There was nothing but fuzziness.
Blurry shapes and different colors that couldn't be made out, swirling all around like a kaleidoscope.
Eventually, they all coalesced into one single, oppressive shape…
A purple one, that tried to impose itself over all the over images swimming around in her mind.
But despite the purple being's efforts to make its visage dominant, it seemed to wither without its source, and slowly dissipated…
As the big purple shape faded, a new one started to emerge. A softer, more… human looking concept… surrounded by blackness.
She tried as hard as she could to bring this human face into focus, to see her features more closely… To see those yellow eyes.
But she began to see more colors appear, drowning this one out, and she heard… voices.
They were distant. Mumbling. But slowly becoming audible.
Everything was slowly coming into focus, and those voices were beginning to sound familiar. She could make out the cadence. They sounded… worried. Anxious.
She could feel them starting to get closer into her blurred focus, as a louder, very familiar sounding voice finally made out faint words she could hear.
"…on't all crowd her like that… …scare her when she wakes u…"
She shook around, and all the colors swirled around and quickly became less fuzzy, as she felt her eyelids physically lifting, and her own voice groaning.
As everything finally aligned, and her eyes opened up… she immediately found three concerned faces all right up against her vision.
"AHHH!" Juliana reared.
"AHHHH!" Arven, Nemona, and Penny all screamed back.
Such loud screams right off the bat did little to alleviate the small headache Juliana had as she slowly awoke in the bed.
Am I in the hospital…? she wondered. What are my friends all doing here?
But she looked around and saw familiar things dotted around, and then she heard the voice of someone next to her, finally cluing Juliana in as to where she was.
"What did I just get done saying about not crowding around her?" Miriam scolded her friends. "Honestly, no one ever listen to me…"
The three of them all had the decency to look sheepish as they backed away from surrounding her bedside.
"You're right," Nemona admitted. "Sorry, Ms. Miriam…"
The three friends were all gathered around a laying Juliana in the nurse's office of Uva Academy. Juliana tried to get a look around at her surroundings, but moving her head too much caused it to sharpen in pain again.
"Ohhh, my head…" Juliana moaned.
"Take it easy there, little buddy," Arven cautioned her.
"Y-yeah, don't strain yourself," said Penny.
Juliana put a hand to her noggin, and as soon as he did, she began feeling her hair and realizing that it was not only completely straightened out, but even freshly washed and dried, compared to the stringy braid she had left it in for the past few days.
"How—how did I get here?" she asked.
"Apparently, they found you out cold all the way out near Glaseado Mountain," Penny informed her.
"Yeah! And like… not just cold from the snow, but out cold because you weren't even awake!" Nemona chimed in.
"I think she was clear on that part, Nemo…" Arven shook his head at her.
"Well, whatever the case!" Nemona leaned in and spread her arms over Juliana in a soft embrace. "I'm just really glad you're okay, Julieee! You had me worried sick!" Then she pouted at her like a scolding mother. "Don't ever do that to us again, alright?"
"Heh! I'm glad I'm okay too, but…" Juliana turned to Miriam with wide eyes. "What do you mean I was out cold?"
"It's true," Miriam nodded. "You were brought to one of the Pokémon Centers out in North Province 2, completely unconscious."
"How did—Who found me?"
"Well, actually—"
"Pon!?"
Juliana heard a voice cry out from the other side of the room. Her friends parted from around her, as Ogerpon ran up, hopped onto the bed, crawled over, and wrapped herself into Juliana's arms, sobbing.
"Pon-pon-ponnnnn…"
"Huh? Ogerpon?" Juliana was overwhelmed to see Ogerpon in such a frenzied, upset state.
At the sound of her partner's voice, Ogerpon wrapped herself even tighter in her embrace.
"Poni-o-noooo…" she drew out.
"Awww, how adorable!" Nemona squeed. "Is she trying to say your name?"
"What awesome luck you had Ogerpon with you!" said Arven. "Her loyalty to you seems to know no bounds!"
"Wait, THAT'S Ogerpon!?" Nemona burst out. She stammered over her words. "You mean the—the Pokémon you told us about that can wear different masks and change her types and use a cool sword made from plants!?"
She threw her head right at Ogerpon's face and beamed excitedly.
"You didn't tell me it was so stinking ADORABLE! Oh my gosh! I just have to battle you RIGHT NOW!"
"P-ponio…?" Ogerpon stuttered, a little overwhelmed by Nemona's eccentricities.
"Calm your brakes, Nemona. You're scaring that poor thing," Penny admonished her. "Although… even I have to admit, it really is… impossibly cute!"
"That Pokémon of yours is the reason you're here safe and sound," said Miriam.
"Really?" She looked at Ogerpon in surprise, who looked back at her with the stars in her eyes blurred by glistening tears.
Juliana thought back on how she treated Ogerpon before, taking stock now of how much she had yelled at her and kicked her away before blacking out… and was overcome with feelings of guilt shooting through her whole body.
"You—you saved my life, and got me to safety… even after I yelled at you like that?"
"Pon-pon!" Ogerpon nodded vivaciously.
"Ogerpon…" Juliana felt tears welling up in her eyes, and she wrapped Ogepron in a tight hug. "I'm—I'm so sorry for all those things I said, and making you worry so much…"
"Ponyo…" Ogerpon cooed softly.
"I think she forgives you," Penny smiled.
"What'd I tell ya?" said Arven. "Unshakable bond!"
Juliana smiled a little bit at Arven's reassurance, but it was only a soft one. Ogerpon hadn't really been her Pokémon for very long, certainly not long enough to have earned such a strong bondship as…
…
…Juliana's thoughts wavered a bit, but were brought back by Miriam coming up alongside her.
"The people at the Pokémon Center said they witnessed that thing carrying an unconscious Trainer all the way down the snowy thicket in its shoulders, in great distress." Miriam's eyebrows furrowed sternly. "Apparently, you collapsed from severe exhaustion brought about by too much physical stress on your body… as well as mild dehydration and a lack of nutrients. They had to stick a freaking IV in you!"
Juliana glanced at her right arm and noticed a pink bandage with a smiling Cherrim on it.
"Which surprises me a great deal, Juliana. For how much you used to love hanging out in here and chatting with me all the time, I'd have thought you had a good handle on taking care of your body!"
"Uhhh…"
Juliana gave her school nurse a sheepish look as Ogerpon continued to nuzzle herself below her head, still weeping out all her anguish.
Miriam brought a hand to her head and sighed.
"It's okay, whatever excuses you're cooking up, I'll spare you from needing to use them. But I'll let you know how lucky you are a friend of mine works at the hospital they took you to!"
Juliana nudged Ogerpon aside as she clutched her chest in shock. "You mean I was taken to the hospital!?"
"Yup! My friend Geoffrey was one of the nurse practitioners who received you. I've told him about you before and all your wonderful visits, so when he found out who you are, he immediately called me up and as soon as you were stabilized, I arranged for them to bring you here."
"Because you know how much I hate hospitals…" Juliana looked at her savior earnestly. "Thank you."
"You're a nice girl, Juliana. It was—it was my pleasure."
Juliana slunk her arms under the bedsheet and started feeling around. She was distressed to feel that her pockets were empty, including her good luck charm.
"Ummm, where's—all my stuff?"
Miriam pointed with her pencil over to a plastic bin on a nearby table.
"Your hat, backpack, and all your belongings are in there. Don't worry, I made sure they kept everything on your person." Juliana sighed in relief. "Anyway, the only other people who know about this right now are Director Clavell and Mr. Jacq, who wanted me to ask you about something. …Mainly the fact that he says he recorded one of those 'black crystals' appearing right around the spot where they recovered you."
Juliana's eyes shot up in alarm, as Miriam twirled one of her silver clover earrings.
"Apparently, he's warned you never to go near them and just wants to make sure this is all a funny coincidence."
She gulped. "Ummmm." Juliana put a hand to her chest again and felt her heart racing, which stunned her a bit. She hadn't felt this nervous at all since coming back to Paldea.
Miriam sighed disappointedly yet again. "Right. Well, I'll let you deal with that on your own."
She resorted to jotting down notes on her clipboard, in that resigned manner that only the beleaguered nurse of Uva Academy could muster, but Juliana's three friends all reacted much differently.
"Wait… you mean like, those black Tera Raid crystals that have been popping up every now and then?" said Penny.
"Black Tera Raid crystals? This is the first I'm hearing about it!" Nemona said, a little too excitedly. "There's gotta be super-powerful Tera Pokémon in there, right? No wonder our little Julie wanted to tackle one of 'em!"
Arven and Penny both gave her a sour look, making her retract her jubilance.
"Uhhh… which is—why you should've definitely asked someone like me for backup, of course!"
"I'm confused," Arven said to Juliana. "Regardless of whatever those things are, so you're saying Mr. Jacq told you never to go anywhere near them and you… did anyway? You're not usually a huge rebel like that, Jules!"
"…We all went into Area Zero without the school's permission, remember?" Penny reminded him.
"Yeah, but—that was for good reason! What good reason could you possibly have to inspect something like that that you knew was extremely dangerous?"
Juliana gripped the bedsheet with her hands. The amount of fidgeting she did made Ogerpon leap off and stand next to her. The truth of the matter is, it made so much sense to her at the time but she was… struggling to be confident about her "missions" now. Her face looked very guilty and pensive.
She held the sheet up to her mouth and mumbled, "Because… Mr. Saguaro…"
"Mr. Saguaro…?" Arven scratched his head. "Our home ec teacher?"
"Yeah… He told me about how much he wanted to experience the ultimate sweet confident without any of his students knowing about it, so he asked me to lend him any Sweet Herba Mysticas if I found any, and I…"
The more Juliana tried to explain her actions, the more and more she was feeling ashamed of herself, realizing how stupid this all sounded out loud.
"I'd heard that people were finding those Herbs occasionally in Tera Raids lately, so I thought—I thought that a super-charged Raid like that would have even better chances of… giving me Herbs to give him."
Penny's lips squirmed, as she tried with all her might to avoid blurting out a blunt remark like "You risked your life to get a few plants?"
But Arven's scrunched face suggested he was thinking the same thing. Nemona however, gasped and began chuckling lightly, confusing all three of them.
"Oh no…"
"What?" asked Juliana, confused.
"Ohhhh, if only you'd just told me that while you and I were talking down at that ridge, Juliana, maybe you could've avoided all that trouble…"
Nemona took off her backpack and unzipped a pocket, where she pulled out…
"Huh!?" Juliana almost reared her head up in shock. "You've got Sweet Herbs!?"
"You've got Herbs?" Arven repeated, just as befuddled to see the two pink stalks in Nemona's hands. "Where—where on Earth did you get those?"
"Oh… that's right," Penny recalled. "I'd heard something about people finding those things in Raids now?"
"Well, yeah, I knew about that. That Ms. Briar lady told me she thinks that's happening because of those lights Terapagos shot out from the Crater..." said Arven. "That's why it kind of bums me out that I'm not very good at Tera Raids. None of my Pokémon are strong enough, and I still don't know how to work well in a team."
"I know," Nemona responded. "I remember you telling me about that, actually, and how you would really like some of those Mystical Herb thingies to help that giant bug of yours heal, so…"
Nemona dug further into the pocket and ended up pulling out… a whole bundle's worth of Herba Mystica, all in different varieties.
"Wha…?"
Arven gazed at all the herbs along with Juliana, astonished. The two of them remembered having to fight those Titans tooth and nail alongside to get even one Herba Mystica plant of each variety… but here was Nemona just casually holding a whole bunch of them!
"I wanted to surprise you, but… ever since you said that, I've kind of been doing a whole bunch of Raids in my off-time."
Nemona rubbed the back of her head. She was blushing with a rather bashful face that few had ever witnessed from the typically immodest girl.
"I was just—so inspired by how much you've been caring for that hurt Pokémon… what is it called again?"
"S-Slither Wing."
"Yeah, that one! I just… felt this huge urge to help out as much as I could. Maybe Juliana's been rubbing off on me like that," she said, smiling Juliana's way. "To do my part in helping fix a Pokémon's suffering, well… It just seemed right." She held the Herbs out. "So… here. You can have 'em, Arvie."
She held them out for Arven to take, and he did, looking genuinely touched.
"Gosh, Nemona, I, I don't know what to say. … Thank you."
"You're welcome!" she smiled sweetly. "If there's ever anything else you need, you know all you have to do is just say the word, right? I'll even help you give that big lug a bath!"
"Ha-ha, wow, thanks!" Arven laughed. "Umm… you are talking about Slither Wing, right?"
"…Maybe," Nemona smiled coyly.
"Heh!?" Arven balked. "What do you even mean by that?"
She thought about it for a second, and then smiled naively.
"…I don't know, actually! Guess I just felt like being cheeky!"
Juliana snorted out loud, and burst into a chuckle. And also groaned in pain a bit.
"Ow… I really missed you guys. A lot. I'm—I'm really sorry that I never reached out to any of you after coming back home." Her face twisted at her own misguidedness. "I don't… I don't even know why I didn't."
"Hey, it's alright," Arven assured her. "We're all together here and now! I guess that's the most important thing."
Penny looked around at everyone. "Umm, yeah. I'm happy we're all together again, but…" She glanced at Juliana with a worried expression. "Are we seriously not going to talk about this?"
"Talk about what, Pen-Pen?" asked Nemona.
Penny gave her a dirty look, but decided to ignore that nickname coming up again.
"About…" she gestured to Juliana. "Juliana's behavior, and the problems it finally caused."
Juliana looked confused. "Penny, what are you talking about? I'm fine! Nothing's wrong with the way I behave! Right, guys?"
She looked to Arven and Nemona for affirmation, only for them to both grimace awkwardly. Juliana was spellbound.
"...Guys?"
The two of them scratched their heads, searching for polite words to say.
"Well…" Nemona twiddled her fingers. "You were acting pretty weird on that ridge. You were like some really crazy zombie…"
"And that isn't the first time you've made me really worried like this," Arven added. "It's just—never come to this before."
Juliana glanced between them all. "I… don't understand."
"Do I seriously have to be the one to say it?" Penny eyed the other two. She sighed. "Look, Juliana, you've been making a really bad habit of pushing yourself too far, and—and there's just no other way to say it. You're killing yourself!"
Juliana gasped.
"Geez, Penny, I don't know if I would go that far," Arven winced.
"Am I wrong, though?" Penny raised her voice. "I mean… look at her! And think about everything!"
Everyone just kind of looked at each other uncomfortably. Juliana was a little bit distressed that her other friends weren't jumping to her defense. Even Ogerpon was gazing at her with a worried face.
For one last desperate moment of denial, she turned towards Miriam, who just stared back at her and shrugged her shoulders.
"I mean… I agree with that assertion as much as my bedside manner will allow me to say," she whispered. "Sorry."
Finally, Juliana sighed.
"You're right… You guys are right. Ever since I came back from school, I've been acting like a Tauros, trying to rush everything. I was so obsessed with finding my purpose…" She sighed, once again feeling like she was reevaluating everything. "I just—I couldn't see anything else. It was like there was just one voice in my head, and I was… I was listening… to that."
The more Juliana talked, the more her eyebrows furrowed as she described this "voice", especially upon realizing that this voice wasn't in her head anymore.
She felt like she had heard that described elsewhere, listening to a voice in your head that just… disappears all of a sudden.
Wasn't it… Kieran who said something kinda like that?
She shook her head, realizing she was getting distracted. "Anyway… you're right. I abandoned everything, including you guys, to chase that dream of helping everybody and… I'm really sorry for that," she said, earnestly looking up at them.
"Awww, it's okay, Juliana!" Nemona cupped her hands together. "We all forgive you! Right, guys?"
Arven was hesitant to answer. He crossed his arms and sighed.
"Well… I'm real happy to hear you finally admitting to some of this, Jules. And I accept your apology, of course. But all this stuff about pushing yourself too much and not taking care of yourself… I'm sorry but—that's been going on for way longer than just since you came back. Like, you've been having this problem since long before you left for that other school."
Juliana was crestfallen. "I… I have?"
"Yeah… You know, I still owe you a million for being so eager to help me with finding all the Titan Pokémon and making Mabosstiff all better. But… spending countless days and nights all on your own looking for that Tatsugiri? Going headfirst into that mountain where the giant Bombirdier was raining down boulders that could've crushed you?"
Juliana was stricken with another guilty look as Arven continued.
"That's the kind of stuff I never asked you to do, especially all on your own! I—I still don't get why you didn't ask me for help."
"Or meeeeee!" Nemona poked her head in between them. "I would've messed those giant Pokémon up real good!"
"You didn't like the idea of me and Arven going and fighting Titan Pokémon though, remember?" Juliana reminded her. "You said it was too dangerous. And—and I thought you would've been disappointed if you found out I wasn't focusing on the Gym Challenge…"
Nemona fiercely shook her head. "Juliana, all I cared about was you getting the most out of your treasure hunt! Like, yeah, sure, I wanted to see you succeed in something I knew you were going to be good at because I finally saw you as a rival worth having. But if you had honestly sat down and told me how committed you were to helping Arven then… I would've dropped everything to come help you. Just like I did when you finally called me up for the big Area Zero mission!"
"You really would've?" Juliana asked her, surprised and a little touched.
"Of course I would've." Nemona took Juliana's hand in hers. "You're my amiga. And I always stand with my amigas, no matter what."
Ogerpon, who had been staring blankly off into space for the past several minutes, noticed Nemona taking Juliana's hand. With a small smile and a "…Pon", she put down her arm over the pair of hands too, making Nemona giggle. Juliana smiled too.
Penny cleared her throat to speak up.
"And, umm… y'know… I already helped you find that one Great Tusk thing in the desert…" she mumbled. "If you had asked me for more intel on a Tatsugiri monster in the big lake, I—I would've helped you out, no problem. I was already so grateful to you for everything you were doing, taking out my friends' bases and all that, just to help a stranger who was just a voice on a phone..."
Juliana chuckled. "Like Nemona said, Penny… I always stand with my friends."
Penny's eyes lit up. "Did you really already consider me your friend back then?"
"Yeah." Juliana's face was a little shy. "Actually… even though I didn't know you were Cassiopeia at the time, the whole reason I agreed to your Operation Starfall thing was because of you, Penny. I kept thinking about that girl with the glasses I saved from Team Star on the school stairs… and I wanted to fight for kids like you so you would never get bullied like that again."
Penny's cheeks blushed a bit.
"Gosh, I didn't know that…" She swayed her arms a little bit, feeling all bashful, but quickly felt embarrassed and stopped. "A-anyway, umm, it's really cool that you dedicated so much of your time to helping all your friends out. I'm just sad that you were pushing yourself so hard to do it."
"Estoy acuerdo," said Nemona. "I wish I said something back then 'cause… I noticed every single time when you hadn't eaten. Or when you hadn't slept in more than a few days."
"Or when you were wearing those poor legs of yours out," Arven chimed in. "I guess we all should have spoken up more…"
Juliana, realizing she hadn't moved her legs since she'd come to, tried to bend them just a little… only for her eyes to bug out as she was met with the most excruciating pain.
"OWWWW…!"
This caused Miriam to instantly stop writing on her clipboard and march over to her side.
"Shit, I should've warned you about that!" Her eyes widened. "Umm, forget you all just heard one of your instructors curse… Anyway yeah, the tendons in your legs are massively worn out right now, Juliana."
"Right… I guess I was pushing my legs too much."
"That's an understatement! The cartilage in this ankle here—" She tapped Juliana's right foot with her pencil. "—is in especially bad shape, since all that sinew was still healing from however you sprained it before—can't wait to hear the story behind that one!—so I'm giving you a direct order to stop trying to move your legs at all right now."
Penny gazed at the offending ankle. "You sprained your leg while you were gone, Juliana?"
"K-kinda…"
"You made a lot of friends at Blueberry Academy too, right?" Nemona reasoned. "One of them must've said something when that happened!"
Juliana tried to think back to that day when she suffered that injury during her battle with Drayton. She felt like she did remember someone admonishing her for pushing herself too far…
…but as soon as she remembered who it was, her brain harshly rejected that memory. Instead, she resorted to burying herself in shame for the umpteenth time now, and tried to habitually twirl her braid… only to remember it wasn't there.
She looked up at Nemona with soft eyes. "Was all of it really… that obvious… this whole time?"
"UH-HUH!" Arven, Nemona, and Penny all answered in agreement.
"That's why I kept telling you it was okay to have your own adventures and rock to your own beat, little buddy," said Arven. "I—saw how much you were dragging yourself down and I really hated seeing it…"
Juliana was really swallowing a lot of humble pie now. She could only murmur out shamefully, "I just wanted to help as much as I could…"
"You were helping as much as you could," Arven assured her.
"It was when you started trying to help MORE than you could that you've been hurting yourself," said Penny.
Juliana felt weird on the inside. Every instinct in her head was telling her she was sad, and that she needed to cry…
But even though a lot of negative emotions like guilt and shame were screaming out like bursts, actually letting herself express it… seemed to elude her for some reason. Like some sort of mental block was still taking hold of her.
"I'm so sorry, guys…" she squeaked out. "I didn't know how r-r-r…"
She struggled to say it out loud. Arven made a patient motion for her to take it slow.
"…reckless. Reckless!" she finally screamed out cathartically, raising her head up. "I'm sorry for being so reckless!"
She thrust her head back with a relieved sigh.
"Did that feel better…?" asked Penny.
"Weirdly enough, yeah."
"Good," said Miriam. "Releasing that blood pressure is very good for both your body and your spirit, y'know!"
"You're OUR friend too, Juliana!" Nemona encouraged her. "We can't be at our best unless YOU'RE at your best too!"
"I know. I just…" Juliana twiddled her fingers awkwardly. "I guess I wanted to prove… …to prove that I wasn't a bad influence."
All of them responded with looks of confusion.
"You're not a bad influence to anyone!" Penny insisted.
"Yeah, who—who said that?" Nemona demanded to know.
Juliana fell silent.
…
"…N-nobody."
"Hmm. Well, you know what, then? I think it's TIME!" Nemona suddenly shouted.
"Huh!? Time for what!?"
Miriam jumped in, her face on alert. "Juliana is not in ANY shape to have a battle right now, young lady!"
"I—I know that! Seriously, I'm not that much of a one-trick Ponyta, guys…" Nemona shook her head, then put on a determined face and pumped her fist out. "What I want is for you to make me a promise, Juliana!"
"A… promise?"
"YEAH! I want you to promise me that you're gonna recognize you're Number One too! And that from now on, you'll be the best friend to yourself that you deserve!"
"Y-yeah!" Penny strangely agreed, pumping her fist out too. "You're a shining star too, Juliana! So become everything you truly want to be!"
"And the only way to do that is to actually start thinking for yourself!" Arven pumped his fist out as he laughed. "And I really mean it, Juliana! I hate seeing Jules down just as much as my other little buddy, so I need you to take good care of her!"
This kind of energy was what Juliana finally needed to rise from her overly self-conscious frenzy and actually burst out laughing at the three fists eagerly stretched out in front of her.
"Ha-ha-ha! HA-HA-HA! I love you guys so much! Alright!" She held out her fist too. "I'm—I'm really going to try to remember everything you guys just told me and—and start looking out for myself too! I just… don't know how easy it's gonna be."
"And that's why we'll always be there to help you out," Nemona said.
"Through rain or shine!" Arven said.
"No matter how far apart we are!" Penny agreed. "I'll yell at you through the screen if I have to!"
"Then… it's a promise!"
"POUND IT!" Nemona shouted.
All four of these friends, their bond tighter than ever, eagerly touched fists with each other. Ogerpon, enthused by this awesome show of friendship, drew out her ivy cudgel and, smiling bigly for the first time since she had arrived in this new land with Juliana, placed it over everyone's hand.
"Pon-pon-PON!"
"Aaaaaand… BREAK!"
They all broke out, with Nemona making a noise like a bottle fizzing out as they did, and all of them laughed uproariously. Including Juliana and Ogerpon both.
Even Miriam couldn't hold back a soft chuckle.
"You've got all the stuff from your bathroom, right? Electric toothbrush? And charger? And all your bath stuff?"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it all!" Kieran chuckled.
"Phone's all charged up, and all your Pokémon are with you?"
"Yes, yes, yes!"
"Your grandparents know where to pick you up? And—and—you promise to give me a call when you land?"
"Of course I will!" Kieran laughed, rolling his eyes. He was no stranger to being badgered like this, but he was certainly flustered by it being a very different girl from the one who usually pestered him this much.
Lacey was holding both of Kieran's hands in hers with a sad, frantic expression on her face. The two of them stood in one of the empty student lobbies of Blueberry, near the school's main entrance, along with Amarys who held her head down.
"Wowzers, Lacey. You weren't anywhere near this worried about me on the field trip!"
"I know…" Lacey admitted, pouting. "It's just—I didn't know you as well back then, Kieran. But now you and I are such good friends. And there's been so much happening at this club that I'm just… anxious, I guess. I just want to make sure all my best friends are okay."
"Thanks, Lacey…" he said very shyly.
Lacey giggled. "Kieran, we've known each other for so long at this point… You know you can call me Lace, right?"
"Ummm… r-right! Well then… goodbye, L-Lace!" he spurted out with a heavy blush. Lacey giggled again, trying to hide the fact that she was blushing too.
Kieran slipped his hands away, after some effort, because Lacey just really didn't want to let go… She looked sad as their hands finally parted, and Kieran hoisted his big yellow knapsack up.
Her eyes were glistening a bit, thinking over how proud she was of Kieran that he was holding himself up a lot better, and making such a mature decision like this. It was a happy and melancholy feeling at the same time.
"Have a safe flight," Amarys said quietly.
"Thanks, Amarys!" Kieran said cheerfully. "Oh, umm…" He cleared his throat. "Sis wanted to see you guys off too."
Then Lacey gasped quietly… as Carmine slowly leaned into the doorway, and gave a small wave, with a huge brown suitcase hung over her shoulder.
Her head was hanging low, but she looked up at Lacey and Amarys with a decidedly less sour expression than what she had been wearing before. Her hair and makeup were all better worn too. She looked a bit more put together now… even though Lacey could still see deep sadness in her eyes.
Kieran smiled softly at his sister, who smirked back at him, and gave his friends one last look.
"Umm, I promised Crispin I'd come say goodbye to him too before I left, so I'm gonna see if I can catch him!"
"Understood!" Lacey waved at him with both her arms one last time. "…Happy trails, Kieran."
"Yeah… happy trails."
Kieran met Carmine at the doorway, and she whispered softly to him.
"I'll meet you at the entrance gate, alright Kiki?"
Then she gave a light rustle of his hair, which made Kieran groan playfully before he ran off.
"Hi, Carmine," Lacey greeted her softly.
Carmine hoisted her suitcase up with all the strength in her shoulder and triceps as she walked towards her friends, trying to put on the best smile she could under her tired yellow eyes.
"Hi, girls."
"I suppose this is it then," Amarys said. Her voice sounded slightly choked up.
"Yeah," she nodded. "…Don't you two look like a pair of sad saps."
From anyone else, this would be an offensive remark, but Lacey and Amarys actually lightened up a bit to hear Carmine manage one of her signature cracks, a marked improvement from her emotional state last time they saw her.
"I'm glad you came to see us off, Carmie."
"I decided I wanted to give you girls a proper goodbye…" she said quietly. "What you saw of me the other day, that—that wasn't my best hour. And it would've been a terrible memory to leave you guys off on…"
"That's… certainly true," Lacey chuckled a bit, cringing at the memory of watching her friend's public mental breakdown.
"I just…" Carmine balled up her fists a bit, looking all glum. "I kept thinking about how Juliana left you guys high and dry, and… I guess I didn't want you having two people leave this place on bad terms."
"And we… appreciate that sincerely," said Amarys.
The pair stood with Carmine in a quiet silence for a bit. Lacey decided to cut that tension with a sincere question.
"Carmie… I really need to know something. All those things you said about yourself—being a monster, how you said you're only good at driving people away…"
Carmine looked down morosely.
"You don't still—believe any of that, do you?"
…
"…I don't know," she said quietly. "I really don't know. To tell you the truth Lace, I…" She ran a finger through her black locks. "I don't feel like I know who I am at all anymore…"
Lacey gave her a look of crushed pity, but Carmine only smirked back.
"Maybe, maybe that's why this will be real good for me too. Being back home with Kiki, in my old room again, and letting Gramm and Gramps take care of me, maybe… I'll finally figure myself out."
"I hope so…" said Lacey.
Carmine looked at them both with sad eyes, and then decided to go in for a hug, which they reciprocated warmly.
Her eyes still looked heavy afterwards.
"Please stay in contact…" Amarys said quietly.
"I will," she said.
"Yeah… doesn't have to be every day," said Lacey. "But just a quick text or a call every now and then. Or you can write us a letter!"
"Yeah…" Carmine took a deep breath. "Goodbye, girls."
"Goodbye for now!" Lacey said as cheerfully as she could.
Carmine turned to leave. However, as she approached the doorway…
"WAIT!"
Both Carmine and Lacey were surprised to hear Amarys call out like that, as she suddenly stepped forward. And even more incredibly…
"Amarys…?"
"Are you crying?" Lacey asked, stunned.
"Nonsense," Amarys defiantly shook her head despite the gloss coming out of her eyes. "My tear ducts are merely malfunctioning due to the air in this room. That is all."
The normally stoic girl took her glasses for a moment, and fished out a white handkerchief from her pocket that she used to wipe her teary turquoise eyes.
Then, she faced her friend straight.
"Carmine… I know emotions have never been my strong suit, and that I often struggle with reading them on people's faces. But… I must say something, if you will hear me out."
She sighed deeply.
"I've observed the inflections in the way you're acting now, and comparing it with the day Juliana said goodbye, and… I know this may be not be an accurate conclusion, but… it seems to me that—in both cases, neither of you two… actually wanted to go home as deeply as you claim."
Carmine wanted to argue that, but she along with Lacey were mostly just struck by Amarys's sudden insight.
"Juliana… her mind appeared to be fraught with misguided intentions. And as for you, my—my dear friend, you seem very uncommitted about your feelings too. Is that… alright for me to say?"
Carmine thought pensively about this. Lifting her head up at Amarys, she shrugged and tried to put on a gentle smirk.
"It sure is great to see you unlocking some more powerful neurons in that complex brain of yours," she jested. "Maybe you're not off the mark, but…"
She held her fist close to her chest.
"The fact of the matter is, it's not really about what I want anymore, Mar-y. It's about… what's best for everyone."
…
"Perhaps."
"I'm sorry, but… our plane's going to leave and—"
"Of course," Lacey nodded, putting an arm on Amarys's shoulder. "Have a safe flight, okay?"
Carmine nodded at them one final time before taking her suitcase and heading out from the room to catch up with Kieran. Once she was alone with Lacey, Amarys shook her head in distraught.
"Best for everyone…" she repeated with a hint of scorn. "Is that not almost word-for-word what Juliana said in her departure?"
"Something like that, yeah. But hey…" Lacey faced Amarys, and used her fingers to wipe off the last bit of tears from her friend's cheeks. "I'm insanely proud of you, Amarys. That was such a big moment for you!"
Amarys scratched her noggin. "Thank you, although I don't feel as if I've accomplished much. I deeply wish I could assist all of you with your problems more, but I just… never know the right things to say. I don't know how to be an effective support for my closest friends."
"It's okay," Lacey encouraged her. "Emotions are a complex puzzle for all of us to figure out. But you know… just by being Carmine's friend, and standing by her even at her worst moments… you really are helping her more than you realize, Amarys."
Amarys blushed a little at her words of encouragement.
"There's still so much I don't understand about emotions, though. Why do people so often do things they know they don't wish to do, that are of absolutely no benefit to them or to anyone else? Where is the logic behind such rash impulses?"
"That's the eternal mystery right there, my friend," Lacey chuckled. "Sometimes our emotions really do just get the best of us sometimes. As for Carmine, well…"
She gazed back sadly at the entrance where they had just seen the back of their friend.
"I've been trying to figure out what's going on with her too. You know she gets consumed by all that self-doubt sometimes. I guess this time, she just… put herself into such a state after everything that happened between her and Juliana that she wants to atone for that. I think maybe, she doesn't think she deserves to be happy anymore because of it."
Amarys stared blankly.
"That's irrational thinking."
"Yeah…" Lacey nodded. "Just… not right…" She sighed deeply. "Unfortunately, we can't keep dawdling around here."
"Agreed." Amarys pulled out her silver pocket watch and gazed at it. "We need to return to the League Club Room promptly, so that while Carmine and Kieran are away, we can focus on being there as friends for the ones who need us now."
Lacey smiled proudly. "Very well put, Mar-y."
Then, in a once-in-a-blue-moon moment, there was just the softest smirk on Amarys's face.
"…Thank you."
After their inspired conversation together, Miriam told Arven, Nemona, and Penny that their friend was going to need some rest alone in the nurse's office for the rest of the afternoon to help her recovery along.
They agreed, and before they left, Juliana asked Ogerpon to accompany her friends to the schoolyard so that she could play with and battle the three of them.
She knew it would be a great way for Ogerpon to show off all her battling skills (especially for Nemona, who'd been craving to see them), and that it would help cheer both Ogerpon and her friends up, after she'd made all of them worried sick for her.
After a small nap inside the nurse's office, Juliana laid in bed calmly as Miriam gave her the rundown.
"I am going to ask you to stay in bed tomorrow as well. Maybe the day after you can get up, but it'll really depend on how well your legs heal up. Either way, the hospital made a list of everything you should eat and drink, and how often, to build your strength back up again. Your friends already agreed to assist with helping you stick to that routine."
Juliana chuckled. "You mean they're all going to force me to eat as much as I need to…"
"The words I specifically used were 'strongly persuade'," she giggled. "As for after your bones are in working order, my recommendation is to stay entirely on school grounds for the next week after that. There's very few places you're allowed to run around in here, so it'll basically force you to keep your legs disciplined so they can heal all the way!"
"Right," Juliana nodded, tinging with regret as she gazed at the sheet over her poor, abused tendons. "I shouldn't have been so stupid and ignored whenever they were in pain… I just thought pain was gain and all that, like Ms. Dendra says."
Miriam snickered. "Dendra knows her battle smarts a great deal! But when it comes to medical advice, I would trust her as far as I do her cooking skills…"
She flipped a page on her clipboard, with Juliana's discharge notes from the hospital.
"Juliana… I do have to ask something. Do you—know if you have any stress issues that run in your family?"
Juliana searched her memory banks. "Not that my mom's ever told me, no. I guess she used to say that my dad suffered from a lot of stress, but… he was a businessman."
"Where did he work?"
"Some big company up in Galar. 'Marco Cosmos' or something like that?"
"You mean Macro Cosmos?" Miriam's eyes lit up a bit as she winced. "Yikes… Well, yeah, that might explain it."
"He quit his job and we all moved to Paldea when I was really little. Mom always said he knew something was wrong with the company even before that 'Darkest Day' stuff happened, though…"
"…Is he?"
Juliana nodded solemnly. "Yeah."
"Aww. I'm sorry to hear that. Speaking of your mother, though…" She sighed sternly. "You know I'm dutybound to contact her about all this, right?"
Juliana's eyes widened in alarm.
"D-don't tell my mom! Please! She's—she's always fretting about me taking care of myself and asking me to slow down, and I… I…"
"Seriously? Even your mom has been getting on your case about this?" Miriam laughed, twirling her earring. "You're just really bad at taking a hint, aren't you?"
"If she finds out what happened to me, what I almost did…" Juliana's nerves shook with dread at the thought. "I'll—I'll probably be grounded for life. She'll never let me see the outside world ever again."
"I don't know, Juliana…" Miriam's expression was fraught. "You've got me torn between my sworn oath as a nurse to you students and as someone who genuinely really likes you…"
"Pretty please, with a Cherubi on top?" Juliana pleaded with her hands. "If she was to ground me forever and take me out of school, then—then who would come in here and listen to all your cool stories?"
Miriam groaned out loud.
"You really know where to find the vein with that needle, don't you, little missy?" She put a hand to her temple. "I guess I can't lie… I do still kind of owe you one for inspiring me to take my nursing certification exam again and finally fulfill my dream of being a health instructor, so… fine. I won't breathe a word of this to your mom, and we'll call ourselves square. Deal?"
Juliana smiled warmly. "Thank you so much, Ms. Miriam… You really are the angel of the nurse's office like they said at the Academy Ace Tournament!"
"Uh-uh, sure…" she grunted. "I just hope Director Clavell doesn't catch wind of me going this soft on a kid… Or Geeta… I don't know which one would be worse, actually."
"This means so much more to me than you could ever know, Ms. Miriam! After everything that's been going wrong lately, this finally feels like some good news!"
"Well, I can be glad for that, I suppose," Miriam admitted. She took off the stethoscope she was always wearing around her neck. "But y'know what, then? I say, enough with all this talk of pain and smarmy stuff! I've got you all to myself for the rest of the day, so let's chat!"
Miriam sat on top of the yellow dresser across from Juliana's bedside, in-between a Pikachu plush and an Eevee one, and crossed her legs, her bandaged left knee directly adjacent to Juliana's vision.
Juliana had asked her about that once, and Miriam assured her that there was no injury there; it was purely cosmetic.
"I apply a new band aid somewhere on my body every now and then, just something I do to let you students know that you're never alone in your injuries!"
But as of this moment, Miriam wasn't interested in talking about herself.
"So! Once you're finally all healed up, what do you plan on doing next, Juliana?"
Juliana laid her head down and thought about it.
…
She genuinely didn't know.
She was aimless again. She had felt such a clear sense of purpose in her head, to be the ultimate treasure hunter and help everyone in Uva Academy find their most precious treasure…
But that false sense of clarity was gone now. It all seemed so… ridiculous in Juliana's head now, the idea that she strained himself so thin trying to please everybody all at once.
Can't stop until we've made everyone happy forever…
Maybe her friends had a point about her inability to think selfishly, but where did such self-destructive thoughts like that stem from? That Juliana from just a day ago felt like a complete stranger to her now.
"Really don't have an answer, do you?" Miriam finally opined.
"I can never stop thinking about where I want to go next, but I think I let myself get too obsessed over that, and that's how I got in this mess…" Juliana admitted. "I kept feeling this urge, like I had to prove to everyone that I had it all figured out. I guess the only thing I proved is how much of a mess I am…"
Miriam listened intently and nodded.
"For the first time in… forever, I really don't—know what I'm going to do next."
"That might not be a bad thing, y'know. If your friends were right about you constantly putting too many things on your plate, it might be good therapy to just… stop worrying about the future, and let spontaneity be a part of your life for once."
Juliana turned to her school nurse earnestly. "What do you think I should do then? If you were in my shoes?"
"Hmmm…"
Miriam put her pencil to her chin as she contemplated.
"Well… the best thing to focus on I think, would be thinking about all the steps you took that got you here, and figuring out what needs to change. You still like helping us adults and other people out, right?"
"Yeah, I can't change that. I'm always so eager to help…"
"Then exercise finding ways to mix helping people out with activities for yourself, and doing things that will help you relax. You know, balance those two sides out!"
"Balance them out…" Juliana sighed. "The thing is, finding that balance isn't the only thing that's going to make me happy… There's a lot of people that I hurt, by being so stupid with myself…"
"Yeah, it did sound like you've got more than a few fences to mend… I say you should focus on curing your own sick mind first, and then you can make that step two! Finding that equilibrium in yourself, and then applying it to the field! Heh, to use one of Dendra's sayings."
Miriam stood up from the dresser and faced Juliana with an eager new thought.
"Hey Juliana, do you ever read the column that Rika from the Pokémon League writes?"
"No."
"Ahh, well you should! She's a really, really sharp woman with great nuggets of wisdom!"
She's as smart as she is really pretty… Miriam thought to herself.
"Anyway, in the column she wrote this week, she had a lot of inspiring things to say that I think could actually help you out a lot! Let's see…"
Miriam dug out her laptop from a high shelf, and pulled up Rika's column on the screen.
"Ahh, here it is! Yeah, she talked about some advice she gave to a friend of hers recently about how we spend too much time fretting about things that are beyond our control, and that instead of doing that, we should focus on fixing the things we can control in our lives instead, and the rest will fall into place!"
"Hmmm. That is… very inspiring," Juliana had to admit.
Miriam gently held the laptop down in front of Juliana's face. "Here! Check out this awesome last line for yourself!"
Juliana read the words aloud. "How important are the things that matter to you right now now versus the things that are still going to matter five years from now?"
"Letting our failures or our grudges fester too much is a big no-no that doesn't help anyone," Miriam explained. "The things that you can change about yourself… that you can change in your relationships with others… Those are the big things you should be focusing on."
Juliana let all of this soak into her head. For once, after all the negativity she had experienced over the past few weeks, she was finally starting to feel a bit more… optimistic. Hopeful, even.
"Thanks, Ms. Miriam. This is all… such great advice. I think I'm going to try my hardest to remember all that going forward."
"Of course you will! Because I'm an excellent nurse!" Miriam grinned. "And as an excellent nurse, my prescription for you is spending time in somewhere with a lot of fresh air that'll help you heal both physically and mentally!"
"Fresh air…" Juliana contemplated. "A place to help someone and relax at the same time… Hmmm…"
"OVER HERE, BIG GUY!"
"Sorry—and thanks!" Perrin called out. "You've got this, Juliana!"
As Juliana stared down the big hulking beast looming over her in this thick fog, a small part of her began to wonder if this was really the mix of fresh air and relaxation Miriam had in mind…
"WA-GRRRAAAHHH!"