Outsiders (ZnT/Pokémon Reverse Summon)
Season 1, Episode 11, Chapter 4

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Louise calmly sipped her tea, not saying a word as Saito and Elizabeth sat across from her. Neither said anything, not wanting to anger Louise any further. At the same time, they kept their attention entirely focused on her, only seeing the other out of the corner of their eyes. Louise's eyes, meanwhile, were closed, but even then Saito and Elizabeth could feel Louise's glare on them.

Finally, after several agonizing minutes of silence, Louise finished drinking her tea and gently placed her cup down. Her eyes were still closed, and she then slowly opened them to reveal a blazing pink that bored into Saito's and Elizabeth's souls.

"Now, before I start," Louise began, "I want to know exactly why the two of you decided to start a Pokémon battle. Esprit will tell me if you are lying, so don't bother."

Louise gestured to the Kirlia in question, who happily waved before a sideways glance from Louise prompted her go back a stern expression. At the same time, Esprit's eyes kept bouncing between her trainer and the two subjects of her wrath, honestly wondering where this was going.

"When one is speaking," the rosette continued, "the other will not speak. If you don't, you will be punished accordingly. Do I make myself clear?"

For a moment, Saito and Elizabeth remained silent. When Louise's glare intensified, both trainers nodded quickly, prompting Louise to flash a satisfied, faux smile.

"Splendid!" Louise clapped her hands together, her smile doing nothing to mask her sinister intent, and she shifted her focus to Saito. "Now then, Saito? Please tell me exactly what happened. Start when we arrived at the hotel, please."

"…Alright," Saito began, taking a deep gulp and smacking her lips. "After we settled in and you fell asleep, I took both of our Pokédexes and started disassembling them. I was worried about those fake nurses messing with them. When I didn't find anything, I took them to a nearby electronics shop and convinced the owner to double-check them."

Saito paused and took a deep breath. A bubble of rage threatened to erupt again, but he kept it down. It was obvious to him now that his rage is what got him into this mess in the first place, and the last thing he needed was for it to get him into even more trouble.

"He found bugs in both of them," Saito revealed. "I smashed both, then I just go so…angry. Angry at what Flare did, angry that I left you alone in the first place, and I left to try and cool down."

"That didn't work…" Elizabeth mumbled, only to suddenly feel a sharp pain atop her head. She looked up, rubbing the point of impact, to see Aile fluttering back to a resting point on top of a nearby light pole. The Fletchinder was eying the verdette dangerously, as though daring her to say anything else. Elizabeth wisely chose to stay silent.

Saito, meanwhile, continued. "While I was walking the city, I ended up coming across Elizabeth. When I saw her, I remembered how you got injured, got sick and…" Saito couldn't finish the last part, and neither Louise or Elizabeth could blame him.

"I started shouting at her about everything that happened. Then, Elizabeth decided to challenge me to a Pokémon battle. I accepted, as trainers are supposed to do, and I easily won. There isn't anything more to it than that," Saito finished, then fell silent. Louise nodded, then turned her attention towards Elizabeth. She straightened herself, preparing for Louise's question, while Louise herself simply stared her down.

"Now, Elizabeth?" Louise began. "Please start from the hospital."

Elizabeth pressed flat her dress, then nodded. "After we separated from the hospital, I went back to my apartment and changed. I started walking around the city to collect my thoughts when I got a call from the PWE agency. When I got there, one of my colleagues was waiting for me. She…revealed some things to me."

"Like how you almost got Louise killed?" Saito rhetorically asked, only to shout in pain as Aile pecked him on the top of his head. He rubbed it and glared at the Fletchinder but allowed Elizabeth to continue unimpeded. Elizabeth shot him a look from the corner of her eye, but soon sighed and looked down.

"Yes, actually," she revealed. "She told me that when Louise got poisoned, I should've dropped what I was doing and gotten you to safety. Instead, I let my anger and pride nearly get you killed. After that, I started walking around Cyllage when Saito accosted me. He told me that the hospital you got sent to was staffed by disguised members of Team Flare, that they stole your DNA. I was horrified, obviously, but then he started blaming me for it, for no reason. I didn't even care that there were people around us, I just got so enraged that I cut him off and challenged him to a battle just to shut him up. A battle that I lost, badly. Then you showed up, and now we're here."

Seeing how both Saito and Elizabeth were done speaking, another silence fell over the table. Louise slowly nodded, bringing her hands together and straightening them.

"I see," Louise finally said, slowly nodding. Saito and Elizabeth stayed silent, waiting for Louise to respond. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, then opened them and lowered her hands.

"You're both idiots," Louise finally declared, causing Saito and Elizabeth to wince. "Both of you. Saito, you had every right to be angry about what Flare did. If I was in your shoes, I would've felt the same. But Elizabeth did not deserve to be accused by you for something she didn't do. She wasn't at fault for Flare's actions. Only Flare was.

"And Elizabeth," Louise turned her attention to the verdette, who quickly wiped the satisfied look off her face, "you should've been the bigger person and ignored Saito, allowing the both of you to calm down. More importantly," Louise leaned forward, "the two of you have been at each other's throats ever since the Riviere Daycare. Now, I understand why neither of you like the other. Saito, you don't like Elizabeth because she manipulated you in an attempt to get petty revenge on me."

Elizabeth winced as that shameful memory came springing back up. Louise, meanwhile, turned her attention towards Elizabeth and continued.

"Elizabeth, you don't like Saito because he accidentally disfigured you when your deception was found out. I will not deny that these are perfectly valid reasons to dislike the other, and I'm not expecting the two of you to suddenly become friends. But I will not allow the two of you to do something stupid because you simply don't like each other. Furthermore, the two of you are forgetting one key thing about this entire situation."

Louise paused, then stared both Saito and Elizabeth down. "What happened to me wasn't Elizabeth's fault. It wasn't Saito's fault, either. It was mine."

Saito and Elizabeth shot Louise a pair of shocked expression, but Louise cut them off with a raised finger.

"Let me finish," Louise ordered, preventing the other two from saying anything. "It's my fault for one simple reason: I let my pride blind me to the danger I was in. It was me who decided to press on, it was me who decided to ignore the fact that I was poisoned, and it was me who fled in a complete panic when the toxin proved to be too much. I made a mistake, and I'll be damned before I let you take that away from me. Do you understand?"

Saito and Elizabeth were shocked into silence. Yet, the more Saito thought about it, the more he began to understand. Louise was, perhaps a little unjustly in Saito's opinion, taking full responsibility for the entire event. For Elizabeth, although she didn't know Louise as well as Saito did, the gears in her head were turning, and she was coming to the same conclusion as Saito.

"Louise, no!" Elizabeth began just as Saito started to protest as well.

"That's not what happened!" Saito protested, but Louise shook her head fervently.

"Yes, it was, and nothing either of you can say will change my mind," Louise finished then glared at the two trainers before her. Her gaze held no room for argument, and although Saito and Elizabeth wanted to protest further, they both knew doing so was a pointless. So, they sighed and hung their heads, giving Louise the 'victory' she desired.

"Now then," Louise straightened herself and placed her hands against the table, "before you two apologize to each other for how you acted, I'm going to say a few words."


Due to the fact that Elizabeth was still afraid of him and his entire evolutionary line, Derflinger was forced to watch the spectacle from across the street. Entire thing was quite interesting to watch, in his opinion at least. It probably wasn't to them. The looks on their faces was more than enough to make that observation.

Still, watching Louise descend into a profanity-lidden rant, all in her native language, easily proved to be the best moment Derflinger had seen yet.

"Wow," Derflinger said as he watched Louise continue cursing Saito and Elizabeth out, "Pinky has a colorful vocabulary."


After Louse finished her rant, she forced the two troublemakers to apologize to the other. Reluctantly, and with Louise giving the two of them the evil eye, Saito and Elizabeth did so. It was then that the three separated, Saito going with Louise and Elizabeth going on her own.

Saito walked with Louise in silence, ruminating over his actions. Before, when he and Elizabeth were battling, he earnestly believed that he was in the right. Elizabeth was with Louise when she got injured, and instead of helping she pursued a personal vendetta. She challenged him, so he wasn't at fault for destroying her. Yet, after having Louise chew him out, first in Unovan then quickly descending into a curse-filled Gallian, he was forced to reevaluate his position. The more he thought about it, the more he began to realize that, perhaps, he was in the wrong.

It was hard for him to admit it, but eventually he couldn't ignore the truth any longer. Removing the cloud of anger that led him into conflict with Elizabeth, Saito found that he had gone after Elizabeth completely unprovoked. Him accusing her of wrongdoing was wrong, hurtful even. It was no wonder Elizabeth was enraged enough to challenge him to a battle. What he did was borderline slander. With that in mind, his hard-earned victory over Elizabeth felt much more bittersweet than it did before. Saito then looked at the back of Louise's head as they continued to walk towards Grant's gym. The silence was now growing unbearable for the boy, and he felt compelled to say something.

"Louise, I—" he began, only for the rosette to cut him off with a raised hand.

"Don't. You have nothing to apologize to me about," she declared. Saito shamefully looked down and away, and he heard Louise sigh as she turned around. "Look, I'll be the first to admit that ever since I arrived here, I've made plenty of mistakes. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that when we make them, we have to make sure that they don't happen again. Otherwise, what's the point?"

"…Yeah, I suppose you're right," Saito quietly said. Louise lightly smiled, then stepped forward and wrapped Saito in a hug. He returned the gesture, and the noblewoman patted her best friend on the shoulder twice before separating.

"Come on, let's go find Grant," Louise told him. Saito nodded, then the two of them continued their walk towards Grant's Pokémon Gym. As they did, they saw more and more construction crews continue their repair of the city. They repaired cracked pavement, replaced broken glass, and refilled holes in walls. Saito and Louise could tell it was going to be a long, arduous process, but at the same time they could tell that, in the end, everything would turn out alright.

Finally, after nearly an hour of walking, the two trainers finally arrived at Grant's Gym. It, like the rest of the surrounding blocks, was relatively untouched, but they knew appearances could be deceiving. Walking up to the automatic doors, they split apart to grant Saito and Louise entry. Inside they saw a bustling center of activity as gym trainers, police officers, and city workers organize themselves into various groups before hurrying out of the center. It quickly became obvious that the Cyllage Pokémon Gym had become a headquarters for the city's recovery efforts. Sifting through the crowds, they eventually found Grant leaning over a desk, maps and computers next to him.

"We've got the next loads of tools and materials ready for the Beachfront, South Side, and Mountain districts. Send some people to deliver them and have them stay to assist in the reconstruction," Grant ordered to a few aides. They quickly nodded before rushing off, offering a quick apology as Saito and Louise moved out of their way. The two trainers didn't mind, instead taking the opportunity to move closer to Grant.

"Grant?" Louise called out, catching the Gym Leader's attention. He looked around for the source, and when he saw Louise and Saito, he sighed in relief.

"Louise, Saito," Grant replied, getting off the table and offering his hand to the two trainers. Saito took it first, shaking it firmly before Louise did the same.

"It's good to see you two," Grant declared once he let go of Louise's hand. "Louise, are you alright?"

"As well as I can be," Louise admitted, and Grant nodded in understanding.

"Good, good. I'm glad to hear that." Grant then placed his hands on his hips and sighed while shaking his head. "Look, I know why you're here, but I'm sorry. I'm not taking any challenges for the moment. I have my hands full as it is."

"We figured," Saito admitted. "We just wanted to know for how long, that way we could decide—"

"Whether you should wait it out or keep going, right?" Grant asked. When Saito nodded, Grant nodded back. "Right, right. Luckily, with how things are going, I should be ready to accept challenges in a week. After that, we can have that challenge."

Louise thought it over, then nodded. "That sounds good to me. We'll get out of your hair, now."

"Thank you. Stay safe, you two," Grant requested. Louise and Saito nodded, then the two of them then left the Pokémon Gym, allowing the workers to continue unimpeded, and they walked to a nearby hill to stare out over the sea. As they felt a salty breeze wash over their faces, they closed their eyes and took deep breaths.

"So," Saito began, "what do you want to do?"

Louise, her eyes closed, scrunched her brow in thought. What did she want to do? The way she saw it, there were two options before her. Either she and Saito continued on to Shalour City, which she imagined would take at least a week, or they stuck around to wait on Grant. Both had certain appeals, but in the end they could only choose one. Finally, after a few moments, Louise made up her mind and opened her eyes.

"I think we should stay," Louise declared with conviction. "Besides, after the past few weeks, staying in one place for a while sounds appealing to me."

"You and me, both," Saito agreed, leaning back and resting his weight on his hands. "Besides, we can probably use the week to train a bit more. After today, I doubt Grant's even going to think about holding back on us."

Louise couldn't help but chuckle and shake her head. "Yeah, and I wouldn't want him to."


Elizabeth sat nervously at the large conference room table in the PWE headquarters. Versus was sitting at the head of the table, with Janet sitting next to him with an eerily composed expression. Raven was nowhere to be seen, which the verdette wasn't surprised by. Erina was there, though, along with many other people Elizabeth didn't recognize. Everyone was silent, waiting for Versus to start, who himself was resting his hands together on the table. Finally, with a cough to clear his throat, Versus stood up and silently directed everyone's attention towards him.

"Right, so, first things first," Versus began. "All PWE events in Cyllage are hereby suspended until the Cyllage City Council declares the city's recovered enough. I will not have our entertainment venues take away much needed resources."

"Agreed," Janet replied, followed by a chorus of similar responses. Elizabeth joined as well, but she couldn't help but notice that Erina was noticeably silent. She didn't quite know whether that was because Erina disagreed with Versus' assessment, or if she was simply worried about Raven. If Elizabeth knew Erina, it was probably a little of both. Versus nodded at their responses, then he turned his attention towards Elizabeth, which made her straighten her back a bit.

"Elizabeth," Versus continued, "I'm afraid that we're going to have to postpone your debut. I'm sorry, but now isn't the time."

"I understand, sir." To be honest, Elizabeth would've been angry if Versus tried to force her debut through. There was a time and place for everything, and now certainly wasn't the time to introduce her wrestling persona to the world. At the same time, Elizabeth noticed a conspicuous lack of mention towards her conduct during the battle against Coda. Judging from the look on Janet's face, it probably was a factor in her debut being postponed, just one that Versus didn't feel mentioning if only to save her face. She could appreciate that, if nothing else.

"However," Versus said, cutting off her thoughts, "we have a solution. Instead of debuting you in Cyllage, Elizabeth, instead you will be put on tour."

"On tour?" Elizabeth asked, not quite expecting this development.

"Yes, a tour. Specifically, a Kalosian Coastline Tour. Starting two weeks from now, you will have an exhibition match in Geosenge Town, just north of here. There, you will participate in a few local matches, then make your way further up the coast towards Shalour to do the same. Then you'll go to Coumarine, then finally you'll have your formal debut at a proper event in Lumiose. Does that work for you?"

Elizabeth knew that, even if it was phrased as a request, Versus' statement was anything but.

"Of course, sir. That works perfectly."

"Splendid!" Versus clapped his hands together, then went on to the next point of the meeting. Elizabeth, however, felt her attention drift away from the meeting altogether and back towards the battle she had against Saito. Now removed from the event for a few hours, Elizabeth could recognize it for what it was. That wasn't a battle. It was a slaughter. Saito absolutely destroyed her, and the only reason why she even got close was because she had Machamp on hand. A Pokémon that she didn't even train herself. It was humiliating, but at the same time Elizabeth a new sense of drive and resolve fill her soul.

She knew why Saito destroyed her. Although she still didn't like the boy, she could both understand and respect the fact that he was a better trainer than her. He trained his Pokémon extensively, learned their strengths and weaknesses then worked to either accommodate or circumvent them. More importantly, outside of his Ralts (which she now realized was probably the reason why Saito didn't use him during the battle) all of his Pokémon listened to him without question. He had their loyalty, whereas he only had the loyalty of two of hers. Eevee still didn't listen to her, while Machamp only listened if he felt it was worth his time.

'No,' she thought, clenching her fist tightly under the table. 'If I'm going to call myself a Pokémon Trainer, much less a Pokémon Wrestler, I can't afford to be lackadaisical in my efforts. Not again.'

So, as Versus continued to discuss the PWE's plans for the future, Elizabeth began to think and plan. If she was going to succeed, she was going to have to do something she never truly did before: she was going to have to train, and with her first exhibition match just a few weeks away, she didn't have time to waste.

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Hello, everyone! I hope you all had some Happy Holidays. To help celebrate, here's the latest chapter of Outsiders! Special thanks to Darwin Candidate, Grendel4823, wildrook, and Yuri Vampire for all their help bringing this chapter to life.

The Flare Saga has now come to a close and our heroes have emerged as battered but better people because of it. Now they move on to the next phase of their journey: the battle against Grant. I think you guys are going to like what we have planned going forward.

Now, onto the Q&A:

DRMAK: As you can see, that's exactly what happened. And yeah, Saito wasn't thinking clearly, which he realized after Louise's colorful rant.

.549: Oh, she did. She most certainly did. And yeah, Saito was supposed to be in the wrong here, even though he won.

Snowybirb: That was a typo which has since been fixed. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

DPSS: I'm glad you felt that way. It was what I was going for, after all.

Vein Bloodborne: Yep, Louise had to play the voice of reason, which is a departure from how she's normally been portrayed. I'm happy with how it all turned out, and honestly Louise's growth as a person is one of my favorite things about this story.

keybladelight: The Saito/Louise relationship is part of the core of this story, and we want to delve deep into it. This was a good way to help show that.

Well, that's it for this chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed and let me know what you all think! See you all next time!