I feel years older when I stand up. The room's scent of death is just masked by the aftermath of insence, but the sweetness of the latter only makes the former feel even more sickly. My face is fresh as well from the tears, cold where the water has traced the line of my cheeks and ran down my chin and onto the floor. Even the flowers seem to be done with their grief, and many of them have already regressed to brown shreds or nothingness, in the way Reginae's attacks usually do.

It's a solemn scene, but it feels more fulfilling than sorrowful. Reginae presses his head against my hand and Minerva's tails slap against my side. I can feel how sore his throat is from noisy, ugly crying and her anticipation for the rest of the day. While neither of them fully comprehend the other's concerns, their bond is bright and thicker than ever. The whole team extends outwards in a tangle of gold around me, with spaces where our fallen kin sat just minutes... or maybe hours ago. Time moves differently here.

"So." Minerva asks, breaking the silence. "Rock Tunnel?"

At least she has the decency to keep it brief. I nod. "We'll need to get through it fast, too, if we want to make it to Cerulean before late."

"We can trek through the night," Fang suggests. "Half of us are nocturnal by nature and the other half might as well be given how late we stay up."

Pisces grumbles at this, but she's tense as Minerva is.

"Easy, easy." I tell them, half to myself. My voice is a bit raspy, and I sound older than before, foreign even to myself. The two years I missed have settled back onto me like a thick jacket. "We'll make it there before too late. Promise."

Everyone is appeased by this.

I run my hand lightly down the rail as we walk back down the stairs and head out into the afternoon. The sun just brushes the tips of the mountains that houses the Rock Tunnel. A further check from the Pokedex informs me that it's around 3:30, so we'll get there, but we'll get there late. Lavender Town isn't a place you'd want to stay the night, anyways. The scratched paint on the old houses and the malicious laughter of Ghost-types, just audible as we pass by, is likely enough to spook most travellers, which explains the lack of a hotel on their map. We'd have to walk all the way back to Saffron and try the whole thing again.

Minerva and Pisces are already at the Rock Tunnel entrance, watching my indecisiveness with contemptful scorn. "Coming," I say, and my three guys follow me up to where the feisty she-devils of the team await, ready to take on the cave or at least shake off the ornery air over the whole group.

The Rock Tunnel is drier than the Johto tunnels, with a less musty scent. Instead, it smells like rock dust and construction work, and is devoid of many structures or even Pokemon. Furthermore, there's no natural light or lamps of any kind. It feels almost hollow, in an unnerving way.

"It's dark in here," I muse aloud, wondering why none of the Johto caves were ever quite this bad.

Yes, and water is wet, Minerva informs me in my mind. I'd frown her way if I could see her, but she's skulking in the shadows somewhere.

"Well, I don't think I've touched a Flash TM in over a year, so we might have to flounder around in the dark a bit." I tell the team.

Fang flickers his head ring, which beams through the darkness. "Flash? Sounds like our specialty."

I snort. "Okay, you nerd. Lead the way."

Minerva swishes her tails angrily, scattering blue sparks across the room. "I can use Will'o'Wisp. I call co-leader!"

They bound off across the room, roughhousing and nipping at each other.

"Is that legal?" Reginae whispers.

"Using functions you're not supposed to use without a technical machine?" I ask.

"What are they going to do, sic the police on us for not buying their merchandise?" An exhausted but no less enthusiastic Fang taunts, "I can't help it if I light up. Heck, even Ashley's Pokegear lights up. Do you think the police force has time to go yell at every teenager using their phone in a cave?"

"It's not that, it's a safety mechanism. Flash isn't an HM anymore so they don't care. With things like Surf and Waterfall, you're not allowed to activate the HM until you beat a certain gym. It's designed to keep young, incapable trainers out of dangerous areas.To ensure that people don't end up in places they can't escape from, the HMs are also designed to be hard for Pokemon to forget." I say, rehearsing the lines from the few web videos I watched in order to prepare myself for my journey as a trainer. Getting an online certification was boring, sure, but it was a much more practical way to prepare than the hundreds of romanticized animated programs I'd been getting information from prior to that point.

"Sounds like a bad pick up line." a dazed Fang declares, sauntering over to Pisces. "Hey, baby, are you an HM? Because I can't forget about you."

"I refuse to endure this. Even for you, Fang." Pisces says grimly, twitching as to force him off of her side.

"Not to be a downer, but we still have a big problem." Reginae says.

"Yeah? Lay it on me." I say.

"We don't have a map." Reginae continues.

I open my Pokegear to pull up the navigation feature, but there's no signal, so he's right- we don't have a map.

"We could just wander aimlessly," suggests Fang. "That's how we got through VIctory Road, right? Thank goodness for those food rations. I was eyeing some of those Golbat by the end."

"I thought I was going to die." Reginae mutters.

"See, that's why we withdraw you. It's not your fault your species necessitates being in large, grassy areas with high sunlight to produce enough energy to sustain your body weight." Minerva says.

"Um... thanks."

"Think nothing of it- Fang, on your left." Minerva wheels around just in time to shoot a blast of fire at a gruff looking Machoke with a fist raised over Fang's backside. The Umbreon skids out of the way of her fire and the impending attack, and Minerva's flames down it in one hit.

She scoffs, tasting the air to check for more prey. "Don't worry. The wild Pokemon here aren't much stronger than those on the last Route," she informs us. "Even if it had hit Fang, he would have been fine, even given his mediocre defences."

"What?"

"For an Umbreon." admits Minerva.

"What?"

"There's something that way." her jowls curve upwards, ignoring Fang's quiet background outrage. "Should I take care of it?"

"You don't know that it's aggressive," I retort.

"Definitely not aggressive." Reginae tells us, approaching the small Pokemon and nudging it forwards. "It's just a Cubone."

The Cubone's wide eyes scope the party, both sides tense to see what the other will do. The skull on its face rattles gently with each breath, and it clutches its bone against it like a child holding a blanket. It's young, with worry in its gaze.

"Do you know the way out of here?" asks Reginae kindly.

The Cubone nods.

"Could you lead us?"

The Cubone stretches its arms out.

"What does it want?" Reginae turns to the rest of us. I pick the baby Pokemon up and deposit it on its back, where it clenches one arm around its chest and uses its bone to point with the other. Its rattling noise is softer now, dare I say affectionate. "Oh. So, is that the way?"

The Cubone nods.

The team snaps back into action. Fang and Minerva scour the area for wild Pokemon, their lights casting wild flickers off the walls. Ten is striding along, doing his usual awkward duck waddle with a half-concerned, half-dazed expression, and Pisces is just trying to fit through the cave itself. It's dark and we have no idea what time it is, but at least it's quiet and peaceful. I don't think I could take more action today.

"Caves. Almost forgot how little I care for caves. How many of us were here for Union Cave, again?" Reginae asks the group.

"I think just three of us, counting you." Ten says, "Fang and Pisces were both here for the Ice Cave and Mt. Mortar, though."

"Yeah, the Ice Cave." Reginae lets out a half-hearted sigh. We all know he's thinking about Rose again, and the Cubone must know something's wrong, because it hugs him a little tighter. "Oh. Thank you."

A sweet scent fills the area, covering the dry nothingness of the tunnel. Reginae's flowers are in full bloom. I haven't smelled his flower for months, since before the Victory Road tunnels themselves.

"Do you talk?" he asks.

The Cubone shakes its head. The darkness gives way to a new kind of lighting, with the nighttime air pouring in from not far off. For the sake of the whole team, I'm hoping it's a short walk from here to Cerulean, because we're all falling asleep at the helm.

"You have somewhere to go, don't you?"

The Cubone, which slides off Reginae's side with some reluctance, shakes its head.

"Do you at least have a name I can call you by?"

The Cubone shakes its head again.

"Hycanith." blurts out Reginae. "It's she, by the way. Her name is Hycanith."

The Cubone's skull rattles again, but this time with enthusiasm. She hugs Reginae's big, stumpy leg, but looks up to me with a worried expression in her eyes.

"Y-you could join the team," I mention, thinking of our new PC deficit, "If you want."

Hycanith nods again, this time sharply.

"I'll put her in the Pokeball later," I say, trying to hold off on the inevitable hour I'll have to put her in the PC.

We step out into the light.

Cerulean is still a bright dot in the distance, shielded by a straight route and trees, so many trees. Most are evergreens, which still hold slick green coats, but a few more are the now-barren deciduous trees that have wasted away with the last of the summer. They sway in the wind like hands reaching up towards the stars- and what a night, too, because every celestial object in the cosmos must be smiling down at us. The cloudless sky teems with brightness, with dappled white touching every corner and every recess of its extent. Constellations blaze with infinite glory overhead, the starlight so strong that my eyes burn.

Or not. I might just be crying. If our newfound connection is any indication, so is Hycanith.

"Have you ever seen the stars before?" Reginae asks.

"Get used to it, kid." Minerva tells the Cubone, hushed excitement in her voice. "You're about to become one."