Holy FUCK this is a long chapter (3k when I was aiming for 2k)

Anyway hi hello again! Welcome to week 4 of Chancevember! You already know what's up go read the chapter.

(CW Evelyn is definitely still depressed)

The world slowed down around me that night. I mean both literally – shoutout to Dialga – and figuratively – shoutout to the random number generator that had paired me with Lucas for round three, sending me into a depressive spiral.

I won't bore you with all the details of the spiral (for once, am I right?) but some of the concerns were:

1) only one of us would pass this round, which was not a terribly impressive round (top 30% of the tournament, which is okayyyy but we both made it to round four last time)
2) what if this somehow worsened our relationship, or made it harder for us to recover?
2a-z) variations on/reasoning for concern 2
3) Arceus this sucks

I checked with Thomas a few times to see if time skips had gotten the chance to backtrack and change things. They had not. The closest thing to change was one point when Thomas misspoke and said 10:20 instead of 11:20. He corrected himself quickly and I continued to be terribly disappointed.

Time moving slower might have meant I got more sleep. Oh good, you might think. Evelyn got plenty of sleep for tournament day 2. Wrong. I got too much sleep and woke up tired and also more depressed than I was when I went to bed. Instead of the usual nothingness, I kind of just wanted to cry for no reason all morning? Luckily, I was still somewhat mobile rather than stuck, and time was moving at regular speed. Unluckily, I now really, really didn't want to do the battle.

I sat through Thomas's round three with my hood up and earbuds in. The song playing in my ears (I had the same one I'd listened to before battling Renée on repeat) had a kind of melancholy optimism to it – one that wasn't trying to convince me things were great right now, but held me steady at a slightly buoyed level. At some point Swaine fought a beautifly, and at another Cassie was taken down by a dugtrio, but I wasn't paying close attention so much as worrying about the battle I had in an hour. All I really knew was Thomas beat Ethan Tsai.

Who knows? I thought bitterly. Maybe I'll get a time skip that rewrites that too.

But time wasn't skipping around that morning; maybe Dialga realized I felt shitty enough as it was.

I didn't much feel like exploring the festival in the hour before my battle, so I went early to the arena and sat in the green room. Thomas came with me, even though I told him he didn't have to. I didn't tell him I was grateful for it.

When 11:20 arrived, I sighed and removed my earbuds. "Goodbye, music that's keeping me afloat," I said, standing up from the couch.

"If it's keeping you afloat, why not keep it in?" Thomas suggested.

"I'm about to battle."

"Yeah, but with your hood up no one can tell you're wearing earbuds," he said. "Besides, you communicate with your pokemon silently."

By the time I was out on the battlefield, I'd plugged my earbuds back in and pulled up my hood, taking on the persona of an angsty teen. I just needed hair dye or black eyeshadow or something. I took one ear out for the referee's battle announcements, as if it mattered when I was about to jump around in time like a spooked meowth–

"This will be a four-on-four double battle between Lucas Tristan of Twinleaf Town and Evelyn Meyers, also of Twinleaf Town," the ref said. "Substitutions will be made as necessary. The battle will conclude when all pokemon on one side are unable to battle. Trainers, are you ready?"

Lucas nodded.

I gave a thumbs-up, putting the second earbud back in.

"Battle… begin!"

"Trust, Hope, it's yours."

Lucas wordlessly released his glalie and kadabra onto– no, correction, his alakazam. He'd evolved. I swore I'd seen him as a kadabra within the last 24 hours, which means he and Dawn had done their trade mid-tournament.

"Evelyn, ça va?" I heard Def say.

"I'm fine," I said, blinking rapidly to clear my eyes. "Trust, take the glalie out first. Hope, avoid ice beams."

Hope took this to mean Blast Off Immediately, rocketing to the border between the arena's roof and the sky. Trust blasted flame across the battlefield – the glalie easily dodged, but didn't realize Trust had run up behind his own flamethrower to throw a mach punch at him. Trust's fist connected, sending Glalie spinning through the air.

"Nice job, Trust."

"Il dit thanks," Def informed me.

Trust froze suddenly, held in place by a pink glow. Lucas's alakazam brandished his spoons, raising him into the air and slamming him back down.

"Ahh, shit, get him with flame."

Trust launched fire at Alakazam. Glalie returned and conjured a lightscreen in front of them both, thinning the fire attack. Alakazam took the hit, still holding on to Trust, and raised him up again.

"Hope, shockwave!"

From way up in the sky came a bolt of electricity, which passed through the lightscreen and barely affected Alakazam. If Lucas said something, I couldn't hear it through my earbuds. Maybe this wasn't a good idea.

"Okay. Okay. Um, Hope, keep blasting shockwaves. The lightscreen will run out eventually. Trust, same for you with flamethrower."

Hope's shockwaves kept chipping away at Alakazam's stamina. Trust tried to use flamethrower, but the psychic hold on him turned him away from his opponents. He struggled in midair, trying to turn back around or at least reach the ground, to no avail. Glalie rushed forward, hitting Trust square in the back with a headbutt before retreating to where Trust couldn't reach him with flamethrower.

"Try and get out of there with flame wheel?"

Trust tried. He let loose the proper flames from his mouth and tried to tuck his body forward, but the attempt to perform a move didn't let him out of Alakazam's grasp. The pink grip on him flared; Trust let out a yell, and I had a sudden, vivid flashback of a boy held up by psychic in a cave–

I panicked and lost my grip on the battle. I didn't know what to do as Alakazam slammed Trust into the ground and held him there, faceup, or as Glalie shot into the rock battlefield like a meteor, violently shaking the ground Trust was completely pressed against. Glalie rose back up and hovered over Trust, who blasted flame upwards right as Glalie fell on his chest.

The referee signalled and shouted what I knew was just "Trust is unconscious, pick another pokemon." I called him back, whispering, "Sorry, Trust," to the ball.

It was at this point that I snuck a look at Lucas. I know, stop being distracted by the boy you like, Evelyn. But he had a soft-but-confident look on his face, because he was already ahead, and it was the least closed-off I'd seen him in what felt like months, and–

"Shall I go out next?" Coeur said, interrupting my downward spiral.

"Yeah."

Coeur was out before I even threw her ball. "Who first?" she asked me.

"Umm… Glalie." Alakazam was not a threat to her.

Coeur dashed forward, blasting a quick burst of dark energy at Alakazam to throw him off before launching herself at the glalie. She latched her jaws onto a ridge in Glalie's icy mask, fangs emanating dark energy. Instead of fighting her off, Glalie shot ice into the sky.

"Hope, look out!"

Hope dodged the ice, but not the electricity that followed it. Shit. Alakazam knew shockwave too. Stunned, Hope faltered. The next ice beam hit.

Coeur blasted raw aura energy through her teeth, which damaged Glalie enough to make him sink to the ground but couldn't stop the ice beam from crystallizing around one of Hope's wings. Hope spiraled downward, gaining momentum as she fell.

"Hope, shake it off," I said. "Aura sphere it off of you."

I saw a few aura spheres fly away from her – the structure of Hope's body made aiming for her own wing nearly impossible, I realized. She continued to fall. I debated whether to just call her back (she wasn't falling as hard as last time, but I didn't really want to let her hit the ground) but then realized she'd spun toward the stands, and was about to nosedive into–

"Hope, return," I said, pulling her out before she could hit the audience members already bracing for impact. That was another forfeit for Hope.

I took a second to breathe in the warm synth chords playing in my ears. Okay. It'll be okay.

I scanned the battle, which had paused to wait for me. Coeur had let go of Glalie in the interim. I'd been unsure how I wanted the battle to go before, but now, halfway to losing to Lucas, I suddenly realized how badly I actually wanted to win, to prove my strength and the strength of my team, to prove I wasn't immobilized by a damn boy, to prove I could be smack in the middle of a depressive episode and still put up a fight.

"All right," I said, throwing a pokeball. "We're back. Def, you're up."

The second Def appeared, the glalie rushed forward, dark energy glistening in his teeth. I gave Def instructions and he multiplied, flanking the battlefield with double-team gallades. Alakazam sent a shockwave at Coeur, who braced herself with a thin purple glow – an aura shield. Glalie rushed through Def's copies one at a time, vaporizing each as he passed through. The fifth one he reached suddenly hit upward with a night slash, sending him spinning in the air, an easy target for the aura sphere Coeur then blasted him with. He came down hard, crashing into the wall around the battlefield.

Lucas recalled his glalie. Great, okay. One down. Three to go. No room for slippage. Still no time jumps, surprisingly.

I smiled when he let his houndoom out. "Coeur, focus on aura. Def, reinforce your double team and use fury cutter."

Additional gallades appeared around the battlefield, all their swords glowing a lighter green than usual. Half teleported to Alakazam, half to houndoom, all attacking. Houndoom spat an ember around him, erasing his five copies. Coeur had taken advantage of the wall of gallades to approach, and now she blasted a point-blank aura sphere in his face. He recoiled and lunged with fire in his jaws.

Def, meanwhile, had been one of the gallades attacking Alakazam. Alakazam teleported out from between the gallades; the gallades teleported to him again and attacked with another fury cutter. This time, Alakazam shot a shadow ball at one of them – rather than vanishing, the gallade stumbled back, all the others disappearing. Alakazam blasted a second shadow ball, then a third, advancing on Def, who half-deflected the attacks with psychic energy in his swords.

Alakazam brandished his spoons again, and Def was seized by a hot pink glow. "Coeur, over here," I said.

Coeur, who was sparring with Houndoom, glanced over and immediately shot a shadow ball at Alakazam. Alakazam levitated himself into the air, dodging while maintaining his grip on Def. Houndoom managed to grab Coeur between jaws dripping with electricity, lifting and shaking her in a move I recognized as Dawn's.

There was an explosion of violet energy – an aura shield used offensively – as Coeur forced herself from Houndoom's mouth. He staggered back, looking pained, and she leaped forward with an aura sphere in front of her–

A blur of green and pink slammed into her from the side, knocking her away from Houndoom. Coeur and Def tumbled together, rolling to a stop. Alakazam readied a shadow ball; Houndoom charged fire in his mouth.

"Brace yourselves!"

Two hemispheres rose from them at the same time – one violet, one pink, merging together in a stronger bubble of both colors – protecting them with aura and whatever it was Def had just figured out (not psychic energy; it held steady against shadow ball). Def took a second to heal Coeur's bite wounds with life dew while the attacks bounced harmlessly off their shields. I gave them a moment to breathe, watching the protect carefully.

"Def–" I told him, in psychic language, what I wanted him to do. "Coeur, keep the protect up for a sec."

A beat later, Def teleported behind Alakazam and swiped at him with a pair of night slashes. Alakazam teleported elsewhere, pursued by a magical leaf that Def sent his way. Houndoom was still trying to get through Coeur's protect, fixated on the umbreon dancing around tauntingly inside the shield. Alakazam teleported again, but the magical leaves changed course midflight. Magical leaf does not miss, folks. Def followed the hit by teleporting to Alakazam once more and delivering a final night slash to the face. Alakazam fell.

I let out a breath. We were even now. Mostly. Sort of. I mean, Def and Coeur were damaged. It's just it was 2-2 now.

Had I still not had a time jump yet?

Lucas's final pick was his lucario, who materialized on the field and immediately launched an aura sphere at Coeur, who'd just emerged from the protect. Coeur was too busy dodging the houndoom chasing her to evade it, and it threw her sideways. She rolled to her feet and recovered just in time to blast Houndoom with an aura sphere as he approached. He snarled and threw himself at her, getting in the way of a second blue aura sphere from the lucario.

Houndoom fell. Coeur was looking battered but was still up. "Take the backseat for a sec, Coeur," I said. "Catch your breath, dodge things if you need to."

Def teleported behind Lucario, who ducked under a psycho cut and struck the ground with two closed fists. The battlefield shook, knocking Coeur off her feet. She struggled to stand back up. Lucario lashed backward with a spiked hand, jabbing Def in the shoulder before blasting yet another aura sphere at Coeur. She surrounded herself with her own aura in defense, and when the blue met the violet, they merged around her. Coeur ran forward, blazing with swirling indigo aura, and Def slashed with psycho cut. Lucario countered Def with close combat, but became too involved in sparring to evade Coeur's aura-based attack.

Coeur barrelled into Lucario, knocking him back. He retaliated by placing a palm on her head and channeling fighting energy through – there was a burst of orange light, and Coeur was down.

"Thanks, Coeur," I said, pulling her back in. "Hey, Def?"

"Yes?"

"What do you say we show this Lucario what your psychic armor can do?"

I just about heard him smile. "Avec joie."

Lucario approached. Def encased his full body in psychic energy as they locked each other in combat. The two were eerily in sync – between Def's psychic anticipation of Lucario's moves and what I assumed was Lucario's aura anticipation of Def's, they mirrored each other perfectly. Neither was landing a blow except on the other's limbs – Lucario's fists hit Def's swords, Def's leg kicked Lucario's knee. In terms of timing, they were evenly matched.

But type advantages added up in the end.

Lucario was breathing hard by the time Def finally, really landed a blow: a psycho cut right to the chest. Lucario toppled to the ground, and I was about to tell Def to step back and heal himself for a second when I realized Lucario wasn't getting back up.

The ref gestured to indicate I'd won. "Def, great job," I said, recalling him. It was the first time in a while I'd had a battle without any time skips, which boosted my mood a bit.

"Merci."

Lucas and I walked to the middle to shake hands. I pulled out my earbuds in case he wanted to talk, but he didn't have anything to say. He just smiled in a hollow way that I didn't understand. Sure he'd lost, but it was just me. He'd lost to me before – in a tournament, even. There was no reason for the look on his face.

It didn't sit right with me.

Upon exiting through the green room, I crossed the arena concourse. I wove through the small crowd of spectators leaving and entering the stands, looking for Lucas. A few recognized and congratulated me, but I didn't linger with them long.

I spotted him on the far side of the stadium, already leaning against the arena's glass outer wall, his hands in his pockets. I stopped walking. Maybe he wouldn't want to see me right now?

As I hesitated, Dawn appeared. She walked over to Lucas and said something. He responded. They conversed for a moment, and the expressions on both of their faces – kind of a sadness on Lucas's, something I couldn't define on Dawn's – felt like something I shouldn't have seen.

Dawn gestured outward with her arms, then hugged him. I winced for him instinctively (he hated being touched), but when I saw his arms wrap around her in return, it became clear that the pain was only mine.

And then she was gone; I was several steps behind where I'd been; Lucas was standing with his hands in his pockets.

You could stop it, said a voice in my head.

I watched Dawn emerge from the crowd again.

You have the chance to disrupt them before it happens.

I saw them talk for a bit, with the same expressions on their faces.

It's you or her, Evelyn.

I couldn't tear my eyes away, but I didn't move toward them, either.

And once again I watched the embrace unfold between a girl who loved a boy and a boy who sure as fuck didn't love me, knowing I couldn't bring myself to interfere. I couldn't do that to them.

Besides, I thought as I turned to leave. It would mean nothing in the long run.

Ethan is my fourth and final son, who's also helping with the Chance project that's coming up.

One more chapter coming next week! I wrote the second half of it instead of my dead NaNoWriMo story. RIP but maybe I'll go back to it someday.

Anyway see you soon!