"Why'd you want to come here...?" Gold asked, looking around. I took him to the purple town of Lavender. 

"I wanted to take you somewhere..." I replied quietly, leading him over to the Pokemon Tower. We walked up the stairs to the second floor. If I remembered, they were here. 

"Why would you want to take me to a giant cemetery?" He asked, looking around at all the tomestones. 

"My nightmares always started here..." I started. "And this," I stopped, at the two familiar tomestones. "is where my parents are." 

"Nightmares?" 

"During my mission, I always had these terrible nightmares. I think they were linked to me being on Team Rocket...like something--my parents--didn't want me to do it." 

"Then why'd you keep doing it?" 

"You don't understand Gold; I felt like it was my purpose. I mean, I lost my only family, and was taken in by the leader of Team Rocket. Doesn't that mean something?" 

"No, it doesn't mean anything at all. I mean, I know you probably don't want me to bring him up now, but look at Silver's past. He was kidnapped to do evil things, and his father is Giovanni. Is it his purpose to be a villian? No, he's a good guy...well you know, sorta; he is still a jerk." Gold said, laughing at the end. 

I didn't laugh. "He had friends though, to help him."

"So did you. You could have listened to him, and yet, you abandoned him, just to be on Team Rocket." He said. "Remember, Totodile? He was your friend, who could have helped you." 

"You're right. I screwed up..." I sighed. "At least I'm on the right side now." I smiled. Not a forced or a fake smile, but a real, genuine, smile. 

"Yeah, and think about it. If you didn't join Team Rocket, then you probably wouldn't have made friends with me and the rest of the Dexholders, or even Dragonite." 

"...Do you think my parents would be happy now?" 

"Of course they would be. They'd be pulling for you every step of the way." He said, putting an arm around me, smiling. "I'm pulling for you too."

"I know I've said this a couple times already, but thanks."

"No problem, now come on; lets get breakfast and head to Blackthorn." With his arm still around me, we walked out.

~~~

"So what kind of training are we going to do?" I asked Green and Red, the 3 of us on the outskirts of Blackthorn. 

"Let's see how much you can do." Green said, arms crossed. "First I'll battle you."

"Huh??" He seriously wants me to battle him? He must be crazy. 

He pulled out his Pokeball, releasing his Charizard. I pulled out mine, releasing Dragonite. 

"You can have the first move." 

"Alright then, Dragonite, dragon rage!" Dragonite powered up the attack, blasting the purple-blue beam at Charizard. The beam hit, but it barely looked like it did anything. 

Green smirked. "Charizard, fly in close." Charizard flew in closer to the dragon, releasing a flamethrower attack. 

"Dragonite, get out of there!" Dragonite, barely hanging on, hit Charizard with its tail and flew away from it. "Now, dragon rage!" Dragonite once again fired the attack.

"Charizard, blast burn." Charizard used the ultimate fire attack, hitting dragon rage, completely deflecting it. It continued through the dragon attack, hitting Dragonite head on. Dragonite fell with a thud. I sighed, returning my Pokemon. 

"You need a lot of work to do, especially since I didn't even go all out." 

"I get it, I get it. I'm not suited to be a trainer." 

"Oh, don't say that!" Red said. "With mine and Green's help, we'll all be ready to face Team Rocket. It wouldn't matter if they came tomorrow or a month from now. You'll be ready." 

"First, we need to work on your strength. Then Dragonite's attacks and your strategy." Green explained. "Don't you have any other Pokemon beside's Dragonite?" 

"No..."

Green sighed. "Well at least its got good attack power...Anyways, I know just the guy to see for strength."

~~~

"You are absolutely insane!" I screamed, running around avoid the Pokemon's attacks. "Can't I use Dragonite now?!" 

"No!" Green shouted from across the room. "This is how I trained when I was young, so suck it up." 

"You were crazy!" I yelled, barely dodging an attack from Scizor. 

I guess I should explain a little bit? Well Green, Red, and I flew to Cianwood City, visiting the gym there. They took me to see Chuck, the gym leader there. And when Green wanted my strength to get better, he wasn't kidding. I thought he meant Dragonite's strength, but he literally meant MINE. 

I jumped out of the way of Charizard's flamethrower attack, only to fall on my butt. Charizard towered over me, about to attack with flamethrower again. It attacked, and I screamed in pain. 

"Arceus dammit, Green! You're taking this too far!" I yelled at him again when the attack was over. 

"She is right Green...I think you are taking this a little too far." Red said to him. 

"No, I'm not. If anything, it could be harder." Green replied. 

I sighed, getting up weakly and running away from the Charizard. 

"Remind me why I have to do this again?" I complained. "If its a Pokemon battle...then why do I have to fight?"

Green grinned. "I asked the same thing..." He sighed. "A Pokemon battle is when trainers give commands, and trainers receive no damage. Trainers have to train themselves so that the hearts of Pokemon and trainer can merge. They have to feel the attacks and gain their own strength. Doing this will make you a better trainer, trust me."

"I'm sorry, but I'm having trust issues right now with you. I'm kinda accusing you of trying to kill me." I said, jumping out of the way of Scizor's slash attack. 

"Keep that up Umber!"

Scizor ran after me, and I couldn't outrun it. It jabbed me in my back with its metal claw attack. I fell down, struggling to get back up. I coughed up a little blood, letting it splatter on the wooden floor. 

I heard Green and Red's footsteps coming up behind me, each of them grabbing one of my arms. 

"You alright there?" Red asked, trying to smile a bit. 

"Do I look alright??" I growled at him. I could practically see the sweat drop on his head. 

"Now we have to work on Dragonite's attacks." Green said, not looking any bit concered about my condition. 

"Seriously Green? Look at her, she needs rest. You pushed it--"

"No, Red, I'm fine. Like Green said, we don't know if they'll attack tomorrow or a month from now. I need as much training as possible." I said, wiping the blood from my mouth. 

"You sure you can really do this?" He asked. 

"Of course." I smiled weakly. 

~~~

"What moves does Dragonite know?" Green asked. We were now on the beach of Cianwood. Dragonite, Green, his Charizard, Red, and I all moved outside, so that we have more room to train. 

"Um...I'm not quite sure. I know that he knows Dragon Pulse, Dragon Rage and Slam...I don't know about the rest." I said. 

"Hm...lets try learning Hyper Beam. That has good attack power." 

"Alright, how do we start?"

"Let's go somewhere less crowded..." Green said, walking over to a nearby cave, with his fire starter following. Me and Red followed, with my dragon following along too. "This place should be good, to avoid hitting people by accident." 

"And plenty of rocks to be targets." Red said, looking around. 

"Then lets get started." Green stated. "Dragonite, start with attacking that boulder with dragon rage." Dragonite nodded, hitting the boulder with the attack. However, it wasn't enough to even crack the rock.

Green facepalmed. "This is gonna be harder than I thought." I let out a nervous laugh. "Do it again Dragonite." Dragonite repeated the attack, only to have the same outcome. 

"Wait a minute, I have an idea!" Red said, pulling out a Pokeball. He released his Gyarados. "Maybe if we show Dragonite how to use Hyper Beam, he'll get the idea. Gyarados, hyper beam on that boulder!" Gyarados powered up hyper beam, and at the right time, released the attack onto the boulder. It shattered into little pebbles. 

"See? That's what we want you to do Dragonite." I said. He looked a bit unsure, but nodded anyways. "Dragonite, hyper beam!" I commanded. Dragonite attempted to power up the attack, but it blew up in his face, literally. He fell back a little, shaking the pain off. "That's ok, try it again." He tried again and again, only to have the same results each time. 

"This isn't working! We need to try something else, maybe even a different move, Dragonite just needs to learn something else." Green sighed.

"Alright, alright, calm down Green." I said. 

"Well most of Dragonite's moves aren't for closer battles. More for longer distances. Maybe something like Dragon Claw?" Red offered. 

"It'll be easier to learn than Hyper Beam I bet..." Green said, thinking. "I guess that's a good idea." 

"Dragonite, try to focus some of your power into your claws, and attack that rock over there, got it?" I said, pointing at the smaller rock. The dragon nodded, trying to gather up some power. Nothing happened. "Keep trying Dragonite." Dragonite kept focusing on Dragon Claw, but nothing would happen. 

It must have been 20 minutes now. I sighed in frustration. "Come on Dragonite, it can't be that hard to learn a new attack!" 

"Umber, relax. Learning new moves take time." Green said. "At least Dragonite's getting closer to learning it."

"What do you mean?" I asked. 

"Look at Dragonite's claws. You can see a little spark of power. It'll come eventually." I looked at what Green was talking about, and he was right. You could see a little bit of blue and purple glowing every now and then. "Just wait for the perfect moment, and command Dragonite to use the move." 

"Alright." I paid more attention to my Pokemon's claws, and at the right moment...

"Now! Dragonite, dragon claw!" His claw lit up in blue and purple colors, hitting the rock. The rock did shatter, but that was only a small rock. Not as large as the boulder from earlier. "That was good, right Green?"

"It could be better. We can work on it later though." Green said. "Should we go back to strength training?"

"No!" I yelled, before he could leave. "What about strategy?"

"You have to wait for that until your strength and Dragonite's moves are taken care of. Then after that, we have to work on Dragonite's strength." He explained. "We can continue tomorrow."

"What? But what if they attack Sliph tomorrow?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it. It's only Team Rocket, and besides, there's me, Red, and the other DexHolders there to help. It'll be simple." 

"You think so?" 

"We know so." They smiled.