Reginae looks back at me reproachfully.

"Really? We fight and then you want me to do the dirty work for you? Unbelievable. You trainers are completely nuts."
    "Shut up and fight." I snap.

"Ashley, you can't just-" Ten says, ruffling his feathers, but looks at my expression, noting the smile that indicates that I know exactly what I'm doing and he nods. "Oooooh."

"Yeah, that's right. Let me work." I say quietly before calling to Reginae, "Tackle!"

Reginae doesn't move.

"Lumis, use Tackle!" Silver yells.

His Cyndaquil cheerfully cries, "Yes, sir!" in response.

After racing forwards to build up speed, the Cyndaquil slams into Reginae, pushing him back. He falls over onto his side, leaving skid marks in the dirt from the impact before getting up, bruised on the impact site near his head. He grimaces, legs shaking, but remains almost completely immobile.

"Oh for Celebi's sake, stop being stubborn! Razor Leaf!"

Reginae closes his eyes and stills himself.

"Tackle again!" calls Silver.
    He doesn't move as far this time, though the second bruise is already blistering an ugly dark green under his skin. It makes me feel sick even though we're in no way connected.

"Finish him with Ember!"

"Reginae, move!" My voice is shrill as I say it.

Reginae turns his face a little, the hot stream of fiery embers sizzling as they hit their mark. His every breath is raspy now, and the wounds look far too severe for something a level 5 Pokemon should be taking, but his eyes narrow and he ducks his head and brandishes his leaf.

"Reginae, you just have to trust me!" I yell so loudly that it makes my throat sore, although my hand is on his Pokeball as I say it.

"It's not going to listen to you. People like you were never meant to speak with your Pokemon!" Silver yells, his eyes alight with savage fire. Why is he so vengeful? In my timeline, he was a rebellious teenager and little more. I'm decently sure most emo teenagers are usually incapable of conjuring up emotions this strong unless they relate to how miserable their lives are.

The Cyndaquil rounds on him, fire brimming from its back and embers blazing everywhere as its shrewd eyes stare down at Reginae.

"Ember!"

A burst of flame shoots out and Reginae takes a step forwards into the fire and I feel something faint yank at me, a golden string binding us both about to tear him away forever. 

My eyes burst a bright gold, searing my retinas as my soul merges with Reginae's.

My own mind recoils as he pushes me back. Even at this young age he's insanely stubborn and he's determined to keep me out of his mind.

"Cut that out!" we yell, a single unified thought in the chaos.

Get out of my head! S-stop!

I try to make myself less intimidating, a radiant light, although I imagine just having someone else in there must be terrifying to him.

Although I've never had a Pokemon actively fight me...

The fire washing over his body proves to be a good motivator as he relents, and both of us take equal control.

Using his anger and my previous experience, we drive forwards and cut the Cyndaquil with our leaf, ignoring the searing pain all over our body as the stronger embers begin to slowly sputter out on our skin. We shake them off best we can and turn again for another attack.

Silver looks too shocked to say a word- clearly I've made a huge display of it (or perhaps he's just confused as to why Reginae is suddenly fighting back). On her own, Lumis races at us for another Tackle, and we dodge just to the side. The Cyndaquil is unable to stop herself and slams straight into a tree. Another quick slice ends the battle. I feel sensation return to my own body, although there's still dull pain from every injury Reginae is experiencing.

"That was- and I- and you..." he says breathlessly.

I smile, tears brimming in my eyes. Even though I don't want to admit just how great it felt, the battle was like coming home (for real this time). It was something more beautiful and pure than any other training exercise, scent, sight, or taste I've experienced thus far.
    "You're one of them!" Silver cries. "You're a..."

"That's right, I'm a Goldeneye."

He leers at me. "Oh. Very funny. I bet you want me to believe I should be afraid of you... but I'm not! The rumors about your kind are despicable. Despicable! I bet you're the reason that kid in your town disappeared. Ethan, right?"

Ethan. He's... I hold back a wellspring of questions flooding my mind. He wants me to play into it. Instead, I reply snarkily, "Rumors? I keep hearing that people don't like us for some reason, but no one actually cares to explain why. It's getting very aggravating."

"In his defense, you didn't really talk to anyone on your journey, Ashley. You more or less breezed in and out..." Ten points out.

"You were only there between gyms!" I protest.

"Rude." Ten ruffles his feathers.

"Sorry, sorry. Point being-"

Silver slams his hand against his face so hard that it leaves a mark. "You can talk to them, too. Forget this! I'm done. Enjoy your roasted Chikorita, punk." he says, putting his hands in his pockets and striding away like he won the match. Jerk.

"I'm telling the police about your stolen Pokemon!" I say reproachfully. Reginae looks up at me pitifully, gritting his teeth and still covered in ugly purple bruises mixed with gray spots where the embers burned his plantlike flesh. I withdraw him.
    "You what?!" he says, turning around.

I grin deviously. "Oh, you know. I'd make an exception if you had anything I wanted."

"You want information on Ethan, don't you." he says. "Well, all I know is that a kid about thirteen was reported missing in New Bark about two years ago. His parents did everything within their power to try to find him but there was no trace of him anywhere."

I feel my stomach churn uneasily at the news, as if somewhere within me a storm is brewing. It's almost nauseating to think of such a close friend suddenly gone, as if he had just been swallowed up by the void.

The face I'm making must be particularly unsettling, because Silver shouts, "What? That's it!" He raises a hand over his head to protect himself. "I swear that's it!"

"Thank you," I say coolly, and I pass him and walk into the Pokemon Center.

A friendly Nurse Joy sits idly at the counter, her pink hair braided professionally and neatly tucked behind her in typical style for her uniform. She smiles sympathetically as I hand her the Pokeball. "Here, let me fix your Pokemon up for you." She says it as if it's an act of kindness instead of her job, and her smile is slightly unnerving. I forgot how creepy Nurse Joy is, to be honest.

It's only minutes later when she hands me back my Pokeball. I look up from my Pokegear, quickly turning off My Little Ponyta. Little do our heroes know that two years from now, their adventure takes a cynical turn and the Rapidash turns against her group and is banished to the Reverse World. I admit I cried a bit, although luckily no one on the team was around to see it.

What? I kept up with the show.

Nodding to her, I take the Pokeball and continue on my way. I release Reginae, who stares down at the ground as we walk, and decide not to question him further. Strange, he seemed fine a minute ago (besides having the tar beat out of him). At my other side, Ten hops along beside me, attempting to have a conversation while stopping every three seconds to take another step.

"Ashley! That- was- absolutely- amazing!" he says, his voice far less... foreign than usual.

I frown. "Amazing?"

"What?"

"Not 'brilliant'?"

He coughs and his voice changes slightly, "That's what I meant."

I snort. "Did you seriously just..."

"Just what?"

"You just stopped using your accent and now you lapsed back into it. Don't tell me you seriously kept up a fake accent just because of some TV show."
    "...Possibly." he admits, and his bounce slows to a disappointed hop.

"You're worse than Dill." I tease. His eyes widen and I realize that I may have sounded a lot less sarcastic than I intended to.

"Alright, alright, you can argue over all of this some other time. In more important matters... what was that?!"

I smirk. "That, my friend, is what we call 'flashing'."

"I'm pretty sure that word has multiple meanings and you have no idea what you're talking about." Reginae says dully.

"Call it the flashy thing if you want. I honestly don't care. Point is, it's when two beings, a Goldeneye trainer and one of their Pokemon, combine their souls to make the Pokemon more powerful. The other point here is that if we can't do this, your chances of survival are going to go down. There's a reason you don't see starter Pokemon at their final forms.

Reginae hmphs reproachfully, staring away at the trees with his lip curled into a pout.

"If you're done arguing, we're here." Ten says, nodding his head towards a small cottage in a nice grassy area surrounded by trees on all side.

I frown at the door, knowing that what awaits inside is less than a pleasant experience. Regardless, I'm sure Oak and Mr. Pokemon aren't that bad... right? A lot of my older memories are tinged with my unfortunate inexperience, so they're not terribly reliable.

I knock the door and two drunk men stumble out, hastily handing me a Togepi egg and a Pokedex before practically slamming it in my face.

Reliable or not, I guess some things never really change.

***

I'm about halfway through the route when I hear the sirens. My Pokemon struggle to keep up with me as I seal my bag tighter for the egg's sake and bolt down the road, jumping over ledges left and right. New Bark Town is painted red and blue by seizure inducing lights from police cars and the wail of sirens fill the air. You know it's bad when they bring in cars- they're not terribly common, as they pollute the air and Pokemon are easily used in their stead. Cars are only for emergency situations or moving large quantities of objects. I withdraw both of my Pokemon at once.

A police officer with striking blue hair walks up to me, staring down at me with contempt. Her expression is stern and her eyes are narrow as she points to a picture of a red-haired boy. "Have you seen this young adult? He's confirmed to be one of the suspects of this crime, as shown by security footage."

I look at Silver's picture. I may be many things, but I'm not one to go back on my promises, so I fake large terrified doe eyes and ask, "Nope, sorry. Wait... since when does Elm have 'security' anything?"
    "Since a child disappeared seemingly right under the noses of the entire town and hasn't been found since." she snaps.

"Oh... Ethan." I say. "He was a friend of mine."
    "I'm very sorry. I assure you that to this day we are keeping high watch around this town and if any leads come up, you'll be the first to hear about it." She places her hand on my shoulder. I want to throw up. Does she think she's going to make me feel better? When people leave for two years, they usually don't come back. I have a feeling that a certain someone already knows where Ethan is, and I wouldn't put it past him to use him as bait.

Red can't be happy that I found a way to work around his ultimate punishment. This may just be my punishment. If he wanted to anger and upset me, well, he definitely did a good job.

If this much has changed, who knows what else could come up?

Morty.

I pull away from the officer. "I need to talk to Elm. I received a Pokemon from him today. I have an important delivery for him."

She nods. "Anything suspicious and you're getting tasered by a Manectric."

I roll my eyes as I walk into the lab. Elm is pacing the floor with his hands behind his back, muttering to himself. I unzip my bag and take out the Egg. "This is for you, right?"

"Oh!" He looks up, adjusting his glasses. "Yes, yes. That's mine." He laughs nervously. "Quite the chatter out there, isn't it?"

"Sure is." I say. "I can't believe someone had the guts to steal your Pokemon. Hopefully you track him down." Please do.

"We will. In the meantime, why don't you stay in New Bark for the night? There's no reason to exhaust yourself out there, Ashley."

I look towards my house from out a window, which flashes between blue and red from the continued flashing of police lights. My mother has drawn the drapes so that you can't see the insides. Half of me longs to go back, even to stay there and pretend that I don't have a journey to go on, but the other half is begging to begin building our team tomorrow, which means getting to Cherrygrove for an early start.

"I need to get going. Do you think you could hand me a few Pokeballs to start me out?" I ask.

Elm walks over to a drawer and pulls out a handful, placing them carefully in my outstretched and cupped hands. "Be careful out there." he says.

"I will be." I say, stuffing them in my bag. I walk to the exit and open the door to the lab with the full intention of never coming back here. I release my teammates again. Reginae frowns, completely disgruntled, and Ten just stares blankly at the flashing lights and loud wailing surrounding us.

"What's going on?" he asks.
    "They found out about Silver. We need to head out."

"We can't just stay here for tonight? Isn't your house here?" Reginae asks, yawning.    "It's not my house anymore." I tell him, staring back at the town I used to know. In a world without Ethan, where dozens of officers can appear with cars on even the slightest provocation and Silver is a wanted fugitive instead of a whiny teenager, it's hardly even the same town. "Honestly, in this world... it never was."