I turned and strode toward the other end of the battlefield, quietly taking a deep breath. This was my first battle against Lucas since my second chance.

Chance at what? I wondered, taken by surprise by my own wording.

Chance at… Being a trainer I guess. Defeating Galactic. Keeping my friends. It's Lucas's second chance at living.

Which, of course, didn't mean I would hold back.

"Three on three?"

"Sounds good," I called back, picking a ball.

We released our choices: Promise versus his kadabra.

"Go for it," I said.

"Ladies first."

I rolled my eyes, grinning. "Prom, watergun."

"Confusion."

Promise launched his water attack, only to have it deflected to the side by the psychic move.

"Sonic boom, then."

Promise whipped his tail around, but apparently Kadabra hadn't just deflected the watergun? Because now the water was coming around front like a shield, absorbing the hit.

Damn, that takes finesse, I thought, marveling at how well Kadabra's psychic skills were coming along.

"Shock wave," I heard him say. Kadabra dropped the water shield.

Oh shit that might be bad.

"Brace yourself."

Promise didn't get it and tried to dodge. Shock wave always hits. So he was a bit surprised and quite unprepared for the attack.

"BUI!"

"You okay?" Short unconvincing confirmation. "Watergun."

"Teleport."

Promise's watergun missed by a mile; Kadabra was behind him now. "Sonic boom downward," I tried.

"Teleport."

The impact sent a wave of dust outward from where Promise was, like a ripple or a small ground attack. Kadabra teleported a few feet into the air, landing after it had passed.

"Water gun, you can do it." If Prom attacked harder it'd work.

"Teleport and confusion."

Kadabra dodged the water and reappeared behind Promise. He aimed his spoon at the base of Promise's head – Promise glowed pink and toppled over. He stumbled back to his feet but – flipping hell – he was confused.

"Shock wave."

I kept yelling commands at Promise, trying to figure out something that would work. But at this point he was no match for Kadabra, who took him out easily with electric attacks.

"Return," I said. "Rest up, Prom."

Lucas was already holding his next pokeball. "Ready?"

"Yeah. It's yours, Faith!"

"Snorunt, bite!"

"Faith, sucker punch!"

Faith hit first with a pretty good punch; Snorunt flinched. "Hypnosis," I called out.

"Powder snow!"

They launched their moves through each other. I held my breath. Hypnosis hit dead-on (haha get it Faith is a ghost), and powder snow went right through Faith. I wasn't sure if that was good or bad. When the ice cleared, I realized Faith was frozen in a block of ice.

"It's all right, Faith, just wait it out," I said.

It was one of those frozen moments on a battlefield (get it because ice… ok, I'll stop). Lucas and I tensely watched the field, waiting to see which pokemon would escape their affliction first.

Half a minute later, I noticed the dark gas inside the ice chunk was growing lighter. It took me a few seconds to figure out what was going on. Faith was phasing her way out.

"Nightshade!" I called. "Use hypnosis when he wakes up!"

It worked. It wouldn't have gone so well if she'd noticed Snorunt stirring later, or if he had the stamina to last longer, but as things stood he was knocked out for good after just a few more hits.

"Return."

"Nice one, Faith."

We were down to the final two. I looked across the battlefield and smiled at the boy across from me. He smiled back with his eyes – an expression of mischief.

"Bet you don't know my next pick," he said.

That puzzled me. It was between a psyduck and a grotle, and I was sending out a fire type… But it didn't really matter, since I only had one option anyways.

"I'll just have to see," I told him. "Trust, it's yours!"

He threw his pokeball without a word; it was his grotle. I didn't understand why, but tried to focus on getting the fight done.

"Flame wheel!"

"Take the hit."

I watched Trust barrel right into Grotle's shell. Hmm. There was a bit of a Withdraw move there, which helped defensively, but it was a weird game to play against fire.

"Trust, again, go for the underside."

"Down. Get ready."

I steeled myself. Lucas called out weird things in battle sometimes. I didn't remember what this one meant.

Trust was about to reach him when Grotle pushed herself onto her hind legs. She came back down on Trust, who didn't quite slip through. The flames stopped abruptly.

"Now!"

Suddenly, Trust sank into the ground. Sand tomb? Under Dawn's care, she hadn't known sand tomb.

"Trust, ember."

"Block him!"

Rather than let Trust's attack hit from below, Grotle hit the deck, keeping her shell in Trust's view. The ember did hit, but did less than it would have.

"Bite."

"Ember."

Trust was sinking further and further into the sand tomb, losing mobility. He was an easy target for Grotle's attacks, which Lucas took advantage of. His grotle snapped at Trust, snagging his limbs even when he tried to pull away. Trust was crying out, trying harder to evade Grotle's bites than attack back.

"Blast her in the face," I said desperately.

Grotle's last bite was a solid crunch into Trust's shoulder, at which point he fell limp. She let him down gently.

"You did well, Trust," I said, recalling him.

Lucas and I met in the middle of the battlefield. "That was a decent match," he said seriously.

I wanted to laugh at that. I loved the realism of that statement – it really hadn't been spectacular as a battle, but it was better than basic. Although decent wasn't fully accurate.

"Decent until the final round," I said. "Trust's never fainted in battle before. That bit was impressive on your end. Let's say… Slightly above average."

He was grinning. "Your haunter was pretty good though. She nailed the hypnosis strategy. And floating through the ice – that was sneaky. I think she can get away with some fun stuff in battle."

I paused to consider that. I guess it was true. I hadn't thought too hard about her abilities as a gaseous being.

"How come you had your buizel keep using watergun?"

I blinked. "I wasn't aware it was a problem."

"It's not really. It was just different from… It's like–" Lucas moved his thumbs like he was playing a video game on a console. "–like you were just spamming the same move."

"Oh." I frowned. Why did I do that? "I'll have to think about that one."

It was a Friday. Tricia got off her internship early on Fridays, so I called her first.

"So, how's it going with…" Tricia waggled her eyebrows. This was halfway through our conversation.

"It's going all right. He and I were alone for a while today."

"Ooh. Anything happen?"

"Not really. He beat me in battle, and then we went to eat. It was nice just hanging out."

"You went out with him?"

"I mean…" I kind of did. "It's not like it meant anything. We're in another city, and I was the only person he knows here."

The screen wiggled around as she adjusted her laptop. "I guess. Still, both of you got picked to be trainers, same town, same time… It's like you're meant to be."

I smiled at Tricia's optimism. I had to admit, I liked the poetic justice it set up.

"We did get pretty close last time," I agreed, thinking of the Trainer Ball at Lake Valor.

"When?"

I fucked up.

"Last time we were in the same town together," I answered smoothly.

Tell her, just tell her.

"Oh. Wow, things are moving fast."

Tell her, dammit.

"I mean, I'm probably overestimating it," I said, so that she wouldn't think we were closer than we really were.

Why can't you just tell her? You told Megan. Tricia's your best friend too.

"I'm still super excited for you. Your chances are gigantic."

I can't just… She's so optimistic. She sees the world in bright colors, and I've just returned from a world of ice and death and loss. I can't just… I can't.

"I hope you're right."

Lucas wanted to train on his own in the evening (I asked if he wanted a sparring partner again. He declined.). Having little else to do, I started to wander the city with my pokemon out.

Veilstone lives up to its name quite well: the whole city is cobbled in varying degrees of bumpiness, and the buildings are largely concrete and stone. It's a very gray city, but the different shades of reddish and bluish add a little variety. And it's beautiful in the rain, from what I remember. Right now it was just overcast, but it rained last time I was in the city, and I was pretty sure I was right on schedule.

I kept such a wide berth between us and Galactic's Warehouse, we finished crossing the city within an hour or so. The Pokemon Center was the closest we got to the Warehouse; we never went to the Department Store.

We stopped at a fountain outside the gym. It was a giant one, a circle the width of a basketball court. Water-type pokemon statues around the brim shot water towards the center, where there was a statue of two humans and a few pokemon playing together. The harmony between humans and pokemon and whatnot. It's a very typical theme.

Typical or not, it was still my favorite fountain in Sinnoh, at least of what I'd seen. Faith found a flock of starlies to play with. They were bathing in the water. She'd rise up from the shadows below and they'd try to splash her. I took note that haunters don't need to breathe.

Trust leaped from statue to statue, sort of playing "the floor is not lava but water and he's a fire type." He was light enough that I wasn't concerned for the statues. And anyway, the statues were probably carved knowing pokemon would play here.

Promise was swimming laps around the rim. Bree would've probably gone under one of the streams of water and relaxed there. She didn't relax much, but fountains for some reason calmed her down.

I sat down on the ledge between a seel and quagsire statue and checked out Looker's diary again. I wanted to add in a few events I remembered. There was definitely a tournament in the first weekend of November. I beat the Pastoria Gym on November 15th, my dad's birthday. That was also the day Galactic tested their bomb in the Great Marsh, but since we were siphoning their energy away, that probably wouldn't happen just yet. And of course the tournament at Lake Valor began on the 21st of December.

Promise emerged from the water behind me and looked at what I was writing. "I'm just adding stuff," I told him. "I'm not completely sure whether to put some things, though. Like, the bomb test won't likely be on the same day. And other Galactic things. And I don't fully remember when I got to new towns or did gym battles. But things are different this time around anyways."

He watched a little while longer, then slipped back into the water and kept swimming. Bree got bored quickly; she'd have changed what she was doing by now.

Why am I comparing him to Bree? I wondered.

I stood up suddenly. The diary and my pen went crashing to the ground. I watched Promise circle the pool.

I always had Bree use lots of water moves.

I remembered how Promise fought when I told him to go wild. He got up close and used physical moves. The only water he used was incorporated in punches.

Bree's best move was hydro pump. Near the end, her hydro pumps could take out pokemon in a single hit. It was just a matter of hitting at all, for her. I guess you could say sometimes I just had her spam the move until it hit.

And herein lay the problem. Promise was not Bree. Yet I fought like he was.

That's gonna have to change in the future.

I knelt down to pick up the things I'd dropped. The future. What a foreign idea. I'd been thinking nonstop about the past.

The future doesn't look so bad, I realized. Trust soared between statues with youthful grace. Faith snuck up on starlies with her ghostly stealth. And Promise, who swam swift circles around the fountain, was a damn good fighter when I let him fight correctly.

And loyal as hell. He surfaced again in front of me. I smiled and patted his head.

And lo and behold, a glow finally arose from my egg bag.

I quickly opened the drawstring opening and pulled it out. It was warm and twitching, and glowing so brightly I couldn't see the blue and red patterns on the shell. I closed my eyes as the glow intensified.

"Prrrrrri~" I heard.

Opening my eyes, I found a togepi sitting on my lap. Her smile broadened when our eyes met. "Prrrri~" she chirped again.

Promise and I exchanged a look of… happiness, really. We'd just shared a little miracle. For the first time, I knew what to name the pokemon in front of me.

"Hello, Hope," I said to the togepi. "Welcome to the world."