(CW: the battle gets a little bit graphic. This was written at a point where I still wanted to write hyper-realistic battle scenes, so it's honestly maybe the grossest battle in the whole story, for me. Specifically someone's eye gets injured.)

I was heading to the gym in the morning when I crossed paths with them.

"Evelyn!"

"Arceus, I haven't seen you guys in hecka long," I said, grinning. Shifting to a more somber expression, I said, "Sorry I ditched you guys in Jubilife."

"It's okay, the nurse told us about it," Dawn said. "How's your family?"

"My… My aunt's fine. Had a stroke, but she's getting better. No serious side-effects."

"Oh, good."

"You guys heading to the Pokemon Center?"

"Yep."

"I'll join you after I hit the gym. You'll probably have to shower and stuff anyways."

"True that. Good luck," said Dawn.

"Thanks," I said. I waved at Lucas. He smiled and waved back.

As I walked away from them, I thought of how little Lucas and I had actually talked this time around. He wasn't exactly a loud person, but even at the beginning of our journeys last time he could talk to me easily. Usually one on one.

I glanced behind me at Dawn. She was talking. Lucas wasn't.

I fingered Trust's pokeball nervously. I knew I shouldn't be, but I was anxious over whether he'd be enough. Cause I was gambling everything on the type advantage.

Flipping heck, Evelyn. Trust, his name is Trust.

"This will be a three-on-three battle between the challenger, Evelyn Meyers of Twinleaf Town, and the gym leader Gardenia," said the ref. "The challenger may switch pokemon between rounds. Battle… Begin!"

"Turtwig, I choose you!"

"Trust, it's yours."

Turtwig against monferno. Hm. Dunno how that would play out.

"Turtwig, use razor leaf!"

"Flame wheel," I said.

Trust rolled forth, engulfed in fire – he still wasn't using enough tailflame, but it was enough for now. The leaves burned on contact with the flames, hitting him lightly and slowing him not at all. He barreled straight into Turtwig, damaging him severely.

And it's not like there was a health bar over his head. He looked winded, singed, and generally in quite a bit of pain.

"Finish him with flamethrower," I told Trust. He knocked the Turtwig out easily. So much for the turtwig's high defense, as warned by Roark.

"Turtwig is unable to battle. Round one goes to the challenger."

"Hmm… Interesting," Gardenia said, recalling her pokemon. Trust looked back at me; I gave him a smile and a thumbs-up.

"Cherrim."

I was back in. "Head in with flamethrower."

"Magical leaf, and dodge!"

The leaves swerved around the flames – an oddity; most would have let them collide – and nailed Trust in the face, while the cherrim jumped away from the fire. I was about to call another command when I realized Trust was acting strangely.

"Trust?"

"Grass knot!"

He was clutching his face, rubbing part of it. He didn't flinch when the grass knots multiplied, tying down his feet.

"Leech seed," called Gardenia. She was getting move after move in; we needed to do something, fast.

"Trust, flamethrower."

He threw out embers instead, in a completely random direction, while the leech seeds hit. I realized what had happened: the magical leaves had cut his eye. Not severe in the long run; painful for now, and blinding for now.

"Flamethrower in a semicircle to your right," I told him.

The cherrim was too close; ember hit. "Again!" I yelled quickly.

"Magical leaf!"

The two attacks met this time; ember was a bit stronger, cutting through the grass move. Cherrim toppled over backwards, trilling before falling unconscious.

"Cherrim is unable to battle. Round two to the challenger."

"Return," Gardenia said.

"Hang on," I called before she could say anything pre-final-round. Stepping onto the battlefield, I jogged over to Trust.

"Lemme see your eye," I murmured. He was clutching it. He gave a little sound of reluctance and withdrew a little. This hadn't happened before. "Trust. I need to see."

Trust gave in and slowly pulled his hands from his right eye. His eye was watering like mad, and a sliver of white cut across his cornea. I knew the roserade wouldn't last long under him, but this wasn't worth it. "Relax a bit," I said, pulling out his pokeball. "You've done well."

He looked as uncomfortable as I felt as he returned to his pokeball. I tried not to show it. We could handle the grass gym without a fire type.

"You know," Gardenia said when I returned to my side of the battlefield, "I thought you'd be the merciless type at first. You know, the type who's strong but sees their pokemon as pawns."

Surprise shot through me. "What? Why?"

"It was the way you were calling commands. New trainers aren't usually so calm about it."

I blushed. "I mean, it's mostly cause I'm more likely to misspeak if I yell…"

"No matter. You broke my expectations with the way you communicated with your monferno. Regardless of how the next round plays out, you'd deserve the badge."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," I said, grinning. I picked up Faith's pokeball and got ready to throw…

I stopped, remembering Gardenia's greatest fear. Ghosts.

Can Promise handle a roserade?

I pulled out the other pokeball, thinking fast. "Promise," I whispered to it, "If you've never used swift before, here's how: whip your tail in front of you, putting energy in it. It's not a specific type of energy."

"Something wrong?" Gardenia asked.

"Nope," I called back, throwing Promise's pokeball. "Try it out when you're ready," I told him.

Promise whipped his tail around a few times. He wasn't even close to getting the hang of it by the time Gardenia let her roserade onto the battlefield.

"Roserade, stun spore!"

"Watergun the spores." I reacted immediately.

Promise's watergun soaked the stun spore, sending the powder off to the side. Aquajet he didn't have down yet, water pulse was too slow. Water gun was about it, besides the usual tackle and sonic boom. Flipping heck.

"Poison sting!"

"Counter with watergun."

Roserade whipped out a barrage of thorns. I squinted at the point where it met Promise's watergun; the poison sting moved through the water for a few feet, but slowed to a stop.

"Promise," I said suddenly, thinking up a new idea, "Get up close to the roserade."

He gave me a look of shock.

"Go on."

He sprinted, dodging a few shots of poison as he ran, and when he was close enough I called out, "Watergun! Hard as you can!"

Promise let out a torrent of water right at the roserade's chest, throwing her backwards against one of the boulders on the field. She clearly looked winded – it worked.

"Grass knot!"

Promise tripped midstride, tumbling forward. It was enough time for the roserade to recover and shoot poison needles at him.

"DODGE!" He rolled and barely avoided the poison sting.

"Roserade, magical leaf!"

The roserade copied Promise; she darted right up close and blasted him straight-on, hitting him hard enough to snap the grass knots at his feet and knock him backwards, hard.

"Watergun behind." Promise twisted in midair and let out a jet of water at the wall, slowing his passage. "At Roserade, knock her back."

"Dodge, and use magical leaf!"

"Intercept it."

Trying to knock her into rocks wasn't going to work well enough – Promise needed to be up close for that, and we were spending all our time countering Roserade's non-evadable attacks instead. I ditched the last strategy and looked around the battlefield for something to speed the battle up. All I could see was rocks.

Oh.

"Watergun a rock. Hard."

Promise did so, as I kept an eye on Roserade. She was getting ready for another magical leaf.

"Brace yourself."

The leaves didn't move Promise when they hit, though they dug into his shoulder and arm. Smaller bits of rock crumbled off the boulder he was aiming for, ranging from pebbles to softball-sized.

"Use those in your watergun."

"Poison sting!" Gardenia called.

"Dodge."

Promise leaped over the flow of poison needles to reach his stockpile. He held a rock in front of his face and shot it forth with water. The roserade, not knowing what to expect (or the velocity to expect it at), received a direct hit to the stomach. She staggered back.

He kept it up, and it was working. While the water itself did little, the projectiles and the force of impact were wearing away at Roserade's stamina.

"Poison sting!"

Roserade jumped and shot the stingers at Promise, who was down getting another rock. He cried out as they burrowed into his side.

"Magical leaf!" Gardenia continued.

I noticed faster with Promise than with Trust. He froze and started shaking.

"Forget the rock, watergun the leaves."

He managed to focus enough to shoot a shaky stream of water, which absorbed most of the leaves. It wasn't a physical problem; there was something in his head. He looked at me with panic and borderline anger in his eyes.

The answer was intuitive. "Go wild," I told him.

He screamed a pained scream and darted at Roserade as fast as lightning. Promise ran right up close, right through a full-blast magical leaf that should have taken him down, and executed the closest thing to close combat I'd ever seen from a buizel. Any pokemon at this level, really. It was a mixture of quick-attack punches and close-range sonic booms. The roserade didn't know how to respond. None of us did.

With a final kick to the jaw, Promise knocked over the roserade. She had barely hit the ground when I ran.

"Promise – Promise, are you okay?"

He turned to me – the fear and fury hadn't left his eyes. "Promise, it's okay now, Promise–" I knelt and held him tight. "It's okay."

Promise was tense in my arms. He didn't loosen, but at some point he leaned into me. He was scratched up and bruised everywhere, but the worst of the pain seemed to be ebbing.

"How could you tell?" Gardenia had come over. How I could tell Promise had found an emotional trigger in that battle, likely the poison.

"I…" Still holding on to Promise, I said, "I recognized it from when that happens to me."

Gardenia looked saddened. "So early in your journey?"

"…not that early."

Gardenia understood I didn't want to continue the conversation. She said, "Well, you fought well, all things considered, and it's clear you've become connected with your pokemon. For that–" She pulled a case from her shorts pocket. "I present to you the Forest Badge."

I stood, still holding him, and held out my hand. "Thank you," I said, receiving the badge.

"Where are you heading after this?" Gardenia asked.

"The Pokemon Center."

"Well, yeah." She looked at Promise. "Usually I like to chat with a challenger after a battle, to see what their plans are, but I'll let you go. I'm guessing you have an idea of what you're doing next?"

"Yeah, definitely." A very good idea of what was happening.

"All right then. Best of luck to you."

"Thanks."

Woo longest battle of the story thus far.

In case you're wondering, I did have Evelyn tell Trust to use flamethrower on purpose. The fact that he's using ember anyway is to show the panic he's feeling.