Korrina yawned and covered her mouth as she stepped out of the storage closet that acted as her bedroom, closing the door behind her. She turned and followed the sounds of conversation to the dining hall, needing a large breakfast and a larger cup of coffee. It was far from her favorite drink, and she hated that she was becoming reliant on it, but these days caffeine was the only way for her to become functional in the mornings. Between her studies at the school, and her special training under Riley, she needed as much time as she could get her hands on.

"Yoohoo! Korrina!" She turned around, recognizing a voice from behind her, and spotted Honey, the Dojo Master's wife, waving cheerfully at her from down the hall. She bore long brown hair, green teardrop earrings, and large blue eyes that looked horrified at the state of the girl in front of her.

"Goodness gracious, Korrina!" she exclaimed, her eyes running over the younger girl's pale, gaunt face, and her sunken eyes. "Are you alright? You look terrible!" She reached out and rest her hands on Korrina's shoulders, showing the same sort of concern that a mother would.

"I'm fine, really," Korrina answered, waving off Honey's concerns with a tired arm. "I just didn't sleep very well last night, that's all." She was glad that Lucario wasn't beside her, as she was certain he would be rolling his eyes.

"Hm…" Honey didn't look convinced, noting Korrina's slightly malnourished frame. "My husband isn't working you too hard, is he? I'll have to have a talk with him."

"No, it's alright!" Korrina insisted, with a bit more urgency. "I'll go to bed earlier tonight, I promise."

Honey sighed. "Well, I have some news for you that should help you sleep better." She placed a smile onto her face. "You've probably heard that Patrick has decided to leave the school. He's going home today. That leaves his bedroom open for you to move into."

"Oh! That's great news!" Korrina's eyes lit up as much as they could. After nearly six months living in a converted storage closet, a proper bedroom sounded like a royal palace to her. "Thank you, Honey!"

"Of course, dear. He should be moved out by noon. I can help you move your things anytime after that."

"That sounds wonderful," Korrina responded. "I'll have some free time after lunch. Maybe then?"

"Sounds perfect." Honey let her hands fall away from Korrina's shoulders. "I'll see you then. Take care, okay?"

Korrina nodded and bid Honey goodbye, turning back toward the dining hall. The good news she had just received was already chasing away her exhaustion, and she imagined herself able to stretch out on a proper bed, sit and study at a desk, and even give Lucario some of the space he deserved. She picked up her pace, wanting to finish her meal as quickly as possible so she could tell her partner the good news.

Later that night, Korrina collapsed onto her new bed, reveling in the soft and comfortable mattress. She buried her face in the freshly-laundered comforter, taking in the scent of fabric softener, before letting out a long, contented sigh. Lucario watched her with a smile on his face, as he sat on a cot that had been placed in another corner of the room.

"This is the most comfortable I've ever been in my entire life," Korrina declared, her voice muffled by the mattress. "I'm going to sleep for twelve hours straight tonight." Lucario chucked and lay on his side on the cot, closing his eyes. He had to agree, this was much more comfortable than lying on a plain mat, or sitting up against a wall.

Korrina eventually rolled herself over onto her back, staring at the white ceiling through half-closed eyes, feeling a deep sense of relaxation and relief. This move could not have come at a better time. Her third meeting with Riley was tomorrow, and while she had been making plenty of progress with the Aura State, she was certain she could be making more progress if she were properly rested. Having an actual bed would hopefully alleviate her constant exhaustion, and let her focus on her studies.

Her eyes opened the rest of the way, and she sat up in her bed. Speaking of which…

"Hey, Lucario," she began, and he turned his head toward her. "What do you say we try the Aura State one more time before I go to sleep?"

Lucario's smile faded, and he opened his eyes to give her an annoyed look. She sighed in response. "Look, I'm fine, really! You're worried over nothing. Riley will be here tomorrow. I just want to be in practice a bit more. I want to show him the progress I've made. Please?"

Lucario grumbled dismissively and rolled over on his cot, facing away from her. Her fist clenched involuntarily, as long-seated frustrations began boiling over once again.

"Come on, Lucario, don't be like this!" she pleaded. "You know how important this is to me! You used to be so excited about this! Don't you want me to get better at this? Don't you want us to be able to communicate better?"

He sat up on his cot and turned to face her, glaring angrily. She continued, undeterred. "All I'm asking for is once more! I want to get better so I can be a better Aura Shaper! Please, Lucario!"

Lucario rolled his eyes as he hopped off of his cot, walking over to his trainer. Korrina's posture softened a bit, relieved that she had gotten through to him, and she watched him eagerly as he approached. Once he was close enough, he reached out and placed his paw on her shoulder, shoving her back down onto the bed with ease. She yelped as her head hit the mattress, and stared in shock as Lucario turned and walked back to his cot, his job complete.

"Argh!" she screamed, furious, as she slammed her fist onto the bed. "Fine! Jerk!" She sat up and nearly threw the covers off of her bed, sliding in and covering herself back up as angrily as she could manage. She switched off her bedside lamp and turned herself to face away from him, staring at the bedroom wall instead.

She stewed in her irritation for several minutes, upset with her partner for not giving her the support she wanted. He had been so eager when she first achieved the Aura State, but he had slowly grown disinterested in her growth as an Aura Shaper, then downright hostile toward it. All this over a lack of sleep. With Lucario, it always felt like two steps forward and one step back.

She closed her eyes, trying to focus instead on the feeling of lying in a comfortable bed for the first time in months. She tried shifting one of her arms, surprised at the effort it took, both physical and mental. Her whole body felt as if it was made of stone, and her eyelids felt as if they weighed a thousand pounds. She hadn't realized just how exhausted she was until this moment, feeling it in her body and her soul. As she reflected on how tired she was, she felt the unpleasant gnaw of guilt in her chest.

"I'm sorry I yelled," she said quietly, in her last moments of consciousness. "You're not a jerk."

Lucario didn't respond.

The next day, after a morning lesson from Mustard and a quick lunch, Korrina and Lucario were traveling along the coast of the Isle of Armor, in search of her second teacher. Riley and his Lucario were not in their usual location, which briefly made Korrina wonder if she had the wrong date, but her Pokémon partner insisted that they were on the island somewhere. After a bit more searching, Korrina could feel the familiar sensation of another Aura close by, and the two of them were now following the strange sense that only one of them fully understood. She was thankful that they were close, as her legs were already sore and tired after only thirty minutes.

They soon found Riley and Lucario further along the coast, both of them standing and facing the ocean. Riley was holding a pair of binoculars up to his face, aimed at some far-off island. His Lucario was resting his paw on the man's shoulder, a look of concentration on his face. Korrina wondered if the Pokémon was using his Aura in some way at that moment.

After a full minute of waiting to be noticed, Korrina decided to take the initiative. She stepped forward and called out, waving her hand above her head. "Riley! Hey!"

Riley jumped, startled, and the binoculars fell out of his hands. They fell toward the rocky ground, but landed on a small cloud of glowing blue air, completely intact. He knelt down to pick them up before turning around, a sheepish expression spreading across his face as he realized who was calling out to him.

"We're supposed to be meeting right now, aren't we?" he asked. "My apologies."

"No worries." She walked forward to meet him, with a grumpy Lucario following behind. "What are you doing out here? Sightseeing?"

"Not quite, no," Riley answered. "Lucario and I were doing some… reconnaissance, I suppose, is a good word."

"Reconnaissance?" Korrina turned her head toward the distant island and squinted, trying to see what Riley was investigating. She was barely able to make out a gray, nondescript, rectangular building, with a magenta "C" painted on the side.

"I've seen that somewhere…" she muttered, eyebrows furrowing as she thought. "That's… Macro Cosmos? The big Galar mega-corporation?"

Riley nodded. "It is, yes. One of their research buildings."

She glanced back at him. "Why are you looking at them? Are they doing something wrong?"

"Hopefully not." He shook his head. "It's nothing you should worry about. We have other things to focus on." He knelt down and sat cross-legged on the sand, and his Lucario followed suit. Korrina followed their lead, eager to begin, while her Lucario remained standing, much less so. The two Lucario locked eyes, one of them curious, the other standoffish.

Riley looked over his student for a moment, as she sat still and watched him. If he was concerned about her apparent weight loss over the past few months, he didn't say anything about it. "Have you been practicing the Aura State?"

"You bet!" Korrina answered. "Lucario and I have done it dozens of times now. It's no problem for me anymore!" Lucario grumbled something under his breath in response.

"I'm glad to hear that." Riley smiled. "Then you should be able to enter the Aura State without his help by now, yes?"

Korrina froze for a moment, panic flashing across her face, before she forced confidence onto it instead. She wasn't about to embarrass herself in front of her teacher. "Yeah! No problem! Let's-"

She was silenced by a loud growl from beside her, as her Lucario stepped forward and placed his paw on her shoulder. He continued to bark angrily at Riley and his partner, taking everyone else by surprise. Korrina reflexively reached up and rest her hand on top of his paw, the metal spike on the back of his hand sliding between her fingers. He quieted down instantly.

"It's okay, Lucario," she reassured him, her voice gentle. "I can do it just this once. It'll be fine." Lucario looked down into her eyes for a moment, studying them carefully, before relenting and taking a step back. His paw remained on her shoulder.

Korrina took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Alright, let's do this…" She closed her eyes and dove into her own mind, returning to the endless hallway filled with doors. It had been months since she had arrived here without Lucario's Aura guiding her, and her mental construct felt oddly cold and lifeless. Still, she had navigated this space dozens of times already. She was certain that she could do so without Lucario's influence, like she was navigating a city without a map for the first time.

She began walking down the hallway, trying to recall the steps that she had taken many times before. In previous journeys through her mind, she had tried to remember what landmarks she could, sometimes forming them herself if they didn't exist. She sought out those landmarks now, hoping that they would be enough to guide her. She eventually reached a door that looked familiar and threw it open, expecting the familiar geyser of Aura that represented her ticket to the Aura State. She stopped in her tracks when she saw the room was empty. Her confidence evaporated in an instant.

She closed the door and stood still for a moment, trying to focus, trying to think of where she went wrong. She'd forgotten one of the steps after a critical landmark. She would have to backtrack a few steps and try again. Once she had her game plan, she turned around and started walking again, a bit surprised to find that walking was more difficult. She felt more sluggish, and the space around her felt like it was resisting her movements. It was as if she was wading through ankle-deep water. She put it out of her mind, forcing herself forward.

After another few seconds of exploring, she confidently threw open another door, finding what appeared to be a set of childhood memories, instead of the Aura she was searching for. She cursed and closed the door, forming another game plan and continuing on, her steps becoming more difficult still. After one more failed attempt, she was now struggling for every step, as if she was buried in quicksand and trying to dig her way out.

On her fourth attempt, she opened a door to finally find the Aura she was searching for, which was looking far weaker than it had been in the past. Instead of a gushing geyser, it had the appearance of a dribbling fountain, barely shooting Aura up to her knees. She sighed in immense relief, stepping forward to bathe herself in her Aura, focused entirely on the act of finally achieving the Aura State on her own. She couldn't feel the hands shaking her body back on the Isle of Armor, or the voices telling her to stop, as she stepped into the geyser.

Her eyes shot open as she felt the Aura rushing through her body, taking on a physical presence that filled her from head to toe. She lifted her head and looked around at the three bodies surrounding her, watching her nervously. She could see their bright blue Auras shining out of them, burning like flames, standing out against the grey world around them.

"I… I did it…" she said weakly, the words taking all of the strength she had. She watched as the blue Auras faded to grey, then disappeared from her vision entirely. The rest of the world followed suit, blurring to a solid grey, then black. She didn't have time to be confused before she collapsed backwards, lying motionless on the ground.

She could briefly hear panicked voices around her before they were muted, and feel hands on her before she went numb. All of her senses had vanished, leaving her in a black, empty void with only her terrified thoughts to keep her company. Soon her mind vanished as well, as her consciousness slipped away, her body abandoned to the darkness.

The only sensation that still remained was the thread connecting her heart to Lucario's.

Korrina awoke some time later to the sounds of shouting.

She didn't even have the energy to groan in pain as she opened her eyes. Her entire body was drained in a way she had never experienced before, all of her limbs feeling heavy as lead. She tried to curl her fingers, and they weakly twitched upward, barely responding to her commands. She breathed slowly and deeply as she stared off to her side, eventually recognizing the wall of her brand-new bedroom, which she had moved into the day before. The feeling of a soft mattress underneath her told her that she was lying on her bed.

After deducing where she was, she turned her attention to the angry voice nearby, which she immediately recognized as Lucario. Rolling her head to the other side, she saw him standing at the raised window, his paws resting on the sill as he yelled at someone or something outside. The tone of his voice was darkly threatening, in a way that she had never heard before, and the sound of it disturbed her. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what he was saying.

"We aren't going to hurt her, we promise!" a voice responded from outside, which she recognized as Riley. "We just want to make sure she's alright! Maybe we can help her!"

Lucario growled and twisted his body to the side, starting to form a ball of Aura energy between his paws that quickly grew to the size of a soccer ball. He roared as he flung the Aura Sphere out the window, presumably toward Riley and the other Lucario.

"Alright!" Riley's voice conceded. "Alright. We'll leave. Please tell her we're very sorry."

Korrina's eyes widened as much as they could, as Lucario grunted and forcefully closed the window. Riley was leaving? Lucario had attacked him? What had he done? What had she missed?

"Lu… cario…" she managed, trying and failing to push herself up onto her elbows. "What are… you doing?"

Lucario immediately turned to face her at the sound of her voice, an expression of immense relief crossing his face. He exhaled and walked toward her, as she let herself fall back onto her pillow.

"You… attacked him?" she continued, having to struggle against her body for every word. "Why would you… do that? What if… he doesn't come… back?"

He didn't answer her, throwing part of the blanket off of her body. He reached out and rest his paw in her hand, then closed his eyes and focused. As she watched him curiously, she gasped as her vision faded away, and the sight of him was replaced with an image of something else - herself.

She quickly recognized what was happening, having seen it before from when she first entered the Aura State. Lucario was sharing a memory with her, a memory that she recognized. She saw herself standing on the edge of a boat, as it arrived at the Isle of Armor. Through his eyes, she was able to see her own Aura, consuming her body and giving it a bright blue glow, one that she had become familiar with herself.

The memory in front of her quickly changed to another, of her sitting on the floor and smiling at him, tears dripping from her eyes. This was the first time she achieved the Aura State, and had bonded with Lucario in a way she never had before. Once again, she could see her Aura shining out of her body, but it wasn't the same as it had been before. Her Aura was not shining as brightly as it had been before, the radiating glow smaller and weaker.

The image shifted once again, to another image of herself, this time during class in the dojo. Once again, the Aura was smaller and weaker than before. As one memory after another passed her by, she could see her life force weakening and growing dimmer, as it was slowly drained out of her. At the same time, she could see her body growing thinner, her face more gaunt, her eyes darker and more sunken.

She eventually arrived at the most recent memory yet: earlier today, outside with Riley, as she tried to achieve the Aura State on her own. She watched as her eyes slowly opened, glowing blue, and looked around with concern at the people standing around her. Soon the glow vanished, and she fell backwards to the ground, immobile.

Her Aura, her life force, had completely vanished from her body.

Korrina's breath caught in her throat as she realized what had happened. Riley had warned her several times about the dangers of overusing her Aura. With all of her Aura spent, her life force would be completely drained, and she would only have a few moments left to live. She should have died on the shores of the Isle of Armor. How was she still alive?

The memory continued on from there, still from Lucario's point of view. Riley stepped forward and reached out for Korrina, but Lucario immediately intervened, stepping forward and slamming a glowing Force Palm into his chest and knocking him away. He immediately whirled around and summoned an Aura Sphere, flinging it into the other Lucario's stomach and sending him flying backward. After attacking his two companions, he turned back and reached out for his trainer, throwing her over his shoulder and running back toward the school at blinding speeds.

It was only a matter of minutes before he had returned to the dojo, but he continued at his relentless pace, dashing past shocked students as he returned to their shared bedroom. He shut and locked the door behind him before lying her down in her bed, his paws shaking with fear. Looking over her body, he spied a small glimmer of a flame, a hint of Aura, that continued to burn and allowed her to live and breathe. This Aura was small and hard to see, but Korrina was still able to tell that something about it was different. It glowed with a different color, and flickered with a different pattern, than what she had seen in his previous memories. It was an oddly familiar flame, one that tugged at something in the back of her mind.

It took her exhausted brain a few moments to put the pieces together. That flame wasn't her own Aura at all. It was the sliver of Lucario's Aura that existed inside of her. Their shared connection, their eternal bond, had saved her from death.

The sound of shouting drew Lucario away from Korrina's unconscious body. He moved to the window and threw it open, nearly seeing red as his eyes took in Riley and his Pokémon partner. The man tried to apologize, pleading to be allowed in and check on his student, to see if there was something he could do to fix what had happened. Lucario violently barked out his response, his paws gripping the windowsill tightly. Filtered through the lens of his memories, Korrina could understand his words perfectly.

"If I ever see you here again, I'll kill you."

The visions finally faded away, and Korrina was almost breathless as she looked up at her lifelong companion. She could see the combination of fear, frustration and relief in his eyes, as she realized how terrified he must have been for her. He had known all this time that she was slowly destroying herself, which he had tried to communicate to her in his own forceful and stubborn way. She had rebuffed him at every turn, and it had nearly cost her her life.

She was too tired to think of how her life would change going forward. She didn't have the energy to consider what would happen to her place at the school, or her place as Riley's student. She didn't bother to wonder if she would ever fully recover from expending her Aura the way she had. She only had the strength for two short sentences.

"I'm so sorry, Lucario," she whispered. "Please… don't leave me."

Lucario grunted and nodded, hopping up and sitting on the bed next to her. He reached out and clasped her hand in her paw, holding it firmly but comfortingly. Her eyes closed and she fell into a deep, still sleep. He continued to watch over her, refusing to leave her side.