(Content Warning: self-harm, technically? Like it's definitely that but I didn't realize it until years after I wrote it. But you've been warned. I'm going through and doing CWs by chapter. If there's something I didn't flag but you think I should, hmu in the reviews!)

By the time I got to Sandgem, Dawn and Lucas were already hanging out in the Pokemon Center's lounge. Okay, maybe I remembered that Route 201 shortcut wrong.

"You win," I said to Lucas, sounding reluctant. He grinned like a little kid. Right now though, my real business was with–

"Hey, Dawn… can I speak to you?"

"Sure."

I pulled her to the side, near a leafy potted plant. "Look … This is a little weird, but how set are you on training with that piplup?"

She tilted her head slightly. "Why?"

"Just wondering."

"I guess I'm pretty set. I mean, we did some training on the way here."

My eyebrows flickered up. "Already?"

"Well, I mean, a little."

"Ah." I coughed. "I was… This is the weird part… I was wondering if you'd be willing to switch."

"Switch what? Pokemon?"

"Yeah."

In another situation, her speechlessness would have indicated a mistake. Dawn pulled the blue sphere out of her coat pocket and gazed at it.

"Well… Thing is, I've already made friends with her," Dawn said slowly. "It wouldn't feel right if I traded her away now."

"No, I understand," I assured her, beating back the part of me that wanted to push further. I couldn't take Bree, if Dawn had already befriended her. Damned morals getting in the way.

"Yeah… Is something wrong?"

"Hm? I – no…" Though it was. "That's all."

Dawn nodded. "Okay."

We returned to where Lucas was sitting, me trying not to let my insides sink. "Evelyn, do you want to share a room with us?" Lucas asked me, nodding at the front desk.

(If you're not familiar with trainer life, trainers of different genders sharing a room is normal. Centers would otherwise run out of rooms.)

"You guys aren't moving on?" I asked, surprised.

"It'd be late by the time we get to Jubilife," he said.

"But we could make it," I insisted, falling onto the sofa opposite him.

"Really late," Dawn said, coming down more gently on the cushion next to me. "The city's dangerous at night and we just started out. There's a lot we can't defend from yet."

"Exactly," I pressed, "The faster we move, the faster we grow as trainers. The faster our pokemon grow, right?"

"Okay, but there's only so far they can grow in one afternoon," Dawn said.

Well, sure, but…

"Um… I'm gonna go," I decided, standing up. "Dawn, I guess you're staying. Lucas?"

He shook his head. "I'll wait the night."

Oh. Damn.

"Okay. See you," I said to them – mostly him – before turning and heading right back out the doors. Breathe, Evelyn. You've handled a month of him dead; you can do a day or two away from him alive.

"Hi. My name's Evelyn."

The chimchar opened his hand and waved. Cute. I relaxed a little, unaware that I had been tense.

"I'm your new trainer… Did you have a name at the lab?"

He shook his head, saying, "Mm-mm."

"Okay…" Great, on-the-spot naming. "You're a guy, right?"

A nod. "I could name you… Let me know if you like the name… um…"

…problem was, Lucas never named his pokemon, last time around. I had nothing to base his name on. And I couldn't name the chimchar Bree because one, he was a guy, and two, Bree was Bree, oh shoot, her name must have changed now that Dawn had her–

"I… can I name you later? Sorry…"

"Cha," he said, patting my shoulder in a strikingly friendly gesture.

"Do you want to stay out of the ball on the way to Jubilife?"

"Mm-hm."

"Okay. Hop on." I swept my hair off my shoulder and held out my arm. The chimchar clung on with first his hands, then his feet, adjusting himself to his new station. Bree was quicker and more efficient about it, but then she'd been doing it for longer.

Correction, done it for longer. In the present, she wouldn't have recognized me.

The chimchar and I set off for Jubilife. Throughout the journey, I was on the lookout for any rustle in the grass, hoping for a shinx. A few times I needed my chimchar to fend of some hostile bidoofs. (I wish that was a joke, but no. They're the worst. Those teeth.)

Meanwhile, I had him go through some of the en-route exercises I created last time around. Racing with him down dirt paths, navigating progressively higher parts of treetops, jumping off ledges and ending in a crouch or a roll, depending on the height. After a particularly high drop that he somersaulted out of and ended on his feet, my chimchar cheered and let out a celebratory burst of solid embers. His first fire-type move.

Around 8 o'clock I spotted a herd of shinx.

"Hey," I whispered, pointing with the arm my chimchar wasn't sitting on. "I'm gonna get closer, but if one has a five-pointed tail star, we need to catch her." He held on to my shoulder more tightly, and I knew he heard.

Moving slowly along the bottom of a rock face, I scanned the group of shinx. Their tails moved around too fast for me to get a good look. It seemed like four points, four points, four points, four points, five–

"There! The small one! Get her!"

The chimchar launched himself in with a flamethrower… I mean, ember. The two who'd been hit yowled. The remaining seven or eight bared their teeth.

"Dodge what you can, scratch what you can't!"

With agility I hadn't believed possible from a starter, even after watching him train for hours, the chimchar sprang between shinxes, ricocheting off rocks and the shinxes' backs. I wondered why he wasn't targeting any of them… Did I need to tell him?

"Target the one with a five-pointed star."

"Chaaa!" He sent out a distress call, which was strange because his speed wasn't flagging at all. I scanned the group again, looking for the one with five stars. Did she get away? I didn't remember seeing any run off.

Where did Liana go?

I kept looking, worriedly looking, frantically looking and all I saw was four points, four points, four points, four. And my chimchar was finally losing steam.

"Come on, just a little longer… You can do it…"

What for?

He yelled in pain as a shinx caught him in the side with her claws. Another nicked his ear. Losing way too much steam way too fast.

"Crap – Let's get out of here!" I sprinted past, and he extracted himself from the melee in time to jump onto my shoulder. The shinx herd ran after us.

"Sorry, I thought Liana… sorry…"

My voice faltered. I swallowed my disappointment and ran.

The shinxes kept pursuing. Stupid youthful energy. I looked around for an escape. There was a ledge to our left.

"I'm gonna jump, watch out."

He leaped from my shoulder right when I leaped up, twisting so I could reach the relatively high ledge. I grunted when my back hit rock. My chimchar looked down at me.

"Cha?" he said, as though asking if I was all right.

"I'm okay…" Sitting up, I looked down over the ledge. Ten shinxes were howling, scrambling over each other in an attempt to climb the ledge. None had a five-pointed star. It was clear from this distance.

"I was looking for an old friend," I said out loud, not sure if the chimchar cared. "She – she doesn't know me anymore. But she's got a five-pointed star. And she's somewhere on this route."

He and I were silent, watching the shinxes slowly give up trying.

"I don't know if it's worth trying to find her anymore."

At some point one of them turned away and meowed to the others, who followed with varying shades of reluctance. I glanced at my chimchar, who was watching me. I couldn't figure out his expression.

"I guess… we'll keep going, then?"

He nodded and jumped back up to my shoulder. The ledge wound around a mountainside for a while, and let off far from where we'd left the herd. We didn't see any more shinxes that night.

Any sprinting we'd done didn't help our time much.

By the time we reached the highway leading into Jubilife, my poketch read 11 pm. Sporadic streetlights illuminated cars flying by on the eight-laned street. You could see the inner city's blinding billboards up ahead. Wind from vehicles zooming by tore at my hair and clothes. I zipped up my jacket and took my chimchar into his pokeball – the wind was threatening to blow him over. I tucked his pokeball into my jacket pocket, where six used to rest side by side.

The streets were mostly empty of pedestrians. Across the highway, a woman in a white parka walked away from the heart of the city. Maybe a hundred yards behind, someone with black hair and a grayish striped sweatshirt was heading in the same direction as me.

In a lull in the cars passing by, I heard a shuffle from an alleyway in front of me. A man in a familiar brown trenchcoat stood inside, facing away from the road. My shoulders lightened.

"Looker?"

The man turned around with a dark scowl. He stuffed a paper bag in his pocket. Not Looker.

"Oh, I thought y–"

He reached out and yanked me into the alley by the arm. I yanked back – there was another man – he clamped his hand over my mouth – I swiped backward with my left hand – missed, and the first one grabbed it and held my arms behind my back – I kicked and hit a kneecap – pushed to my knees –

"Chaaa!"

Fire shot past – guy behind let go, threw a pokeball – the other shoved me down, pinned my arms beneath – machop picked up my chimchar – fire flew – I twisted my foot out from under – knee on my ribs – chimchar hit a wall – struggled to get out – dug his knee into me –

A bird swooped in suddenly and shot out a swift attack. Gleaming yellow stars tore at the machop and his trainer, knocking out the machop. The noctowl dove at the trainer, who ducked, getting claw marks on his hands. She beat his head with her wings until he stopped defending himself long enough to recall his machop and ran into the alley's depths. The noctowl dove at the man holding me down, barreling into him beakfirst. She knocked him off and followed up with a round of swift between his legs – he screamed and scrambled to his feet, hobbling away after his friend.

Catching my breath, I rolled over and got up, heading to my chimchar immediately. He lay at the bottom of the alley wall. I carefully felt his limbs and chest for damage, then his head; there was a lump growing at the back of his skull. Concussions were a get-to-a-Center-ASAP kind of injury.

Someone appeared at the entrance to the alley. I tensed, but it wasn't one of the guys who attacked me. It was the guy wearing gray – well, green and gray – who was walking behind me earlier. He was trying not to breathe hard.

"Are you okay? I sent Silver cause I'm slow…"

I nodded, looking away. "Yeah. 'M all right."

He knelt down next to me. "How about your chimchar?"

"Concussion. Nothing else broken." I pulled him into his pokeball.

"You can tell?" he said, surprised.

"Course I can tell." He and I stood up.

"You just seem like a new trainer."

"Oh." Yeah, cause I couldn't even defend myself, much less overpower my opponents' pokemon.

He aimed a pokeball over my head, at the noctowl. "Silver, return… what are you–"

I slammed my fist into the wall. "Whoa, stop," he said, grabbing my wrist.

"Let go." I yanked my arm. He didn't let go.

"That won't help!"

"I need to punch something!"

"Don't punch a wall…"

"What else is there to punch."

"Uh… punch me."

I stopped fighting and stared at him. "What?"

"Better than a wall."

We stared each other down. I honestly considered it. In the time it took me to decide not to punch him, I accidentally calmed down.

"Well… Thanks I guess," I said, pulling my wrist from his grasp. "For sending your noctowl after them."

"Sure."

I had a team of six yesterday, and we almost beat two Galactic admins. Then again, that hadn't been enough either.

He ended up walking with me to the pokemon center, cause we were heading the same way. He looked a few years older, and at any rate he was practically a head taller than me. His ears were big, nose wide, and he wore thick glasses, like the hipster kind with just top rims and a silver bridge. He couldn't be called buff, or skinny, or fat. I couldn't tell why I was analyzing him until I realized I was comparing him to Lucas.

Oh… Nah, he doesn't even compare. Lucas is a lot cuter.

"…Did you start out recently?" the guy asked, trying to make conversation.

"Yeah. Just today."

"Oh, cool. Are you from Sandstone Town?"

I gave him a weird look.

"Sand… something sand."

"Sandgem?"

"Yeah."

"Nah, Twinleaf."

"Isn't that kinda far?"

"Just past Sandgem."

"You went through two towns in one day?"

"City," I said, pointing to the city lights up ahead.

"A town and a city in a day?"

"What's wrong with that?" I met his gaze. Brown eyes. Darker than Lucas's.

"That's sooo far…"

"It's fine. I'm used to traveling fast."

"But you just started out."

Oops. It was my first time traveling, supposedly. "Whatever," I muttered.

We walked quietly into the city's center, the noises around us growing louder.

"So where are you from?" I asked. My turn to start the conversation.

"Johto."

"Oh!"

He laughed at my surprise. "Yep. Ecruteak City, if you know where that is."

"Heard of it. I guess you started training there?"

"Made it through five gyms."

"Why'd you stop?" A truck rattled by.

He tilted his head forward and raised his eyebrows. "Why did you stop?" I repeated, louder.

He ran a hand through his short hair. "Um… I needed a change, so I came over here instead."

"Badge run?"

"Yep. I have to start over now. It shouldn't be too hard, after a year of training."

A year, and only five badges? I mean, not that that's a bad thing, but… I only needed a few months for seven…

What I actually said was, "The gym leaders here have a few sets of pokemon each. They pick teams depending on the trainer's level."

"I know. So people like me can't just breeze through."

"People still take the traditional order. Oreburgh, Eterna, Veilstone…"

I spotted someone leaning against a lamppost, staring across the street. Light brown trenchcoat. Black hair turning gray too soon. Right where I first met him.

"Looker."

He turned his head towards the sound of my voice. "Lyn!"

"You remember me?" I realized, suddenly relieved.

"I linked our poketches. My version of the app activated when you used yours."

So he came back in time with me.

"Who's your friend?" Looker asked.

I glanced at the "friend" in question. "He helped me out back there," I said, pointing over my shoulder. "I sort of got mugged."

"My noctowl helped you," he said.

"Same thing."

"Is that what happened to your hand?" Looker asked, frowning.

Hand?

I checked out my right hand. The knuckles were split, swelling, and turning blue.

"That… was something else."

"I'm glad you're okay. Tell me what happened."

He meant more than the mugging. I looked at the guy next to me.

"I'll go on ahead," he said, leaving me and Looker to chat. "Bye."

"See you," I said. As though I would.

"So," Looker said, nodding at me.

I explained what had happened, from the time Looker called me about Galactic's location to the battle with Mars and Jupiter. Looker kept a lookout (ha ha) for eavesdroppers for the duration of my story.

"Hmm… Okay. I was hoping to find out what was a little farther in," he said, sounding disappointed.

"Sorry."

"Hey, that's fine. You got pretty far as it is. Now we know we need more than one person to get through," he said, smiling ruefully. "Unless we can prevent it sooner."

"So what are your plans now?" I asked him.

"Take Galactic as it develops," Looker said with a shrug. "We've got the advantage now that we've seen their plans. You'll, ah… Any chance you could stay in this mission? I know you were never a formal part of it…"

"Looker, of course," I told him. "It's not something I can get out of anymore."

"Well, all right," he said, seeming at ease.

"I'm staying the night at the Center, if you need me," I let him know.

"Yeah, all right. I'll walk you there."

Disclaimer: any similarities characters may have with real-life people are either definitely true or not at all true and you're deluding yourself. One character is a sheep in wolf's clothing: looks like a person who's mean irl, but is a different person altogether in this story.

Just fyi.