I don't think I had ever cried so hard in my life. I was mad. Really, really mad. I was mad at everyone and everything. I was mad at Maxie, Tabitha, everyone in Admin, I was mad at Ketchum and whoever he was with because they were the reason that Amber and I began plotting to go to Kanto in the first place. I wanted to go out on a journey, like those kids from that book that Caleb and I stole from a random common room in the Red Sector two or three years ago. I couldn't remember, but if Maxie found out that Caleb and I had been in the Red Sector, we'd either be dead or on our way to Northern Kalos for the rest of our lives.

The Red Sector was a section of the Magma branch building that was completely off limits to members ranking lower than a Senior Executive Agent or SEA. It's basically a private wing for people who kiss Maxie's ass so they get special treatment. Personally, I don't kiss up to anyone unless there's food involved, that's when I pull my fake ass smile out and hope for the best. Maybe I would have more success in this organization if I kissed Maxie's ass, but I still have enough dignity not to do something like that. But did I really still have any dignity after the events of today? I'm literally sitting in the bathroom having a pity party for myself.

I sighed.

I needed to get my act together before someone realized that it was me crying in the bathroom. That would be more embarrassing than kissing Maxie's ass in front of the entire branch. I freshened up, left the bathroom, and headed back towards my desk.

Once I sat down, I turned my computer on and continued taking notes on Ketchum's profile. I found out that he had his first kiss with some girl named Serena Yvonne at ten years old. What was I doing at ten? Probably running away from Tabitha or pestering random people about battling me.

As I kept going, I read about his travels in Alola and Galar, places I had never heard of. I made a mental note to ask Caleb about those. Then, I came across a picture of Ketchum holding a giant trophy. The trophy was gold, with a silver base, and had a pokéball at the top.

"Why would someone buy something as elaborate and flashy as that?" I said to myself, as I kept reading. I then figured out that the trophy was a prize from winning some Pokémon World Championship or something, I thought it was stupid. If I ever participated in anything like a battle tournament, I wouldn't want a fucking trophy, I would want a shit ton of cash so I could bribe a grunt into getting me another book from the Red Sector. Like that would ever happen though.

Things got a bit more juicy as I read about his teenage years, and I don't think I had ever enjoyed doing anything work related as much as I enjoyed this. After a while, I got bored and looked for a grunt to antagonize, it was my favorite thing to do. They would get so riled up and angry about whatever I'd said and it cracked me up.

Eventually I gave up on that idea and walked over to Amber's desk to see what she was doing, and to my surprise she was also profiling some guy named Paul from Sinnoh.

"Anything interesting?" I asked, hoping for something juicy.

"Nope", she said, "the only thing I've found is that he like abuses his pokémon when he doesn't win which is fucking weird, but otherwise he's married but surprisingly doesn't have any kids."

I thought about what she had said for a second, and realized that Ketchum didn't have any kids either.

"Wait, go through the other profiles and see if any of them have kids." I said, thinking I may have found something of interest.

"Serena Yvonne has no kids, neither do Trip and Georgia, Clemont doesn't have any kids, none of the people from that random region called Alola have kids either." She replied.

"Doesn't that seem weird to you?" I asked.

"Yeah it does, there has to be someone in that group that has kids to some degree, because it's unlikely that all of them decided that they weren't going to have kids." She said, as she began to type quickly on her computer.

"Maybe we could ask for access to more detailed records?" I said.

"No" She said, "Admin would never agree to that, they aren't stupid enough to let us rummage around in the archives, who knows what we'll find."

"But" she continued, "I think it might be time for you and Caleb to take a trip back into the Red Sector, because I think we're closer to the answers then we think we are" She said, and I knew she was right.

A/N:

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for reading ROTF and I apologize for the slow updates! Also, sorry for the short chapter, I wanted to give you guys at least something because it's been almost a month… whoops. Anyways, I'm hoping updates will come every 2-3 weeks and will probably be posted on Saturdays or Sundays. Please Please Please REVIEW or PM me to give me feedback because I want to make sure that I'm not screwing anything up too much! Also please feel free to PM me about literally anything because I love to talk to people! I would really appreciate it if after this chapter you would consider looking at the poll on my profile! :) Again, please don't be afraid to leave a review, even if it's small, I still appreciate the help!

Hoping all is well with everyone!

Ani :)