Chapter 30: To a New Tomorrow

I arrived at the League registration office and barely even had to wait—it wasn't as if very many people applied for their license in November. And I was already in the system as having passed all the required classes. All that was left was the exam. The dreaded exam that had thwarted my last two attempts to become a trainer.

As the examiner led me into the back room, I expected to feel… something. Fear. Anxiety. The pain of past failure burning a hole in the back of my mind. But now? After everything I'd been through? Enduring countless battles, calming unruly experiments, facing down raging Legendaries? This was nothing.

The test ran through everything from wild Pokémon interactions, trained Pokémon handling, conflict resolution, trainer interactions, League policies, Pokémon rights, and yes, even the dreaded battling that had once been the bane of my existence. Two hours later and the results were in my hands and I was staring down at a passing grade. For years I'd imagined how this moment would feel. I'd imagined it would be my grandest triumph, finally beating the unjust system that had kept me trapped in Viridian for two long years. But now, in the moment… I mostly just felt relieved to finally have it finally over with. No rush of excitement. No explosion of joy. Just… relief.

I was finally, finally going to be a real Pokémon trainer. And I'd done it before my fifteenth birthday, just like I'd said.

So I told the staff I wouldn't be needing a starter Pokémon, as I already had one lined up elsewhere. The first Pokémon registered under my ID would get logged as my starter, in this case. It only seemed fitting that it should be Swift—the only one who had been with me since before it all began.

I'd pick up a Pokédex later. I'd need one if I wanted access to things like the automatic payment system, online storage system, or automatic Pokémon registration. And I'd want those things eventually, but for now, just having a trainer ID was enough.

And so I found myself walking down the streets of Viridian, staring at the glossy card in my palm, part of me still not convinced that it was real. What next? There were almost too many options. I could go meet up with Ajia and Starr right away. I could finally follow up with the texts that Darren had sent me. I could call home and show that I'd finally upheld my end of the bargain, the one that had gotten me allowed to go on this journey in the first place. But first, and perhaps most importantly, I had to share the news with my Pokémon. After all, this was going to have a big impact on their lives from now on. And… there was still one thing I hadn't considered until now—the experiments. All three of them had only joined me because I'd been fighting Team Rocket. Turning my back on that fight meant saying goodbye to the one thing that had brought us together. And for all I knew, it was the only thing keeping us together. The sooner I told them, the better. And if they wanted to leave, then…

I sighed. No sense putting it off. I veered off from the sidewalk into an open lot between two buildings. Then I grabbed all five of my Pokéballs and opened them. Seeing them now, lined up together—Pidgeot, Charizard, Pikachu, Flygon, Absol—I couldn't help but feel a swelling of pride in the team I'd brought together throughout the past few months. Even if a few of them might not be around for much longer.

"*So you two really evolved, huh?*" Aros asked, tilting his head to get a good look at Swift and Firestorm. The latter blushed and glanced away, his evolution obviously still a sore topic.

"*Well, congrats,*" the Flygon went on. "*Our fights might be a bit fairer now.*" He smirked. As if he cared at all about having a fair fight.

"So, I've got a bit of an announcement," I said, holding up my trainer ID for all of them to see. "I'm finally a real Pokémon trainer."

The significance of this was lost on the experiments, whose expressions varied between confusion and apathy.

"*You weren't a trainer before?*" Aros asked dismissively. "*Then what were you?*"

But before I could figure out how to answer that, Firestorm cut in with, "*You passed the test?*" His eyes glinted with an enthusiasm that I hadn't yet seen on his face as a Charizard.

"*I knew you'd be able to do it someday,*" Swift added, beaming.

It was silly, but seeing my first two Pokémon looking so proud of me, well… now I really couldn't help but feel proud of it. Even if it wasn't that big a deal—the kind of accomplishment that kids three years younger than me commonly pulled off.

Aros glanced back and forth between us, still confused. "*Huh. So you're a trainer now, or whatever. Does that actually change anything?*"

I almost chuckled under my breath. "No not really. Just makes things easier for me, that's all." But then my mind snapped back to what I'd really called them all out to tell them. "It's… not the only news, though," I went on slowly, my mouth going dry. "I'm still going to be training in Johto, but I'm not going to be meeting up with Stalker and I'm not joining his resistance."

The Flygon tilted his head, antennae twitching. "*Why not?*"

I exhaled slowly through my nose. "He's… on the Johto force. He was just using us to get back at the Kanto force. He wasn't trying to protect the Legendaries—his force has been catching them after we save them."

That got more of a reaction out of everyone.

Firestorm jerked his head toward me. "*What?*" he asked, eyes wide. "*You can't be serious.*"

Unsure of what else to say, I just nodded. Several seconds passed with nothing but stunned silence from all of them.

"*I'm so sorry,*" Swift said, lowering his head. "*That must have been hard to learn.*"

I clenched my fists and looked away. "Yeah, it… it definitely hurt."

"*So that's why you're not going to fight Team Rocket anymore?*" Stygian asked, fixing her large, crimson eyes on me.

Aros jolted, throwing a glance at the Absol. "*Wait, you knew about this?*"

"*Just the part about leaving the fight. I didn't know about Stalker.*" Right, she'd been in the room when I'd told Ajia. So had Chibi, for that matter. My eyes slid toward the Pikachu, who hadn't given any visible reactions to anything so far. He was just staring at the ground, deep in thought.

"*Wait, but… what does this mean for us?*" Aros went on, still confused. He glanced back and forth between Stygian and Chibi, then back at me with an imploring look.

I sighed. "Well… I know you three joined me because that'd give you the opportunity to strike back against Team Rocket. You won't be able to do that if you stay with me now. So… I guess what I'm saying is you're free to go, if you want."

"*Go where?*" the Flygon asked blankly.

I shrugged. "I don't know. You're all strong Pokémon, you could probably live wherever you wanted. I guess we can look up where your kind is from, if that's what you mean."

He shook his head, tail lashing back and forth. "*That's not…*" His voice trailed off.

Stygian gave him a rough nudge with her shoulder. "*Just say what's on your mind,*" she said bluntly.

The Flygon shot a glare at her, but then stared downward, twiddling his claws. Finally, he said, "*I don't want to live in the wild.*"

I blinked. "I mean, you don't have to go if you don't want to," I added quickly.

Aros flattened his wings. "*But I can't just stay with you if you're not fighting the Rockets anymore.*"

Firestorm gave him a skeptical look. "*Why not?*" I couldn't help wondering the same thing.

The Flygon squinted at us from behind his red eye lenses. "*How am I supposed to…? How would I ever…*" He let out a frustrated huff and vibrated his wings to float a couple dozen yards from us, sulking over by one of the buildings lining the lot. Stygian stared after him as he left, shaking her head slightly.

"What about you?" I asked her.

She turned to face me, considering me carefully. "*I'd be fine with the wild. He's just soft. Couldn't even catch his own prey.*"

I winced. Well that seemed a bit harsh. Lots of human-raised Pokémon had trouble with that, and it wasn't exactly hard to see why.

"*That whole 'needing to get back at the Rockets' thing has always been an excuse,*" she went on.

"What's stopping him from just staying, then?" I asked her.

The Absol pawed the ground, furrowing her brow. "*Well… okay. There's a bit more to it than that. But that's the gist of it.*"

I stared. That really didn't answer my question at all. But by now Aros was looking back at us from where he'd flown off to, swishing his tail fan in agitation. Stygian let out a sigh, then trotted over to him. The two experiments conversed away from the rest of us for a few minutes while I just stood there feeling awkward. Firestorm made eye contact with me and gave a clueless shrug, so at least I wasn't the only one confused. I glanced down at Chibi, who still hadn't said anything. He didn't give any sign that he was going to, either. Which meant that it was probably best if I speak with him alone, like we usually did.

"*Just go if you want to, then!*" Aros yelled out of the blue, grabbing all of our attention.

Stygian smacked his leg with a paw. "*Idiot! I'm not leaving without you.*"

I jammed my hands in my pockets and did my best to look like I hadn't noticed. And I was suddenly struck by the realization that out of all my Pokémon, I knew the two clones the least. Sure, Chibi wasn't very open with his emotions, and Firestorm had held his fair share of secrets until recently. But at least I knew them. And, well, it kind of made sense. The two of them hadn't even technically been on my team until… what, five days ago? Longest five days of my life, but still.

After several minutes, the two clones slowly made their way back to the rest of us.

"So… is it alright if I ask what that was about?" I asked, halfway expecting to get chewed out just for asking.

Aros snapped his eyes to mine, wings flaring. "*Look, I could live in the wild just fine if I wanted to. I just don't want to,*" he said, pointing a claw at me.

I really didn't believe that at all anymore, but I nodded to spare his feelings on the matter.

The Flygon relaxed slightly, lowering his wings. He glanced once at Stygian, then back to me. "*Okay, look… If we're gonna stay with you, then you owe it to us to do something that isn't boring.*"

I blinked, completely not expecting that kind of one-eighty. I flashed a questioning look at Stygian, as if to ask 'what the heck did you say to him?', but the Absol didn't respond.

"We'd… be traveling across the region," I began slowly. "Seeing new places. Having new experiences."

Aros cocked his head to the side, unimpressed.

"…And battling new opponents, yes," I added. Typical.

The Flygon exhaled sharply through his nose, giving a curt nod. "*That is acceptable.*"

I gave a sigh of relief and smiled weakly. "Alright, glad to have that settled. And… thanks. I appreciate it." That last part was mostly directed at Stygian, who just shrugged dismissively.

I recalled all of my Pokémon except for Chibi. And I was about to ask him his thoughts on the news, but then… something occurred to me. Something else I'd been wondering since I'd first woken up after the attack.

"Can I ask you… what you think of me? After what I did to Lugia."

The hybrid took several seconds to mull the question over. "*I think you were an idiot. But you already knew that,*" he said simply.

That was it? Nothing about how I'd basically betrayed the cause that we'd dedicated ourselves to for months? How I was the same as the Rockets?

"Nothing else?"

He opened a single eye and peered at me through its corner. "*I trust you had your reasons. I also trust you know to never do anything that stupid ever again.*"

He wasn't wrong. I'd done what was probably the stupidest thing I'd ever done in my life. And yet, I'd survived. How? That single nagging question had returned in full force.

"Did you see what happened after I blacked out?"

He shook his head. "*After Lugia threw me away, I ran to get Stygian and your friends. By the time we got back, Lugia was gone.*"

"What about the Master Ball?"

"*I wasn't exactly looking for it. I had more pressing concerns,*" he said flatly.

I rubbed the back of my head. "Eh… right." In any case, that wasn't the main reason I'd wanted to talk to him in private. "So… when I asked the others if they were alright with me leaving the fight… What are your thoughts?" I asked, already anxious to hear his answer.

He stared at me, unblinking. "*You know I can't just ignore what they're doing to the Legendaries. It's too big a part of what I am.*"

I closed my eyes. "I know."

Several seconds passed. He let out a sigh and then said, "*But I don't want it to be all that I am.*"

My eyes snapped open, meeting his. The hybrid's gaze had softened, his ears raised slightly.

"*It's like you said. I want to live for myself. It's what he would've… It's what I want. But I have to discover what that means first.*" He paused. "*Same as you.*"

Chibi had a point. After all, that was what I was planning right now, wasn't it? Traveling around, finding my own path as a Pokémon trainer, free from the pain and trauma of the past.

Hesitantly, I replied, "I'd like it if we could both figure out what that means… together."

He smiled faintly, giving a slow head shake. "*We can't hide from the past forever.*"

"Maybe not. But I think we deserve a break," I said, giving a weak smile of my own.

I held out my hand, just the same way I had when I'd asked him to join me in the fight so long ago. And now I was asking him to join me in leaving the fight.

The Pikachu stared at my hand for a long while. Finally, he reached out a paw and said, "*You're probably right.*"

My next destination took me to Route 8, past the expansive urbanization of Saffron and over the rolling grasslands crisscrossed with roads that led towards Lavender on the coast. I'd flown this same path plenty of times—mostly when returning to Midnight Island from Celadon HQ—but it had always been at night, and I'd never quite gotten to appreciate the waves of gold sweeping through the fields with the wind.

It wasn't hard to find Darren. Since we were still using R-coms for communication, I had the exact coordinates. I pointed out a cluster of trees running along the trainer path, and Swift folded his wings back to spiral down towards it. I clutched his feathers tightly as we descended. I still hadn't quite gotten used to how much swooping momentum there was to his flight—nothing like the straight-line hovering of Aros's insect-like wings—and there were times it felt like I was going to slide right off his back. But the Pidgeot levelled out his flight gradually, and the two of us landed softly on one of the dirt paths that cut through the grassland. Not too far from us, I spotted Darren reclining against his Venusaur, who appeared to be napping against a tree.

"Hey, good to see you're not dead," he said, waving as I walked over.

I snorted. "That's more relevant than you know."

His face fell. "Oh geez. And here I thought we were done with that. But I guess you said you were joining Stalker in Johto, huh?"

I shook my head. "Not anymore, I'm done with Stalker. This was a different thing. And it's… kind of the reason I ditched you in Lavender," I said sheepishly.

"Yeah, I was starting to think you weren't just getting your license," he said, chuckling a bit. "Guessing it was something more important?"

I grimaced. "Yeah, I… there was a bit of an emergency situation with an old friend of mine. It's hard to explain, but—"

The awkwardness on my face must have been blatantly obvious, because he cut me off with, "You don't gotta tell me if you don't want to. But did it work out in the end?"

I blinked. I hadn't really been expecting that kind of question, but looking back at it… all the fear, all the pain, all the stress from the past few days, and in the end, things had mostly worked out.

"Yeah. It did."

He folded his arms behind his head and grinned. "Sounds like it was worth it then. Better than we can say about some of our missions."

I couldn't help giving a small laugh. "You can say that again. In any case, you weren't wrong about one thing." I reached into my pocket and held up my shiny new trainer's license.

Darren's eyes lit up. "Heeyyy, nice job, told you you'd pass," he said, elbowing me lightly.

"Yeah, I really shouldn't have waited this long, but… I'm just glad to have it done with," I said with a relieved grin.

Darren nodded, putting a hand to his chin. "So what's your plan now? Gonna do the Kanto League with Rudy? Well, wait, you said you didn't want to go into competitive battling, right?"

I winced. I would've had to explain it eventually, even if I didn't want to. "Actually… that situation I mentioned with my old friend. It's not really safe for either of us here in Kanto. And she doesn't really have anywhere to go, so… I told her I'd be sticking with her."

Darren gave me a sideways glance. "Only came back to say you'd be ditching us again, I see how it is," he said with a smirk.

I opened my mouth to protest, but before I could get the words out, he cut me off with, "I'm just messing with you. It's not like you said you'd be traveling with us or anything."

"I was gonna say," I said, laughing slightly. "You had me worried there."

Darren leaned back against Venusaur, idly stroking the reptile's leaves. "Besides, I'll be sticking with Rudy. He acts like he doesn't want me following him, but he hasn't told me to leave yet."

I glanced around. "Where is Rudy, anyway?"

"Out in the tall grass that way," Darren said, pointing toward the hills to the south.

"Cool, thanks. I'm gonna go talk to him," I said, setting off in that direction.

"Also, just so you know, I'm not letting you off the hook for those two Pokéballs," Darren called after me.

I spun around and called back, "Wasn't expecting you to. Since I've got my license now, I can actually make good on that."

I trudged through dry, crunchy grass that reached up to my knees. A pair of Growlithe atop the nearest hill leered down at me as though looking for a fight, but then saw that I didn't have any Pokémon out and realized they probably weren't going to get one. Then something grabbed their attention and they tore off into the grass.

I continued walking deeper into the field until a flash of black caught my eye off in the distance. I squinted at it until I was able to make out the form of a lithe, black dog leaping in and out of the grass. A Houndoom. So I was close. Sure enough, once I rounded the hill, there he was, dressed in a winter jacket but also still wearing his usual cargo shorts despite the cold autumn wind.

"Hey, how's it going?" I asked, giving a small wave as I neared.

Rudy turned. He smiled, but his eyes held a faint heaviness.

"We're just working on some of her dark moves," he replied. "Never really practiced them before 'cause I always just stuck with fire."

I cupped my hands over my eyes as I squinted out at the rolling grassland. Now that I was paying closer attention, I could see that Ebony wasn't just vanishing into the grass, she was literally vanishing, her body fading in and out in a flash of darkness. But once she noticed that she had another onlooker, the Houndoom quickly came trotting back to us, her tongue hanging out of her mouth.

"That was… really good," I said.

Rudy gave me a sideways grin. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure she learned it from the experiments, I just never drilled her on it 'til yesterday."

Ebony bounced lightly in front of me, eyes shining. "*Absol taught me!*"

"Really? I'll have to let her know you're doing so well with it."

The Houndoom beamed. Then her tail pricked up and she swung her head roughly in the opposite direction. I followed her gaze to see the same pair of Growlithe that had been eyeing me earlier, now leering at Ebony from the top of a nearby hill

"Looks like you've got some new opponents. Go get 'em, Ebony."

She took off bounding through the tall grass, full of endless energy as she tackled the opposing firedogs. Just like all the times I'd seen her roughhousing with Chloe back in the days before Rudy became a trainer. How was the Growlithe doing, anyway? She'd probably been sadder to see him leave with Ebony than I ever was.

We stood there, watching the Houndoom blink in and out of view with wisps of black smoke clinging to her body. It was actually a bit weird seeing her battling without managing to accidentally set fire to everything and needing… and needing Wartortle to put out the flames.

"So. How are you really doing?" I asked, giving Rudy a meaningful look.

He gave me a sideways glance, then closed his eyes with a low sigh. "Trying my best to stay together. Y'know… for hers and the others' sakes."

I nodded softly. That was probably the most that anyone could ask.

"How are the others doing?"

He exhaled slowly, shuffling his foot against the grass. "Aside from Ebony, Nidorino took it the hardest. I never even noticed he was close with Wartortle."

I hadn't noticed either. I hadn't noticed a lot of things. I hadn't been there for a lot of things either.

"I'm… I'm sorry I wasn't there for you after the attack."

Rudy didn't respond for some time. He just gazed off into the distance, his expression blank. "I can't really blame you for that. You were dealing with a lot of crap, too."

"You tried to be there for that, though."

"Yeah, well…" He sighed, staring downward and running a hand through his hair spikes. "We all had crap to deal with, in our own way. No one was really in a spot to be helping anyone out."

I grimaced, mind flashing back to that night. Still in shock from Razors's sacrifice, unable to help him, or Chibi, or myself, or anyone.

"I don't think I ever took the Rebellion seriously," Rudy spoke up, suddenly turning to face me. "It was all just a game, y'know? Like, it was dangerous, but somehow… things would always work out. They just… would."

I swallowed. "It wasn't like either of us were really ready for it." We were just kids. Stalker had known that. In retrospect, he'd probably been banking on that. Sure, I'd spent all my time constantly worrying about everything that could go wrong, but there were times where I'd envied Rudy's carefree view. Maybe that was also naive of me.

We'd both been naive. It felt like we'd aged years in just the past few months.

"I've thought about quitting training, you know."

I jolted. "Why?"

Rudy shuffled his foot against the dirt, mulling over what to say. "I guess… I wasn't sure if I deserved to be a trainer. After what happened." He clenched his fists. "I keep trying to think of ways to make up for it, but there's nothing. It was only him. He was the only one I treated like that, and I don't even know why. How screwed up is that?"

It was only Wartortle. And now it was too late to change that.

I sighed. "It sucks, but trying to do better is, well, better than nothing. Even if you don't know how to do that."

He was silent for a long time. But then his face relaxed slightly. "Y'know Darren said the same thing. Hate to admit it, but he's right. Giving up, quitting… that's the easy road." He straightened his back, clenching his fists at his side. "I… think I'm gonna keep training. I owe it to my Pokémon. And, I dunno… maybe I'll figure out how to do better from there?"

Rudy unclipped a Pokéball from his belt and stared at it for a few seconds, rolling it around in his palm. "I caught a Buizel the other day. I don't know, I just felt like… like I needed a new team member and it should probably be a water-type to make up for the way that I…" He paused and shook his head. "That's a stupid reason to catch a Pokémon. I think I knew it was stupid, because I haven't even let the Buizel out at all. It might not even know I caught it."

Several seconds passed. I wasn't quite sure what he was getting at until he roughly thrust the Pokéball in my direction. "Here."

I stared blankly. "What."

"Take it. I shouldn't have it," he said, giving the ball a shake for emphasis.

My eyes flickered between the ball and his face, which was deathly serious. "Are you… sure?"

He glanced away. "I still owe you for letting me train Pikachu. Consider it my half of a trade." It was obviously just an excuse. But not a bad one. It at least got me considering it. The chance to train a new team member. One who didn't have the same awful past with Team Rocket as the rest of us. Something about it felt… symbolic. A clean start to training.

I held out my hand. "Yeah. Okay, thanks."

Rudy dropped the Pokéball into my open palm and then shoved his hands in his pockets, nodding forcefully like he was glad to have that settled.

"So where you off to now?" he asked.

I opened my mouth to answer. But then something grabbed me about the way he'd said it, and I realized that he wouldn't have asked if he hadn't already known that I wasn't going to be joining him. Or at least, he'd already figured.

"I'm going to Johto. After all that Rocket stuff, I wanna stay away from the Kanto force as much as I can."

He folded his arms. "Johto, huh? Can't say I had any plans to head out there until after I've seen all of Kanto."

I'd already expected that much. Which meant that this was the last time we'd be seeing each other for a long while. And yet…

"I… don't see why I couldn't stop back here from time to time though," I added quickly. "I'm sure my team would love having a battle at some point."

The faintest trace of a smile crossed Rudy's face. "We'll see. If I'm up for it." He paused. "If my team's up for it." He held out his fist.

My chest tightened. I'd come here to say goodbye, and he'd straight-up acknowledged that, and now I was the one having a hard time with it. It hurt, but… we both needed different things out of our journey right now. And hopefully this was the best way for both of us to heal.

I tapped his fist. "See ya around."

A flock of Pidgey took to the air as I stepped out of the tall grass and into a clearing on the western half of route 8. The towering buildings of Saffron rose above the horizon in the distance, and the sun was starting to near them. I pulled my jacket tighter to myself, then took out the Pokéball Rudy had given me. This was as good a spot as any—I opened the ball. A burst of white light spilled out and condensed on the ground in front of me, forming a small, orange-furred creature lying on its side. A Buizel—my new Buizel. Twin cream-tipped tails curled around its body, which still bore the scuffs and scrapes from the battle where Rudy had caught it. Nothing too serious—a potion would handle it. I grabbed one from my bag and began spraying down the weasel's pelt.

At least, until its eyes snapped open. Without warning, the Buizel leaped away from me, flaring its arm fins to the side to look as big as possible.

"*You're not the human who caught me,*" it hissed. "*What gives?*"

I paused, a wave of awkwardness washing over me. Right. It had no idea what was going on. How was I supposed to explain it?

"Er… the trainer who caught you… he traded you to me, and—"

"*You can shut yer yap cause I ain't heard enough humanspeak to know it yet,*" the Buizel said, sticking… her?—it sounded like a her—nose in the air.

And… yeah, trainers didn't exactly make a habit of trying to hold conversations with freshly-caught wild Pokémon. It usually took a couple weeks for Pokémon to understand human speech, if they hadn't already heard enough of it from battling trainers while in the wild. Which this one obviously hadn't.

Feeling rather silly, I grabbed Swift's Pokéball and let him out.

"Gonna need you to translate," I told him before launching into an abridged retelling of how Rudy hadn't felt right about catching the Buizel and had given her to me in return for Pikachu. The sea weasel's eyes twitched impatiently as Swift relayed the message. Then, without warning, she fired a stream of water right at me. I ducked instinctively, feeling the cold spray as it shot over my head.

I snapped my attention back to the Buizel. "What was that for?!"

"*You didn't beat me. You didn't catch me. I don't gotta listen to anything you say.*" She stuck out her tongue.

I sighed. "Fair enough." I held up the Pokéball that Rudy had given me—the one that she'd been originally captured in. Then I pressed the center button to open it before tossing it in front of her. She didn't waste a second. The ball had barely touched the grass before the sea weasel spat a narrow stream of water, soaking the inside of the ball.

The outer shell of a Pokéball was incredibly durable. The internal circuitry? Not so much. Her captured status was as good as gone.

"Run away or battle," I said firmly.

Some things didn't need translating.

With a wild, toothy grin, the Buizel generated a swirling pulse of water around her body, shooting forward in an instant. Swift braced himself against the impact, flaring his wings to the side to keep his balance as the weasel struck. He winced a bit from the blow, but other than some soaked belly feathers, didn't look too damaged. The Buizel's face fell. She jumped back, aiming a Water Gun at his face, but the Pidgeot took flight in that instant, and the water missed its mark. He flew in a tight circle over his opponent, dodging two more water streams before diving forward, beak glowing brightly.

The Buizel didn't try to dodge; she braced herself for the hit, obviously hoping to follow up with a counterattack. But Swift's Aerial Ace completely bowled her over, tearing a streak of red across her fur in the process. I winced. Okay, I might have overestimated how tough this Buizel was. Or underestimated how strong Swift had become. Either way.

But the sea weasel wasn't down and out yet. She pushed herself up off the ground, staggering slightly, but ultimately managing to keep her footing. Then her paw stomped the dirt and another swirl of water enveloped her, sending her shooting into the air.

This time Swift was ready. Even with the Aqua Jet's incredible speed, he had the altitude advantage. All he had to do was clap his wings together, unleashing a violent whirlwind below him. The Buizel pushed against it, water spraying everywhere as she struggled to keep her trajectory on-point. And with just a bit more force, she might've been able to pull it off. But her jet faltered, and in that instant, the winds swept her up in a tight vortex before slamming her into the dirt.

This time she wasn't so quick to stand back up. In fact, it wasn't until several seconds passed that it hit me—I was fighting a wild Pokémon, and I'd just knocked it prone. This was supposed to be where I'd catch it.

I fumbled with my bag. Pokéball, needed to grab a Pokéball (why didn't I already have one in hand?) I hadn't even thought to buy any yet—thank god it was standard for new trainers to get five Pokéballs with their license, otherwise I might not have even had one. Finally, my fingers managed to grasp something small and round. I yanked my arm out of the bag, Pokéball now in hand, hit the button to expand it, and then—

Wait. This was actually the first time I'd ever even attempted to catch a Pokémon. What if I missed? The mental image was too embarrassing to bear. And so, resisting the urge to do a full overhand windup like they always did on TV, I gave the ball a light underhand toss. It made contact with the Buizel's fur and sucked her prone form inside before falling to the ground. I held my breath as it shook once, twice, three times, the center button flashing all the while. And then the flashing stopped.

I exhaled slowly. I'd done it. I'd caught my first Pokémon. After five months of being on this journey, I'd hit the milestone that most trainers hit within the first week. It was surreal. It was also the coolest I'd felt in a long, long time.

After the shock had worn off, I cautiously walked over to where the Pokéball lay motionless.

For the second time today, I let Buizel out of her ball. She materialized on the ground and gave me a dirty look before turning her back to me and setting to work licking her wounds.

"You wanted me to catch you fair and square, so I did. Willing to listen now?"

After Swift repeated my words, Buizel turned from licking her cuts and shot me an incredulous glare. "*Your Pidgeot is way tougher than me. Whaddya need me for, huh?*"

"I don't 'need' you, but I'd like to have you on my team if you're willing."

That gave her some pause. She tilted her head, considering my words carefully.

"*How many badges you got?*" she finally asked.

I blinked. "Well… none, but—"

"*What good are you, then?*"

"Look if you'll just listen…" But Buizel had already gone back to cleaning herself.

Alright. I wasn't exactly doing a good job of selling myself. Granted, I wasn't entirely sure why it mattered so much to me, but it just didn't feel right to take her from Rudy only to immediately release her. Of course, I'd still do it if that was what she really wanted, but…

"If you're worried that I can't make you stronger, then you're wrong," I said, not really sure where I was going with it.

Buizel didn't turn to face me, but her ears did twitch slightly. And her licking noticeably slowed.

"I was… part of a team," I went on, struggling to find the best way to explain it. "A secret team. And we were trained to protect Legendary Pokémon from people trying to hurt them."

That got a reaction. The water-type spun around, flashing me a skeptical brow raise. "*Nuh-uh.*"

I nodded forcefully. Buizel's eyes darted toward Swift, and he nodded as well.

"*You're telling me you guys were heroes?*"

'Heroes'? That was… a weird way to put it. It didn't feel quite right to call us that. Not after all our failures. Not after all my failures. But…

"Sure. If that's how you want to put it."

Buizel's mouth hung open in shock. After several seconds, she finally regained herself enough to ask, "*What was it like? What were the Legendaries like?*"

So she was curious now?

"I can tell you all about it if you want. But it's kind of a long story. You might have to stick with me for a while if you wanna hear all of it." I gave her a sideways smirk.

Buizel snorted, clearly wise to the game I was playing. And yet, the water-type stood on her hind paws and began walking toward me, shaking her head like she couldn't believe what she was doing.

"*Yeah, alright fine.*"

Wings beat heavily on either side of me—nothing like the smooth, rhythmic buzzing of Aros's wings. But at the same time, I could get used to flying on Swift. His takeoffs might not have been as smooth, but his feathers made for a warmer, softer grip. And once we reached a high enough altitude, we could just soar effortlessly for miles. There was something undeniably calming about watching the clouds drift by underneath us as the sun slowly sank below them, painting the sky a vibrant pink and tingeing the edges of the clouds a brushfire orange.

Swift was leading the way, and I trusted his navigation well enough to leave it to him. After all, Viridian City and its outskirts had once been his home too. And now, after all this time, we were heading back to Route 22. Where it all began. Where I'd been riding my bike all those months ago, Swift flying overhead as a tiny Pidgey. Where I'd first seen the blazing hillside and Team Rocket trying to catch Entei. Where I'd first been dragged into a war with absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into, all just because I'd wanted to go on a training journey with my friends.

It was weird to think that now, after all this time, that wish was finally coming true. Not at all in the way that I'd thought it would, but it was still happening.

Swift dipped below the clouds, wisps of water vapor trailing from his wingtips. I scanned the ground below, my eyes tracing the dirt path snaking its way through the tall grasses, skirting the edge of the forest as it led up into the highlands, and eventually, to Johto. Swift spotted them long before I did and began his descent. Then I saw them too. Ajia was laughing about something. Starr gave her a light shove but started laughing just the same.

And in that moment, soaring on the back of my first Pokémon, preparing to set out on a journey with my best friends, it stuck me properly that for the first time in a long while, things felt sort of alright. It was easy to forget that Team Rocket wanted all of us dead. It was easy to forget that we had to stay on the move to avoid them. It was easy to forget all of the terrible things that had happened to us.

In that moment, it was easy to pretend that everything was alright.