By now Lucia was used to saying goodbye. It was the only constant in her life since the day she was born. Still, it never seemed to get easier, especially now. She had been stuck in her own thoughts and hadn't even been listening to the person ranting in front of her. That was until the person grabbed Lucia's shoulders and shook her, "Lucy, listen to me or I'll punch you!"

Lucia was snapped out of her thoughts by being shaken. She looked into the blue eyes of the person shaking her before flicking their forehead, "Chill out, Maddie. You don't need to punch me." The girl in front of her had to be Lucia's longest friend, having known each other since they were twelve. The dumb blonde stereotype was true with Maddie. She was the funniest and nicest person you'd ever meet, most of the time, but she often forgot she had a brain.

Maddie huffed in annoyance and rolled her eyes, waving Lucia off, "Yeah, yeah. Sue me for caring about you." Her melodramatic voice rang through the small corner of the large train station.

"I've already listened to your lectures on the way here. Yes, everything is set up legally. Yes, I have housing arrangements. Yes, I'm good on money. Yes, I'll be fine. And yes, they don't know where I—"

"Jeez, I get it!" She put her hands up defensively, "You're so mean."

Again, another voice butted into the conversation, "Can the two of you quit it already?" The voice came from Lucia's other best friend. The girl had medium length light brown hair with freckles scattered under her hazel eyes, "We won't see Lucia for Arceus knows how long, and you idiots choose to argue about nothing?"

"Ugh... you're such a buzzkill, Evie." Maddie huffed in annoyance and smiled before pulling Evie closer towards the others in a side hug, "We're just playing around."

In response to Maddie, Evie rolled her eyes before looking at Lucia. Her expression was solemn as she looked at her, "How much time do you have before you have to board the train?"

Lucia had been so wrapped up in the conversation and her own thoughts that she had completely forgotten the time. She pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket, the time reading 5:25 AM. For a moment, she stared at the lockscreen of her phone. The picture was of the three on the day of their Senior Prom. In the picture she was wearing a long dark green, sparkly dress. They had all gone with their respective partners at the time but had taken a picture, just the three of them.

Even in the short glance at the screen, Lucia already knew how different she looked. Her curly black hair was more unkempt than before and as Evie has said, her red eyes had lost most of their joy. Her dark skin was covered in more cuts and scars than in the photo. Her clothes were much worse as well as she was currently wearing gray sweatpants and a long sleeve white t-shirt under her black jacket. She sighed before looking back up at her friends, "Considering that boarding starts at 5:30, only about five minutes."

It was easy for Lucia to see the disappointment in her friends faces, without even being able to see her face, she knew she had the same expression. Seeing their saddened expressions Lucia smiled slightly, but it was easy to tell it was forced, "Hey, it's all right. We'll keep in touch, I promise."

Evie sighed quietly, "You're right. Let's make the most of the time we have left."

In the short amount of time they had, the three said their goodbyes. Meanwhile, their Pokémon said their goodbyes to each other as well. The difference between the amount of Pokémon she had compared to Maddie and Evie was comical. The two of them had 5 Pokémon each, meanwhile Lucia only had two.

An alarm rang on Lucia's phone that was set for 5:30. Before saying her final words to Maddie and Evie she stuck her thumb and index finger in her mouth, creating a whistle to signal her Pokémon, "Kaladin, Arlow! Get over here!" Her two Pokémon nodded to the other's Pokémon before running over to where the trio of girls were standing.

Her first Pokémon and the ace of her small team was Kaladin, a Garchomp who stood at just over two meters tall. The blue bipedal dragon type Pokémon looked like a land shark. His large tail swished on the ground, kicking up dirt on the ground. Most Garchomp had yellow eyes, but Kaladin's were red, just like Lucia's.

Her second Pokémon, Arlow, was a Titaneon, an evolution of the Pokémon Eevee. Instead of fur his skin was a sheet of smooth metal. Around his neck there were bits of sharp titanium hanging off like a collar, it was also hanging off the bottom of his ears as well. The Pokémon also had the same red eyes as Kaladin but was much smaller and stood on four legs. He was about a meter tall, half the size of her other Pokémon.

Before Lucia could even turn back to her friends Maddie threw her arms around her neck. Lucia hugged her back and Evie joined in as well, turning it into a group hug. She didn't know how long they had stayed like that before a train whistle blew, breaking them apart.

Maddie looked at Lucia with tears in her eyes, "I'll miss you so much!"

Evie nodded as well and spoke more calmly but the sadness in her voice was easy to hear, "You better call or text the two of us every day or Maddie and I will drag your ass back to Hoenn."

Lucia couldn't stop herself from bursting out into laughter at that, "Don't worry I will." She grabbed her two Pokéballs from her belt and returned Kaladin and Arlow to it. She picked up the cargo backpack on the floor where all her essentials were, "Bye girls." They all hugged again once more before Lucia waved goodbye as the other girls said bye again and took off in a light jog.

Nearby to where Lucia was there was a small ticket booth where a middle-aged man who she assumed was the station master was shouting unintelligible words. As she got closer, she was finally able to understand what the man was saying.

Honestly, she didn't think the man's voice could get any gruffer, "Move it along people! Come get your boarding passes." Lucia got up the short line in front of the booth and stood behind a young woman with brown hair. The line moved quickly, and she was near the front just a few minutes later.

She paid no attention to the conversation in front of her with the girl and the station guard when it was her turn. But Lucia couldn't help herself from listening in when she heard the guard's voice turn to rage, "Look here brat. It says the train and seat number on the ticket. It doesn't take fucking rocket science to solve it. Now scram." The girl paused for a second and she could see her noticeably shift before scampering off. The man at the window rolled his eyes before locking them with Lucia's, "Next!"

Under her breath she sneered at the man, "What a lovely person." She walked up and slid the ticket needed to board the train under the glass patrician. The man roughly grabbed the ticket and brought it towards himself.

He looked down at it and shook his head with a sigh of anger and disappointment, "Another one for Reborn City, aye? They really have been pushing that new league of theirs."

"League? What league?" She raised an eyebrow at the statement.

"Place for arrogant trainers to try and prove themselves." He didn't look up from the ticket while he spoke, "I need to see some ID." Lucia grabbed her ID from the same pocket where her phone was and slid it under the glass.

The guard's eyes scanned it over before his eyes widened, "Seventeen?" He looked back up at Vero. His lips turned upward, and the man began to laugh, "You can't seriously expect me to believe a minor is traveling to a region as broken and fucked up as Reborn all by herself."

She shot the man a nasty glare, "I am, in fact. And I would appreciate it if you would fill out the pass."

Instead of doing his job the man just laughed again, "Sorry, sweetheart. I'll have to confiscate this ID. You know, make you stay here a bit longer..."

Lucia wasn't an idiot and could see exactly where the man was staring, down at her chest. By now she was over this whole thing and had to get her ID from the creep holding it. She reached onto her belt and clicked Kaladin's Pokéball. He came out of the ball in a flash of red light and stood next to her. The man stared up at him wide-eyed. Because he still had her ID Lucia slammed her hand down on the counter in front of her, her glare boring into the eyes of the man, "I'm a minor, remember? Now, do your fucking job and fill out the boarding pass."

Apparently, the man didn't feel any shame or humility as he scowled at Lucia and Kaladin before picking up a pen and filling out the pass. They stood in an uncomfortable silence for a minute before the man aggressively slid the pass under the glass, "There's your damn pass."

She grabbed the boarding pass and narrowed her eyes at the man as he still hadn't given Lucia her ID back yet, "Give me my ID."

The man was seething with anger by now but still held onto her ID, "Look, between me and you kid, Reborn City's a total dump. Why trainer folk keep heading out there in droves is beyond me."

Before she could even say anything, Kaladin leaned forward towards the glass and growled lowly at the man, his pupils narrowed into slits. The man recoiled from her Garchomp's look and quickly gave her ID back. Lucia immediately snatched it before he could even attempt to grab it again and glared at the man as he scowled at her again, "Off you go now, you little bitch."

Kaladin snapped at the man and mocked biting him, causing the man to jump back. Lucia and Kaladin snickered at the man, and she could hear a few people behind her in the line laughing as well. She returned Kaladin to his ball, smirked at the man, and walked off towards where the trains were located.

She eventually arrived at the train and looked down at her ticket again just to make sure, "8R750, huh?" The train wasn't all that impressive, but she was used to it. It was a simple black train with metal in a uniform line near its wheels. What appeared to be the symbol of Reborn laid on the front of the train. The symbol was a simple black circle with an X-shape over it consisting of four colors, sapphire, ruby, emerald, and amethyst.

A few seconds later she went up the steps to the train to find that the interior was just as basic as the exterior. Wooden floors, brown walls, flimsy wooden tables, small lamps that hardly illuminated the room, and bright red seats that looked like they were made of sandpaper.

Lucia's eyes scanned the numbered seats as she looked for hers, 5D. As soon as she found it, she threw her backpack onto the seat and herself a moment later. She woke up early to get there and the sadness of leaving Maddie and Evie behind was hitting her as well, making her exhausted. She rummaged through her pocket and pulled out a small case containing earbuds. She put an earbud in her left ear, leaving her right ear open in case anyone was to come by.

She went on her phone to her music app and put her playlist on shuffle. A pop song began to play, and she leaned back in the chair, ready to nap on the train ride. About two to three minutes later the train began to rumble. The train then departed from the station and began to roll towards Reborn City as Lucia began to doze off.

***

On top of a small rocky mountain stood a large dog-like Pokémon with snow white fur. It's blood red eyes remained untouched by the Tourmaline Desert's raging sandstorm. A large dark blue scythe shaped horn attached to its same-colored skin indicated the Pokémon's species. Absol, the Disaster Pokémon. Said wherever it is spotted great misfortune will soon follow.

The Absol howled as a sleek black train with the distinct symbol of Reborn on the front whizzed past where it stood. It dug its claws into the thin layer of sand below its feet before jumping onto the train tracks. It narrowed its eyes at the train before the sandstorm picked up again, engulfing the Absol in sand with only its eyes remaining visible.

Inside the train car was Lucia, sleeping and oblivious to the outside of the train car. Eventually she was awoken by the train whistling, indicating that it was close to Reborn. She stretched her arms and sighed, putting her earbuds back in the case and back in her pocket.

For some reason, a woman with silver hair was talking to every passenger on the train. She wore a black and white off the shoulder top along with a checkered belt, tall boots, and a black scarf. Lucia must say that the purple pants were an interesting choice, but they did match the woman's eye color. She was talking to another passenger in a seat adjacent to Lucia. Lucia sighed and closed her eyes again, not caring.

Lucia sighed internally when she heard someone sit across from her. She had wished to be left alone but it seemed like the world had other plans. She opened her eyes to see the same silver-haired woman she had noticed earlier, carrying a clipboard filled with papers.

The woman gave her a cheery smile, "Hello! It's you're turn now. My apologies for the wait."

She raised an eyebrow at the woman, "Hello as well. I wasn't waiting for anything, and I'm sorry but, who are you?"

"Oh, right. My name is Ame. I'm the manager of the Reborn League. I'm here to meet the people that have signed up for the league."

"Sorry but I never signed up for anything, much less a league."

"You can always sign up for it right now. If you'd like to, of course." She gave a reassuring smile, "It would be great if you do! We're finally starting to get things off the ground again."

Lucia had of course heard of leagues, many young kids had always wanted to participate in one, her included. It sounded fun to her, and she'd happily participate but she was curious about one thing, "What do you mean by again?"

"There was an... incident... a few years ago that left the whole region almost completely abandoned... even by Pokémon." That made Lucia gave Ame a skeptically look which she noticed and quickly went to recover, "Uh... but don't let that worry you! It may not be an ideal place but our Gym Leaders are like nothing you've ever seen before. I think you'll find Reborn to be a region like no other too!"

"If you don't mind me asking, since you're the league manager, what are you doing on the train?"

"I'm coming back from business out of town. I figured that I might as well introduce myself early to get a head start on everyone's registration." She looked at Lucia hopefully, "So, what's the verdict. Are you planning to enroll in the league?"

A grin appeared on Lucia's face, "I don't see why not. Let's do it."

Ame beamed with excitement, "That's great! May I see your boarding ticket and ID please, please?"

Lucia dug through her jacket again and gave her the items, "Of course."

Ame scanned over the two articles and compared them to each other, "Hmm... Lucia Anahera." She removed the pen connected to the clipboard and wrote down information. After a minute she looked back up at her, "Okay, I've got you down and you're all set. We're almost at Grandview Station. After we disembark, simply follow me to the Grand Hall. I'll give you essential items to kick off your journey through Reborn. Sound good?"

"Sounds good."

"Great! Then if you'll—" She was cut off by a red light appearing from Lucia's Pokéball. Arlow popped out of it and stood on the top of the seat growling at something behind Lucia. Ame noticed this and was staring behind Lucia at whatever Arlow was snapping at, "Um..."

Lucia whipped her head around and saw nothing. Arlow stopped growling and jumped onto the seat on Lucia's right side, him sitting next to the aisle and her next to the window.

Ame looked around frantically, "Something's not right..." she turned her head back to the window, "Shouldn't we be deaccelerating by now?" Arlow grabbed Lucia's backpack with his teeth.

Ame's eyes shot wide open, "Oh no—" She pushed herself off the seat and grabbed Lucia's arm, "Move!" Ame broke through the window and jumped out while pulling Lucia along. Arlow followed suit only a few seconds later. Then the train and the station with it erupted into flames.