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Lucian frowned, tapped his glasses back into place with one finger. "I'm . . . not sure yet." He shook his head. "I'll need to discuss this with Brock. You'll take the night to rest and acquaint yourself with Elgyem. Steven's Skarmory will need to recover from its travels."

"We'll let you know in the morning." Alder stood, reached behind Lorelei to retrieve her empty mug, then started around the room to collect the rest. "And you'll keep in touch. You and Brock will need to check in regularly. We don't know what the situation is. I expect plans will change when we do. Just now, our goal is to make sure everyone is safe and in reach. We need to pool our resources." He glanced from Wallace to Lance, frowned, turned to Lucian.

The Psychic nodded, understanding. "Yes, I've already asked she be sent over. Percival nearly has it mastered now, in any case. I expect she'll be here shortly."

Alder took Lucian's mug and nodded himself. He turned to ZeeZee and Ballade with a slow, wide smile. "Thank you both, ladies. You're both welcome to go enjoy the afternoon. Get to know those pokemon. Unless," he added, remembering how he'd neglected to offer any earlier, "you'd like some cocoa first."

"I want dirt and something to climb and nothing man made," Ballade declared. Cocoa was tempting, but she seemed to be still in a house, which was ridiculous. And if she stayed much longer, she was going to have to ask just who Silver's father was and why everyone made such a big deal about it.

Alder's grin went lopsided. "A very reasonable wish."

Ballade grabbed ZeeZee's arm. "Come on. I'll introduce you to Fafnir first--unless you want hot chocolate on a tropical island."

▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉ ☆ ★ ☆ Steven

His heart was beating fast, his nerves were tense, and his lungs were surprised to find air. He opened his eyes and saw dark rocks above him, lit up by a yellow-tinged electric light. But the ocean... or was it that white trap of a hospital... but then there was an old building of red and tan... where was he?

“Tch, thith.” a blue and red face nudged his own in worry.

Starting to calm down at that, Steven reached up and patted her. “Thanks, Scarab,” he said quietly, then tried to sit up to figure things out. This made him briefly dizzy, but then he was able to recall that he was in Mount Mortar. Cynthia was fast asleep a few feet away. In the area around them, a few of their Pokemon were also asleep, while Cynthia's Eelektross was awake with the Armaldo, but keeping an eye on the cave rather than just on him.

Scarab clicked and started shifting through his hair. As far as he could figure, she was checking for little bugs when she did this, even though that usually didn't happen. When he watched two of her kind interact, they would do that to each other. He let her do that while thinking over the dream that had woken him up.

Or rather, a nightmare of drowning. That had happened a lot in the hospital when they hadn't drugged him up enough to not dream. Dreams like that used to never happen to him. But, he had never nearly drowned before. He couldn't quite remember everything. However, he could guess that Scarab and Morgan had taken turns carrying him while he was in his confused state. At one point, Gale had come out and had tried to carry him too, flying low and keeping a pace that the two in the ocean could follow. And then he'd fallen off the Skarmory's back during an increase in his head pain.

Morgan had managed to get him back to the surface, but Steven was certain that he'd been pulled several feet under when he couldn't swim. He recalled having a panic attack then... or maybe later on. Whenever it was, his Pokemon had realized that he was no longer reliable for directions. Maybe they should have realized that sooner. Then again, most of his team had known him for years, and as a result fully trusted him. And the ones who would have had the mind to notice he wasn't thinking straight had been in their Pokeballs due to them not being of much help on the open ocean. However, he did have images of his Claydol Shaman acting as a guide, levitating over the ocean even though he normally didn't like that kind of thing.

Although maybe Morgan shouldn't have been so trustingly obedient in letting him guide them out into the middle of nowhere in the ocean. Steven could see the Empoleon maybe doing that kind of thing if it was Wallace instead. It was unusual for a Pokemon who had had only one Trainer to be that way towards another Trainer, save for very mild or well-mannered Pokemon (of which Morgan was neither) or for the occasional highly charismatic Trainer (of which he'd seen better examples of). Also, there was a pattern of Pokemon being more responsive to child Trainers, which actually made an intelligent and kind ten to thirteen year old an incredibly difficult opponent in a Pokemon battle. But that didn't apply here. Well his own Pokemon did do what Wallace asked of them most of the time, so it might just be familiarity.

But then where was his friend?

Determined not to think on that too long, he lay back down and tried to get back to sleep.

-+-

In the late afternoon when he was on top of Bell Tower, Steven had taken a brief nap when overcome by exhaustion, both in a lot of physical activity after days of little to none and in the stress of trying to pull together this plan before Omega got its wits together and sent someone after him. He'd only meant a light sleep, but had ended up dreaming. Had it been a dream? Or had he actually made contact?

“Why did you save me alone? There were a lot of good people out there with me! They could have all died...”

“You alone had come into our seas.”

Somewhere out in the ocean, his Pokemon were taking a break. They had found an unmanned tower in the middle of the water. In the north, there was a bright beam of light sweeping across the starry sky. But it had been a long time; the four who had been out with Steven were tired and needed sleep. So the Cradily had come out and anchored himself onto the tower, then held Steven securely out of the water while the others slept.

He was drifting in and out of consciousness then. For a while, the pain in the back of his head was intense. But there was a point where he didn't even feel that. Instead, he felt detached from things, as if his body didn't matter. His Pokemon were working so hard for him, which made him feel happy and peaceful. He thought he heard Ritz squawking in alarm, but that only made him smile and feel safe enough that he could just drift away...

And then a sharp pain rudely filled his mind, reminding him of his own life.

“The Pokemon with you hold a deep love for you, and when they realized that you were dying, within their grasp and within the distant sight of land, they cried out with such grief that we heard and took actions to save you.”

He was back on land again, barely able to hold himself up with his arms and knees. There were a number of Pokemon with him, mostly his own, but one of such power that he could feel it deep in his bones.

“But we do expect something from you in exchange.”

-+-

When he woke up that time, it was Shaman watching over him, and Cynthia wasn't there. Steven stayed down this time and wondered at how that had almost made him as afraid as the dream of drowning. Had that been a muddled product of his sleeping mind, or had that also been a memory?

He cursed softly and tried to pull a pillow over his head only to realize that he didn't have a pillow.

▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉☆ ★ ☆ Leah

Leah got up that morning and wasn't sure what to do. It was odd; after about a year of a regular schedule in running the tea house and learning, she and the other girls were not in Ecruteak and didn't have to keep to that schedule. In fact, things might be different now. Where were they going to go after Cynthia and Steven got here? Or were they going to stay here for a while?

While she was here, she could have her Espeon and Umbreon out with her as much as she wanted. That was great. They sat by her while she did her usual morning prayers and then did some study out of one of the books they had taken with them. However, it would be more fun to play with them outside. After telling Yue she was going to walk around Blackthorn (Mia had already gone out), Leah took Amber and Tide out with her.

After a while, she clambered up onto one of the large rocks at the edges of the hidden village. As she didn't have to represent the Kimono Girls right now, she was wearing a skirt, t-shirt, and sneakers that were easier to do so in than her usual attire. Leah sat up there and looked over Blackthorn, Tide soon sitting half on her lap while Amber tried to climb up to a higher perch.

“There isn't much to do around here, huh?” she said. “I guess we could keep walking around and climbing rocks.” She hugged the Umberon. “But we are together, so that makes things great even if it's just that!”

Pleased with that, Tide nosed her cheek before licking her.

Leah giggled. “Yeah. Anyhow, I haven't seen any other kids around. And all the Dragon Tamers around here seem really serious. Especially Clair. She seems kinda scary, doesn't she?” Leah swung her feet out. “Really strict. Of course, Cynthia is too, but she's nice even when she's telling you to do something properly. Clair didn't seem too happy to hear about that battle we had last night. Mostly cause he got away, but we couldn't stop his Abra from teleporting like that.” She sighed. “I wonder what happened to Dad. Why's he with them? I hope I don't run into him again.”

But that was too sad to dwell on for now. She looked up at the cloudy blue sky and saw a few of the Dragon Pokemon that were flying around on patrol, keeping this area safe. The few she had seen so far seemed like their Trainers, serious and tough. Although according to Cynthia, that could be said of any Pokemon under a Trainer. Over time, they came to be like their Trainer in some ways, although they stayed as individuals too. It was like how Yue's Vaporeon was gentle and quiet like her, while Mia's Flareon was more social and strong-willed. How were Tide and Amber like her, though?

She nearly looked to them, but then she saw a pair of Dragonites coming down with a third Pokemon, this one not a Dragon. It was a white bird that had a few other speckles on her belly. Was that one of Cynthia's? “I think we'd better check this out,” Leah said, jumping off the rock once Tide was out of her lap.

The Dragonites, their riders, and the Togekiss came down not too far away from the rock Leah had been sitting on. The last chirped out a greeting as she stopped by them, coming up and holding out one of her small legs. There was a letter attached with a string.

“It's a trained one, I'm sure of it now,” one of the riders said. “You know this Togekiss?”

Leah nodded as she stated untying the string. “Um, yeah, she belongs to Si... I mean, Cynthia. Thanks, Tawny.”

“She's a little conspicuous, but she was flying high,” the other rider said.

Cynthia didn't have any other flying Pokemon, which was why she would have sent her. Leah got the letter and uncurled it to read.

'To my girls- We're in Mount Mortar at this time. If he manages to stay alert for half an hour, we'll consider moving closer today. I'm not sure when we'll get in. I'll send word if we change position. If we could get help in bypassing the icy path, that would be best, but let's not take unnecessary risks. Please let the leader there know and help out however you can. Make use of the perishables or hand them over so that they don't go to waste. I hope we'll get there safe and soon. -Cynthia'

“What's happening over here?” Clair's boots were even harsh sounding against the dusty rock ground here. Leah looked up at her. There were several Pokemon with her, probably waiting on orders.

“Got a messenger Pokemon come in from Cynthia,” one of the riders said.

“Um, they're in Mount Mortar,” Leah said, feeling her mouth go dry at trying to talk to this powerful woman. So she handed the note over instead of telling her the rest.

After looking the note over, she handed it back along with a small notebook. “He can't be that bad off if they got far in there. But we could pick them up if they get to the entrance of Ice Path. Let her know that.” Then she turned to talk to the two dragon riders.

“O-okay,” Leah said. Taking the pen off the notebook, she wrote a note to send back. 'Matron- We got here okay last night, even when I got lost in the cave. You two be careful. The leader says that they can get you at the path entrance if you need it. I'll let the other two know soon. -Leah'. Then she rolled it up so she could tie it back up on Tawny's leg. “Avoid the towns, okay? And whatever Cynthia told you. You ready to head back?”

The Togekiss chirped cheerfully, like she was still energetic. So Leah patted her head before letting her fly back west to meet up with Cynthia again. As she was a smart Pokemon, she'd be able to find her way back.

Clair seemed done with the two dragon riders, as they got ready to take back to their sentry positions elsewhere in the mountains. Leah handed the notebook back. “Thanks. Do you need us to do anything?”

“Don't get into trouble,” Clair said. “Find something productive to do, if you must, maybe some cooking or cleaning.”

“I can bake cookies,” Leah said, thinking over what they had taken from the tea house kitchen.

“If you can find someone willing to let you borrow a kitchen,” she said. “Excuse me.” Then she headed off, taking a small phone off her pocket and talking to someone.

Hadn't she just suggested to help with cooking? Whatever she meant by that, Leah was pleased. Surely there'd be someone willing to let her make cookies in their kitchen. She looked down at Amber and Tide. “This will be fun! Come on, let's look around the houses.”

The Espeon and Umbreon cheered in agreement and hurried off with her to find a place.