( Notes:

Bet you thought this was dead, huh?! Hah, as if I would let this fic go THREE years without an update...

I'll spare everyone the details because it's the same stuff as before. It really is a pain in my nonexistent nuts to have endless inspiration for the story but zero drive to actually write it. Someone, please invent a machine that translates thoughts into text! We'd be in Arc II by now if that was a thing!

Speaking of which, I really need to revamp the Trifecta timeline. You'll notice this chapter is a bit shorter than the previous ones; I'm not sure if that's a good thing because it'll take shorter than forever to get through, or a bad thing that I made everyone wait 2 years and 11 months for less than what they got last time.

In other news, I made a Tumblr account! It's Shinneth, same as all my other handles everywhere else. I'm trying to keep it as focused on Trifecta and the Pokemon anime as possible, so give that a follow if you're interested! Just remember I'm terrible when it comes to spoilers for my own crap. Additionally, I will also be posting this fic to AO3 in tandem with this site, only AO3 will have the benefit of some amazing art made by my many gracious readers! I'm planning on working on that soon after posting up this chapter in all other venues.

And of course, Trifecta still has a TV Tropes page I won't touch for the sake of this fic's life! But I welcome any readers who are Tropers (or are inclined to be) to mess around with it, because seeing that page has always been a mood-lifter for me. I've gone through LOTS of depression since the last chapter, and now that I've crossed the threshold and become 30, I expect things won't get that much cheerier. I ended up trimming a lot of fat off my original plans for this chapter, and next chapter already looks pretty light on varied content, so we'll see how long it takes for the next update. No promises!

I deeply apologize to everyone who's waited so patiently for this chapter! I really hope it was worth your wait, and I hope you enjoy! )

Over the snowy peaks of the Sinnoh region, the sun rose to herald a brand new day. Many would embrace the fresh start, but one individual had grown to loathe it.

Not long ago, Pyramid King Brandon relished in the dawn of each new day, but circumstances had warped his views. Last night, the Frontier Brain managed to contact Professor Oak via video phone to fill him in on the events that transpired over the past couple of weeks. The professor believed every word of Brandon's story – much to his relief – but expressed his honest concern that the Battle Frontier committee would not be inclined to forgive Brandon for wasting so much valuable time on a goal he ultimately failed to achieve. Professor Oak also commended Brandon's dedication to rebuilding the Snowpoint Temple, but felt his coworkers would not appreciate these efforts enough to overlook his many trespasses. Not feeling ready to face the music just yet, Brandon decided against contacting Scott or his fellow Frontier Brains. He felt he needed to show something to them to prove his abrupt, unauthorized leaving of his post was justified.

To Brandon, the dawn of a new day was equivalent to an imminent deadline inching ever so closer to him. Even now the Frontier Brain was unsure just how much time remained before the committee would completely lose their patience with him, but with each passing day Brandon knew his judgment was forthcoming. The situation wasn't entirely hopeless just yet, though, as Maria and Samuel provided consistent support along the way. Not only did they both supply encouragement to sustain Brandon's morale, but the two also played a large role in making sure the rebuilding of the Snowpoint Temple went swimmingly. It was still far too early to estimate a projected date of completion, but without the help of his assistants, Brandon's predicament would have likely broken him down by now.

Samuel and Maria knew, however, that rebuilding the Snowpoint Temple was the only thing keeping the Pyramid King going at this point. With the goal of obtaining Regigigas forever dashed, combined with the sacrifice of the golems already in his possession to keep their sleeping superior secured, Brandon was notably despondent. Without the aid of distraction that rebuilding the temple provided, the Frontier Brain would no doubt be overwhelmed with uncertainty of where to venture next.

The distraction wouldn't last for long; that much was evident with Brandon's gloomy disposition during downtime. After learning the details of the conversation with Professor Oak the night before, Samuel and Maria decided it was time for Brandon to settle on a plan to secure his job – a suitable alternative for Regigigas that could be found in the Sinnoh region.

Thus, after breakfast, Brandon found himself quickly scooted out of the Battle Pyramid and away from the temple ruins. The Pyramid King easily could have resisted this, but deep down he knew the assistant and priestess were right. Brandon had set his heart on capturing Regigigas for a very long time now; it wasn't easy to find a replacement for his dream. But, if he was to save his job and the financial stability of his family, there was no other choice. The legendary golems, while all still considered dear friends to the Pyramid King (if not honorary members of the family), were now little more than a memory; a crowning milestone over the mountain of achievements that preceded them. Regirock, Registeel, Regice, and Regigigas were living testaments to the seemingly limitless potential of this man. Painful though it was to leave them as accomplishments past achieved (or nearly achieved in the case of the final golem, even though bonding with the reclusive Pokémon was an accomplishment in of itself – it was really something you would have to see with your own eyes to fully appreciate), out there in the world of Pokémon were many, many legends shrouded with unsolved mysteries and intrigue that could rival and surpass the intrigue of the legendary golems. At this point, there was really nothing left to be discovered for the goal Brandon had pursued for so long. He was officially considered the closest thing to a master of all things regarding Regirock, Registeel, Regice, and even Regigigas.

While such an achievement was something Brandon could take pride in, it sadly wasn't enough to justify the large amount of time he spent away from his post. It certainly wasn't enough to secure his job or his family's financial stability, either. Moving forward towards a new horizon was the only option now, but the sheer number of paths to take to achieve a new and more tangible goal was overwhelming to say the least. Additionally, while it was a noble and selfless decision to stay in the Sinnoh region to see that the Snowpoint Temple would be rebuilt back to its former glory, it greatly hampered one's traveling range. This handicap was somewhat mitigated now that the Battle Pyramid's turbine system had been repaired; the Frontier Brain could now have the entirety of Sinnoh to uncover the next new chapter of Pokémon legend rather than being limited to the perimeter of the Snowpoint area. Still, confinement to a single region made Brandon rather anxious; not just for greatly limiting the possibilities of finding something new and comparable to the golems on a legendary scale, but the concept of confinement itself struck the Pyramid King on a personal level. Memories seldom ever spoken of threatened to come to the forefront of Brandon's mind after many decades of suppression. This was the worst possible time for such thoughts to haunt the man, and he was determined not to allow anyone to see him look even remotely vulnerable to anything resembling fear. The Frontier Brain distanced himself from the site of the temple and his pyramid; he resolved to thwart his past demons and fear of failure while deciding which path to take next in his lifelong quest. This wasn't the first time Brandon had to make a difficult choice in setting his path after failing to achieve his original dream.

But then, at the peak of his despair, Brandon's greatest achievement came to mind: Andrea, his late wife. Ultimately, all the troubles and complexities of this man's life originated from a single event – the day Andrea departed from this mortal coil.

Millions of unanswerable questions instantaneously filled Brandon's mind mere seconds after his spouse came to mind, and with these curiosities came an overwhelming pressure that was nigh on impossible to control once those repressed memories broke free. What direction would Andrea have chosen from this point? Would she approve of the choices Brandon made that landed him in this situation to begin with? Were any of Brandon's choices in life after her demise worthy of her blessing, or was it more likely that her husband's actions were so repulsive that his many failures reached out far enough to be felt by Andrea's spirit in the afterlife?

This stream of self-destructive thoughts was forcibly disrupted by Brandon, who instinctively bit his tongue out of frustration while using every ounce of his willpower to suppress the sudden hot, stinging feeling in his eyes: tears.

The only thing Brandon knew for certain was that if Andrea could see him right now, she'd slap him – literally – until he came to his senses. What would disgust her more than anything would be seeing her husband letting himself be defeated while forever trapped in the past.

Indeed, Paul wasn't the only member of this family prone to being "all wrapped up in the past", as Brandon himself phrased it.

The Pyramid King flinched, as if his wife had actually slapped him, and snapped out of his stupor. While he couldn't ignore the precarious situation he was currently in, dwelling on the hows and whys of getting to this point wouldn't get him anywhere. That much, he knew. His only choice was to keep moving forward.

Without any second thoughts, he did just that.

Hours later, Brandon stood near the edge of a cliff, surveying the range of snow-capped mountains around him. He scaled them once already; doing so again was hardly a daunting task. Equipped with his standard exploration gear, Brandon was certain he could take on anything Mother Nature would throw at him. What troubled the Frontier Brain was the book he held; one of his personal favorites that chronicled the history of the Sinnoh region and every legendary Pokémon sighted (or at least rumored about) in it. Regigigas was far from being the only legendary Pokémon in the region (let alone the world), but the alternatives Brandon read through instilled a severe degree of doubt in his abilities to encounter these legends… much less capture them.

The obvious first option for a Regigigas substitute? Arceus, of course. But Brandon immediately laughed off that idea (it was the kind of laugh needed to keep his spirits up; a sad laugh was better to let out than a weep of distress)… not that he wouldn't love to be able to capture Arceus, but…

"Even I know what's beyond my limits," Brandon admitted to himself. Sadly, talking to himself was the best way for Brandon to keep his stability in check. Forced humor did have its uses, it seemed. "The Azure Flute would be my best hope for encountering it, but that artifact has eluded me and every archaeologist in the world for millennia. If only I had the time…" He would've been fully on board with the idea of looking for the Azure Flute otherwise; after all, he had an expert human drill in Byron to call upon for help in such a case. Reality forced the Pyramid King to pass up on what would be a fantastic adventure, but he made a mental note to himself to consult with his old friends about this one day… once they were old, gray, and retired. Brandon wasn't about to let old age impede his lust for adventure, and last he checked, his friends felt the same way.

He continued flipping through the pages. "The Lake Guardians," he muttered. "Hardly comparable to Regigigas, and far too time-consuming if I wanted to capture them all…" He was already near Lake Acuity, of course, but both Lake Verity and Lake Valor were thousands of miles away from where he stood and the distance between the latter two lakes wasn't much smaller. Of course, he had no idea the kind of danger the Lake Guardians would soon be in; that would have served as motivation for Brandon to get involved, at least.

"Cresselia and Darkrai…" Brandon shook his head at these options as well. "Full Moon Island and New Moon Island would also take far too long to reach." He sighed. "Of course, no legendary Pokémon worth seeking out will be in my backyard. I shouldn't dismiss them because of distance alone. If the legends are true, however, and if the mythos behind them in this book is accurate, I may not have time to rely on lunar phases or risk the dangers of being lulled into eternal sleep to encounter them."

Brandon mentally shelved the two in the "maybe" category as he continued to flip through the book. "Heatran; that would be quite the capture," he noted. "And venturing through volcanoes does sound thrilling, though if the boys found out, they would both have a heart attack." While Paul was more like-minded to his father than Reggie when it came to journeys and adventures, not even he was so blindly headstrong as to risk his life in any volcano. "And the nearest volcanoes in Sinnoh are to the far east of the region. No matter what I choose to pursue, it seems I'll have no choice but to venture to the opposite ends of the region to have a chance at these legends… will Sam and Maria be able to handle rebuilding the temple that long without me?"

Then… he flipped to the section about Shaymin.

"No," he quickly decided. "I know beggars can't be choosers, but still… no."

Even the mighty Brandon was a slave to his own masculinity.

Brandon grumbled as he closed the book, looking back upon the horizon beyond the edge of the cliff where he stood. "My best prospects are to the far east and far west of Sinnoh; being in the northern central area, neither direction is advantageous over the other." Again, Brandon let out a sigh. "I had hoped by now that I would come up with a more concrete idea of where to go and what to pursue. I might as well wander about aimlessly until I stumble into a miracle, at this rate," he said before grasping his temples out of frustration and shame. "This is what it must feel like to be Palmer…"

"Uh-oh! Uh-oh! Oh no no no, slow down, slow down! Come on, that drop looks pretty steep…!"

Speak of the devil.

"What the–!" Brandon turned around to find none other than a familiar blond-haired man close to his age clad in a green trench coat sliding uncontrollably down the slope that led to this particular cliff. Despite his pleads and flailing, the man was unable to stop. At his velocity rate, he was doomed to careen straight over the cliff side and meet his untimely demise some hundreds of feet below. Luckily for Brandon, he was not on the path of imminent collision, but he was close enough to make a difference.

While Brandon was a strict, serious, and often humorless man, he wasn't completely devoid of a sense of humor and did enjoy a bit of fun here and there… but he got his kicks in an unusually sadistic way. In this case, rather than saving the man immediately, Brandon chose to watch the man flail even more wildly as he finally managed to stop… only that he was on his tip-toes at the very edge of the cliff while the rest of his body lurched forward towards the abyss. As Brandon expected, this was close enough of a call to prompt the full-grown man to scream like a girl.

"NO…!" he wailed, still unaware that he had already essentially been saved. "This is it; my number's finally up! And there's still so much I never got to do…!"

"Palmer…" Brandon muttered, somewhat out of annoyance as he never was one for dramatics.

"NO!" Palmer shrieked, clearly not registering his friend's voice yet. "I'm not ready for the grim reaper! You know what they do with guys like me in the afterlife, right?! My only consolation is that my poor Barry won't ever know how they'll defile his old man…!"

To this, Brandon shook his head and sighed. He had his fun watching Palmer squirm; now it was just getting ridiculous. "Of all the people who would get the afterlife and prison mixed up," he grumbled while pulling his childhood friend by the coattails away from certain death. "It's a wonder you've survived this long without Byron and I, Palmer." The Pyramid King yanked the taller man hard enough for the latter to lose his footing, causing him to stumble and slip flat on his back. Luckily, there was more than enough snow around to cushion the fall.

"Oww," Palmer whined for a bit regardless while sitting up. His pained agitation immediately gave way to a gasp of disbelief when he realized who had just saved his life. The starry-eyed gaze of adoration Brandon had come to know and loathe was just one of many reasons why he decided to make Palmer sweat it out a bit before getting bailed out again. "Ahh! Brandon! Is that really you?! Of course; it's gotta be you!"

Brandon was about to answer, but was cut off when Palmer, still on his knees, lunged over to give his friend a long overdue (in his opinion) hug. This came as no real shock to Brandon – Palmer by far was the most emotional and touchy-feely friend of his posse – but his disdain for such gestures between men (grown men especially) remained the same. Still, he tried his best to tolerate the quirks of this man… after all, like Byron, Palmer was more than just a good friend to Brandon. For everything the trio of comrades had been through across the decades, they were practically brothers. But that would be a story for another time…

"Oh man, Brandon, I totally owe you my life! I don't know how to thank you enough! See? I wasn't exaggerating when I said you were my hero back then! How am I ever gonna repay you for–"

As politely as he could, Brandon silenced his friend by firmly planting his hand over Palmer's motor mouth. "If you truly insist, Palmer, you can consider this payback for defeating me in our last battle. Otherwise, think nothing of it."

Palmer stood up to properly face Brandon, now clearly displaying the notable height difference between the two. With his mouth uncovered now, Palmer was free to audibly snicker at Brandon's response. "Haha, are you still bitter over that? Seriously?"

With some time having passed since then and the current circumstances facing Brandon, he was practically over it already. It was just now, seeing the man who bested him in battle still unchanged from his overly emotional, painfully optimistic, nonsensically clumsy, and inexcusably dimwitted self… it was a severe blow to Brandon's already dented pride. This was his childhood friend; his rival, and the one man with the credentials to found his own Battle Frontier in Sinnoh.

"HEY, WAIT A SECOND! You're here in Sinnoh!"

And worst of all, this exaggerated and belated statement proved the apple didn't fall far from the tree; Barry being the apple, of course.

"It took you this long to realize it," Brandon huffed. "And it seems after all these years, you still have the devil's luck on your side. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have been here to save your hide again." This certainly wasn't the first time in Brandon's life that he had to bail Palmer out one way or another. But his honorary brother had always been notorious for getting lucky breaks since they were children; it was hard to believe, but Palmer's inexplicable good fortune was stupefying.

"You're... in Sinnoh..." It seemed Palmer barely registered that retort. "I can't believe it; you're finally home! And your timing couldn't be better, man!"

Brandon rolled his eyes. "Yes, we've covered that. You really need to adopt some common sense before you bulldoze your way through the northern Mt. Coronet range..."

"No, no, that's not what I meant!" Palmer exclaimed as he waved his hands about frantically. In times like these, Brandon felt this particular comrade of his never mentally aged past his preteen years... "Your timing's great because you can totally come with me! Did you forget the Twinleaf Festival's just around the corner this time of year? This'll be like the first time in over a decade since you last came!"

It was true that Brandon had forgotten this, but that was nothing unusual for a man who spent the last seven to eight years in another region altogether. Besides that, there was another reason this annual event seldom came to his mind...

"Much as I appreciate your offer, Palmer, I'll have to pass," he declined as politely as he could. "You should have figured by now that I wouldn't be back here in Sinnoh for no particular reason after all these years. Twinleaf Town is at least a two-week journey from here; I have too many obligations to commit to right now to just take an extended vacation." Never mind that Brandon's abrupt leaving of his post in Kanto in the first place was considered by everyone to be an "extended vacation" in its own right... "Besides," he continued, "Based on how much of a hurry you're obviously in, I'd wager you'll opt for the quickest route to your hometown... meaning you won't be going through Oreburgh City."

Palmer shrugged casually at his childhood companion. "Well, that'd make the most sense, wouldn't it? If you gotta be somewhere, why wouldn't you take the fastest way to get there?"

Brandon grumbled, visibly aggravated that he needed to spell this out to Palmer, of all people. "At least try to prove to me your memory span is longer than a Goldeen's, Palmer," he begged. "If you're not reaching Twinleaf Town through Oreburgh City, then what is the only other way to get there by land?"

"Well, obviously there's a fork once you hit Eterna City," Palmer recalled. "Route 206 from there is the longer, roundabout way getting to Orebugh which at least cuts travel through Jubilife City in half. Not enough to justify how long Route 206 is compared to Route 205, though... especially considering how small Floaroma Town is compared to Ore–..." His dark amber eyes widened as he realized what he had said just seconds ago. "... Oh."

The Pyramid King let out a sigh of relief. "Good, you haven't forgotten. I trust you've honored our pact since my absence, Palmer. I know Byron has."

"Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a Poffin in my eye!" Palmer boldly stated; to that, Brandon smiled warmly.

"Word-for-word, even, after more than thirty years," Brandon noted with an unusual fondness in his tone. "Your loyalty has stood the test of time, Palmer. Thank you for being quick to nullify the doubts I was beginning to have."

Despite his silly recital, Palmer had taken on a much more somber and serious demeanor the moment Brandon questioned his loyalty. "Sorry for making you worry; it just slipped my mind, you being gone for so long... but hey, if that's still a problem, we can take the Oreburgh path instead!" He was back to his jovial, airheaded self again. "The festival's still a few weeks away, you know. Heck, it took me less than a week to make it here from Stark Mountain!"

"I'd chide you for messing around rather than staying at your post at the Battle Tower," Brandon said. "But that's far too hypocritical of me. Much as I would like to join you, Palmer, I simply don't have the luxury to do so."

"Oh, poo," Palmer muttered, puffing his cheeks out with disdain. "Bad enough that Byron's skipping out this year, but now you're finally back home with us and you're gonna pass on it, too?"

Brandon crossed his arms and gave his friend a far stronger look of disdain. "You just assumed I came back to Sinnoh for good all this time," he pointed out. "And you've yet to even question that."

"Should I?" Palmer looked utterly clueless.

"Should you..." Brandon growled out. "Palmer, there's no way it slipped Scott's mind to inform you about my presence here! Do you think I would just quit my job on the fly?!"

"Well, I guess you've got a point there," Palmer conceded. "It's not like you to just up and abandon your career; especially not at the expense of keeping your family paid for." Sometimes the bizarre way Palmer worded out his thoughts rubbed Brandon the wrong way, and needless to say this was such a time. "But I don't recall getting a message from Scott..."

This left Brandon flabbergasted; especially after everything Samuel had told him about the Kanto Battle Frontier committee's feelings on Brandon abandoning his post for selfish reasons, and knowing where he'd be heading, it only seemed inevitable that Scott would have contacted Palmer and his own committee to keep tabs on him... after all, they were local.

"I refuse to believe my group has had zero contact with yours at all when I've been here for over a month!" Brandon shouted. "Palmer, even you wouldn't have forgotten about something like that!"

To that, Palmer shrugged helplessly again; he still didn't understand why his shorter companion was getting so riled up over this. "You can keep insisting that, man, but I don't know what I don't know... all I know is Thornton was pestering me now and then this past month to... I don't know, look at some papers? Go through messages? But you know that's not my thing. I gotta get myself a secretary."

The Pyramid King felt his blood boil; more and more losing his cool. "That was probably Scott trying to contact you! Don't tell me you didn't even hold a group conference!"

"Oh yeah!" Palmer affirmed, as Brandon regained a smidgen of hope for his dear friend's competence. "I remember hearing about a conference... Dahlia and Argenta kept trying to pester me over it, but I had a date with a certain destination at Stark Mountain, you see!" … And the hope was snuffed out just as quickly as it came.

"Don't worry; I wasn't messing around. It was totally worth it. I got to see a Heatran that day! You can't say that's not better than sticking around for some boring old–-"

That's when Brandon finally snapped and dragged Palmer down by the collar to meet him at eye level.

"It's times like this that make me ashamed to have lost to you," Brandon said in his most menacing tone. "I have half a mind to beat you senseless here and now!" Palmer knew he wasn't bluffing, either. Though Byron was definitely the one who ended up in brawls with their group leader on a weekly basis back in the day, Palmer himself on occasion was subjected to the same punishment.. but usually for far different reasons.

"But I don't even have the luxury to spare time for that!" Brandon spat, shaking with anger. "Now you're going to look at me, pay attention, and listen to every single thing I'm about to tell you."

Needless to say, it was a very uncomfortable experience to listen to a full, unabridged tale of Brandon's story for why he was now in Sinnoh... all the while having to stay in that very uncomfortable position.

"Take care, you two! I'll look forward to watching you both battling it out in the Sinnoh League!"

"Thanks, Cousin Roark!" Barry shouted back to the Gym Leader he and his traveling companion just defeated. "Don't worry; I'm gonna win it all!"

Normally Conway would be in a cheerful mood, having just won his fifth badge now, but hearing a certain trigger word out of Barry's mouth in such a superficial manner brought down his mood significantly – enough so that he was on the verge of breaching his personal pacifism clause.

"You do realize he isn't really your cousin, don't you, Barry?" he asked in a very exasperated tone.

Barry in turn glared at his companion and stuck out his tongue for good measure. "I know that! Geez, what crawled up your butt and died? You're being a huge sourpuss for someone who just won a badge."

"Do you actually have real cousins?" Conway asked; his darkened expressions matching his tone. "You just met Roark today..."

"Hey, according to him, he remembers seeing me back when I was three!" Barry retorted.

The sunlight hit Conway's glasses at that angle that made his lenses shine so intensely that his eyes were no longer visible to Barry. "That barely counts... you didn't even remember it."

"Oh, come off it already!" Barry barked back. "If my dad and Roark's dad are honorary brothers, then me and Roark are honorary cousins! For claiming to be so smart all the time, you're super mega stupid if you can't grasp that!"

Barry was getting dangerously close to breaching Conway's sanity and he didn't even know it; for all the time they spent together up to this point, Conway still never told Barry about his own family. The main reason being, of course, that Conway still felt he couldn't trust Barry to keep all these secrets to himself... but besides that, the matter of cousins had become a major sore spot for him in general. Even though every word he said was a lie and not a single sentiment of his was genuine, in retrospect Saturn had put in far more effort to make some kind of bond with Conway than any of his other relatives... even if that was only a means to an end. The more time passed and the more Conway thought about it without having anyone to talk to, his sentiments on the man he'd known as Sloan all his life were becoming rather torn. He was still determined to put a stop to whatever evil plan he had in store for the world, yet at the same time Conway was beginning to wonder if he really had it in him to go through with it. It was somewhat disturbing for him to realize that if his mother, father, or even his sister were in his cousin's position instead, Conway would have little to no grievances in taking them out by any means necessary.

But it was really no surprise that Conway was in dire need of therapy; at the beginning he had steeled himself to endure the many traumatic experiences that came so quickly almost at once. The one time he sat down and tried to process the horrific things that happened to him en route to Snowpoint City almost resulted him getting killed by a pair of thugs. Maylene was a great help afterward in setting Conway's plans into motion, but aside from the safe haven she was offering in Reggie's house, there wasn't enough time for her to console the presumed deceased trainer.

Much as he hated to admit it to himself, it was his thoughts of Paul that kept Conway moving; those kept him strong and resilient as he continued to gain badges, and reach new milestones of strength he never thought before was possible. But Paul was probably the last person who would offer a shoulder to lean on, Conway figured. Still being too ashamed to face Reggie for failing to keep his promise to him, that left no one to help Conway cool down. Barry just now was proving to be the most ineffective sympathetic figure Conway ever had the displeasure to meet.

He by no means hated Barry, of course... but on more than one occasion his ignorance had made Conway lose his temper. He really was becoming the Paul of this relationship compared to his dichotomy with the actual Paul. Which, in turn, made Conway feel increasingly guilty in retrospect. All the while, he still had no idea just how much worse everything got for Paul after they parted ways.

And ultimately, it made Conway long for the times of the past, even if those good times were all based on a great big lie. Sloan was playing Conway throughout his entire life, yet his performance was still incredibly convincing even after he exposed his true nature. Conway himself admitted that if Sloan's eulogy wasn't littered with blatant lies and exaggerations, he might have started to doubt Maylene's integrity when she pegged him as Saturn of Team Galactic. Considering how transparent the Gym Leader was when it came to how she really felt about anything, that spoke volumes on Sloan's charisma and his ability to manipulate people.

While his resolve did not waver, Conway's sanity was wearing away from the stress the longer this went on. Despite his great progress in gaining strength, Conway still had no idea what his cousin was up to. He at least knew where he was now... or did; some weeks ago the bugs had either been discovered or had shorted out. But they remained in the same area for a long time that Conway could deduce that it was where their base was located. With the ever-nosy Barry at his side now, though, Conway had very little time to himself to progress further in figuring out his cousin's agenda.

"C'mon, already!"

Conway was jolted out of his destructive line of thought by his traveling companion. Well, at least there was one thing Barry was useful for...

"What's that...?"

Barry glared at Conway; his hands on his hips to accentuate his own growing annoyance of his companion. "Did you not hear a word I said?! Good gravy, and you've got the nerve to say my head is in the clouds. If you hadn't been footing the bill for everything since we teamed up, I'd be fining you right now!" Conway couldn't resist rolling his eyes at that. "We just beat a Gym Leader! Turn that frown upside down; we have to go tell Uncle Byron the good news!"

"Wait, what?" Though Conway had been too mentally preoccupied to pay mind to any conversation Barry and Roark had during their battle (as Conway had already won his match by this point), he already knew well even before his first visit to the Canalave Gym that Byron was Roark's father. With Barry's fixation on making up relatives for himself, it didn't take long for Conway to connect the dots. And yet, after all the zany mishaps he'd witnessed with Barry for all these weeks, Conway didn't see something like this coming.

"Geez Louise! Do I have to spell it out for you?!" Barry honestly wasn't used to having to explain everything to Conway; routinely it was the other way around. "Did one of Roark's rocks knock your head loose?"

Conway clumsily regained his composure; he remembered now why something this pedestrian knocked him for a loop: Byron already knew who he was. Though Conway hadn't been wearing his standard attire since he left Veilstone City, it was obvious that the Gym Leader would still recognize him over a video conversation. Up to this point, Conway had been very good about avoiding everyone who was even remotely familiar with him before he was regarded as "dead". Maylene was still the only one who knew his secret, though by now he assumed she at least told Reggie about it. Still, considering the questionable state of Barry's mentality, Conway was very much happy leaving his secret with only two prospective people.

There was a chance Byron had completely missed out on the news, considering the presumed death was only prominent in Veilstone City's local network – one which is not at all close to Canalave City. But even then, just conversing with Byron would probably re-ignite Barry's on-again, off-again suspicions about Conway in general. After a mentally exhausting gym battle and being worn down by his own unresolved stress and aggravation over his life, Conway didn't have it in him to play a game of wits with Barry this time. It was bad enough that Barry still had trouble committing to his assumed name!

"You misunderstood me," he clarified. "I know why you'd want to brag about your win to your "uncle" Byron..." Conway said condescendingly; unable to resist using the "air quotations" gesture for that particular word. "What I don't understand is why I have to be part of this conversation. Unless I missed something in your many bouts of babbling incoherency and you included me in this imaginary family of yours, of course." Barry was fuming now, just as Conway expected. "Cousin Barry, confirm/deny?"

"DE-NIED!" Barry shouted at the top of his lungs. "You're lucky I'm not such an insensitive jerk like you, or I wouldn't bother reminding you that you told me before that you were eventually gonna challenge Uncle Byron!"

"–Oh..." That certainly knocked the wind out of Conway's sails. "That's true," he admitted, now actually regretting his harsh vernacular. "Um... thank you, then, but it's still not necessary for me to speak with him this soon..."

As if Barry was going to make it that easy for Conway. "Nope! Consider this a fine, Connie-boy!" The taunted trainer tried not to grimace at the inadvertent reminder of his own sister's teasing, but he barely had time for that as he found his arm snagged by the blonde; no more than a second later, he was being yanked towards the Oreburgh City Pokémon Center. "This oughta teach you to think before you talk!"

It took every ounce of Conway's willpower for him to resist an all-too-easy retort. No sense in digging himself even further into his grave, after all.

"Hi, Uncle Byron! Long time no see, I guess! You remember this handsome face, right?"

It truly was a test of Conway's limits today; he forced himself not to cringe with shame for being right next to a peer in his age group stretching out his cheeks to give the recipient of his call the biggest grin he could muster.

"Ah, it's only been a couple of months!" the Gym Leader replied, dismissively waving his hand. "But I'm not gonna lie; it's great to hear from you this soon, Barry! Let me guess, you just whooped my boy in a battle and got yourself a Coal Badge, right?"

"Yup!" Said badge was suddenly presented on-screen for Byron to see. "On the first try, naturally!"

Byron grinned happily at this sight, though inwardly he felt a bit of a blow to his pride. Roark was his pride and joy, after all. It was no less pleasantly awkward when Byron learned that Paul also defeated his son on the first try. "I know a certain dad that's gonna be pleased as punch when he hears the news," he said, which made Barry seem to glow even more with pride. "So who's gonna be your next–"

Finally taking notice of what was on the viewing screen other than his honorary nephew, Byron was naturally taken aback. "Oh, hey! That must be Little Four-Eyes with you! What's new, kid?"

Despite being forced into accompanying Barry during this call, Conway made no effort to stand out or make a sound; he was more than willing to sink further into the background as Barry took up more of the screen with his posturing. At the very least, Conway was thankful Byron was referring to him by the pet name he'd been designated since his last visit to Canalave City. "O-oh… you know, things…"

"Say what?!" Barry gawked at his companion. "You and Uncle Byron already know each other?! How?! Why didn't you tell me before?!"

Barry's aggressive inquisition made Conway sink further in his seat while his eyes remained focused on Byron, who naturally was also going to question him on topics that he did not want Barry within earshot of. "I-it's not like I battled him or anything," he assured. "I just happened to meet him on my last trip to Canalave City. I often go there for the library."

"Why am I not surprised?" Barry rhetorically asked with a rather snide expression.

"I gotta ask, Four-Eyes, what're you doing hanging out with Barry now?" Byron asked. "What happened to –"

"U-uh, Byron!" Conway had to interrupt the Gym Leader right then and there. Forbidden territory was about to be crossed, and the last thing Conway needed was Barry keeping him up all night with endless questions about his idol. "Ix-nay on the Aul-pay, please," he urged. The frantic teen was already sweating bullets, but luckily he had figured from all his time traveling with Barry that the blonde was oblivious to the concept of Pig Latin. "I promise I'll explain everything when the time is right. I do plan on revisiting Canalave City in the near future."

What was relieving, at least, was that Byron was opening up with a question about Paul rather than Conway's alleged death; this meant he missed out on any news about the latter.

"Ah… sure. Understood, kiddo," Byron affirmed, giving Conway a smirk. "I look forward to seeing you soon, then!"

"But of course that's gonna wait," Barry interjected. "I already got the Mine Badge, and there's no way I'm missing out on the Twinleaf Festival on this guy's account!" He needlessly gestured to Conway before resuming his gabbing, "Uncle Byron, I know you gotta be set on going! Canalave City's not that far away from Twinleaf Town, and Dad's gonna be holding a tournament this year!"

To that, Byron smiled uneasily and scratched his head. "Sorry, Barry, but I'm gonna have to pass on it this year," he apologized. "Way too much work backlogged at the Gym, and this is the time of year I get a rush of challengers trying to get enough badges for the League… you know how it goes."

While Barry whined and moped over this unfortunate news, Conway suddenly remembered something from his last meeting with the Steel-type specialist. It was something that was going make his curiosity itch if he didn't get an answer now.

"Hold on, wait," Conway spoke up. "Byron, I'd like an explanation."

"Oh?" Byron was intrigued. "Fire away, kid."

"The last time I saw you, I distinctly recall you saying that you wouldn't accept challengers unless they defeated Roark," Conway pointed out, narrowing his eyes and regarding the Gym Leader with suspicion. "But Barry's had your badge for quite a while now, and he only just defeated Roark less than an hour ago. That completely contradicts your policy, Byron."

"Maybe I'm just that awesome; ever think of that?" the haughty blonde chimed in.

Conway scoffed at this. He practically expected Barry to butt in with a statement like this by now. "I tend to take old wives' tales with a grain of salt, Barry," he shot back; his tone ice cold.

"Why I oughta–"

"Alright, you got me there!" Byron confessed. He didn't actually expect making Barry an exception to his rules would come back to bite him like this. And he certainly didn't want his actions to incite a brawl in the middle of this conversation. "Yeah, I guess I got a bit unprofessional. To be honest, Barry made it all the way here without knowing that, and I happened to owe Palmer a favor beforehand, so…"

It wasn't exactly a satisfactory answer, but Conway figured there was no possible way to find a truly justifiable excuse for giving Barry special treatment. Owing Palmer a favor at least explained why Byron wasn't keen on giving Paul the same perks as Barry; that's what Conway was truly curious about. "Say no more; I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Thank you, Byron."

"But I'm still awesome, right?" Barry asked his honorary uncle.

"C'mon, now," Byron said with a laugh. "When was that ever called into question?"

Conway flinched at this. Seeing his companion and the first Gym Leader to ever become acquainted with him chatting it up and laughing as if they really were an uncle and his nephew bonding and catching up on old times was a warm, charming scene that struck Conway's heart like an icy dagger.

He could accept that it was his own petty jealousy that made seeing the bond of Barry and Byron so offensive to him. That's about the only way Conway could rationalize how this came off as Barry rubbing his good fortune in his face when Barry didn't know the first thing about Conway's family or his troubles with them. Taking that into consideration, it seemed at least reasonable why Barry was so off-put by Conway's mood now. Family was clearly important to him; having even his superficial family ties not being taken seriously – even being mocked by Conway – was clearly a trespass that the blonde would not take lightly.

However, even approaching this conflict from a logical point of view did nothing to make Conway feel better. He knew exactly why he loathed sitting here now, watching Barry communicate with his designated uncle figure as if, from both ends, their conversation made it almost feel like the two were in fact blood-related. Based on Conway's perception of how a real family should behave (no doubt idealized from the large amounts of media consumed over his life), this was not only a harsh reminder of how long Conway believed Sloan was actually this close to him, but this particular relationship highlighted yet another weakness in the family.

Unsurprisingly, Conway's uncle Damon (as well as his aunt Janet) was just as inattentive, disinterested, and neglectful towards him as his own parents. Sloan never really talked with Conway about his parents, which made the latter unsure whether or not his cousin had the same kind of upbringing. It was no secret even to Conway that much of Franny's bitterness came from the fact that she barely got more attention from their parents than he did, and even that was mostly attributed to Franny simply being the firstborn – therefore the first to come to mind. Sloan's apparent lack of that nasty attitude made Conway all the more curious if his uncle and aunt did in fact raise their son properly, or if Sloan was just an amazing person who could excel in his goals and be pleasant in spite of his depressing upbringing. Conway knew the biggest thing keeping him from ending up exactly like his sister was the unconditional positive regard Sloan gave him every time he visited.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Sloan was an only child? Conway had a hard time making heads or tails of his cousin's hardships (or lack thereof) well before learning of Sloan's true nature. Now that his double-life as Saturn was no longer a secret, this made the young trainer's persisting curiosities through the years one giant headache to even try to decipher. One question that did burn in the back of Conway's mind was whether or not his father's brother knew about this side of his son.

Then Conway remembered that the most he knew of his uncle and aunt's occupations was that they were both scientists working for the government under a federal branch that apparently could not even be referred to by name; it was extremely important that knowledge of this facility did not reach the public for some vague reason Sloan refused to clarify. He claimed back then to have said more than enough already.

The flimsy way his cousin worded it back then… it bore a disturbing resemblance to how Mars described Sloan's current place of employment – namely the heavy emphasis on its alleged ties to the "government" to explain the giant G symbol emblazoned on her very unorthodox uniform.

It was quite possible that Conway's aunt and uncle not only knew of Sloan's double-life as Saturn, but were the catalysts that brought his cousin into that life to start with. That would make an entire branch of Conway's family tree associated with Team Galactic. And it made him wonder… could reality possibly get any worse? What of his own immediate family? His sister had already been tainted with their evil and was among their ranks. There was no doubt that Conway himself was being groomed by his cousin to one day walk the same path. But then, where did that leave his parents? Despite their frequent memory lapses regarding their parenthood, Harold and Irma did firmly love each other and spent the majority of their time at home joined at the hip. Despite many years of overhearing and eavesdropping on their conversations at home, Conway never heard them talk about anything like Team Galactic, and it was seldom that the government, even in the broadest context, ever came up in their discussions. He at least knew his parents had different jobs and the companies they worked under had actual, legitimate names. Based on what Maylene told him about Team Galactic's agenda, it seemed highly unlikely that they would ever need the services of a pharmacist – not unless drug-peddling was somehow part of their plan for making a new world. That at least ruled out Irma as a possible agent for the group.

Harold was trickier to determine… but only just a bit. While he was a scientist, he never worked alongside his brother, nor his sister-in-law. And though it was a huge stretch of the imagination to get Irma linked to Team Galactic, no feats of logic could connect Harold to Team Galactic. Not unless Conway just wasn't thinking out of the box enough; tying in a botanist to Team Galactic's agenda was either a concept beyond Conway's abilities, or it really was just as ludicrous as it sounded.

"Hey! Are you gonna snap out of it, or am I gonna have to liberate another credit card from you so I can get a cozy first-class room to crash in tonight?"

Yeah, that was more than enough to bring Conway back to the here-and-now.

"D-don't even joke about that!" he snapped. "The first time you did that, you ended up losing the card entirely!"

"Yeah, but you said yourself the card was almost maxed out anyway," Barry casually pointed out. Of course he would talk about credit card loss in such a blasé manner… none of it actually belonged to him. Though Conway had a feeling even if that was the case, Barry would still carry an irresponsible and lackadaisical attitude over it.

The contrast of Barry's blissful ignorance to Conway's enlightenment (leading to his ruined innocence) was striking; it was only natural the two would clash like this. "Even then, it's not like credit cards grow on trees, Barry," Conway argued back, trying to contain the growl that almost came out of him. "We have a finite amount of these to sustain our expenses; after they all max out, it's over! If you lost one of the fresh credit cards…"

Well, Conway was about to say something violently drastic there, but he hadn't completely lost his temper… yet. He cut himself off, but he knew what he'd be hearing in return would be something so inexcusably ignorant, it was bound to make him fly off the handle again.

"Then you just report it as stolen and get a new one, right?" Barry "finished" his companion's statement. "Which is what you should've done with the other one since we didn't fully max it out yet, come to think of it."

That was… well, much to Conway's surprise, ten times more reasonable than he expected Barry's retort to be. In a normal situation, that was a completely reasonable suggestion. However…

"I… can't do that," Conway said with clear unease. It was hard to be put on the spot and think of an excuse for doing this. At times like this, Barry was wildly unpredictable: just like when he and Conway met, he could be cunning and sharp when he wanted to be. It was still hard to tell when Barry's rare striking moments of genius occurred, but to Conway, the blonde even being reasonable for that one moment was a clear warning sign. He couldn't afford to be lazy with his logic, else Barry might finally pick apart his partner, peel off the layers of lies, and find the dark secret hidden within.

"Well, why not?" Barry inquired. "You care about those things a lot. Seems almost heartless to abandon something like that." This would have been a much more profound statement if the "something" in question here wasn't just a piece of plastic.

"You do realize these credit cards don't actually belong to me," Conway pointed out. "No one our age can actually own stuff like this."

Barry shrugged, seeming unfazed. "Well, I have seen the names on the cards. I know for a fact your name isn't Harold, and who the heck would peg you as an Irma?"

It took every ounce of Conway's restraint to not point out that Barry himself might have, since he did mistake Conway for a girl when they first met. He still couldn't believe Barry managed to get him and Dawn mixed up…

"Honestly, you should consider yourself lucky," Barry said… the exact set of words he never should have said to Conway's face.

"Excuse me?!"

"Mom doesn't even let Dad touch the credit cards, never mind me," Barry clarified. Again, spot-on argument if the situation was as simple as he perceived it to be. "She thinks we're both way too irresponsible; how cold is that?"

To Conway, if he had to choose between that and never being acknowledged at all, well…

"Clearly, you lucked out and got cool parents who give you free reign over the credit cards!"

"Barry…" Conway's voice was barely audible; his growing rage having to be further suppressed.

"So why am I figuring this out for you, So-Called Smart Guy?" Barry taunted. "Just call your parents and get the cards replaced!"

"I can't, okay?! Just back off!"

The way Conway screamed that out was strong enough to knock Barry out of his aggressive line of questioning. The blonde was bewildered; seeing his partner's body shaking while he rubbed his eyes in sheer desperation. Barry could've sworn he saw traces of tears, and this sort of outburst was unlike the kinds he had heard before. Often as he tried Conway's patience, his companion never really lost composure.

Here, even Barry could see he touched a nerve. Unfortunately, he was confused as to what he said to get Conway this legitimately upset. He felt bad, but only so much, since he'd been far more antagonistic to Conway in the past and didn't get nearly as strong of a reaction. Now was that rare time in Barry's life that he carefully thought over the words exchanged today.

It was easy to assume Conway was living the good life, having limitless freedom with his parents' credit cards, and from that alone (and, well, Conway's inability to be frugal with his purchases, as well as his general expensive tastes) he could figure out that Conway came from a very rich family – possibly even richer than his own.

Then Barry realized that he never directly asked Conway about his family life. He had a feeling early on that Conway would just feed him lies to facilitate that thinly-veiled "Colin" persona, but only now did he wonder if his parents were aware of their son going about the Sinnoh region and winning badges under an assumed name. Conway wouldn't dare speak a word about his family of his own volition; then Barry remembered how crabby his partner had been ever since they left the Oreburgh Gym.

It all started when he started raving about his newly-christened "honorary cousin" Roark. The more Barry talked about him and "honorary uncle" Byron, the more Conway's attitude soured. And Barry didn't understand why.

But now, Barry was managing to piece it together. Conway looked utterly miserable right now; Barry didn't need to look him in the eyes (that Conway was resisting anyway) to see that.

This was far too much for Barry to handle; seeing anyone look that psychologically tortured forced the blonde to be a bit more grounded… and to choose his words more carefully. However much he could, that is, considering Barry still had no idea what exactly triggered this explosion of emotions. But he felt he had a general idea.

"Right," Barry said gently after a long period of awkward silence between the pair. "Forget I said anything, okay?" He was trying to be reassuring, but that proved to be difficult when a situation got this tense. He was worried he might accidentally bring up another topic that Conway was sensitive about by attempting to change the subject, so he tried to use the broadest terms possible. "C'mon, we'd better get going while it's still daylight out."

Conway nodded, still not facing Barry, but suddenly jerked his head towards the video phone screen, which was (much to Conway's relief) blank.

"Uh, yeah," Barry affirmed, not needing words from Conway to understand the context of his actions. "My call with–" He hurriedly willed his mouth shut before the word "uncle" escaped his lips. Force of habit, and all. "–Byron ended a while ago. You just kinda spaced out for like fifteen minutes there. He said you looked like you needed some rest…"

To Barry's unexpected delight, Conway was able to smile at that. For all the turmoil Barry unwittingly submitted him to today, Conway could tell that Barry finally figured out when to back off from him, and what topic to avoid pressing him to the brink with. He didn't intend to scare Barry with that outburst, but Conway simply couldn't help it.

"So no, he didn't see us exploding at each other just now," Barry said, his tone indicating he was still a bit nervous just referencing what happened a moment ago. "No need to worry, okay?" After a beat, he knocked himself in the head stuck his tongue out – in mockery of himself, rather than his companion for once. "Psh, listen to me… now I'm sounding like Dawn."

Just speaking of Dawn's name was enough to make Conway look crestfallen again, but he managed to pull himself out of that quickly enough. He didn't allow himself the luxury to think about Dawn anymore these days; not even to wonder how she was progressing as an aspiring Coordinator. Even if it was very possible that Dawn missed the news of his death and therefore would lose nothing in showing himself to her, it just wasn't worth the risk of even the most remote possibility that she did hear about his alleged demise.

Besides that, even before Conway learned of all that false propaganda his cousin spread out, he deemed himself unworthy to be in Dawn's presence because of what happened between himself and Mars. Every time that moment came to mind, Conway hated himself more and more. Realistically, there was nothing he could do to reject Mars' advances or prevent her from stealing his Uxie book – never mind escaping the situation entirely. But even though Conway hated every moment of his hostage situation mentally, the story was a tad different when it came to how he felt physically.

In truth, Conway was a young teenage boy full of rampant hormones that, unlike most others of his gender and age, he was able to control very well. If Barry, or even Paul was stuck in that scenario, it would have (more-or-less) played out the exact same way with the exact same consequences. That was the sad reality of being any boy undergoing puberty. Conway knew this sort of thing well enough to realize why his physical actions contradicted to what he felt in his mind.

But no amount of perfectly sound logic or reasoning could keep Conway from blaming himself for letting any part of himself succumb to that woman. This was more than just Conway holding himself to higher standards; more than Paul's lingering influence that pushed him to not simply accept his own limitations. By being unable to receive any sort of counseling for what he'd been through, that left Conway's subconscious wide open for recurring nightmares. Just like what really happened, it was polarizing in that it tortured Conway's psyche, but his body relished in reliving that memory. Quite a few mornings began with Conway waking up and immediately hating himself – not exactly the best way to start out the day.

He honestly tried, but Conway couldn't fully suppress his negative feelings as well as he used to. It felt almost toxic now, but there was no way to control it without talking it out with someone.

That someone was certainly not the young man walking next to him presently. Conway and Barry had left the Pokémon Center in awkward silence… though Barry's recent breakthrough of showing compassion was surprising and heartwarming for Conway, the latter was too far gone to entrust Barry with any of his personal business.

Abruptly, Conway snapped out of his daze and realized what was going on. Usually, the pair didn't start traveling after conquering a gym until a mutually agreed destination was set. Evidently, Barry had already decided on a destination for him; never a good sign.

"West from Oreburgh," Conway murmured to himself after silently checking a few details to determine their direction. "Intriguing."

Barry nearly jumped at the sound of Conway's voice, but nervously laughed it off as he brushed his hair aside, managing to look Conway in the eyes this time. "Yep! It's time to bust this joint and sally forth, don'tcha think?"

Conway nodded, but was clearly hesitant. "Of course, but I'm curious why you chose to go this way. We'll be in Jubilife City by sundown and probably reach Canalave City by tomorrow morning, but there's nothing for you to gain by going this way," he pointed out. "It'd be convenient for me if I felt ready to challenge Byron, but you already defeated him; it's not like you to stall your own journey just so I can get a Mine Badge."

Conway wasn't exactly holding that against his companion, though. Not only did he not feel ready to battle Byron yet, but Conway himself didn't show this consideration when it came to Barry and his seemingly never-ending quest to defeat Fantina. After Conway defeated her while Barry himself was defeated for the third time, he was quick to vacate Hearthome City with no intention of wasting time hovering around the area in hopes that Fantina might actually be in her gym. So naturally, Conway didn't expect Barry to be any more considerate towards him.

"Uh, who said we were headed for a gym?" Barry asked, sounding a bit confused. "We're taking a break from that stuff for now."

"H-huh?!" Conway stopped in his tracks, bewildered by the single-minded blonde's words that contradicted his very nature. "Since when?!"

Barry just gave his partner a weary side glance before shaking his head. "Sweet crackers… and you complain about me not paying attention to stuff…"

"Don't you sass me," Conway grumbled. "Now start explaining yourself." He had a feeling he was going to be far from pleased once Barry said his piece.

"If you didn't totally space out during our call with Byron," Barry started out, speaking carefully and successfully avoiding his now-instinctive urge to precede every mention of Byron's name with "uncle"… he wasn't going to risk inadvertently breaking Conway down again. "You would've remembered me talking about the Twinleaf Festival over and over. I'm surprised you didn't even ask about it… then again, your head was probably a gazillion miles away from us by then."

Conway thought back on it, and he did recall Barry mentioning a "Twinleaf Festival" before his subconscious self-vacated the premises.

"Anyway, I don't think there's any harm in going," Barry explained. "We both made some awesome progress since teaming up. You had, what, only two badges before we met? Then I came, and just like that, poof! Now you're up to five; you passed the halfway point! And so did I! So it makes sense to give ourselves a little break, right?"

Conway's eyes were narrowed and his arms were crossed; his posture alone told Barry that this was not the kind of answer his partner was looking for.

"It's almost funny, really, how quick you are to forget your own words," Conway stiffly replied. "After we defeated Gardenia, you told me we'd have to step up our pace if we were to earn eight badges in time for the Sinnoh League. One badge later, you're telling me we have to drop what we're doing and goof off?"

"H-hey, the Twinleaf Festival is not the same as goofing off!" Barry shouted back, surprisingly looking hurt by Conway's words. "It's an annual tradition that's been going on for decades – maybe even centuries! I've been going every year practically all my life, okay? I'm already slated to do some karaoke, but besides that, Dad will be there!"

Conway twitched at the utterance of that heavily emphasized word, but held firm as he listened to the rest of Barry's rant.

"He's hosting a tournament, you know? The winner gets to battle him! Dad, the Tower Tycoon of the Sinnoh Battle Frontier!" Barry was beaming with pride as he hyped up his hometown's main event. "Do you have any idea how rare it is to be able to battle a Frontier Brain without having to be selected to challenge the whole Battle Frontier?! It's pretty freaking rare! And this is my chance!"

Conway sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with mild irritation. He understood Barry's motivations… however…

"And there's incentive for you to come, even if you're not from Twinleaf Town!" That got Conway's attention, but he withheld his enthusiasm.

"Incentive, you say."

Barry nodded excitedly, holding his hands in fists together as he tried his hardest to win Conway over with this abrupt vacation. "Yeah! I'm pretty sure Dawn's gonna be there! She's from Twinleaf Town, after all, and that's how she recognized me when we first met a while back. Anyway, her mom is in charge of a lot of stuff this year. Like, there's a big opening ceremony that's a lot like a Contest Appeal… no way Dawn would miss out on that!"

Conway's stance faltered a bit; the idea of Dawn being nearby was both enticing and highly worrisome. Under normal circumstances, Conway could have been won over right now, but…

"You… you're sure she'd be there; that's what you're saying?" Conway asked Barry, trying not to stutter too much. He didn't want to show how affected he was by Barry striking his weak point.

"Well, the program for this year's already been finalized," Barry said with a shrug. "If Dawn was gonna no-show the festival this year, she probably would've contacted me by now so I could pass the message on to her mom. So…" He trailed off, grinning widely.

This was a cause for concern; Conway had never seen nor heard anything good when Barry looked this devious. Some kind of epiphany had struck him mid-sentence; soon he would hear whatever stroke of "genius" struck his companion's mind.

"Has anyone ever told you how sinister you look when an idea finds its way into your head?" Conway sardonically pointed out.

"Hey, is that any way to treat a pal who's gonna tell you to get the girl now while the getting's good?"

There was no mystery as to who Barry was referring to. He smirked as he watched Conway's face immediately go red, and delighted in seeing the lanky boy stumble back by his words. They were very bold words, after all.

"B-but," Conway stammered, now fully in his loathed flustered, stuttering state. "Why… why are you…?"

Barry continued to indulge in his smugness; he'd been around Conway long enough to know his weak points and exploit them. "Listen," he said, getting his partner's attention. "I'm really pretty sure Dawn's gonna be there. But I also know who's not gonna be there because he recently rejected my RSVP… yeah, that's right, your unwitting rival Kenny won't be attending his own hometown's festival this year!"

Kenny… a name Conway had come to dislike these past couple of months. He had never met the boy, but Conway did manage to see his performances in a few Contests broadcast on TV. After all the heart Conway had put in his single run as a Coordinator, he was not at all impressed with Kenny's Appeals, nor his battles. Even without his innate bias against him due to their mutual feelings for Dawn, Conway wouldn't have been the least bit impressed with Kenny's style. A pity, really, since his choice of Pokémon seemed to be good ones for unique performances…

"Um… why isn't he attending?" Conway meekly inquired.

Barry simply shrugged. "Eh, he wasn't that specific. If I had to guess, he's probably in a rush to win his five Contest Ribbons to qualify for the Grand Festival." He rested his fingers on his chin and thought back on his last conversation with the boy. "I guess he wants to work overtime to make sure he makes the cut," Barry figured. "I'm pretty sure he feels he's got something to prove with Dawn. They've met in a Contest Battle twice, and they each have a win. But Dawn won first; it was a long time before Kenny got his win over her. Tying with her isn't good enough for Kenny, I guess," he said with a wistful sigh. "Dude's only one ribbon away from qualifying as it is; he could afford to take a vacation, but he's obsessed with his goal. Seems kinda silly to pass up his own hometown's festival because he's that determined to beat his would-be girlfriend..."

While Conway didn't like Kenny on principle, he couldn't ignore a logical move when he saw one. "Yet we're both still three badges away from qualifying for the Sinnoh League, and it's okay for us to slack off at this stage in the game?"

"Ahh, c'mon. You know the Grand Festival happens like two months before the Sinnoh League, right?" Barry reminded Conway; his gestures particularly lackadaisical as he further explained the differences between Coordinators and Trainers like themselves. "And there's only so many Contest events left to be held. We have the luxury of getting a badge whenever we want; Coordinators are stuck on the path of whatever Contest happens next, and once they happen, they're over forever and that opportunity to get that ribbon is gone. Besides, we won't be slacking off! There's a tournament being held at the festival, remember? Even if you don't get to battle my dad – and let's be real here: no way, no how are you gonna get that far – you'll still get some experience in battling other people in the tournament. So we won't get rusty!"

The bespectacled Trainer continued to regard his travel mate with suspicion. "Aren't you friends with Kenny? Why are you encouraging me to swoop in and steal Dawn from under his nose?"

"Mostly to get you to come to the festival," Barry openly admitted. "Part of it's just me being sour that he'd dare say no to my RSVP; but really, to be totally honest with you, I kinda expect you to crash and bomb when it comes to Dawn." That certainly elicited a frown out of Conway. "Come what may, you'll finally be past that silly hurdle after the festival! Either you'll pull off a miracle or you'll make Kenny's chances all the better! Guess you can say this is a little lesson for him, too! The little guy bumbles around even more than you around Dawn! He's gotta man up, and how better to do so than to give him a warning sign?"

"I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't tell him about me at all," Conway sternly requested.

Barry pouted for a bit, but relented and nodded his head. "If you insist, man. You're just delaying the inevitable, though! If you really want Dawn, he's gonna make you battle him for the right to ask her out!"

"Th-that's barbaric," Conway remarked, balking at the concept. "Shouldn't Dawn get a say in something like this...?"

"I don't get it either," Barry admitted. "But in those exact words, that's what Kenny told me he'd do to anyone who got in his way of, uh, "making Dawn his", in his own words. I kid you not."

Conway couldn't help but feel a stronger loathing for this kid the more he learned about him. "I'll trust Dawn to have better sense than to allow herself to fall into the hands of someone who still thinks we live in the Dark Ages," he boldly decided. "Someone like that isn't worth my time pursuing." Barry gaped as he watched Conway's expressions turn grim and serious. "Someone who chooses to be that foolish is bound to self-destruct. I have far more serious matters to attend to in the meantime."

He wondered to himself if Kenny was a Coordinator because he truly wanted to be, or did he only choose this path solely to get Dawn's attention – and eventually, her heart? His negative, self-deprecating thoughts were quick to intrude and challenge his own integrity. Back when Conway himself still had the luxury to explore whatever route he wanted in the world of Pokémon, he couldn't deny that his affection for Dawn was a large part of his initial desire to partake in Contests. Prior to meeting the sweet blue-haired girl, Conway didn't watch Contests on TV unless there was nothing else on that caught his interest. After the Hearthome Tag Battle Tournament, however, he made a point to watch them every chance he got. Though Conway had always been a freelancer, dabbling in several small-time events to try out every possible option a Pokémon Trainer could take, he didn't dare try to perform in a Pokémon Contest until after he met Dawn. And yes, it was true that during the Plumeria Contest, Conway hoped with all his heart that Dawn might be watching him, wherever she was at that time.

So Conway had to ask himself a very uncomfortable question: was all of his interest and intrigue in Pokémon Contests born solely from his affections for Dawn, simply because she was a Coordinator? Was he no better than Kenny, assuming that Conway's hypothesis was true?

"I can't believe you're actually doubting yourself. Are you really that dense? Tch… you're pitiful."

Ever since the battle with Gardenia, the voice that sounded exactly like Paul's would drop in on occasion within Conway's psyche, whether he meant for it to or not. At first he thought he had conquered the lingering antagonism born from their last argument (that doubled as the last time the two spoke to each other at all… not to mention the last time they had even seen each other), but that strange phenomenon turned out to be a bit more complex than Conway perceived it to be.

"Do I really have to spell it out for you? Think back to the one Contest you actually participated in. Even if you entered that Contest hoping that girl was watching you, was she really the reason you performed in the Plumeria Contest?"

Conway thought back to that day… that was months ago, but he still remembered it very clearly; it was easily the most polarizing day of his life.

"If your stupid crush was the impetus for entering the Plumeria Contest, you wouldn't have bothered getting me registered for it. You spent most of the day before the Contest teaching me what I needed to know about how to excel in that nonsense. You did that, knowing I couldn't care less about Contests, and that I only went along with it because I lost a bet. All that time could have been better used to perfect your own technique to impress the girl of your dreams. But that's not what you kept rambling about the day of the Contest, remember?"

What was just as polarizing as that fateful day was Conway's mental interpretation of his former friend. During his battle with Gardenia, the imaginary Paul was purely antagonistic. The voice did nothing but taunt Conway for using something like Smoochum to win the battle, but that ended up working in Conway's favor, as he became fired up to prove "Paul" wrong – and he did.

Now, though… well, the voice was still admonishing Conway for having so much self-doubt, which is probably what the real Paul would do, but this time the tone was clearly motivational. It urged Conway to think back carefully on his previous achievements.

Conway did think back to the details of key events; before, during, and after the Plumeria Contest.

Before the Plumeria Contest… Conway had planned for both Paul and himself to compete in a Contest if Paul lost their bet, which he did. Before doing so, Conway wouldn't tell Paul right away what he would have to do for losing the bet, and a few weeks passed before the taller Trainer cashed in on the favor Paul owed him. In other words, Conway could have chosen anything to punish Paul with. But contrary to his nature, Conway quickly decided to have Paul become a Coordinator for a day.

Those two rude upstarts, Janelle and Mina, were the cause of Conway and Paul taking the competition seriously. From start to finish, they both were squarely focused on defeating the duo. Conway took time out of his own training to bring Paul up to speed, and while he did hope Dawn would be watching the Plumeria Contest, Conway's biggest desire was to have himself and Paul in the finals, battling each other to determine the victor. That desire had absolutely nothing to do with Dawn; Conway really wanted to battle Paul one-on-one.

His wish came true, and that was a memory Conway cherished even to this day. After Conway won, his thoughts were not on Dawn, but rather, his own family. He gleefully dissed his own sister on national television after winning the Plumeria Ribbon. Dawn got a quick mention at the end of his speech, but it was honestly a footnote compared to how driven he was when he rubbed his success in his big sister's face.

He remembered how he playfully teased Paul at the end, knowing his friend did have fun and enjoyed himself, even if he wouldn't admit to it. Conway felt warm and somewhat special that day; he figured he may very well have been the only non-relative to actually give Paul a good time. He also recalled how Paul made it clear this was a one-time thing, and that if Conway wanted to keep traveling with him, he would have to give up on Contests indefinitely. Paul even pointed out that being a full-time Coordinator was Conway's best bet for eventually winning Dawn's heart, but regardless, his green-haired friend humbly accepted his fate, because he felt traveling with Paul was more important. Not because Reggie told him to – Conway really wanted to stick by his friend.

"You get it now, right? So stop being an idiot. You know you're not that shallow. I can't believe I even have to tell you that. You're so pathetic…"

Conway managed to smile. Even though he knew this was all in his head, it felt nice "hearing" Paul again, though it wasn't quite the same as hearing the real deal. But his creative subconscious had a point: being smitten for Dawn wasn't his only reason for his short-lived aspirations as a Coordinator. There was more to it, and that was enough to settle Conway's fears of being just as shallow as Kenny.

"Right, more serious matters," Barry agreed with the last statement Conway said out loud. Conway himself twitched a bit as his current traveling partner's voice brought him back to the here and now. "Like the Twinleaf Festival! So let's get a move on!"

It was nice timing, inadvertent though it was, for Conway to have a nice little moment indulging in his fondest memories of fairly recent events. Now it was time for Conway to put his foot down.

"I'm sorry, Barry."

"For what?" the blond asked tiredly, getting a bit irritated now of his partner constantly stopping their progress.

Conway looked Barry in the eyes as he spoke, choosing his words carefully. "You're going down a path I can't follow. There's no way I can take time out of my schedule to attend your hometown's festival. I thank you for the invitation; it's much appreciated, but if there's no way to stop you from going to Twinleaf Town, then…" He sighed, remembering how much Paul hurt him in a very similar scenario. But Conway was determined to be as gentle as he possibly could, even as he felt extremely uncomfortable doing this at all.

"Well, there is no stopping me from going where I wanna go," Barry interrupted, sounding like a petulant child by comparison. "It's Twinleaf Town or bust, man!"

All good things must come to an end. It was a stretch to call this a good thing, but given the choice of deafening loneliness and Barry's company… well, the latter edged out as far as Conway was concerned.

"Then this is where we go our separate ways," Conway solemnly decided. "I'm not ready to face Byron yet, so it won't be feasible for me to hover around the area and wait for your return after the festival ends."

Needless to say, Barry was caught off-guard. "W-wait, you're calling it quits just like that?! Over a festival?! How petty can you get?! Get that stick out of your butt and join the fun, why don't you?!"

"I have my reasons," Conway sternly assured. "There's a lot you don't know about me, Barry. And no offense, but I can't really trust you to keep my secrets to yourself."

That actually seemed to hurt Barry's feelings a bit. "S-so you think I'm just a blabbermouth and an airhead, huh? You should've spoken up if you had a problem with me!"

Well, Conway tried his best to be nice about this. Barry was trying his patience something fierce (surprise, surprise), but with Paul's ruthless, scathing rejection fresh in his mind, Conway was determined not to render the poor blonde asunder with the most destructive language imaginable.

He opted for a more generic phrase to solidify his stance.

"It's not you; it's my low opinion of you."

"Y-you…!" Barry shook his fist, gritting his teeth. "How dare you decide something this big on your own!"

"Like how you decided for me to take a break from battling Gyms to attend your hometown festivities?" Conway slyly reminded him. "Just look on the bright side: you can still go to the Twinleaf Festival. I'm sure you won't need me around to enjoy yourself."

Barry was taken aback by Conway's words. Even he wasn't used to such a sudden huge change in his life. "S-so… that's that? Our partnership is over? All because of a festival?"

"To be honest with you, from the start I didn't expect our alliance to last as long as it did," Conway admitted. "I would know; I've been in one before. But you have been in a lot of "open mouth, insert foot" situations with me lately; especially today. That's probably a sign that we need to go our separate ways."

"I-I guess," Barry didn't want to agree with him, but he couldn't deny that his earlier flub that caused Conway to flip out did scare him a bit. "But are we ever gonna see each other again?"

"Knowing my luck, we probably will," Conway muttered under his breath before facing his soon-to-be former partner. "Ah, I'm sure we will. But, uh… Barry, if it's not too much to ask of you, there is one last huge favor I'd like you to do for me."

Barry crossed his arms, already displeased with this abrupt break-up of their team. "Sounds like a tall order, but I'll hear you out, I guess. You've paid my fines more than any other person I've come across."

That was an understatement. Conway footed the bill for every single thing he and Barry did – even Barry's individual expenses. With a deck of his parents' finest credit cards, Conway did admittedly feel invincible when it came to financial matters, and it enabled him to be generous to a fault. Although, even without his parents' money, Conway by nature was a very generous person regardless; the acquisition of his parents' credit cards was a major enabler for Conway's already-existing giving nature.

"Remember when you assumed I was a spy?" Conway asked, to which Barry nodded. Honestly, Barry held that belief this entire time… why else would his traveling companion be so elusive about his personal details, and get super anal whenever Barry slipped up and said his real name out loud. "Well, you weren't too far off. I am working undercover, but I'm doing it solo for personal reasons. Ever heard of Team Galactic?"

"Heard of them?!" Barry gawked at his companion. "I had a run-in with those jerks months ago on Iron Island! That one lunatic chick was set on blowing up the entire island, can you believe that?!"

Conway blinked; he did not expect an answer like that. "W-wow. I… uh. That's news to me."

"Then you're not a very good spy, now are you?" Barry retorted; very snarky. "Wait, hold up. Are you a spy working with Team Galactic, or –"

"Absolutely not!" Conway interrupted abruptly. For once, he was able to get a word in edgewise. "I just found out recently that one of my own relatives has been part of that organization for… who knows how long. I also had a run-in with one of their admins not too long ago…" He hesitated to admit this to Barry; it was not only embarrassing to admit to it, but it brought back the nightmarish memories that continued to haunt him. "I ended up being kidnapped in the northern region. I was able to escape, but the circumstances led to a situation where I was very lucky to have survived… and right now, because of that, Team Galactic thinks I'm dead. And so does my hometown, thanks to Team Galactic leaking the incident to the media. I'm going to let them believe I'm dead as long as I can; that's my best chance to actually do something about this."

"Up in northern Sinnoh, huh," Barry noted, sounding serious for once. "What were they doing that almost got you Eighty-Sixed? Were they trying to blow up Mt. Coronet, too?"

Conway blanched at such an idea. "Uh, no. I was knocked unconscious and woke up in their helicopter. It was already hundreds of feet off the ground by that time. Some Pokémon started attacking the helicopter to keep them from making off with me, and it got torn apart pretty badly." He had to swallow in a breath to continue recapping the other most traumatic event of his life. "I ended up falling out of the helicopter while it was still airborne. A blizzard was raging during that time, so I imagine they couldn't see me surviving the fall. Anyone would have presumed me dead from seeing that…"

"That's… so cool!" Barry marveled, naturally missing the point of this conversation. "Oh man, why didn't you ever tell me about this before?! You just gained a point of coolness in my book!"

"Well, first of all, I doubted you would have believed it," Conway explained, sighing. He was starting to regret being so reclusive around Barry all this time. Now that he had decided to split up with him, only now was he learning that Barry did in fact know about Team Galactic – and had dealt with them personally under circumstances similar to his own!

"Secondly, though I don't think this bears repeating, I doubted your ability to keep it to yourself. You say whatever comes to mind that instant without any second thoughts. For as long as we've traveled together, you still slip up and call me Conway, when Conway is supposed to be dead to the world right now!"

Barry held up his hands defensively; at the same time, Conway sighed, realizing he had nearly blown up at Barry again, and took a step back.

"Geez, how was I supposed to know this was something serious?" Barry asked, but in a calm tone contrary to how he usually came off to others. "I thought you were using your alias because you wanted be cool. Like you were playing pretend this whole time. If you just told me the truth from the start, I totally would've taken this more seriously!"

Conway couldn't resist his urge to groan in annoyance, as his head hung low. "You didn't exactly make the best first impression, Barry. But it's pointless to ruminate over what could have been, now. This is why I can't go to the Twinleaf Festival with you. This is why it's time we fly solo. I'm not exactly earning these badges to compete in the Sinnoh League; I'm doing this to become stronger. The badges I've earned so far are markers for the level of power I have now."

"So you figure once you earn enough to be a Sinnoh League qualifier, you'll be strong enough to take down all of Team Galactic?" Barry presumed, with a look of cynicism on his face. "That's some logic you got there."

"Right now, I'm aiming to defeat my cousin," Conway clarified, with a sudden look of determination. "He's an admin, so that should at least put a major dent in Team Galactic's forces if I can defeat him. I've got a good idea of how strong he is, Barry. I've seen him battle, I've seen what Pokémon he uses, and I know how he battles. If I can qualify for the Sinnoh League, then I'm certain I can hold my own against him."

Barry continued to look skeptical of Conway's plan. "Assuming you get past the army of grunts to battle him one-on-one, right?" That made Conway falter a bit. "What I don't get is why you don't just seek help from Trainers who are already strong. Like my dad, or the Champion Cynthia… or even Paul!"

It was impossible not to wince at the mention of that name. But Conway felt that he had already made a mistake telling Barry this much already; Paul was another can of worms entirely and the two would be here all night if that can was opened.

"Yeah, that would be easy if I wasn't presumed dead right now," Conway reminded him. "My cousin set up a funeral for me and everything. I know the odds are stacked heavily against me, but I have the element of surprise on my side. So long as Team Galactic continues to think I'm dead, I know I stand a fighting chance. If I lose that, it's all over. So it's not worth the risk to expose my true identity to anyone. I had no idea until now that Team Galactic was even capable of blowing up entire islands until you told me!"

Barry tilted his head, nodding with unease. "Yeah, they're kinda hardcore like that…"

"Is there anything else you can tell me about them?" Conway pleaded. "Their agenda, a fuller scope of their destructive capabilities; anything would be a big help right now. Even after planting devices on my cousin to track down his movements, I have next to no idea what Team Galactic is really about. You say they nearly blew up Iron Island, other sources told me they caused a power outage in Veilstone City with the intent of stealing the meteorites…"

While it seemed ludicrous to be asking Barry of all people for crucial intel on his enemy's agenda, Conway knew this was his only chance to find out for sure if Barry's knowledge could truly aid him.

"Whatever they're up to, it's way over my head," Barry admitted, crossing his arms. "Something about Dialga and Palkia, they keep digging for some really weird stuff that glows, and… hm. I remember that red-haired lady said something interesting that day…"

Red-haired lady.

Conway's resolve to overcome his greatest enemy was able to overpower his kneejerk reaction to break down into tears, amazingly. Part of that was an extremely strong desire not to tell Barry why such a description would bring about post-traumatic stress, but besides that, he wanted to know what Barry heard her say. He couldn't afford to overlook anything, even if it seemed nigh on impossible to be of any use for his mission.

"D-do you… do you remember… the words…?" Conway was still shaken to the point of stuttering his words, though. Barry was quick to take notice to this.

"You feeling okay? All your twitches and twerks are kinda creeping me out," Barry remarked; sympathetic yet slightly insulting at the same time.

"J-just tell me what you heard that day!"

Barry reared back again; he was beginning to see why he really did need to split with Conway at this point. "W-well, like I said, she was totally set on blowing up Iron Island and almost made it happen," he recounted. "But, y'know, why go that far, right? It just doesn't make sense if you're an evil corporation trying to get away with all this stuff and be sneaky about it, and there's no way blowing up Iron Island wouldn't attract everyone's attention! Her answer to that was weird. Like, it didn't really answer the question… she just said her team doesn't have any need for the world, so they were gonna trash it and make a new one. Something like that."

This sounded like something Barry was making up. It really did. But Barry had no reason to mess around with Conway like this. He clearly didn't want to stir up the wrath he saw a preview of earlier today.

"That… but…" Conway was trying to find a way to comprehend this. On the upside, it did wash away the tension that latched onto him from the indirect mention of Mars. Now he was trying to wrap his head around the words of Barry's testimony. "How…"

"I told you it didn't make any sense!" Barry said. "If I had to guess with her wanting to nuke Iron Island, maybe she means Team Galactic literally wants the world to go kaboom, but how exactly are they gonna do that? Even if they could, it'd be stupid to do that because they'd be blowing themselves up, too! There'd be no one left to make a new world!"

Conway's expressions hardened. He couldn't deny that Barry was making sense for once, and that Team Galactic's methods seemed completely counterintuitive to their ultimate goal.

But if there was one thing Conway knew was true about his cousin, it's that he wasn't an idiot.

Someone like him wouldn't consider joining such an organization under those pretenses alone. No, there was more to Team Galactic than what Conway had seen and heard of so far. He didn't fault Barry for taking them at face value; no villain worth their salt would outright spill out their plans step-by-step to anyone who had the means to stop them.

"I intend to find out," he finally told Barry, fully resolute. "Thank you for sharing that with me, Barry. You've helped me see just how dangerous Team Galactic can really be. I promise I'll put what I've learned from you to good use."

"Even after hearing that, you still wanna take 'em out?" Barry asked, gawking. "Right, then. I get it. Personal stake with your cousin and all that. I guess I can respect that. I wouldn't mind helping you out, but…"

Conway quickly shook his head. "Even if the Twinleaf Festival wasn't splitting this duo apart, I wouldn't drag you into this. Stealth is my biggest and most important asset in being able to thwart Team Galactic. Barry… no one in their right mind would bring you along on a stealth mission, I'm sorry to say."

"You're lucky I gotta go to this festival, or I'd just keep following you to prove you wrong!" Barry barked back suddenly. Conway forgot how easy it was to rile him up.

But considering the current circumstances, Conway just sighed with a strained smile and took this in stride. "Thank goodness for the festival, then." Deep down, he knew he'd soon miss dealing with these quips and quirks once the duo went their separate ways.

He couldn't keep dragging this out, Conway just realized. Being free from Barry would enable Conway to be much more active in keeping tabs on Team Galactic and his quest to gain badges would go much more quickly… at the same time, Conway would be all by his lonesome, once again. It was a harsh reality to face.

"Thank you, Barry," he said; humble and sincere. "Thank you for telling me about your experiences with Team Galactic. And… well, thanks for keeping me company. If I may ask you for one final favor..."

"You're really pushing it, pal," Barry sneered. He didn't want to make it too apparent, but deep down he was reeling at the sudden reality of his own situation – he too would push forward by himself, longing for the companionship he once had. But for Barry, the change wasn't quite as drastic; his hometown was not far away from here, and once he reached his destination, he would be warmly welcomed by friends and family alike. That was a luxury he failed to realize just how lucky he was to have right now.

"This is going to be the easiest thing I've ever asked of you!" Conway assured, frantically waving his hands defensively. "I asked you earlier to not mention me to Kenny, remember? I'd like to amend that request... for you to not mention me to anyone. If at all possible, forget about me entirely. I think that would be to your benefit."

Barry couldn't help but look perplexed by this request. "S-so let me get this straight: I have to pretend you never existed?"

Conway solemnly nodded. "Really, you're a special case in that I think, in due time, you won't even need to pretend." It was extremely tempting to throw an insult regarding Barry's extremely short attention span, but he resisted. "It does sound a little harsh, I suppose, but it's for our own mutual benefit. Just pretend everything we've done together never happened. Think of it as a dream; whatever you need to do to erase me from your memory. Go about your life as if I never existed at all."

If Barry could manage that, (and out of every person Conway had come to know throughout his entire life, he sincerely believed Barry alone had the best ability to utterly erase a person from his memory) that would be a direly needed relief for Conway. Once the two went their separate ways, Conway would be powerless to stop Barry from spilling out confidential information. The possibilities of Conway's entire agenda being compromised were endless so long as Barry retained his memories of their partnership seemed endless. Conway wouldn't be able to sleep at night unless he was certain Barry could follow through on his final request.

"Then you're saying… even when I meet up with Dawn, you don't want me to say a word about you?"

That stung hard. "Right. Don't even tell Dawn about me. Don't tell your dad… don't tell anybody." Conway flinched at his own words; he had already accepted what he was sacrificing by choosing the path he now walked, but being reminded of what he had to lose to get this far continued to feel like a punch in the gut. "Once we go our separate ways today… that's it. Barry, I cannot stress enough how crucial this – not only to my success, but my survival."

Feeling the drama overwhelm him, Conway soon found himself on his knees, literally begging Barry to forget everything about him. "I need to be able to rest every night knowing you're honoring my final request to you. So please, please promise me that you'll honor this vow and stick to it."

Barry took a small step back, looking quite bewildered at how dire Conway made this scenario out to be. He was at a loss for words.

"Just forget we traveled together. Forget the three Gym Badges we won together, forget the Pokémon we captured together, forget the royal treatment you got from my parents' credit cards, forget that incident with our Heracross in Angel Grove City… and forget that we ever met. You have my word that doing this will make your life easier, while it will literally save mine. We both stand to gain from this. Can I trust you to do this for me, Barry?"

The air between the two seemed so stale and heavy now. Barry was still trying to comprehend how this conversation got so deadly serious all of a sudden. Conway said his task was a simple one, yet he made it out to be like the fate of the entire world rested on Barry's ability to keep this promise.

But he had listened to every word Conway said to him; Barry was fully aware of what he needed to do. He genuinely felt bad for Conway; even someone like Barry could tell the kneeling teen before him was hurting in more ways than one. He could see plain as day that there were layers of hidden depths within Conway that he wasn't fully aware of – and he was probably better off being ignorant of them.

While Barry hated having to be patient more than anything else, being stuck in a heavy, dramatic situation was high up on his list of dislikes as well. For his own sake and Conway's, he figured out the "perfect" way to assure Conway that he would uphold this crucial, sacred vow.

"Well… I never forget a face," he said with a hint of fondness in his tone. "But I guess I can make an exception!"

Conway's expressions of desperate sincerity faded to uncertain confusion. Not that he even had time to react, as…

"Alrighty then!" Barry loudly decided; resolution in his tone. "Twinleaf Town, here I come!"

Just like that, true to his abrupt nature, Barry sped off in the direction he originally intended to go. Before he was completely out of Conway's range, he looked back to his befuddled ex-partner and called out to him. "See ya never, Whatever!"

And then he was gone.

Conway stood up, brushing the dirt off his pants, all the while staring into the distance.

He flinched just then; a delayed reaction as he managed to process Barry's final words to him.

"That's…"

A very clever phrase, Conway wanted to say. But also pretty destructive, too. If Conway hadn't literally asked for it, he would have been seething with anger. Now he simply felt jealous.

He was the one getting the upper-hand on Barry for nearly their entire time together. At the very end, Barry out-witted him. Conway was torn between wanting to just give the boy the victory out of pity, or out-wit him as he always had.

But it didn't matter anymore. Barry was gone, and Conway was alone again.

"See, Paul, that's how you handle a break-up," Conway muttered to himself, even though he knew Paul couldn't hear him. He turned around, gathered his belongings, and resumed his journey in the opposite direction of Barry.

"It's true I could challenge Byron right now," Conway understood. "Paul challenged him with only five badges… then again, Paul's much more experienced than I am. He won with type disadvantages across his entire team."

Being that Paul's battle with Byron was literally the first Gym Battle Conway saw and experienced, it left a huge impression on him. It made defeating Byron feel like a much more daunting challenge than it really was.

"Byron's also big on defense," Conway recalled. "And I have to admit I'm more defensive-oriented myself."

He remembered Byron's words to him after Paul's victory. How something had to be sacrificed in order to reach the absolute limit of certain abilities. His Pokémon had top-notch defenses and were very strong, but that also made them extremely slow with next to no agility.

"Most of the Pokémon I have now are pretty slow as well," the bespectacled Trainer acknowledged. "And I can't fight defense with defense. Not against someone who's a master of it, anyway." He thought back on the Pokémon he currently had. "All of Byron's Pokémon are at least partially Steel-type. Heracross would be good to use against him, but there's no way it could wipe Byron's team alone." Sunny Castform would also be effective, but Castform was never really meant to be for this kind of battle. Conway caught it with the intent to experiment in Contests, and nothing more. It did manage to help him win a badge or two, but ultimately, Castform itself wasn't very satisfied doing that kind of work and it wasn't able to keep up with the others.

He had benched both Castform and Smoochum for these reasons; both were now enjoying some relaxation at Reggie's daycare.

It frustrated Conway as he thought about what types he had to use against Byron. Steel resisted so many types; he would have to be extremely careful about which Pokémon to pit against the Gym Leader. Slowking would be good for stalling, but its best means for offense were resisted by Steel-types. Aggron and Lickilicky faced similar problems. Shuckle was not a good choice by any means.

Some of them had useful Fighting-type moves, but that would only go so far. Nothing outside of Castform had Fire-type moves to utilize. Most were lacking in Ground-type utility, but that much could at least be rectified with some intensive training. Relying on hitting the weakness of Byron's Dual-types was risky business. From what Conway saw, he not only had to consider Steel, but Psychic, Ground, and Rock-types as well.

Well, possibly more. Byron very likely had more than just those three Pokémon; was there any guarantee that he would use the same team against Conway that he used against Paul?

"I still have room for one more Pokémon," Conway realized. "Maybe I'll find my secret weapon in the east. The others will get stronger along the way, too."

Now that Barry was gone, Conway had a lot more time in the day to work with in getting stronger. So he firmly decided to press further east, promising to himself that he'd only be in Canalave City again once he was ready to challenge Byron.

"What are you even doing here, Reggie? Shouldn't you be training?"

Today was Reggie's day off work. Rather than hone his own skills as he often did, instead he decided to help Maylene and the rest of her crew in renovating the Veilstone Gym. Finally, the renovations were nearing completion, and Maylene's future challengers would be able to battle her in her actual gym rather than some random backyard in the fields.

Reggie smiles as he looked down at his little brother from the stepladder he sat on top of. He was painting the gym's exterior walls along with Maylene.

"You read my letter when you came home, right?" Reggie asked. "I thought I made it clear enough."

Paul glanced the other way towards Maylene, who also sat upon a stepladder.

"D-don't give me that look!" Maylene sputtered; her arms shaking as she held her bucket of paint. "I kept telling Reggie he didn't need to come and help, but you know how he is whenever anyone says something like that…"

For once, Paul completely believed in what Maylene said. "Fair enough." His glare was back towards his brother. "I know you said manual labor can help strengthen your Pokémon, Reggie, but I doubt painting is going to get you where you need to be."

"Well, it is my day off," Reggie cheerfully reminded him. "The rest of the team was more than willing to take on the heavy-duty work, and this is actually pretty relaxing."

Paul let out a huff of exasperation. "Well, unlike you, I don't have the luxury to relax right now. I didn't plan to stay here all day, and I noticed all of my laundry is still in the wash," he pointed out. "What I'm wearing right now is all I have left. You're usually right on top of this, Reggie."

"Can't you clean your own clothes?" Maylene asked, somewhat irritated that Paul honestly expected his big brother to pamper him like this.

"N-no, it's not worth the hassle getting him to do it himself," Reggie said before Paul could get a word in. "Last time Paul tried doing laundry, the washing machine exploded with foam and bubbles and he came really close to burning something in the dryer."

Paul crossed his arms. He really wasn't in the mood for this right now. "Reggie, after everything you've told me, do you really think I'm in the mood to delay my journey over something like this?! Come on! Stop messing around!"

"Geez, are you that eager to challenge Volkner?" Maylene inquired. She knew Paul was all about business when it came to his preparations for a Pokémon League, but he seemed especially anxious to leave his hometown after being stuck in northern Sinnoh for several weeks.

It had been less than a day since Paul finally made it back to Veilstone City; even having taken the safer path from Snowpoint City, the distance between the two cities was still massive.

Paul redirected his glare right back at Maylene; he looked even more indignant than before.

The elder brother decided to shed some light on Paul's impatient (more so than usual) behavior. "I haven't been able to contact him since I left Snowpoint, Maylene. He's just now gotten up to speed on what's been going on around here while we were gone."

Maylene gasped, clutching to her bucket of paint before it could slip through her fingers. "Y-you mean..."

"Why am I always the last one to find out about these things?!" Paul suddenly exploded with frustration. "First the situation with the old man, and now Conway!"

"You would have found out a long time ago if you'd have let me get more than two words in every time you made an exchange on your team!" Maylene barked back at him.

"We'll deal with your rudeness towards Maylene another time," Reggie grimly decided, wanting to nip this altercation in the bud. "At least you're aware how badly you messed up now, right?"

Reggie was quite horrified to learn of what became of Conway after Paul forcibly parted from him. It wasn't until he finally came home, a couple of weeks earlier than Paul, that he learned the details of what really happened to Conway. He desperately wanted to help the young man who was considerate enough to accompany Paul for some of his journey, but though Conway contacted Maylene a few times to make team exchanges, his last conversation with the Gym Leader took place ages ago, when he sent Castform and Smoochum over to the daycare. He didn't say where he planned go next or what general area he would likely be in, so Maylene had to rely on calls from Conway to have even the vaguest idea of where in the region he might be in. Now that it had been weeks since Conway's last call, there really was no way to guess where in Sinnoh he would be now.

"What matters is that I'm getting to the bottom of this now!" Paul shouted back; the look in his eyes made it obvious he wanted to repent for this. This was the first time in ages Reggie had seen his brother actually want to apologize for his actions. "But you didn't give any hints on where in Sinnoh to find him in your letter, Reggie, so what am I supposed to do about this?!"

"The last time Conway made contact was before I came home," Reggie explained. "So believe me, I understand how you feel more than you know. I want to apologize to him, too…"

Paul shook his head, as he continued to lose what little cool he still had. "I'm so sick of you apologizing for everything that isn't your fault! You had nothing to do with this! Conway would have followed me anyway even if you hadn't asked him to! All of this falls solely on me, so I'm the one who's gonna find Conway and set things straight, get it?!"

"Wow…" Maylene couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You're really torn up about this. But I understand your frustration." She really did; Maylene was the one who had to deal with the brunt of Conway's own terror once he learned about his own situation. Even today, the Gym Leader still got the shivers thinking of her attendance at Conway's "funeral" and being face-to-face multiple times with Saturn in disguise. "Not only is this like finding a needle in a haystack, but Conway sounded like he really didn't want to be found by you."

That got Paul's attention, but from the way Maylene could see the rage in his eyes, she wasn't sure she wanted his full attention at this point.

"I-I mean it; that's what he said!" Maylene clarified, as she struggled more to keep herself steady on top of the stepladder. "That you said he was dead to you the day you two broke up, so there was no point to bother you with his issues now that everyone else considers him dead!"

"Then he's a coward!" Paul shouted. He really was losing it now. "Has he really lost that much sense of self-worth that he doesn't think he deserves to ask for my apology?! I'll hunt him down just for that!"

"Paul, you need to cool it, now," Reggie warned. It was never a good sign when he of all people sounded that ominous. "You're getting hysterical, and you're not going to accomplish anything like that. Remember what Dad said about controlling your emotions?"

That was a sore spot. And worst of all, Reggie had to expose it with Maylene in attendance. Maylene already knew by now the varieties of drama that happened in the Snowpoint area – as if Reggie wouldn't spill all the details to her…

"SHUT! UP!" Paul was heaving, now. Full of rage and vitriol, and completely beyond reasoning with. "I won't get anything accomplished while you're wasting time here and not finishing my laundry!"

Maylene noticed the tranquil fury building in Reggie's eyes, and she didn't like it. Not that Paul's behavior didn't warrant it, but she still carried a bit of trauma from the last time she witnessed a Reggie outburst. "Um, Paul, maybe you should –"

"YOU shut your mouth!" Paul hollered back. "You're the reason I'm being held back here instead of doing what needs to be done! As if renovating the Veilstone Gym is going to make you anything less of a pathetic Gym Leader! A shiny coat of paint on something worthless just makes it something worthless disguised as a lie!"

Reggie's expressions rapidly shifted from angry to panic as he frantically pointed towards the Gym Leader a few feet across from him. "MAYLENE! WATCH OUT BEHIND YOU!"

Maylene wailed, both startled and frightened by Reggie's tone. Her nerves rattled, she simultaneously looked for whatever was behind her and abandoned her post on the top of the stepladder… all the while forgetting that she was supposed to be holding a bucket of paint.

Paul too was inclined to drop his temper tantrum and look for whatever Reggie pointed at.

There was nothing coming Maylene's way.

But something came Paul's way – both from behind and right above him.

A second later, a disgruntled cry came from Paul.

Maylene, now on the ground, turned back to face the boys and saw quite a sight before her. She immediately covered her mouth with both hands to hide the smile she couldn't help but bear.

From head to toe, Paul was doused in neon pink paint.

"Oh, I guess I was mistaken," Reggie said with a deceptively innocent tone. "False alarm! My bad."

It was obvious he wasn't even trying to feign ignorance of the incident; Paul and Maylene were not buying into it.

Paul was frozen, horrified by what happened. It wasn't every day one got doused with two buckets of paint – especially when the paint in question was such an attention-drawing color.

"R-Reggie, you scared me h-half to death," Maylene weakly scolded as she hid her smile again and suppressed her urge to giggle.

A low growl started up; no points for guessing whom it came from.

"Well, Paul, that was one unfortunate accident," Reggie said, still pretending he regretted what happened. "But look at it this way: I said you needed to cool down, and what better way to do so than to take a shower? The gym's shower room is fully functional, so you'd better hurry and get cleaned up."

"YOU DID THIS ON PURPOSE!"Paul screamed at his brother. "This was my last clean set of clothes and you've ruined them! What are you playing at, Reggie?!"

Reggie raised an eyebrow at that remark. "On purpose? Why would you think I wanted this to happen to you?"

Paul angrily pointed towards Maylene while keeping his eyes on Reggie. "I know it was an accident on her end because I saw her freak out over your screaming, but you didn't have an excuse to let go of your bucket! You're still sitting on the stepladder, for crying out loud!"

To that, Reggie shrugged, all the while still smiling like a perfectly innocent angel. "You know I'm a little bit clumsy at times, Paul. I panicked too, you know."

"But you made it all up," Paul retorted. "You're the only one who didn't duck for cover. You wanted to ruin my clothes and make me look like a fool! It's not like you're the type who gives people jump scares just for kicks!"

Reggie just gave his brother the smuggest smirk anyone's ever seen. "Did you see me throw paint on you, Paul?"

"I don't need to catch you in the act to know you did it on purpose," Paul countered.

"But you still didn't see what really happened," Reggie shot back. "You know what they say about people who assume too much. All you have is circumstantial theories without any proof to back up your claim. So long as even the most remote trace of reasonable doubt exists, you'd be losing against me in court right now, Paul."

Paul's fists shook with anger, though his bitterness and rage was significantly suppressed by his very colorful appearance. "I've got half a mind to kick that ladder right out from under you."

"And that's why you need to take a shower," Reggie told him. "Remember, the longer you stay out here arguing with me, the harder it'll be to get that paint out of your hair."

That was something Paul couldn't argue against. His clothes were ruined for sure, but if he waited too long, his hair wouldn't be much better off. Clothes were replaceable, at least. Paul didn't want to finish the rest of his journey across Sinnoh with neon pink in his lilac hair.

"What about my clothes?"

"Don't worry," Reggie assured. "Once you're out of the shower, I'll have a fresh set of clothes laid out for you. Now hurry along, unless you want people to mistake you and Maylene for twins."

That finally got Paul to leave – he beelined to the nearest shower in the Veilstone Gym while Maylene looked on, feeling so confused about everything that just happened.

"Paul's right, isn't he?" Maylene quietly asked her secret crush.

"Yeah; I'm surprised it worked as well as it did," Reggie confessed, not feeling a lick of remorse for his actions. "I had a feeling he was going to be hostile towards us when he came here, but I just can't stand it when he takes his frustrations out on other people." He let out a sigh before hopping off the stepladder to approach his belongings he had set down a few yards back. "I'm glad he's so driven to make amends with Conway, at least. I didn't expect it would hit him this hard… yeah, he's definitely changed since he battled Brandon."

Maylene nodded; she definitely didn't like being on the receiving end of Paul's angry venting. "Well, you do want him to start finding Conway as soon as possible, right? He'll be stuck here a while if he doesn't have a clean set of clothes…"

"Oh, he's got a set all ready to go," Reggie assured, sounding a bit mischievous. He pulled out a medium-sized package from his belongings. "I meant to give this to him anyway, but wearing it should be fine, too. I think he'll be able to fit in this."

"You don't mean – ohhh…"

It took a while, but Paul managed to rinse the paint out of his hair during his shower. Thankfully he got to this before the paint dried, or this would have taken him all day. The paint on his skin was easy enough to scrub off, but by the time Paul was free of the sickeningly garish pink paint, the water in the shower had run cold. He stood silently under the cool water, now lost in thought.

The last thing he expected to come across upon returning to Veilstone City was his brother absent from home, doing something completely superfluous (in his opinion), and only leaving a long and heavily detailed letter explaining several incidents Paul never expected to come across.

For such a long time, he had been ignorant of Conway's whereabouts and the true repercussions of his cold-hearted abandonment. Never in his wildest dreams did he think the altercation with Mars would come back to haunt the both of them. Paul knew now the woman he mouthed off to back then was a Team Galactic admin; now it made more sense why she was able to easily dispatch two opponents on her own.

What struck Paul the hardest, of course, was the impact Team Galactic's meddling had on Conway's life. Beforehand, Paul outright told Conway he was dead to him. Now Conway was really considered dead to the world, and he's had to live his life under an alias with no ties to his family for all the time they'd been apart. He knew now that shortly after Conway was left to fend for himself, he only narrowly escaped hired thugs that were specifically looking for his "dead" body. In a way, Paul was very amazed and impressed that Conway managed to accomplish that without blowing his cover.

But he understood all too well what it meant to be "dead". Paul had a very hard time coming to terms with his disease. It was a miracle he was able to hide it from his family as long as he had, though Paul knew he couldn't hide it forever. He was so delusional over the revelation that he considered himself the "walking dead" if he didn't take as many unnecessary risks as possible. That much, at least, Paul had learned to control and move forward.

The truth of the matter was that Paul had doubted his feelings of "being in the right" about abandoning Conway ever since Reggie confronted him about it shortly after his battle with Brandon.

Now that he was aware of everything that happened, largely because of his choice to shun his friend when he needed his support the most, Paul was stricken with guilt and had no idea what to do with himself.

He would have been far more proactive now if he had even an inkling of Conway's whereabouts. But Paul knew he couldn't very well drop his journey just to aimlessly look for one single person in the entire Sinnoh region. At the same time, he was far too antsy to simply stay in Veilstone City and wait for the next time Conway made a call at the daycare. He'd already gone a few weeks without contacting the place, and Maylene said there was no set schedule for when Conway did make calls to her.

Paul was torn now, between wanting to press on towards Sunyshore City to challenge Volkner and score his final badge, and wanting to scour every inch of his home region to find the first and only friend he really had. The last time Conway spoke with Maylene, he had defeated Gardenia and gained his fourth badge.

That in of itself was mind-boggling. While Paul spent forever and a day in the Snowpoint area – all just to gain a single badge – Conway had obtained three (four, really) behind his back. It was hard for Paul to believe, thinking back on his amateurish performance against Maylene and how lucky he was to score a win over her in the end. But now that his entire life had changed, Paul believed these newfound hardships were bringing out the hidden talents Conway had all along. If he was winning badges this quickly, Conway could potentially be a threat to Paul in the Sinnoh League. That was under the assumption that he'd register, of course. As far as Paul knew, this was only a means to gage his power to determine when he would be ready to battle his cousin.

In short, it was no different from what Paul and Reggie were doing for their father.

Well, it was a little different. Paul and Reggie's goals were rites of passage; Conway's goal was a matter of life and his literal death.

Paul remembered his spur-of-the-moment determination to save Conway that day. He pursued a helicopter, got his Pokémon to tear it apart, and used his own body to cushion the fall that would have killed Conway otherwise. He had never gone to such lengths for anyone else before. It was that point, when Paul found himself alone in the snow and knowing Mars had kidnapped his companion, that he truly regarded Conway as a friend. He wouldn't have gone so far for an acquaintance otherwise.

One thing was for certain: Paul was not okay with how things were now.

He needed to find Conway, face him, and apologize. It was strange; Paul had never once felt such a strong need to apologize for anything he did. He already wanted to repent before leaving Snowpoint City. Now that he knew the whole story, it was unbearable to think of pressing on in his life leaving this matter unresolved.

Even if Conway wouldn't take him back (and in some ways, Paul felt that was for the best; he'd be one less person affected by Paul's drastically shortened lifespan), he needed to set things straight and apologize. He wanted Conway to live his life knowing he wasn't in the wrong that day.

Paul could have sworn he felt tears spilling down his face; amidst the cold water that rained over him, he felt something oddly warm trickle down his cheeks. He wanted to fault the cold water for why he suddenly had the sniffles, but deep down he knew that wasn't the cause.

He tensed as he heard a door open, before quickly regaining his composure.

"Paul? You still in there…?"

Oh. Him. Paul bowed his head and collected his thoughts, trying his best not to fly into a rage this time. "I'm almost done, Reggie."

"Huh. Your showers were nowhere near this long before…"

"That's because I wasn't scrubbing paint out of my hair all those other times!" Paul barked out. He couldn't help it; he knew deep down that Reggie was still trolling him.

"Okay, okay, fair enough!" Reggie didn't seem eager to poke the Beedrill's nest any more than he had already. "I'm just here to lay out your clothes for you. Come on out whenever you're ready."

"I'll be ready when you get lost," Paul said through gritted teeth.

Much to his relief, Reggie didn't say another word and quickly vacated the room, closing the door behind him. It was at that point Paul realized he really had been in the shower far too long, so he turned off the faucet and stepped out of the stall. He grabbed the first towel in sight and dried himself off before finding a smaller towel to deal with his hair. Paul's hair was extremely thick and just long enough to become bothersome to be left to air-dry. He wasn't going as far as to actually blow-dry it, but considering he had to scrub his hair way more than usual this time, it was only appropriate to take that into consideration. Rarely did Paul actually brush his hair, but again, he made an exception this time. However, he gave up less than a minute in after finding that a major annoyance to do, especially with his hair still mostly wet.

Finally, he looked towards the door where Reggie laid down a set of fresh clothes. At a first glance, Paul was baffled, because while he couldn't make out exactly what the outfit was with it folded so neatly, he was pretty sure he had little to no yellow or green in his collection.

Carefully, he unfolded the clothes and spread them out – his perplexed expressions fading to disbelief, and shortly after, another bout of sheer rage.

He slid the door open, only sticking his head out as he screamed into the empty hallway. "What kind of sick joke is this, Reggie?!"

"It's that or nothing!" Reggie's voice sung out from a distance, as if he fully expected Paul to get frazzled over this. It was easy to picture the satisfied smile on his smug and painfully adorable face. "Your choice!"

Paul growled and sank back into the shower room, slamming the door behind him. It was feeling all too likely that Reggie had planned for him to end up like this all along.

Deep down, Paul knew he definitely deserved some degree of shame. He just wished it wasn't Reggie doling out that punishment. Knowing he wouldn't be making any progress buck naked, though, Paul swallowed his pride and dressed himself.

Reggie smirked knowingly as he heard the sounds of shoes shuffling across the hallway. He and Maylene were taking a lunch break, and both knew soon enough Paul would be crossing by them. He had to get past them to get out of the Veilstone Gym this way.

While Maylene preemptively covered her mouth to hide her inevitable smiling/laughing, Paul's voice was heard shortly before he appeared from the corner. "Mark my words, Reggie: one day, I will get you back for this."

Then Paul was there for his audience to see: dressed completely in Conway's original attire (sans glasses, of course) down to his sandals. Unlike the Gym Leader, Reggie wasn't afraid to show his amusement and chuckle at the sight of his little brother.

Paul crossed his arms, imposing silent scorn as he waited for his brother to take it all in. He wasn't surprised to hear sputters from Maylene as well, but he overlooked them. For once, she wasn't the target of his ire; she was completely innocent. Reggie was not only openly declaring his guilt, but no jury would even convict him, given the circumstances that led up to this.

"Aw, it's almost a perfect match!" Reggie cooed through his laughter. "Your hair kinda clashes with the outfit, but at least it seems to fit! If we combed down your hair and gave you glasses, you two would be twins!"

Conway was a fair bit taller than Paul, so his clothes were a loose fit, but still easily wearable. The sandals were more of an annoyance, but they weren't falling out of Paul's feet with every step, at least. Paul's own shoes were just as ruined as his clothes, and he wasn't going to get very far at all trying to get through the Sinnoh region barefoot.

"Don't try your luck," Paul said with a low growl. "The more you do, the more I'll make sure you suffer later."

"Right, right," Reggie basically handwaved off his threat. "I was meaning to give that to you to deliver to Conway, but I don't think he'll mind you borrowing it. It might even increase your chances in finding him!"

That brought up a pertinent question itching in Paul's mind. "Why exactly did Conway leave his full set of clothes at our house, anyway?"

Maylene raised a hand up. "I can explain that. Since he decided to go incognito for the rest of his journey, Conway figured he'd be too easily recognized if he wore his usual outfit. He had to take a lot of stuff from his house during that phony funeral, so it wasn't any good for him to carry along anything he didn't absolutely need – especially if it risked blowing his cover."

"And it was no safer to bring any of his clothes from his own house, either," Reggie added. "So he had to leave with totally fresh attire. That's why I allowed him to borrow some of your clothes."

"You WHAT?!"

In truth, Maylene was the one who did that – but she had a strong feeling if Reggie had been there at the time, he would have given his blessing without hesitation. To nobody's surprise, once Reggie was filled in on the situation, he affirmed that Maylene was right to make that decision, and that her assumptions on his judgment were equally correct.

"He needed a disguise, Paul!" Reggie reminded him. "Of all places, Veilstone City is the most dangerous place to be roaming about in the open! He couldn't exactly go to a store here. Besides, if you find Conway, you'll get your clothes back. Maylene said he's self-funded through his parents' credit cards, so I'd be surprised if he hasn't bought himself new ensembles since he left home."

"B-but! Those were my clothes!" Paul sputtered; he seemed to understand why things happened the way they did, but that didn't stop him from being possessive of his own belongings. "You didn't' think to ask for my permission for my clothes?!"

Maylene was getting irritated with such blatant immaturity. "If I knew where to contact you, I would have, Paul! Conway was long gone the next time you called in! This wasn't exactly a situation that Conway could afford time to wait around for you, especially when even you wrote him off as dead!"

"Besides that," Reggie cut in, in full big brother authority mode. "They may be your clothes, but don't forget who paid for them. Also, don't forget who cleans them every week. And on top of that, don't forget whose roof your clothes are under every day."

Paul tilted his head a bit, looking skeptical. "Doesn't all that actually fall under the old man's jurisdiction?"

"So?" Reggie's eyes were glaring daggers into Paul's. "Do you think he wouldn't do what Maylene and I did to help Conway out, even if it meant doing so without your consent?"

Reggie had him there. Paul slumped and pinched the bridge of his nose in sheer annoyance. "Ugh… case in point."

"Just think of this as incentive to find him all the faster," Reggie told him, now considerably gentler. "You do want to make up with Conway, right?"

Paul huffed and turned his nose up at his brother. "Why are you asking such stupid questions? You heard me earlier."

"Good!" Reggie nodded and smiled. "I'll get to the rest of your laundry when I'm good and ready. In the meantime, you'd best head out and find your friend! You've already made the Pokémon exchanges you wanted at home, right?"

Paul nodded as he gathered his belongings, still trying to adjust to being in Conway's clothes of all things. "I took care of that first thing; I'm all set."

"Guess we'll see you around, then, Paul," Reggie said as he waved his hand goodbye. "Thanks for stopping by. Good luck on Volkner, find Conway no matter what, and be sure you stop by to visit again before the Sinnoh League, okay?"

It was beyond annoying for Paul to see Reggie be so casual towards him after deviously orchestrating this cruel and unusual punishment of forcing him to wear Conway's clothes.

"We'll see how things play out," Paul said noncommittally. He nodded to Reggie and turned around to leave.

"Have fun being in Conway's shoes for a day, Paul!" Maylene called out… which was enough to make Paul stop dead in his tracks. Maylene immediately regretted every word she said.

"Maylene."

Paul not barking out in anger was somehow just as intimidating as him doing just that.

"Y-yeah…?"

"What kind of pathetic Gym Leader paints their gym bright pink?"

The Gym Leader was speechless.

"That's what I thought."

Paul had left the building.

Later that same day, Conway had made it to the Valor Lakefront. Since he was in close proximity to Veilstone City, he made sure to keep himself as inconspicuous as possible and not interact with any people. There was always the remote possibility of some adult employee being a friend of his parents' and just might recognize his face. Once the late afternoon passed into evening with a gorgeous sunset slowly passing down over the lake's horizon, the growing darkness made Conway feel a little safer to put his regular glasses back on and untie his hair, but he still kept on his outfit for today.

Incidentally, that outfit was the one identical to Paul's default ensemble.

Conway had yet to find a Pokémon he deemed suitable for defeating Byron's. He hadn't gained any new badges since breaking his partnership with Barry, and he was beginning to feel antsy. For a while, he rested against the railing and gazed out towards Lake Valor.

It made Conway feel better to remember the good times, even if they were indirectly associated with the best/worst day of his life. He remembered back when he was so composed, taking care of an ailing Paul while helping him with research on Regigigas. Conway never did find out if anything ever came of that; he assumed Brandon would have reached Snowpoint ages ago, but that was the downside of cutting himself away from everybody he knew and cared about.

Back then, he accepted that he really was just messing around and trying different things without putting any actual commitment to them. Paul was right on the money, calling him a Jack of All Trades, Master of None. His desire to foster a friendship with Paul only happened when he made the effort to keep company with him, rather than watching him from afar like he did during the Hearthome City Tag Battle Tournament. He was there when Brock managed to force a chunk of exposition out of Paul regarding Chimchar. From that and from watching how he and Ash bickered endlessly as tag team partners (yet still somehow winning), Conway was very interested in learning more about Paul. Between then and meeting him again in Canalave City, he learned of Paul's familial ties and was curious why they weren't more exploited in the media or sung out like the gospel by Paul himself.

Because the latter was definitely the thing about Barry.

Conway owed a lot of who he was now to Paul – and not in a bad way. He hated thinking about his desire to at least thank him for that, let alone actually getting to travel together again. If his interactions with his own father were anything to go by, Paul definitely had a proclivity to holding a grudge. So Conway fully expected to still be "dead" to Paul – a very different kind of dead that many others thought of him as.

Before he could cry once again over his past regrets, Conway was stirred by a sound – a very particular sound.

Being near the water, it was no surprise to see a Gastrodon – the blue eastern sea variant – lugging about and feeding on the grass a few yards away from the angsting teen.

The large, slug-like Pokémon was more than enough to draw his attention away from his problems.

"Gastrodon," Conway acknowledged. "The Sea Slug Pokémon. It has a pliable body without any bones. If any part of its body is torn off, it grows right back."

He smirked and brought out one of his Pokéballs. "Long ago, its entire back was shielded with a sturdy shell. There are traces of it left in its cells."

Conway carefully and quietly inched closer to the feeding Gastrodon. "It lives in shallow tidal pools. That explains why it's here. And it's a Water and Ground-type, to boot… I've needed some Ground-type training with my Pokémon, but with you on my team, my job will be way easier…"

He spoke quietly enough to not rouse the wild Pokémon. "I probably should have listened to Gardenia back then; if I had a Grass-type right now, capturing this would be a piece of cake. But I've got to make do with what I have to work with, so…"

"Slowking, come forth! It's capturing time again!"

Slowking was the one who enabled Conway to capture Shuckle earlier on. It was also Conway's MVP, so it stood the best chance of capturing this particular Pokémon. Slowking would have to rely on its psychic prowess to best this Pokémon, but their shared partial Water-typing would be to Slowking's advantage. That's assuming this Gastrodon only had moves of its two types, of course…

Upon Slowking's appearance and the general sounds coming from any Pokémon being let out of its Pokéball, Gastrodon was finally made aware that it was not alone. Its stance changed drastically, as it re-positioned its body and steeled itself for the impending battle.

"First thing's first," Conway announced to Slowking. "Let's be sure it won't be inclined to escape. Use Swagger!"

Slowking nodded to its Trainer, then focusing its gaze solely on Gastrodon. It crossed its arms and stood imposingly over the Sea Slug Pokémon as a strong, red aura emanated from Slowking's body. It proved to be impossible for Gastrodon to ignore – its beady black eyes soon gave off the same bold red glow that matched Slowking's aura. Gastrodon consequently took on a far more aggressive stance towards its opponent.

"Excellent," Conway remarked on the success of Swagger. "This may make Gastrodon harder to capture, but now it's completely disoriented and focused to battle. There's no way out."

Conway's confident stance soon turned to one of shock as he watched the confused Gastrodon use Body Slam on Slowking all of a sudden. Luckily, Slowking was trained to take hits very well, but a sudden, instantaneous attack like this knocked the wind out of it. "Ah…! Right! No time to gloat; time to focus!"

Slowking looked to its Trainer, waiting for the command to fight back. "Even under Swagger's influence, it seems to have a bit of an aggressive edge to it," Conway postulated as he studied Gastrodon's movements. "So we can't afford to hold back. Psychic; let's go!"

Slowking glowed in a more subtle blue aura, as per usual when using its strongest move. It willed the force to take over Gastrodon's entire body. It seemed to work, but Gastrodon was notably struggling to resist Slowking's power. This proved to be a cause for concern for Conway.

"Give it your all, Slowking!" Conway encouraged his first Pokémon. "Raise it high, slam it down, and follow up with Water Pulse!"

Gastrodon's ceaseless struggling made this task a chore for the Royal Pokémon, but it did manage to raise Gastrodon high up enough to slam it back to the ground with enough force to make it hurt. Gastrodon had no time to react to the follow-up Water Pulse attack, which made a direct hit to its target. This sent Gastrodon skidding across the grass a few feet, and stuck leaning on one side as it struggled to self-right itself.

"Perfect!" Conway beamed with delight. It seemed he worried for nothing. "Okay, Slowking, one more Water Pulse and we've got this in the bag!"

Slowking called out in agreement as it charged another gleaming ball of water, then flung it. The hit connected, and Gastrodon was knocked even further off-balance.

Conway reached into his carry-on bag and procured an empty Pokéball. He'd been waiting for this moment for weeks… "It's time! Pokéball, do the thing!"

His aim was precise – the ball bounced against Gastrodon's body before popping open and, though mysterious technological magic, enveloped the Pokémon in a red light before being sucked into the ball, which then closed.

Both Conway and Slowking were not new to this, at least. They watched carefully as the Pokéball containing Gastrodon fell to the ground and started to wriggle side-to-side as the center button flashed red. Conway's hands bunched up into fists as the wriggling seemed to take an eternity to subside…

Only it never subsided. Just when it seemed to concede to the capture, Gastrodon broke out of the ball, now looking significantly more ticked off than before.

Conway huffed and shook his fists in frustration at the failed capture, but quickly dropped his tantrum to notice Gastrodon charging another attack.

"Uh, this could be bad," Conway murmured, taking a step back along with Slowking. "Let's switch to defense for the moment," he told his Pokémon. "We don't know all the moves it can do, but once it lets loose, counter with another Psychic and I'll try my hand again."

Slowking nodded in acknowledgment this plan, keeping a close eye on Gastrodon while Conway took out another empty Pokéball.

Gastrodon was charging something fierce; brown water started to surface around its body. The puddle's diameter swelled dramatically in a short amount of time as Gastrodon concentrated. The brown water from the giant puddle started to form a ring of miniature water spouts that circled around the Sea Slug Pokémon, growing larger with every complete rotation.

Conway gulped. "W-well, if I were a betting man, I'd say that's Muddy Water, but that Gastrodon seems to be exceptionally creative with it…"

Then Gastrodon shut the Trainer up by showing its true power: the ring of water spouts receded into the puddle, only to fuel the massive geyser that shot Gastrodon up thirty feet in the air, suspended by the dirty, surging water below it. This Pokémon was peeved, and it was going to prove it.

"HOLY BALONEY, FUDGE, AND MUSTARD!" Conway screeched; being surprised like this always made him descend into an incoherent mess. "Protect, Slowking! Protect!"

Slowking didn't need to be told twice; it formed a barrier around itself while Conway scrambled about, trying to get out of the line of fire. That Gastrodon clearly wanted to take both offenders of its peace out.

Its willpower to punish this duo was intense. Gastrodon literally rode the geyser as it aimed downwards straight at Slowking. It was quite a challenge to hold off such an intense Muddy Water attack, but it held firm…

… Until Gastrodon itself slid down the geyser to intercept, that is. The trajectory made by this variant of Muddy Water was perfect for Gastrodon to slide down and pin Slowking with its massive body. Slowking's Protect was consequently broken and on top of being pinned by Gastrodon, it could do nothing to stop the remainder of the Muddy Water onslaught.

Conway wailed again; he'd never seen a Gastrodon do this. He didn't even think such a feat was possible! If he could capture this Pokémon, battling Byron would be a breeze!

… But he still had to capture this Pokémon before fantasizing about that.

Gastrodon wasn't as heavy as Slowking, but its unorthodox body structure made it function like a living suction cup. It had pinned Slowking to the ground and the Royal Pokémon found itself unable to do anything to free itself.

There was one quick way to rectify that: while Gastrodon's attention was focused on Slowking, Conway threw a second Pokéball. "C'mon, stay in it this time…!"

Conway's throw was on the mark again, and Slowking regained its freedom as Gastrodon was forcibly thrown into round two of itself versus the Pokéball.

"Are you okay, Slowking?!" Conway's worry for his first Pokémon's well-being came first; he rushed towards the recovering Slowking.

The Royal Pokémon softly assured its Trainer that it was okay; just very overwhelmed. Even it had never known a Gastrodon to have this kind of power, or even such a level of aggression. It looked towards the shaking Pokéball and Conway followed its gaze, realizing Gastrodon hadn't broken out yet.

"Come on…" Conway quietly pleaded. "You're one scary Pokémon, but I really need something like you to achieve my goals…"

Conway's prayers went unanswered: at the last second, Gastrodon broke out of the Pokéball once again, and it was livid.

This time, Conway wasn't taking any chances. "Quick, Slowking! Use Psychic and toss it back as far as you can…!"

Now Gastrodon was the one who had no time to react; to its surprise, it found itself levitating again, only to be flung several yards away from its two opponents. It landed up a hill, out of sight for both the Trainer and his Pokémon.

Afterwards, Conway let out a sigh of relief. "We probably just made it even angrier," he realized. "But we need some distance from that Gastrodon and think up a strategy. That's one wild and unpredictable Pokémon."

Slowking nudged Conway in response, pointing towards the hill that Gastrodon was thrown back to. It was still out of sight, but no more sounds were made and nothing was visibly happening from their vantage point.

"Do you suppose you knocked it unconscious with that last throw of yours?" Conway asked Slowking. The Royal Pokémon nodded back to him. "Well, there's only one way to find out. Let's get up there before it comes to!"

The pair raced across a now nasty, sodden field (collateral damage from that Muddy Water charge-up) and up the fresh, grassy hill to see if they had indeed felled their opponent.

Just as Conway and Slowking were about to see what lied beyond the summit of the hill, another voice was heard – a human's – and he froze in place. Slowking only made it a couple of steps further before realizing Conway was no longer matching its pace.

Conway clearly heard what was said…

"Frenzy Plant – full power!"

The rumbling of the earth he felt beneath his feet proved to Conway that another Trainer was up there confronting that Gastrodon now. A trainer with a Pokémon that knew Frenzy Plant… odds were, it was a Trainer with a Torterra.

That assumption was soon proven correct as a loud "TERRA!" roar was heard during the move's execution.

Part of Conway was terrified to finish his climb up the hill, but a bigger part of him wanted to press forward: not just to see what was going on, but to see… if that other Trainer's familiar voice was real, and not just in his head this time.

Slowking understood Conway's hesitation. It gave its partner a reassuring pat on the shoulder before pressing forward – with or without Conway.

"H-hey!" he quietly wailed. "Wait up…!"

Slowking knew that would work. It knew Conway wouldn't let his own first Pokémon run off on its own under these circumstances.

By the time the duo made it up to the top of the hill, the evening sky transitioned to twilight. It was much darker now, and more difficult to make out the details, but it was hard to miss a Torterra out in the open. Not far away from the Continent Pokémon was the definitively defeated Gastrodon.

"Pokéball, get it!"

Even before the streetlights flickered on, Conway knew who that Trainer was. He was frozen in place again, barely registering the Gastrodon he struggled so much against being trapped inside a Pokéball that was not his own.

He didn't even react to the distinctive sound of a successful capture from the Pokéball, nor did he pay any mind to the sparkles that emitted from it.

The streetlights lit up fully, showing Conway he couldn't be hallucinating this: that Torterra was undoubtedly Paul's, and Paul was right there next to it. He seemed oblivious to Conway's and Slowking's presences, however.

"Perfect timing," Paul said to his Torterra as he approached the Pokéball containing his newly-obtained Gastrodon. "Frenzy Plant's precision has improved a lot since last time," he complimented. "But don't rest on your laurels and assume that's the best you can do," Paul said much more harshly, as is his wont. "Somewhere out there's a Torterra far better than you. Remember that."

Torterra roared, acknowledging Paul's words before taking notice to the two spectators they had. He let out another grumble towards his Trainer to alert him of their presence. Conway was petrified with fear and anxiety when he saw Torterra's eye fall on him, so there was no way to avoid being seen now.

Paul picked up the Pokéball containing Gastrodon, only for it to fall out of his hands the second he took notice to Torterra's calls and quickly noticed Conway and Slowking standing right there at the edge of the hill's plateau.

"C-Conway…" Paul tried to keep himself from stuttering. "That's… you, isn't it…?"

Fearing the consequences of remaining silent (for who knows what reason), Conway nodded to his fellow Trainer. His knees were shaking already. "Y-yeah. It is." For once, Conway found himself nearly tongue-tied. "Hey, Paul."

The two stood a few yards away from each other, staring at each other in the most awkward silence the pair had ever experienced.

Both hearts were pounding – both for the same reason.

Both were in awe – Conway half expected Paul to use Torterra to attack him, like he threatened to do when the duo went their separate ways on Route 216. Paul half expected Conway to turn tail and run, refusing to even give Paul the chance to make amends for his past actions.

But the fact that neither party made a move of any kind confused them both. They didn't understand the gravity of each other's situation yet; they wanted to, but doubted they would be given the chance.

Torterra watched this silent exchange with annoyance. As patient as the Continent Pokémon was, it knew this reunion was something Paul had been anticipating for ages now. It had finally happened, but now his Trainer was frozen with fear: his most despised weakness. There was no telling how long Paul and Conway would stand there and stare at each other in silence if left to their own devices, so Torterra let out a heavy stomp on the ground with its right foreleg to rattle them both back into reality.

The equally annoyed Slowking meanwhile established a telepathic link between itself, Torterra, and their two nerve-wracked Trainers.

Simultaneously with Torterra's earth-shaking stomp, Slowking made both its and Torterra's feelings audible within their Trainers' subconscious:

"Just kiss and make up already!"

"Whaaaaaat–?!"

"What the–?!"

Conway instantly knew who to blame for that. After recovering from the stumbling courtesy of Torterra's hand in this, he gave his Slowking a narrow-eyed side glance before holding out his Pokéball. "Slowking, return now."

Once Paul regained his footing, he too gave Torterra a very menacing glare. The joke was on him; Torterra knew Paul well enough to call his bluff. So Paul did as Conway did: "Torterra, you too."

Both Pokémon were recalled to their Pokéballs, leaving only the awkward Trainers by themselves to sort this mess out.

Then it was back to the mutual staring.

This time it didn't last forever; Paul was the one to break it when he noticed a much unexpected detail about Conway. "… You're wearing my clothes."

Conway blushed at being called out for that, but soon regained his composure. "Uh… right back at you, Paul."

Paul scowled in return, looking down at himself. He tried not to blush out of sheer and total embarrassment, but that proved to be an impossible task. "Touché," he conceded. "I'm not wearing this by choice, though."

"Same," Conway concurred. "Today's my laundry day, so…"

"Say no more," Paul gently cut him off. "Small world we live in…"

Conway nodded in agreement. "Um, no offense, but it's hard to stay focused talking to you like this…"

"I understand," Paul agreed. "Follow me; there's a public bathroom not far from here. If… you're up for it, we have a lot to talk about once we switch out."

Being offered this so good-naturedly made Conway blush again. He had to once more ask himself if he was dreaming, but a quick pinch proved this was really happening.

"Right. I-I mean, of course. Thank you, Paul."

After another period of awkward silence in which the two stood in neighboring bathroom stalls, tossing each other individual articles of clothing over the partitions separating them as they were taken off until both were back in their proper outfits, Paul led Conway back towards Lake Valor. They sat together on a bench, though on opposite ends of it, underneath an ocean of stars decorating the night sky. The moon was out, shining down on the dark waters ahead of them.

"This takes me back..." Conway broke the ice this time, fondly remembering the last time he and Paul were together under the stars.

"Mm." Paul felt the same, but he wasn't quite ready to engage in the mushy stuff just yet – not when there was still business between the two of them to resolve so that there would be no further misunderstandings. He then remembered the first order of business to get taken care of: he dug a miniaturized Pokéball out from his coat pocket and pressed the center button to enlarge it. Conway's fascination with the night sky was broken when he heard the sound of the Pokéball growing to its true size.

"I didn't realize the one struggling out there to catch this Gastrodon was you," Paul explained. "I just noticed the way Gastrodon utilized Muddy Water, and it seemed like it wiped you out – like that Psychic throw was so you could make your escape."

"Oh..." Conway slumped, feeling a bit down on himself for his sub-par performance less than an hour ago. "Yeah, that wasn't exactly a shining example of my skills, huh. I didn't really have any Pokémon with Grass-type moves on hand, so I knew it wouldn't be easy to capture it. I guess I overestimated my abilities back there... you got to see how pathetic I really am."

Paul sternly looked to Conway; he resisted his impulse to berate Conway for putting himself down after everything that's happened and instead offered the Pokéball to Conway.

"Your Slowking's last Psychic attack did a lot of damage to Gastrodon," he pointed out. "I'm guessing you didn't see it from where you were at the time. It landed not too far from where I was. Even though it had taken a lot of damage, Gastrodon still had the audacity to attack me on the spot. I remembered that I'm kind of short on Water-types in my team, and that's where Torterra came in."

Conway stared at the Pokéball he as offered, clearly confused, before urging Paul to finish recounting the event they just went through. "And you had Torterra one-shot it with Frenzy Plant, I presume." Paul nodded. "Well... it's good to have a clear understanding of what happened out there, but why are you offering that Gastrodon to me?"

"W-well, it's obvious you and Slowking did most of the work wearing Gastrodon down," Paul said in an oddly defensive tone. Conway could tell he was embarrassed over this, as Paul decided to turn his head away from his former companion in a vain attempt to hide his reddening cheeks. Conway couldn't help smiling at this; though Paul was being oddly nice to him for reasons unknown, at his core he hadn't really changed much. "I pretty much stole that capture away from you, so it's only right that you take what you've earned."

"It's not like you to go so easily on me, Paul," Conway told him earnestly. "You saw Slowking and I floundering out there like idiots. I wouldn't have been able to capture Gastrodon on my own. Besides, I didn't expect it to be so aggressive when I first saw it. I think it's better suited to someone like you." He gently pushed Paul's offering hand with the Pokéball back towards his person. "Consider it a peace offering, if nothing else. I didn't really think this through, anyway. I saw it and figured it would be a perfect secret weapon to use against Byron in the future... but if I can't control its temper or its power, it's clearly not meant for me."

Paul looked back to Conway just then. "Ah, that's right You're collecting badges now, too..."

The taller trainer cupped his hands together in his lap, twiddling his fingers. "Yeah, I am. And since you were wearing my clothes, it's safe to assume you went back home recently and Maylene and Reggie told you... well... everything that happened since..."

"I got the gist of it," Paul affirmed; he knew now was a critical moment to stay calm and collected. Some very painful and unpleasant territory was about to be revisited. "But they're both upset that they don't know where you are or how you're doing right now, since you haven't kept in touch. Honestly, I'm still having a hard time believing I already found you despite having no clues or leads. I've been left in the dark about you up until this morning, Conway."

Conway couldn't help but gape at that. "Wow, that's one crazy coincidence. Or maybe a stroke of fate; who knows. But... wait. You wanted to find me?"

"Did you really buy into my crap back then?" Paul seriously asked him. "It wasn't obvious to you that I was the one who did you wrong?"

At first Conway tensed up; talking about that day felt like such a heavy and daunting task... but he remembered how miserable he had been lately because he had no one to talk to about it and the downward spiral his life went in the aftermath. A good deal of weight on Conway's shoulders seemed to evaporate into the air just then.

"Well... I assume we're both being 100% honest with each other here," Conway said; Paul quickly nodded back to confirm this. "Okay, then. Yeah, what you did was beyond cruel and heartless, Paul."

"And I'm sor–"

Conway reached over to press a finger over Paul's lips to silence him. "Let's get some things off our chests before we commit to apologies, okay?" His tone was light, but the look on his face told Paul he was dead serious. He simply nodded again to Conway without saying a word; just like that, his lips were no longer held shut.

"What you did really messed me up," Conway continued. He looked up at the sky – seeing the infinite swarms of twinkling stars in the clear night sky calmed his nerves. "But what Team Galactic did to me was infinitely worse than anything you could hope to do to me, Paul. And if it makes you feel better, you should know I have thought back on our incident through your perspective. I've seen your family and how they interact... I know how rough your life with your family has been, even though your hardships are completely different from mine. I get the feeling you didn't have many friends while growing up, right, Paul?"

"I was friendless by choice," Paul stiffly claimed, attempting to look nonchalant on the matter. "For most of my life, I got by just fine because I didn't have friends dragging me down. Then there was you..."

"You refused to acknowledge me as a friend up to the very end," Conway recalled. "Though I have a feeling you did care about me. I can't imagine why else you went out of your way to save me after I was kidnapped by Mars..."

Paul swallowed down a breath and focused his gaze to the starry sky; he too was calmed by the celestial scenery. "That moment, when I woke up and realized you were gone... it's like my body went on auto-pilot," he recounted, sounding so uncertain of himself all of a sudden. "All that was on my mind was that you were gone, I knew why you were gone, and I had to get you back by any means necessary. At that time, in the split-second I had the ability to question what I was doing even though it was completely insane and improvised... I realized that... yeah. I saw you as my friend. My very first friend."

It warmed Conway's heart to hear those words from Paul's mouth. It was so surreal, but it was like a part of his soul had healed just from that statement.

"I suppose you're my first friend as well," Conway said. "My first friend who I got to hang out with like real friends do, at least. But what I've learned about you during our month of traveling together is that your trust is extremely hard to earn. I suspect much of that has to do with your family history; you feel you've been let down a lot by your dad and your brother, huh?"

"Trust me," Paul bitterly muttered, thinking back to how things ended up for Brandon at the Snowpoint Temple. "At this point, you only saw the tip of the iceberg of disappointment and failure."

That was going to be an interesting story to hear another day, Conway thought. "But that's what has left the strongest impression on you throughout your life, I've noticed," he pointed out. "I presume it's not a stretch to deduce that you didn't want friends because they would ultimately let you down in some horribly destructive way and betray your trust. It's easier to not trust anybody, isn't it? You're isolating yourself, but at the very least you never have to worry about suffering the sting of betrayal from anyone else."

While his desire to make amends was not compromised so far, Paul was a bit bothered by how well Conway read into him. It was like Brandon all over again. "Where are you going with this, Conway?"

"What I'm saying is that I understand why you behaved the way you did that day when we split apart," Conway explained. "After a month of resistance with me being around you every single day, you finally caved in and considered me your friend. With that, you placed your trust and your faith in me – that I would never do you wrong. And hours after you did that... well, I ended up failing you and betraying your trust. I didn't mean to, of course. If you had been where I was, you would've seen I really had no choice in the matter."

"You don't have to go into the specifics," Paul assured him. "You willingly gave up being a Coordinator and your best chance of winning over that Donna girl just so you could keep traveling with me. Then you refused to be taken to your cousin, who you still thought was your idol at the time, unless I could come with you. Those two people are the ones you adore above everyone else – but in the end, you still chose me over them. I... didn't take that into consideration back when I was accusing you of betrayal."

Conway smiled and almost laughed at Paul's inability to remember Dawn's name. "Well, when it comes down to it, neither of us were in the right that day. Of course we weren't going to be in our right minds after all of the crazy things that happened that day. That's not counting the fact that we both made it to the finals of a Contest just a couple of hours prior to that incident."

Paul agreed to that; the Plumeria Contest was like a blur in his mind now. It was insane to think back and realize that colorful, glorious event happened side-by-side with an assault, a kidnapping, and near-murder courtesy of Team Galactic.

"If you're that willing to forgive me for how much of a monster I was that day, I'm willing to forgive you for... well, everything I accused you of, whether it was true or not," Paul decided.

To seal the deal, he extended a hand out to Conway.

"I still feel like there's a lot I owe you, Conway," he said. "And even more that I should properly apologize to you for. Now that I know what you've been going through since we split up, I feel like I need to do whatever it takes to help you out. If you'll have me, that is."

Conway accepted Paul's hand and shook it, though he looked as if he as in a daze. Again, he asked himself if this was real – that he finally regained his dear friend after months of hardship, loneliness, and the company of someone who mostly served to try his patience to new limits.

Much to Paul's surprise, he found himself being drawn into a tight hug from Conway. But it soon didn't come off as that surprising; Conway was always more liberal with his emotions than Paul ever was, and the sight of leaving Conway in the snow on Route 216 in the midst of a heavy blizzard, him crying in desperation not to be left behind, and Paul himself discarding him like a worthless Pokémon he captured, then released... that left an imprint on Paul's memory and he had been haunted by it ever since.

He could hear Conway's sniffling, he felt his shivering, and it was obvious the poor boy was trying not to cry. But for once, he'd be crying out of happiness.

Paul didn't realize just how important he really was to Conway. But he couldn't deny, based on how explosive his own behavior was earlier today after finally learning what happened to his friend, that Conway was just as important to him... he just didn't realize it until now.

He didn't hug back, but Paul lacked the will to push Conway off him. He let the elder teen hug it out, getting all the stress out of his system. He correctly assumed that even with all the heart-to-heart talk they've had tonight, there was still much, much more for each of the to share together when it came to everything that happened while they were apart.

"S-so... that means we're traveling together again...?"

Paul rolled his eyes, yet retained his smile. "As I said before, if you'll have me, then welcome back, Conway. This sounds weird coming from me, but... you've been missed."

His green-haired companion finally pulled away; his eyes still glistening with tears welling up. "I've missed you too; more than you know! Oh, you've got to tell me more about what you've been up to, Paul!"

"I'm pretty sure we both have a lot to talk about," Paul figured."But first, we should find the nearest Pokémon Center so I can let Reggie know I found you. He's been dying to talk to you for weeks, you know."

"O-oh, has he?" Conway looked a bit flustered. "I never did properly apologize to him for failing to uphold the promise I gave him. I do owe it to Reggie to let him know I'm alright. I swear, Paul, your brother feels more like family to me than my own blood relatives."

Paul stood up from the bench. "Oh, I've seen what your family's like, remember? I imagine it's not hard to outdo them when it comes to being like family to you."

"Geez, I have so much to fill him in on, too," Conway murmured as he followed suit with Paul. "This'll be a long night..."

"In that case, we can save the call for tomorrow morning," Paul offered. "It's getting late, and I haven't had dinner yet..."

"Say no more!" Conway practically glowed with the moonlight as he flashed his parents' credit cards to Paul. "The Valor Lakefront has an amazing five-star resort and the famous Seven Stars Restaurant! Don't even think of saying "no" to me, Paul! This is a milestone event for the both of us and we deserve to dine like deities and rest like royalty!"

Paul gave his friend a flat, unimpressed stare. "You made that alliterate on purpose."

"Hah! Nothing gets by you, does it, Paul?"

"Just shut up and spoil me before I start trying to resist your stupidly absurd generosity."

With that, Paul and Conway reunited – both as friends and traveling companions – after months of separation, with trials and tribulations testing the both of them as individuals. And while there was a lack of understanding between the two, Paul and Conway kept each other in their hearts, which enabled them to overcome obstacles they otherwise would have failed.

As the duo ventured to their next destination, a nagging thought lingered in Paul's mind.

Now that he would have a partner by his side again, how long would he be able to hide his condition from Conway...? The last thing Paul wanted was to spoil this heartfelt reunion with the harsh reality of his newfound condition. Like with his family, Paul knew it would be wrong to hide it from his friend forever, but he still struggled with figuring out how to break the news. After all the pain he inflicted on Conway courtesy of his cruel nature alone, he didn't know how he'd live with himself to make Conway suffer with the knowledge that their friendship would be permanently rendered asunder by Paul's genetic inheritance.

The thing about Conway was that, like Reggie, he was very keen on details most others overlook. Conway knew Paul well enough by now to know whether or not he told the truth. And being the curious type, Conway likely wouldn't rest until he broke Paul down. Paul had a feeling it would be far worse for Conway to learn the truth on his own, which was more and more likely to happen the longer Paul put this off...

But that would be a concern for another day. Tonight was a happy occasion, and after everything Paul had been through over the past few months, he was just as eager as Conway to relax and celebrate the rekindling of their friendship.

For better or worse, the balance had been restored. Paul took one final look back at Lake Valor before catching up with Conway. It might have just been his eyes playing tricks on him, but Paul could've sworn he saw a teal blue hue across the lake against the moonlight. He, along with every other kid who grew up in Sinnoh, was told stories of the various Legendary Pokémon that watched over Sinnoh. The Guardians of Sinnoh's three Great Lakes were often told about to children before bedtime. Azelf, the Guardian of Lake Valor, was known as the "Being of Willpower". It gifted people with the ability to rise up and overcome any obstacles coming their way.

The aura matching Azelf's color... perhaps it was out and about tonight? Did its presence give Paul and Conway the ability to understand each other and become friends again?

Perhaps it did... perhaps it didn't. But there was one other pertinent epiphany that came to the terminal young man thanks to the experiences he went through tonight.

Paul finally began to understand why Ash traveled with an entourage of friends now.

( TBC )