I had took the liberty of taking care of my eggs in the Pokémon center for another day due to having low shell temperatures. The kimono girl only had mild hypothermia and stayed for the remainder of her stay for the same amount of time I stayed with the eggs. I'll have to confirm that she was feeling better and about the decision she made when giving me her egg.

It turns out that she had went home before I even woke up. I know where I can find her next time, so I'll keep her egg safe until then, but what will I do when it hatches? That's when I remembered what she told me.

"Consider it as a gift of gratitude" I sighed and looked at both the eggs on the hospital bed.

"I guess you both are stuck with me" I smiled, stroking their shells "It'll be a matter of time before my team is complete. Let's work hard together" I looked at all my Pokémon behind me, smiling. I smiled back at them and began to pack so I could leave the Pokémon center so I can find the Pokémon gym to face Clair, the loudmouth girl who can't accept anything that isn't to her liking. I don't even know her and I already know what her deal is.

Unfortunately Lance couldn't talk to her without her starting to scream, so he notified me that he's going to be with Miranda while I lighten the load. Not sure if he's putting the work on me, but it's not his fault if his own family doesn't want him to be happy. She's just selfish, but I want to believe she has a better reason other than thinking his name changing will change him in the slightest.

Our family encourages to bring in unique characters into our name, and when this happens, their personality transfers to the next bloodline for a few generations, which randomizes to every other or later. So that means his kids would either be like him and their kids as well, or his kids may not be like him and their kids will. It's all randomize, and it makes our family that much more interesting... as if it wasn't interesting enough since everything about us seems so magical, starting with our body temperature and skills and ending in a bottomless hole of endless possibilities.

The city was a bit off the flip side of wooden houses with tree leaves on roofs. It was quiet and looked a bit old. Johto is filled with history that it just fascinates me on how the culture continues to stand for who even knows how long.

As much as I want to relax like all the other times I've been on the journey, I can't. Especially today when I have to teach that Clair a lesson. I can only predict that she won't like it if I beat her with my little Pokémon and will probably throw a fit. The worse she can do is not give me a badge and just straight up yell at me like she did to Lance.

"How rude of a person do you have to be in order to snap at anyone as soon as you see them?" I rolled my eyes "Snapping at me before knowing my family name. I feel bad for Lance" I looked at the sky "He has to put up with someone like her and suffers because he chose to be with my aunt. I know he won't abandon her, but I was just giving him a warning. I didn't mean to frighten him" Pichu on my shoulder pet my head and nodded, assuring everything is going to be alright.

I smiled and looked around, walking pass a forest of trees and spotted a hidden wooden bridge towards a cave surrounded by water.

"What's that?" I asked myself. If I was casually walking around instead of looking at every detail of the city, I probably wouldn't have noticed it. If I squint my eyes, I can spot an old man guarding the entrance to the cave "must be something important" I walked off and looked up at the Pokémon gym.

"Well, here we are" I sighed "I'm not looking forward to this" Pichu agreed and we walked into the place together. There were a bunch of trainers standing around and looked towards me as soon as I walked in.

"Hey, aren't you cold?" A girl with a Seadra in her arms asked me, referring to the crop top and shorts I was wearing "It's getting colder due to the winter. Shouldn't you wear something more warm?"

"I can handle it" I said.

"Are you the girl Clair was talking about who came into town with a sports bra and a girl on her back?" A guy asked.

"I saw that!" Another guy said "The girl she was carrying had been said that she was stuck in the ice path for awhile"

"Clair found her suspicious, but how did it look suspicious?" The girl asked.

"It didn't, at all. I don't know why Clair said that, but she is pretty hot headed" I sweat dropped at the conversation going on in front of me "I'm here to challenge Clair" I finished.

"We heard, sorry, but we have to challenge you first before you take her head on. We are workers of this here gym and will keep you from getting to her" one guy said "If you can't defeat us, you're not worthy of taking on Clair, the dragon master" I shrugged, making them question my calmness.

"If It has to be like that, fine" I send out Clefable. Everyone started to get nervous over a fairy type, but what's amazing about it is that fairy types are strong against dragon types. I don't expect this to take too long.

As I predicted, defeating the dragon trainers didn't take a lot of effort. Clefable looked a bit uncomfortable that she hardly had to move when I made her spam her fairy attack moves until every trainer was finished. I also had Togekiss to fight so the time doing this didn't take too long.

"That took a bit longer than I expected" I said, looking at the girl giving her Seadra water after Meganium defeated her "Can I battle Clair now?"

"You called?" Clair walked up to me with her cape waving everywhere, holding her hip while looking at her workers "You seriously got defeated by a kid?" How old does she think I am? "So" she faced me "You managed to get this far. Are you up to battling me without healing your party?"

"We're fine" my team nodded. Her eye twitched.

"You're going to battle me... with little Pokémon?" I looked at my team, not seeing what's so small about them anymore, minus Pichu "what's the point of wasting time battling you? You won't win!"

"Won't know unless we battle" I walked pass her "Well?" I looked back at her glaring at me "You coming"?"

"I have a proposal" she said. I wanted to face palm so bad, but I faced her and waited "If you manage to win, you have to convince-"

"Convince what? Who? What are you? 10? I'm not going to convince anybody anything for the sake of your pride. If we're talking about Lance, forget it. His life is his. You have no right to control it" her fist were shaking.

"You don't understand... We come from a long line of dragon masters. If he marries into your family, it'll all be over"

"I find it pathetic how you use your childish insecurities to take advantage of Lance's happiness. You're blind to understand anything. You're so big on your name that it has to be about you" I spoke out before she got the chance to speak again "No matter how strong you are, you have no right to control anyone's life! Lance can make the decision to support his family and leave you behind! You won't understand even if he tried explaining to you... It'll be your fault that you've lost him, not me!" I glared "I won't make any sort of favor for you even if I do lose! Because you have no right to ask me for favors after yelling at me out of nowhere in the Pokémon center" I pointed at her "Clefable! Let's start the battle!"

"Clef!" Clefable challenged. Clair groaned and send out her Dragonair to start our battle. Zorua got out her Pokéball and made an illusion of us surrounded by lava around a volcano. Everyone freaked out.

"W-What is this!?" Clair shouted, looking around and immediately started sweating. Because I knew it was a illusion, I didn't feel hot at the slightest.

"Clefable, use Moonblast!" Due to the distraction, it was easy to land a critical hit "Your main focus should be on me!" I yelled at Clair.

"Y-You little!" She groaned loudly and yelled out an attack "Use Dragon rage!"

"Dodge!" Clefable floated out the way before the attack could land "Use Telekinesis!" Clefable lifted Dragonair into the air and spun her everywhere in circles like a rope aiming to catch cattle.

"Dragonair!" Clair gasped "Use twister!" Dragonair has gotten to dizzy to do it. Clefable slammed her opponent into a wall, dropping her into the lava that was only the floor "an illusion..?" Clair figured it out "you have the nerve to make a illusion?"

"It's not like it's relevant to the battle. It just makes it that much more intense!" I laughed "Nice one, Zorua!" Zorua sneakered in response. To my surprise, Dragonair and Clefable went down at the same time.

"Are you serious..?" Clair scoffed "Doesn't matter, I still have more Pokémon!" She send out another Dragonair. I got Togekiss to take the stage.

"Ancient power!" Togekiss created rocks out of nothing and threw them at Dragonair. Dragonair swiftly went through each attack without getting hit. It was even inches away from getting hit, but it behaved like liquid.

"Dragon pulse!" Clair shouted. The dragon pulse had hit Togekiss head on, but it didn't do much damage.

"Extreme speed!" Togekiss flew in circles in a very fast pace, keeping Dragonair from aiming with the attack Clair shouted afterward. Togekiss appeared right behind Dragonair "Dazzling beam!" Togekiss didn't hold back and send out a critical hit to the back, instantly making her opponent pass out.

"I-It can't be..." Clair grew pale "You only attacked us once"

"I've raised my Pokémon since they were eggs. I give them nothing but love and affection. Proper training allows me to trust them to win a battle for me no matter how stubborn the trainer is" I crossed my arms.

"Excuse me?" Clair didn't look too happy, even if she was never happy in the first place "Are you trying to insult my way of training my Pokémon?"

"It just seemed that you were shocked that I manage to take down your Pokémon in a single shot" I shrugged "just saying. I didn't say anything that wasn't true, but you take things personal because you think it's my fault I'm taking away your cousin when I have nothing to do with this. Well, that's a lie. Anything that has to do with my family is my business. I can intervene if I want to. My aunt will take my side and if Lance does do as you said, he will hate you" I stuck my tongue out "We have a charm in us that keeps our partners in check, so it's unlikely he'll listen to you" pretty harsh to say, but she's taking everything too seriously and I can say whatever I want.

"Well" I held my hip, smirking "Send our your next Pokémon" the floor had started shaking all of a sudden. The field we were fighting on had open up to a large pool with only few rocks by the trainer. Clair send out a Gyarados that was much smaller than the one from the Lake of Rage.

"I'm not done... I'm not!" Her patience was running low really fast. I switched out Togekiss to send out Meganium to take on the fight.

"Use petal blizzard!" A dozen petals and winds had flown towards Gyarados and trapped it inside.

"Dive under water!" Gyarados has swam down into the water to get rid of the petal attack. Meganium looked around for her opponent. Zorua barked and jumped to spin in place, surrounding us in the middle of the ocean now.

"What are you trying to prove with this show of yours?" Clair asked.

"I didn't do anything" I sweat dropped. It's just what Zorua wants "Meganium, use magical leaf" Meganium threw out a few leafs and levitated them in the air. They flew into the water and aimed to look for Gyarados even while hiding. Everything was quiet for a moment before a semi loud roar that didn't compare to the red Gyarados was, shouted. Its large blue body came out the water in pain. Clair started looking uncomfortable.

"Were you trying to hide? Pretty interesting for someone who looks like they want to throw their fist at me"

"You did that like you expected it" I shook my head and continued fighting with her Pokémon. Long story short, she looked like she wanted to explode.

"No..." she was shaking in anger "No! No! No! I won't accept this!" She looked like she was struggling to not throw a fit "there must be a mistake! I won't concede this"

"What?" I glared back at her "We battles fair and square!"

"I might have lost, but you're still just a kid!" This was getting annoying "You're not ready to take on the Pokémon league, nor are you able to persuade that my thoughts are selfish" Pokémon league? Why would I care about the Pokémon league?

"Are you so blind and child like to do this to a trainer who clearly defeated you in front of your peers?" I shook my head "I guess there was no point in this battle. I'm not aiming to challenge the Pokémon league, so don't think you hurt my feelings. Good luck with your way of thinking" I walked to the exit "Only children will throw a fit when something doesn't go their way. I'm done here. Goodbye, Clair. I won't be seeing you ever again" she quickly turned to me, but I didn't look at her, only from the corners of my eyes "Lance will be part of my family. You won't be a part in our lives. Good luck with yourself. If you dare to cause us problems, I won't be afraid to take my anger out on you" I gave her my threatening look "And trust me, it's much worse than what you tried pulling" I flipped my hair and headed back to the city to walk around and take in the soft breeze blowing through my hair.

"What a waste of my time. There was no experience gained either" I went to the Pokémon center to heal everyone up "I don't want to break the news to Lance, but I have to" I sighed, going to sit in a table by a cafe "I'm so fed up with all this anger. She better not push anything or else Lance will suffer and my aunt will be all alone" I shook my head "How can someone be so selfish?"

"Excuse me, ma'am?" I looked up at a old man in a robe and gray hair covering his eyes "I couldn't help but notice your distress"

"Is it that obvious?" I chuckled.

"May I?" I let him take a seat in front of me "it'll be a shame to let a little lady such as yourself to hold such stress. What goes through your mind?" I leaned on my elbow.

"I just faced the most stubborn gym leader I've ever met, and I've met many" he chuckled "I faced her to prove a point, and when defeated, she refuses to give me a badge out of stubbornness. I'm not ready for the Pokémon league, she says, I'm not selfish, she says. I've never met anyone so stubborn, and that says a lot" I realized what I was doing "Sorry, that's personal. I shouldn't have said anything"

"Clair is a stubborn one, I agree with you on that. She's a handful, and also my granddaughter" I became serious.

"Do you agree on her actions? Do you know what happened between her and Lance?" I crossed my arms "apparently it's all about her, since she doesn't want him to marry my aunt and become part of my family"

"I see, so you are the niece of the fiancé Lance had chosen. You are one of the Zoe family" I nodded "It's an honor to give one of our own to your side. Lance's talent will truly grow if he marries into your family"

"If you think that way, why does Clair think the opposite?"

"Anything that doesn't involve dragon training is meaningless to her. She will turn a blind eye on anything that can't make our family stronger. Even if the mention of the Zoe family after what she learned from it when Lance introduced Miranda to Clair, Clair didn't like it. Lance will change his last name because of the Zoe's incredible gift. Clair will believe this method will ruin him only because of how magical the name seemed. It's quite magical, your name" I bowed my head.

"Thank you" he stood up.

"If you don't mind, will you follow me? We'll be going to the Dragon's den, a place where Lance and Clair had trained since they were kids"

"Trained?"

"If she simply believes you're not ready for the league, or just not wanting to give you the badge because she's stubborn, I can take you to that place that will give her no choice but to hand you that badge"

"Is that so?" He nodded "This won't change the fact that she will be a problem in the future. I've told her over and over again that her ways will only force Lance to leave my family and he will hate her. She won't listen" he nodded .

"Then I will make her listen" I stood up "First, we will go to the Dragon's den where I will test you to see what kind of trainer you are. When you are named worthy, she will have no choice but to accept your word and understand the point of view that's not hers"

"Do you really think a simple test can prove that?"

"I am her master, after all. She has no choice but to listen if you pass" I nodded.

"If that's the case, I'll take the test" I smiled "I don't want Lance to leave my aunt. I don't want her to be alone again... I'll do what it takes" I followed him over to the hidden and sacred cave I saw before. If I can somehow do something to make her understand, I won't feel like I've wasted my time talking to her. She'll have no choice but to listen to me. Hopefully everything goes right.