed amused with the kid's exchange with Charles. "How'd you get a new model? You're poorer than dirt." He only had a standard pokedex model, not some awesome AI that could talk and hold a conversation.

"Ah, I believe I can answer that," Charles stated. "He received me from the lab in Littleroot, which belongs to Professor Birch. He is a good friend of the Devon CEO Steven Stone, so naturally he would receive the first models. In truth, the AI models are still experimental and not available to the public. My owner is actually a test Rattata for this sort of thing."

Riven scowled, he had a feeling he was being used.

"Maybe I can get one too, in the future."

"Perhaps. The companies hope that the AIs are successful. If they are, they can be used for multiple purposes, facilitating computations and boosting the performance of technology." Charles made a brief pause. "Sir, am I successful?"

Riven thought about it. Charles might be a computer whatever but he certainly seemed humanlike. "I think so. You definitely seem human, you can think and feel. I know it because you've given me some snark in the past."

"Sorry, sir, but it seems to rub off. You're no saint." Charles made a digital cough sound. "I meant no disrespect of course." He coughed again.

"Well… I am a bit of an asshole." Riven had to admit it. Nearly everyone in the military was a full on asshole or a watered down asshole. Comes with the profession, I guess.

Will saw an opportunity, he took it. "Tremendous."

"Shut up."

Charles chuckled. "Sir, it seems you may have met your match."

"You didn't hear the verbal battles we had some time ago, Charles. I won of course."

"Bullshit!" Will retorted. "I destroyed you!"

"Right," Riven teased. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"It sounds like they were very enjoyable. I wish that I had the chance to listen to them." Charles was curious as to where his owner was currently located. He did not have a GPS function like the pokenavs, so he was unaware of their current position in the Hoenn region. "Anyway, where are you sir?"

Riven saw Will shrug in a way of saying tell-him-if-you-want-I-don't-care. "We're in the desert in the middle of route 111." The worry in Charles' strange silence was almost palpable. He said nothing for a full minute. He knew his owner well enough, he was definitely in a life threatening situation. Considering he had company, it wasn't loneliness. That meant that his owner was stuck in the worst possible desert scenario possible.

"Sir, what part of the desert are you in?" His tone was serious and full of concern. Will and Riven felt that what he was about to say next would make their already sour mood even more sour. "Describe it to me. In detail."

Riven looked around. He began describing the surrounding area. "There's rocks, some vegetation, boulders, wild Sandshrew, and sand. Lots of sand. Sand everywhere. Did I mention there was sand?"

"Are there any cacti?"

"Yeah... Some of them are spiky and standing straight. There are some others though. Look pretty strange."

"What do they look like? Tell me."

"Ummm, it looks like they have strange pyramid shaped tops. They don't have as much spikes on them as the others do. Also, they're green. But that goes without saying."

Charles was deathly silent before saying three words that made electricity crawl down both trainers' spines. "Those aren't cacti."

Riven and Will's hearts skipped a beat. "What." They both squinted at one of the strange cacti, unable to discern it from the more regular looking ones.

"Sir, you and Will need to get out of the desert at all costs."

"We kind of knew that with the sun baking us all day long."

"Don't stop. Don't fall behind. And whatever you do, do not move at night. Move in the day, stay close to the fire at night, they won't approach."

"Who won't approach?" Will asked, more than a little frightened at the pokedex's chilling warning.

"Cacturne." Both trainers glanced at the strangely shaped cacti. There were dozens of them. They couldn't fight them all off. They had fire pokemon but what would be the use if they couldn't see two feet in front of them?

"What's so dangerous about them?" Riven asked, he figured the same thing Will had. Take out a bunch of fire pokemon and roast them.

"They stalk travelers until they fall victim to the desert heat. Then they eat them." Alright, not so bad. "Also, once they have prey in mind, they don't stop following you."

Well then.

Both trainers let out a string of curses foul enough to challenge a Muk. Desert, sandstorms, floods, and now stalking cactus? Amazing. Will groaned and glared daggers at Riven. "Does this always happen to you? My travels had been fine until you showed up! Now we can't go a day without something trying to murder us!"

"I got attacked by a swarm of Scyther on my first day." Both as a trainer, and in the future. It was symbol from the heavens for sure. Fate treats you like its personal butt Mankey.

Will winced. So this was a regular thing for him. His paranoia wasn't misplaced after all, everything was trying to kill him. But maybe not to this degree, even nature wanted them dead right now. "That really sucks."

"Ten days in the hospital strapped to a bed. Not fun in the tiniest of ways." Riven stared into the flames, holding his hands out to warm them. "Besides, you're a walking disaster area and I'm a doom magnet, what did you think would happen?"

Will sighed. "Good point. What should we do then?"

Charles gave some monumental advice. "Survive."

Both trainers frowned, they weren't even surprised. Some help that was. Will spoke up, voicing his annoyance. "So, try not to die from dehydration and don't move at night because freaky cactus pokemon want to eat us. Then we have to sleep through them watching us, that won't be hard at all." Riven nodded in agreement. He flipped Charles closed again.

He pointed at Will. "Enough talk. Sleep. You know the routine." Will did as he was told. He had some trouble falling asleep but managed it after thirty minutes of turning. He didn't know how much more of this he could take.

The next few days after that left them in a perilous situation. They were down to Riven's last little mini-gallon. Sharing water between the two of them had finished the rest of his water pretty quickly. The last gallon was only half full too. It didn't even look like they were even remotely close to the exit. Just some more desert for miles ahead. They had drunk their own…urine too. It was gross but necessary. They had tried to dig a hole in the ground to try and find water but it just left their hands roughed up and bleeding. Even through bleeding they were losing water, so they stopped that too. Rika had no luck finding water either. Riven tried to cut open some cactus(that weren't Cacturne) but found that the liquid in them tasted even more foul than urine did. Needless to say, they refrained from doing that again.

They trudged along the harsh desert ground, a weak gait instead of a solid walk. They were sunburned and the sweat and dust had dried in their hair, turning it white and pasty. Their clothes had grown stiff due to the sweat and their feet felt like hell. Their conversations were barely coherent anymore.

Riven walked further ahead before he noticed that the shuffling of feet had stopped behind him. He turned around, feeling a bit nauseous. Will stood in place, holding his head. His face was red and he kept swinging back and forth. "Will. What are you doing? Get a move on."

"Riv…en…I…feel…dizzy. I just w-want to rest." Then, he crumpled to the ground, falling face first into the sand. Riven ran up to him. The heat had gotten to him. He was a child, Will was much more susceptible to heat stroke than he was. He grabbed the water gallon and opened his mouth, pouring some of the liquid into the younger trainer's mouth.

"Will, wake up. We can't stop, come on. Wake up." He slapped him, but the boy was still out of it. He needed some time to get that water through his system. He picked him up and carried him. He continued walking along the rocky ground, giving the boy some water in intervals. The gallon had emptied and they no longer had a fresh supply of water. The urine was undrinkable at this point. It was dark and smelled worse than a rotting corpse. Eventually, after another few miles of aimless wandering, Riven hit the sand too.

The sound of droplets stirred Riven awake. A cool feeling came over his skin. It felt like water. It was impossible, he was in the desert. There was no way. He thought the Cacturne would have gotten to him and Will at this point. There wasn't water for miles. He shakily got onto his feet and nearly cried in joy after seeing a pool of water around him. He tasted it. Fresh, cold water. He lapped it up like a parched hound. "Water… sweet drink of the gods. But how?"

"I can answer that," A strange ethereal voice said. Riven turned around impossibly fast, crouching with his knife held out. He saw Will and a large thing, with pink eyes that levitated off the ground next to him. Will's eyes were glowing blue.

"What are you doing to him? Answer me!" He tried to reach where he kept White Queen's pokeball but found that all his pokeballs were missing. Fuck. There goes that option.

Will's mouth opened and the voice spoke. "If you are looking for your devices, they are in the other room. We took them for good measure, your friend mentioned you are more than paranoid."

"Will said that?" Riven lowered the knife. "But he was unconscious."

"As were you. We found him and you in the desert, about to get devoured by the dark ones."

"The Cacturne?"

"If that is what you call them."

"Oh. So you…saved us?"

"That is an accurate description. We do not normally save humans, but we did it to refuse those creatures of sustenance."

Riven hissed, full of skepticism. "Oh, how splendid of you."

"Well, we were more interested in saving the boy than you. We hoped you would perish in the desert but your friend insisted."

Riven cackled darkly."This is exactly why I'm paranoid. Either everything wants me six feet under the ground or they leave me to brave the elements and die anyway. No surprise there." He folded his arms and started tapping his foot. "Why are you even bothering to talk to me then?"

"We are going to warn you."

Riven wasn't having any of this. "If it's some prophecy conspiracy then I don't want anything to do with it. I see the future and all of that ton of crap can stay inside your psychic mind. I don't care. Your future sight can go fuck off."

"We do not have a prophecy for you. We cannot see your future, because you are not where you belong. We only have a warning."

"Spit it out then." The long-windedness that these psychic bastards were so fond of was beyond irritating. They needed to get to the point.

"You do not belong here, you or your ilk. You are an error, an anomaly. You are a danger to this world. Leave, go back."

"I can't go fucking back!" Riven growled and bristled like a Sandslash. "I came here on accident! I was about to die when suddenly I'm here, in the future and everything seems so sweet and nice that my brain felt like it was going to decay. I didn't ask for this. And you know what? I don't feel like going back. So unless you tell whatever legendary son of a bitch accidentally sent me here to send me back, I'm here to stay. Deal with it."

The clay statue levitated in front of him. Riven had a feeling it was getting angry. "Listen well, ancient darkness. You are evil, a calamity waiting to happen. Your presence in this world can upset the balance he has worked so hard to establish. Do not destroy it."

"Destroy what? This balance? Where ten year olds can own creatures capable of leveling mountains? Burning villages? That's a disaster waiting to happen! It might have already happened!"

"You do not belong. We abhor the darkness. But yours is the worst of all. We will let you live, but know this. If you continue along this path, we will not be there to save you. You are an atrocious nightmare."

"Good. I never asked anyone to. I never needed it. And what's with this darkness? I'm a fucking person. I'm not darkness." What kind of stupidity was this psychic spewing? Darkness? He was just a regular person, not an absence of light. Psychics!

"Hmph, you know not what you are. Perhaps you may not be such a malign stain on this land if you contain yourself. Regardless, control it. Do not let it control you. The effects could spell catastrophe. You and the rest of your kind are not welcome here. Stay in the shadows, where your filth belongs."

Riven lobbed a glob of spit at it.

The statue left the room and Will's eyes returned to normal. He blinked a few times before smiling. "You're awake!" Riven narrowed his eyes.

"Did you hear all of that?"

"Yeah. I don't get what it meant either. I was just a vessel. It couldn't speak to you telepathically like other psychics can."

"Why is that?"

"He said to ask your Kirlia."

Riven threw his hands up. "I can't even afford a translator. Guess I have to save up, that thing got me curious. Why are most psychics assholes? And why can't they ever talk straight and not in riddles?"

Will shrugged and looked at him strangely. "What was that part about the future? That part was really confusing."

Riven rolled his eyes. "That's a long story. I'll tell it to you some place else, away from all this… whatever this is." He looked around the room, thick walls made of carved stone. Water streamed down the sides of the walls and collected into a large pool in the center. It looked ancient, and largely untouched. No one must have set foot in here for decades. "What was that thing?"

"A Claydol. They're statues made in ancient times that came alive somehow. They've been guarding these ruins for a long time now. Hardly anyone finds them, they're hidden from above and no one is crazy enough to do it on foot. The Cacturne usually get to them first."

"Oh. This would be Steven's drea-"

Will stopped him before he could continue further. "Don't tell anyone though, they want it to be a secret."

Riven scoffed loudly, shaking some leftover dust out of his hair. "I won't. I don't want other people to get stuck listening to their baseless warnings of doom and peril."

Will nodded and told Riven to follow him. They left the water room and entered another room, one with stone carvings of people and three beings in the center. Riven's pokeballs were on a stone protrusion near the wall. He retrieved them in a hurry, checking to see if they were all there. His pokemon were safe. He sighed in relief. "What is this place?"

"Don't know. Some history room or something." Riven and Will traced the etchings with their hands, seeing people and pokemon bowing down to the three beings in the center. They looked like…dragons. They must have revered them as gods. The one in the center must have been the creator, Arceus. Riven stared at the picture with eyes full of coldness. Some god. Useless prick. The other two didn't look much better.

The two of them explored the ruins. They found nothing but empty rooms and more Claydols. They found a seemingly unassuming room when a blue light emanated brightly from Riven's bag, shining through the material. He took out a small blue sphere. It was pulsing brightly, causing the lines in the walls to flash blue as well. Suddenly, the entire ruins lit up in a blue light, the same color as the sphere. The Claydols throughout the temple were alarmed. What had the humans done?

The center of the room flashed once again and the blue lines turned red. The floor opened up and a spear erected from the middle. In it was a red sphere. Will reached out to touch it.

"Wait, Will!"

Before Riven could stop him, Will touched it and in that instant, red circuitry patterns spread up the boy's arm as a whirling inferno of flames arose around him. The blistering heat caused Riven to back away as screams erupted from the center of the burning cyclone. The smell of burnt flesh filled the room as Will continued to scream in complete agony from being seemingly burned alive. The flames grew in intensity as the shrieks did, encompassing the entirety of the chamber before slowly dissipating, leaving behind a wall of fire.

The screams stopped as Riven looked ahead, wide-eyed and in disbelief he'd just seen a kid get torched alive. The room still smelled like burnt flesh.

Riven stared at the floor, dejected. Then he heard a shuffle and looked up to see Will standing up, his body otherwise unharmed as he walked through the flames. His red eyes glowed slightly and red lines briefly flashed along his arms and body. Riven was immediately at his side, surprised to find that he was too hot to touch. Tears ran down his cheeks from the pain."Will? What was that?! Are you alright? I thought you got burned alive!"

"I-I did. It hurt so much…" He looked confused and dazed. Rubbed his eyes, wiping away hot tears. "I don't know. It felt like I got set on fire with gasoline and t-then…then I felt s-stronger. Warmer. It feels weird, it's like I got a fire in my chest." He placed a hand on his sternum and coughed a few times. It certainly did feel warmer. His forehead was fever hot but he felt completely fine. Better than fine, actually.

The Claydols freaked and surrounded them. What did you do! Their voices boomed inside Will's head. They were furious. Riven cautiously reached for White Queen's pokeball.

"I just touched it!"

Why! And how did you do that?

"The blue sphere lit up!" Will pointed to the sphere in Riven's left hand. He gripped it tighter and snarled.

The statues turned to the sphere, floating instinctively backward. Then, they faced Will again. You both must leave at once, you've caused too much here. Leave! Now!

"But how?"

There is a room in the back of the temple. Make your way there. It will transport you out of the desert. Do not come back, we will end your lives if you do. Will nodded and led Riven out, making their way towards the end of the temple.

"Where are we going? What did they tell you?" Riven was lost, he had no idea what they had told Will. He could have been leading him to their combined deaths for all he knew. He trusted the psychics as far as he could throw them, which meant not at all.

"To the back of the temple. There's something that can get us out of here. They're beyond pissed. And I don't want to fight that many Claydol." Riven clenched his jaw and accepted it. It was the best shot they had at getting out of the desert. He didn't hesitate to take it.

The final room had an ancient looking contraption made of stone. Riven placed the blue sphere in the groove in the center and the contraption lit up, flashing bright blue. They moved all of the pillars in place after some effort and the interior of the room filled with a strange glow, Riven snatched the sphere just in case. Both boys looked around in wonder, before a bright flash lit up the room and they fell onto a rocky floor elsewhere. They stood up in confusion, spitting out dust and coughing. They appeared to be outside now.

"That was…different," Riven mentioned, dusting himself off while holding his head. It felt like some sort of teleport, but it was different somehow, in a way he couldn't explain. It just felt so strange.

"Yeah," Will agreed.

They turned back and saw the desert behind them. They looked at each other momentarily as their location registered in their sun-roasted minds, erupting into joyful laughter as they did. "We're out! YES!" Riven punted a pebble into the sky. Will jumped up and down, nearly crying in happiness. That was the strangest thing that had ever happened to them but they didn't care, they were glad just to be out of that desert. They were so caught up in celebrating that they didn't notice a truck roll up next to them.

"I don't fucking believe it. I don't believe! ARCEUS DAMNED!" The trucker that they had seen before their unfortunate trek through the desert was staring at disbelief in them. There were some trainers in the back, unsure why he had stopped. He got out of the driver seat and went to both of them. "I thought you two were dead! We went looking for you for days! That sandstorm didn't let us come back for you and when we did, you were gone!"

Both trainers looked dumbfounded and blinked furiously, trying to make sense of what he was saying. "We searched and searched but found nothing. The rescue teams thought you two died. They thought the cacturne got you. You both look like hell chewed you up and spit you out, how are you both still alive?"

Riven and Will both said at the same time, "That's…a long story."

The trucker was furious. He was shouting at Riven at the top of his lungs. "How could you be so stupid! You left the truck and thought you could just stake it out? How stupid are you?!" Abandoning the truck? Trying to survive on limited water and food in a desert full of Cacturne? What in their right minds could have convinced them that was a good idea?

"I didn't think you'd come back! There was a sandstorm and a fucking flood! The truck was GONE. It's buried under sand right now! What else was I going to do? Sit there and wait for hypothermia to kill us both? What about the Cacturne? Don't patronize me for improvising! We're alive and that's what matters! Get off my back!"

The trucker breathed deeply. "Why wouldn't we come back? We always do. We don't leave trainers on their own." Why did this boy think so little of them? Was he that cynical?

Riven's jaw clenched. When he had gotten stranded in the wilderness, no one had ever come back for him. He was always on his own. He didn't depend on anyone, because they never came for him. It was a rule. He thought they would do the same. "I'm used to being left to my own devices. I didn't know you would search for us. If I had known, I might have stayed. But I didn't, and I'm not sorry."

The man took off his hat and scratched his balding head. "Fine. But you don't have to worry about me. Worry about them." He pointed to a mess of reporters and news vans. One of the trainers had mentioned Will and Riven's story to their parents and the story spread like wildfire. Now, there were news crews outside of the trucker's cabin on the Lavaridge side of route 111.

Will peeked out of the blinds and jumped. He shuddered. "Reporters…those bloodsuckers." Riven raised a brow.

"What's so bad about them?"

"The better question is what's good about them. They just ruin trainer's lives! And stalk famous people! That's why being famous blows!" Riven decided it was better to trust Will with this. He had more experience in this world. If he said reporters ruined lives, he wasn't eager to find out.

They stepped outside and were assaulted by questions and camera flashes. Riven stepped back inside. He looked horrified. The trucker burst out laughing. "What's wrong? Ye scared? Such a Skitty haha!"

"They're…they're crazy!"

The older man was peeling a potato. "Welcome to the life of a celebrity. Even though you two are less celebrities and more, I-can't-believe-it momentarily famous. Hardly anyone has survived in that desert for that long, on foot at least. Go face em boy! They'll forget about ye in a couple days. Then you'll be back to being ghosts. Nobody is gonna give two shits about ya." He pointed at the door, nearly shoving him out of it with his gaze. Riven swallowed and straightened his nerves.

He joined Will, who was answering some questions while trying not to get overwhelmed by the reporters. He turned around just to get a microphone shoved in his face.

"What are your thoughts on the ordeal and what were your chances of survival after the sandstorm?"

"What's your name?"

"What's your connection to the little boy? Are you-" That reporter was cut off by Will, who immediately silenced Riven with a hand wave.

"He's my brother. Nathan Ethne. I'm Will Ethne." Riven looked at him funny and Will shot him a glance that said play-along-or-else. He did and a long period of answering questions followed. Riven was in his last interview.

"So, how did you escape the desert? You didn't just walk out here did you?"

Riven grinned. He picked up the attitude pretty quickly after some advice from Will. He hated doing this fake charisma thing but if it got the reporters off their backs, he had to. "Vibravas." He waved goodbye and left with his 'brother' back to the cabin. Once inside, Riven glared at Will. "So, I'm your brother now huh."

"You really want to tell them your real name?"

"Not really. So I'll let this one go."

"Great. Then we can get some sleep and head through the Fiery and Jagged Paths to Lavaridge. Good night." He jumped onto the bed and went lights out. He had done more interviews than Riven did. He certainly could see why he was so tired, the reporters were annoying and gave Riven headaches.

The older trainer's holo caster buzzed. He checked the caller identification, it was Samuel. He stepped outside to take the call. "Hello, Sam. What did you need?"

The old man's image appeared and he smiled. "I saw you on TV! That must have been tough. Surviving something like that. I'm glad you're okay kid."

"Hah. It'll take more than some sun and stalking cacti to kill me." They talked for an hour, about the ordeal and his plans after that. He said goodnight to the friendly old man and headed off to bed. He closed his eyes and within moments, he joined Will in restful sleep he hadn't gotten since Irene's. Riven hoped there would be no more things trying to kill him, but that was asking for way too much.

His sunburnt skin still stung like hell though.

A screen came on, showing a man in a uniform with his face blackened out. "Director, the blue light came from the desert. They may have found one."

"Who?"

"The two boys from earlier."

The director recalled the news report about two boys who survived a trek through the desert."I see, find them."

"Another thing."

"Yes?"

"The older one, it's him."

"Him who?"

"The one back from Petalburg, I recognize that grin. I couldn't possibly forget it."

"Is that so? Well then, beat the information out of them, then get rid of the older one." This way, he would achieve two objectives at the same time.

"Yes sir. Heading to Lavaridge soon. We will not disappoint you."

"Good. Or you'll end up like that failure. Bring me results."

"Yes, sir. Together as one."

"Together as one."

The screen shut off, leaving the director in silence. He adjusted his tie, he had a speech to make.