Goddamnit, I keep getting beat up. Am I the problem? Andrew thought as he slowly strolled through the forest on his way to the castle, the first time he had gone since his encounter with Ryder.

It had been a week, and Andrew's body was beginning to heal. Flexibility was beginning to return to his limbs, no longer forcing him to hobble around like a Snorlax, also drastically reducing the pain caused by his wounds.

However, as he exited the looming trees and overgrown path, the grassy fields surrounding Grandeport Castle coming into view, a familiar sensation returned to him. His head fin vibrated. His senses grew more alert, his heart began to beat faster.

He was being watched.

"How many times do we have to do this?!" Andrew yelled out, the muscles in his flippers tensing.

"You asked if you were the problem," said a deep but unfamiliar voice in his head. "What do you think, Andrew? If people keep attacking you, do you think there's a chance you might be doing something wrong?"

Andrew pointed at the air. "Shut up Jason! You're not going to kill me! You're not going to even hurt me!"

In front of him, a puff of dark, gray smoke appeared. It shifted and spread out before dissipating to reveal the silhouette of a slender, lavender-furred quadruped. When the smoke cleared completely, Jason appeared more clearly, staring down at Andrew with stark disapproval.

"I'm not here to kill you," he said. He looked off to the side for a moment before focusing back on Andrew. "Did you hit your head or something?"

Andrew began to fume, his face red as he stomped the ground repeatedly. "Ugh! Why does everybody keep asking me that question?! I didn't hit my goddamn head, everyone around me is just… stupid!"

Jason shook his head. "Andrew, can I ask you a question?"

"I don't know, can you?"

The Espeon grimaced. "This isn't the time for jokes."

"I wasn't joking," humphed Andrew.

Jason's ears drooped as he looked over the Marshtomp. His eyes glowed a brilliant purple before he surveyed his injuries. After a moment the glow faded and he cleared his throat to speak.

"I've had a lot of free time on my hands—or paws—since you closed the guild, so I've been learning some new tricks. The mind of an Espeon—It's hard to describe exactly how it feels. It's like I'm on a higher level of existence. I'm not just capable of so much more than I was a human, but even compared to other Pokemon! It's magnificent!" Jason smiled, a pure child-like joy on his face. "For example…"

A cloud of smoke appeared around Jason again. Andrew shielded his eyes as it crept toward him. When it began to dissipate, he looked back at the Espeon—the Espeon to find he was gone.

Suddenly, another cloud of smoke appeared behind Andrew before parting to reveal Jason once more. He lowered his head, emulating a bow.

"Ryder taught me that one," he continued. "Speaking of which, where is Ryder? Last time I saw him he had left the house to ask you for a favor. I told him not to. I told him it would end poorly."

Andrew raised his flippers and shrugged. "I don't know what happened to Ryder. Who knows where he ran off to, that guy's really a loose cannon."

Jason raised his paw. Glowing purple light surrounded Andrew. The Marshtomp began to levitate, floating a few feet off the ground, his eyeline above Jason's. He tried opening his mouth to protest, to yell, insult, or spit a ball of mud, but he quickly found that he could not.

He was paralyzed.

Jason sighed and narrowed his eyes. "You're not a bad liar, I'll give you that. But you're not as good as you think. You should know that I of all people can see through your bullshit, you've been doing this as long as I've known you."

"I'm going to kill your mom, your dad, your sister, your grandparents, Ryder, every guild Pokemon. I'll bring your parents back from the dead, and kill them again in front of you, before stabbing you in the back for each time you betrayed me. Holy crap why can I hear myself? I'm not talking. One two three, testing, testing, one two three. Banana."

Jason scowled. "What the hell Andrew?! Have you lost your damn mind?!"

"I didn't mean to say that! Is this-"

"Yes, a psychic connection. Though, I'm regretting doing this with considering whatever madness I just had to witness. But we're getting off topic. Where's Ryder?"

"Let me go and I'll tell you!"

The Espeon relented, lowering Andrew. He let out a cough before he was able to speak again. "All I know is that he wanted me to do something stupid, and I said no. There was a bit of an altercation and he got taken away. I don't know where."

Jason's eyes glowed again. "...You're telling the truth. You don't know where your guards took him."

"Yes, I am telling the truth-"

The Marshtomp suddenly paused, blinked, and threw out his arms. His mouth twisted into a scowl and he stared daggers at the Espeon. "WAIT A SECOND! How do you know that?! I didn't tell you about my guards! Are you… Are you reading my mind?!" Andrew curled his fingers into a fist, holding it out toward Jason.

Jason shrugged. "I don't know. I told you that I've had a lot of free time on my hands, time which I've used to get stronger. Maybe I've picked up a bit of mind-reading. It's a common skill among powerful psychic types, I've heard."

"You are invading my sovereign mind! You need to be punished!" the Marshtomp screeched.

Andrew's flippers were trembling, his whole body was shaking. His heart rate climbed higher, his chest tight as he struggled to breathe. His wounds from all over his body flared up, and despite the agony, all he could fixate on were Jason's glowing eyes.

The Espeon gritted his teeth as he watched the Marshtomp tremble. "Andrew, calm down."

"I will not… calm down!" Andrew wheezed. The pain in his chest only intensified.

Jason took a tentative step forward. "I'm sorry that I read your mind without your permission. That was not okay."

"Of course it wasn't," the Marshtomp huffed. He crossed his flippers. "I don't read your mind against your will."

His chest was still quickly rising and falling. The whole world around him seemed to have grown, he felt small.
"You look like a water balloon about to pop," said Jason telepathically.

"Shut up… That's an unfortunately accurate way to describe my body."

"What was that?"

"Stop it!"

Andrew fell onto the grass and squeezed his eyes shut. Jason reached out a paw before placing it on his chest. Andrew felt the Espeon's soft fur as his chest continued to rise, fall, rise, fall…

It began to slow to a normal pace, as Andrew breathed a deep sigh of relief.

"Andrew," said Jason. "It hurts to see you like this."

The Marshtomp stood up, brushing the dirt off himself. "Oh, that? It's fine, I just get a little worked up when people read my mind."

The Espeon shook his head. "No, not like that. I looked inside of your mind."

Andrew rolled his eyes. "Well, obviously!"

"I haven't looked inside of too many, and I can't compare what your mind looks like now to how it did when you were human… But it's not good. It looks… dark and ugly. Nothing but Anger, paranoia, stress, and all-around unpleasantness. You're hurting," Jason said with a tone of concern.

The Marshtomp ran his fingers around the wound on his shoulder, which still had yet to fully heal. "I'm hurting alright, Jason. Ryder beat me to a pulp. Luckily I mostly returned the favor, but it hurts. A lot."

"No, not that kind of hurt," the Espeon sighed. He put a paw on Andrew's shoulder. "I mean in your head. Maybe that's why you've done all these terrible things. How do you feel, Andrew?"

"I feel fine, goddamnit!" Andrew snapped.

Jason recoiled. "I don't have to be a mind reader to know that's a lie. I want to see you get better, Andrew. But you're making it impossible! Every time I reach out, every time I give you a chance or I do something nice for you, you get mad! You just threw my best friend in jail and I'm being nice. I want to help you! I want the old Andrew back."

The Marshtomp turned away from him, staring at the ground. "It's not the old Andrew who left. It's the old Jason. You used to be fun. You used to get me, I got you. But being an Espeon made you nuts. You said it yourself, you're on some higher level of existence while we're all stuck down here."

"I didn't really mean that," Jason pleaded with a deep frown. "Becoming a Marshtomp made you nuts, not me. The old Andrew wasn't a dictator who threw people in prison, he was a chill, smart guy, who was fun to be around. I don't know what you've become, but I can barely recognize you. You've changed."

Andrew sighed, lowering himself and lying in the grass. "Maybe we both have. We're both crazy, paranoid, power-hungry, morally dubious, Pokemon now. We just have to accept that."

Jason laid down on his stomach to join Andrew, then cracked his head to the side. "What? I'm not any of those things."

"We just have to accept that," Andrew repeated with a huff.

The sun felt soothing on Andrew's moist skin. It created a pleasant warmth, contrasting nicely with the cool air surrounding him. He was at peace, his worries leaving his mind, even if only for a moment.

However, he broke the momentary silence to tell Jason, "I'm going to have to get to work soon. Because, y'know, I actually have a job."

"I'm only unemployed because you're a stubborn fish," the Espeon groaned.

Andrew sat up and pointed a finger in Jason's face. "Hey! I may be stubborn, but I am not a fish! I am amphibious!"

"Oh yeah? I bet you wouldn't last a day in the ocean," Jason teased with a smug grin.

Andrew snorted. "Luckily, I chose land. Thomas probably isn't too good a swimmer considering he barely has arms, anyways."

The Espeon got up, stretching his back and arching it like a cat would. "Next time I see you, I have a feeling we won't be lying in a field and chatting nonchalantly, Andrew."

"Probably not," said the Marshtomp. "But we aren't who we used to be, both figuratively and literally. Maybe we—and by we I mean you—should stop trying to pretend that we are. We're never going to be like that again and that's just life. Doesn't mean we have to hate each other."

Jason smirked. "Ryder hates your guts, though, and I'd do anything for him."

"When you visit him, tell him that I hope he strangles himself with his small intestine," retorted Andrew with a grin.

Jason let out a deep breath, looking away from him.

Suddenly another puff of smoke appeared, the Marshtomp only able to watch as it enveloped his former friend.
When the smoke dissipated, however, unlike before, the Epseon had vanished for real.

Sitting atop Andrew's desk was a single gold coin. On the front of the coin was the number one, extruding slightly from the main body and crafted in the squiggly, cursive-like writing Andrew had seen Charlie use.

He picked up the coin before flipping it. It landed back down on the desk with a clink on its opposite side. Brand on it was the head of a fox-like creature with long, thick fur atop his head and a stern, serious expression on the side of his snout.

That must be Mirage… We need to get my face on these coins. He looks so pissed on them.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaa…!"

Andrew's head perked up as a muffled sound drone outside of his office. It was coming down the hall, getting deeper… slowly getting closer.

"AAAAAaaaaaaa!"

Somebody was yelling. Andrew let out a deep groan as he realized who it was coming from, though he had never heard him yell like this before.

"AAAAAAAAAAA!"

The screaming was right outside the door. Andrew gasped, his flippers instantly flying in front of his face to shield it.

The doors flew open with a deafening BANG! The sound echoed and overwhelmed the Marshtomp's eardrums before he could even register the doors striking the wall.

A great flash of blue light enveloped the office as the intruder skidded to a halt in front of Andrew's desk. He slammed a paw down, then a large sack onto it. From the bag spilled out dozens of coins. These coins had one-hundreds written on them instead of one.

"What is this?!" Charlie pressed a deep scowl on his face and sparks flew from his cheeks.

Andrew lucked up at him and gulped. "Uh, y'know, m-money. I said I'd give some to you."

"You were serious?!" Charlie panted. Small bolts of lightning crackled across his body, coming up from the bottom of his hip and striking right below his arm. "I should electrocute you right now!"

Andrew got out of his chair, sizing up to the Raichu. "Of course I was serious! When have I ever lied?"

"When you ever lied… WHEN HAVE YOU EVER LIED?!" Charlie shouted, his face bright red. "All the time!"

Andrew crossed his flippers and stuck up his chin. "You can't prove that."

"Do you know how bad this is? What am I saying? I've already explained to you how bad this is, but I didn't think you were serious. I thought, Andrew, that even you were smart enough to realize that stealing money from the treasury is a horrible idea," he lectured, rubbing his temples. "How much have you taken?".

Andrew scratched his head fin. "I don't know. A lot, I think. You'd have to ask Chloe, she's the one who handles all the deliveries."

"I'm going to kill you," the Raichu murmured, another bolt of electricity shooting from his cheeks down to his tail.

Goddamnit! This is it, isn't it? I'm going to die right here, right now, at this very moment. Do I deserve this? What would Jason say? He wouldn't say I deserve this. Do I like him again? No! Ugh! This isn't helping. I have to get out of this somehow, I'm too young to die but Charlie's a maniac and he'll kill me in my sleep if I get out of this because he wants to kill me goddamnit goddamnit goddamnit! It's all a plot I'm not crazy your crazy I'm not…!

Charlie sighed. "Really? Nothing to say for yourself? You're not even going to try to convince me not to kill you?"

Andrew climbed back into his seat, his head beginning to pulse with pain, and his heart pounding with anxiety. "Th-There's only one thing that I can offer you."

"Is it friendship?" Charlie asked, grimacing.

"What? No!" Andrew uttered. He picked up the bag on his desk and shook it, more hundred-Poke coins falling out of it. "Money. I can give you more money." He smiled. "Everybody likes money!"

Charlie deadpanned him, eyes widening. "Now I actually want to kill you." The Raichu took a deep breath. "But I won't. Somehow, I'll figure out a way not to."

"It can't be that hard," the Marshtomp joked, grinning even as Charlie's eyes bore into his very soul.

Charlie raised his tail, moving it onto the desk scooping up some of the coins and inspecting them. "Trust me, it's a lot harder than you think."

"B-but look at it this way! The council hasn't even noticed! And they won't notice! Probably. They're too busy doing governing stuff or whatever they do," Andrew offered.

"You've stolen too much! Well, any amount is too much, but this is crossing a line. The council will notice sooner or later that there's thousands of Poke unaccounted for. Then what are we going to do? I'm putting a stop to this. No, More. Stealing."

The Marshtompstared at the bag of coins. He reached out a flipper, feeling its rough texture. "Maybe I got a little carried away…"

"Yeah, just a little bit," huffed Charlie sarcastically.

Andrew threw up his flippers. "People wanted money! I've been having Chloe deliver cash to Everett since I started this whole thing, I bet it's the only reason the police haven't killed us. You claim you're protecting me because you kill people. I actually protect us by paying off anyone who'd think to kill us."

And also steal a bit for myself.

"Bribes only go so far, Andrew," Charlie sighed. He reached out a paw, positioning it between Andrew and the bag. "Soon enough they'll get greedy and ask for money you don't have. May I do a demonstration?"

"Uh, sure?"

Charlie knocked the bag onto its side. A wave of coins cascaded out, creating a metallic, ringing waterfall the objects pooled onto the floor. The Raichu pointed at the pile of coins on the floor before saying, "That is what you will end up like if this continues."

"I didn't think I was a bag of coins," scoffed Andrew, rolling his eyes.

Charlie tapped Andrew's yet-to-be-healed wound with his tail, eliciting a brief jolt of pain and a gasp from him.

"If I cut you open, you'd bleed coins. So I think it's pretty accurate," the Raichu shot back.

"Yeah, whatever. Real funny," Andrew pouted, slumping forward in his chair.

"Look," said Charlie. "What's done is done, we'll figure out some way to explain this to the council without getting our tails chopped off. But this has got to stop. I don't care if Everett, or Chloe's mom, or whoever gets all pissy. It needs to stop."

The Marshtomp stared blankly at Charlie. I should just tell him to get lost. I'm the president, I can do what I want. It's my money! However, he could not bring himself to voice any protest. Like a scared chased down by a hungry wolf, Andrew found himself cornered.

"F-Fine, I'll stop. For now."

Charlie nodded. "Good."

"Mostly," he whispered, luckily quiet enough for Charlie's sensitive ears not to hear.

Andrew stepped out of a forest thicket and into the clearing. It was a large, open, overgrown field, far away from the city. He wore his dark green cloak, the hood pulled over his head fin to preserve what little warmth he had in the cold evening. A mix of soft yellow and navy blue hung above the treeline as the sun was setting. Out in the field, Andrew was able to make out a blurry, pink figure.

He journeyed across the tall grass, with some blades reaching half his height or taller. The pink figure, seeming to have noticed him, began to move toward him.

First Andrew saw the white tufts on her head and neck, then her snout, and finally her facial features, as she stopped five feet away from him.

Andrew bore a serious expression, though it was barely visible underneath his hood, instead opting to speak plainly.

"Hello Chloe," he said plainly, without his usual arrogant tone.

The Flaaffy awkwardly and unenthusiastically waved a paw. "Hey, Andrew…"

"It's a bit colder than I expected," he said.

Chloe nodded, rubbing her paws together before fluffing the wool around her neck. "It is a bit chilly out… Would have been nice to have met another time. But I'm here. So, what horrible thing are you gonna make me do today? Or am I in for some berating?"

"I'm done, Chloe."

"Done? Am I finally being fired?" she asked, a smile forming across her snout.

Andrew squinted at her. "Not yet. There's still some more work to be done, but we're going to have to downscale a bit. Charlie said that you took too much from the treasury. He says that we're going to get caught. Why did you do that?"

"Because you told me to!" Chloe retorted, scowling. "I figured out a way to get money from the treasury, I'm actually kind of proud of it… and now you're mad at me?! I'm just doing what you say. But that doesn't matter, does it? You'll always find something to get mad about, to hold over my head."

The Marshtomp's hood flew off as he marched up to Chloe, leaving mere inches between them. "You screwed up! I don't care what I told you, because you stole too much and now it's only a matter of time until they kill us! I bet they'll hang you right in the main square to make a point."

"Frankly, I don't believe a word you just said," she sighed. "I'm just doing my job. Maybe I made some mistakes with the money stuff that I'm beginning to regret… but that was just as much your fault as mine. If you had a sense of justice, you'd take the blame for everything I got forced into doing."

Andrew rolled his eyes. "We both know that's never happening."

"It's never too late to change, Andrew. I started caring about the bad stuff I've done. I even began volunteering at an orphanage to make up for some of it. Orphans are so adorable! I might take one home when the staff aren't watching," she said cheerfully, clasping her paws together.

He groaned. "Even though we're probably going to get some form of punishment, I don't want to stop entirely. Might as well try to get some more money out of this while we get the chance, right?"

"I thought you said that you were done," said Chloe, staring daggers into him.

The Marhstomp bit his lip. "Done is a relative term. I'm mostly done, sure. But we're too far in to stop now. Let's ride this cash cow until we have to get off."

"Maybe we could avoid being caught if we stop now. I doubt the council is going to be looking to see if anybody stole from them a year ago. She narrowed her eyes, looking up at the moon. "Which they'd only do if we were still stealing from them."

"That's rather optimistic," Andrew said as he waved a flipper.

"I'm an optimistic Pokemon. You should try it sometime."

He scoffed. "Yes, Chloe. Because you're the world's most optimistic Pokemon. You know what I think? Maybe you should take a look in the goddamn mirror and stop grandstanding every time I see you. This is why everybody hates you."

"Everyone hates you, asshole!" barked the Flaaffy. "You know what Andrew? What if I go to the press and tell them what we've been doing? I could be a heroic whistleblower, and you'd be a thief. You are a thief, but everyone would know it for sure."

Andrew's heart sunk into his stomach as the idea played like a horror film in his mind. The Flaaffy in a room with a million reporters. Police and guards pounding down his door. Him waddling toward a towering prison with his legs and flippers bound by chains.

I knew it! She was plotting against me this entire time. She's crazy and now I probably have to kill that stupid little goddamn piece of wool, god she's so stupid. I'm Andrew! I'm Andrew Marshtomp, Marshtomp! You don't mess with me, she's dumb. I'll kill her before she gets me and I'll be so happy.

"You'd don't… scare me…" Andrew said, both trying to convince himself and the Flaaffy, but as it left his mouth, the confidence in his tone did not come to be. He sounded like a scared child.

A smug grin appeared on Chloe's face. "That's a lie and we both know it. I could reveal this to everyone, and there's nothing you would be able to do about it. You're powerless-"

"I'm not powerless!" Andrew interrupted. "I have more power than you ever will! If you try to expose what we've been up to, I'll drag you down with me. Hell, I'll sink you even lower to however low I can go. At the end of the day, I'll still be president. But you're no one! I could have you buried in a ditch and not a damn person would care."

"My family would kill you!" Chloe screamed, her look of amusement twisting into one of rage.

Andrew laughed. "Your family? You mean your mom, right? She doesn't scare me."

"She should."

Andrew regained his composure, with a sly grin on his face and his fingers clasped together tightly. "There's no need for us to fight, Chloe."

She pointed at him accusingly with her paw. "You just threatened to kill me."

"I just threatened to hypothetically kill you. That's not the same thing," explained the Marshtomp.

"Ugh!" the Flaaffy groaned. "Who cares? We can't keep doing this, Andrew. You can't just threaten to kill me and then turn around like nothing's wrong."

Andrew tilted his head forward, still brandishing a smirk. "I can, and I did."

"I can't keep doing this!" Chloe shouted. She threw her arms down and stomped. There was a quiver in her voice. She then sniffled before wiping her snout.

Andrew took a deep breath in. "Alright, fine. You want out? Then let's make one final deal, and we can be done with all of this."

Chloe looked down at him. "...What?"

"I could always use some more money, and I'd like to keep the police happy. Sneak a bit of extra money into my account, and keep the police on payroll. You can stop paying off all the guild people and say that I'm preparing something for them that will make up for it. Overall, you should be embezzling way less than you were before. Sound good?"

Chloe leaned toward him. "And what's in it for me?"

"In case we get caught-"

"When we get caught," Chloe interjected.

Andrew paused, shooting a dirty look at Chloe. "Fine. When we get caught, I'll take the blame. I'll say that I forced you to do everything and that you tried to stop me. That should hopefully get any criminal stuff off your back, assuming nobody else has it out for you. In exchange, you don't tell anybody, and I mean anybody what we've been doing until then. Deal?"

"You'll tell the truth when you get busted?" the Flaaffy asked before smiling and sticking out her paw. "Then consider it a deal."

Andrew rolled his eyes and shook her paw. "Yeah, yeah. The truth and crap."

It's a deal. Stupid Flaaffy.

Andrew trekked back through the woods until the glistening lights of Grandeport came back into view.

"It's weird how empty that forest feels without any animals. I guess I'm still used to hearing birds and stuff while out in nature," the Marshtomp murmured. He paused, glancing at his flipper as he wandered absentmindedly onto a street. "Do I count as nature now? I'm physically closer to being an animal than a human at least."

You aren't nature. You're still human, never forget that.

"But I don't feel very human anymore. I mean—I'm still kind of human.. I live in a house and speak English, I do the dishes when I'm forced to and I lead a country… normal human stuff. But then I'm also not human, if that makes sense? It feels like forever ago that I was over five feet tall and had thumbs."

You're over five feet tall, you just have to believe.

"Oh, right. There's something different about being a Pokemon, though. I can't quite describe it. It's like I'm more… in tune with my own body and nature. I think that's it."

That's a lie and you know it!

"It's not a lie," Andrew shot back at himself.

Yes it is, his mind dissented. Explain to me exactly how you are in tune with your body or nature. If anything, you're less in tune with your body. Watching you go up a flight of stairs is pathetic.

"These legs weren't built for stairs. I'm a great swimmer now, and that makes up for it."

No it doesn't.

"Alright, maybe it doesn't."

Maybe you should pay attention.

Andrew shook his head, taking a break from his internal debate and looking forward. In front of him was the street where he had encountered the demonstration the other day. One shop had a tattered awning with red and orange stripes where the anti-Andrew protesters had stood. And there was a storefront with broken glass windows where the pro-Andrew side had stood. However, business as usual appeared to be carrying on despite the damage.

He put his flippers to his sides, standing still and admiring the calm street before him. "I'm proud to be in charge of this city!"

You're not worried?

"About what?"

He resumed his journey home, walking across the street as he normally did.

Uh, the Resistance, dummy. Did that not seem like the Resistance to you?

"Pokemon go crazy over me all the time. The last protest where they burnt me-dolls was that stupid one with the old people and that Cinderace. I don't even remember his name."

They're probably selling those somewhere. Also, it's totally the Resistance. You should know better. History repeats itself, and now that Jason's back in town, they're regrouping. They might try to attack the castle again, or maybe your home. Anything is possible!

"Jason? C'mon, don't be ridiculous," Andrew said wearily as the surrounding neighborhoods began to spread out and give way to greenery.

It's not ridiculous, it's just logic. You threw Ryder where he belongs, and then suddenly the Resistance protested? That's what happens when you throw one of their Pokemon in jail. It's a good thing those other Pokemon came out to beat them up, but you can't just ignore this. The Resistance is back and Jason's out for revenge.

"Stop it," Andrew growled. "I don't believe you. You're being crazy."

I'm being crazy? I'm you, idiot! If I'm being crazy then you're being crazy. And you AREN'T crazy. This is real.

The Marshtomp stopped in his tracks, his home coming into view. "Don't pin this on me! It's your fault for coming up with this. I don't believe you. Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!"

You believe me.

"I don't!" he yelled, covering his gills.

You believe me.

"I said STOP!"

"Andrew? Are you alright?" Thomas yelled. He was standing down the street, staring at the shouting Marshtomp.

He raised his flipper and waved back. "I'm fine! Coming!"

Andrew tried to shoot a glare at himself, but it hardly meant anything as there was no mirror around for him to see it.

You believe me, his mind repeated.

With a relenting sigh, the Marshtomp approached the porch. Thomas was standing there with the door cracked open, a concerned look on his face.

"I believe you," muttered the defeated Andrew.

Thomas cocked his head to the side. "Um, believe who?"

AN: Yeah, I know the pun isn't too great for the chapter title but I'm really strapped for time today. Thanks to DaGamestar, DoomHuntley, Sonic Ramon, Zee102, and you, of course! All feedback is appreciated! See you next time.

P.S. you might notice this chapter is a bit late here on FFN. Sorry about that, the website was giving me a hard time with uploading. If I'm ever unable to upload on here again, you can find DIM on Archive of Our Own and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon FanFiction as well.