I had faced the next castle of the next Elite four member the next day after I defeated Will. The poison master; Koga. When I think of his name, I can't help but think I've heard it before...

Putting it aside and knowing I'll probably know why later, I walked into the castle and suddenly got someone running at me!

"Valerie!" Janine had came out of nowhere and attacked me for a hug. I stood there a bit baffled to see her here and looked down at her letting go "It's been so long! How are you?" I nervously chuckled.

"I-I'm pretty good... Just battling the Elite four. No big deal" I joked. She laughed and took my hand.

"I almost didn't recognize you! Sabrina told everyone you were participating!"

"Everyone?"

"Yeah! The girls who were with us at the club! She even told Blue and that was funny. You should had saw his face" she nudged on me with her elbow "He use to be champion before, you know"

"Blue? You mean Red's best friend?" She nodded with a big smile.

"Yeah! For some reason, when Sabrina mentioned you to him, he got annoyed so fast and wanted to leave! Sabrina said something about him being jealous that you got Red to speak more than Blue could, and then Misty put gas in the fire! It was so funny" she laughed "say, are you going to come down and see everyone again? We really miss yah!"

"I'm actually surprised you remembered me after so long. I would love to" she pumped her fist in accomplishment and turned around when a older man in purple walked up to us.

"So, you're the girl that Janine had told me about. I thank you very much for making her and the others feel welcomed at that surprise party" I blinked confused and sweat dropped that that incident was mentioned by someone who wasn't there "You also took care of Erica. I thank you for taking care of the girls" he bowed "My name is Koga, of the Elite four. I use to be a gym leader back in Kanto before I handed the position to my daughter, Janine" Janine smiled. I see, so that's why his name sounded familiar. He was a gym leader in Kanto.

"My name is Valerie Zoe, nice to meet you" Janine gasped.

"Zoe?" She held her chin "Where have I heard that name before?" Koga cleared his throat.

"Janine, don't you have somewhere to be?" Janine nervously chuckled and looked back at me.

"I came here to see my dad, but seeing you was a bonus!" She took my hand again "You'll come see everyone, right?" I would be more than happy to see everyone.

"I said yes already, but yes. Only if you promise everyone will be there" Janine cheered and ran out the castle.

"I'll text you!" She disappeared out of thin air. Though I would like to see Red as soon as I finish myself here, things had turned around and I'm afraid I'll have to put him to the side. My plan was to go see my aunt in Kanto and tell her about Silver. I also have to see if I can find Silver somewhere and see how he was taking the new fact that we've been siblings this whole time.

"I must thank you again for the things you've done for those girls" Koga told me.

"I didn't really do much, and it was so long ago. You don't have to thank me" he nodded.

"So, from being a bartender in a nightclub, what made you come here and face the Elite four?" It's a bit too sudden to be asked that.

"I don't have a real reason why I'm here. I just want to become stronger" I said honestly.

"You mean to tell me you're only doing this for fun?"

"You can say that, but I can't really say it's for fun" he held his chin to think "If I'm able to, I'll probably become champion and leave" I looked around the building "It seems I have unfinished business and it's too much work to battle people wanting to take my crown. Lance probably won't be happy about this, but I'm sure he'll understand. If I lose, I lose. I won't be coming back here to rebattle anyone" I looked at my shoes "If I lose, that's fine. What really means more to me is a letter of acceptance to enter Mount Silver"

"You came all the way here for a letter? My dear girl, you can just ask one of us for a battle and a simple defeat will allow us to accept you're strong enough to enter the mountain. Why go through all this trouble?"

"To be honest, aside from wanting to get stronger, I feel like if I don't prepare myself, what I may be doing in the future won't be complete"

"So, you don't want me to just hand over an acceptance letter? You don't even have to battle me if you defeated Will. Please think hard. What is it about Mount Silver that pushes you to get this far?"

"I won't want your acceptance letter. I want Lance's acceptance letter" I huffed "Lance is my uncle to be. Once I battle him, winning or not, I want that acceptance letter"

"I see... You are a rather strange girl. Very well, let us battle here and now" he walked to his side of the field and we began our battle. Because he specialized in poison type Pokémon, many of my Pokémon got poisoned and became slow and weak during the fight.

Meganium, Clefable, Sylveon, and Togekiss being put back into battle again would be reckless because of their weakness against poison. They became poisoned from Koga's Pokémon. My only options is to, if I wanted to get through this without losing, choose Pichu, Zorua, Dewgong, or Dragonair now, but Pichu was definitely out the question... Do I dare just give it all I got and worry about the consequences later?

"Dewgong couldn't really move anywhere... and nether could Dragonair" I held my chin "I'm being overprotective here..." Pichu had ran towards the battle field on her own "Wait a minute! Pichu!"

"Pi?" I looked down at Pichu looking at me from my ankle. What? But if she's here... That means the one in the field is...

"Oh!" I gasped "Well, what can I really do? I'll just have to trust in my Pokémon" I looked at the Pokeballs of my Pokémon in my bag "I shouldn't be overprotective... I'll see what I can do with Zorua..." I looked back at the field "Zorua, use scary path!" Scary path isn't a move, it's a method of choosing a scary illusion she will pick out on her own.

Zorua sneakered and made darkness surround her in the most obscured way. It was like a shadow was slowly surrounding her whole and made herself look like a terrifying monster. This trick from the scary path is called, obviously; Monster.

The illusion had made Koga's third Pokémon, Venomoth, flinch and unable to move due to fright. Even Koga was at a lost for words. This method of battling isn't my favorite, probably because I don't want people to be traumatized even after the battle, but I heard a lot about Koga to know that he'll be alright. He is a ninja after all.

The large monstrous shadow kept his Pokémon from moving, no matter how many times he shouted at it to use an attack. I got Zorua to come back to my side as I send out my poisoned Dragonair to finish the battle. Even if badly poisoned, she let out a flamethrower and defeated Venomoth.

I didn't have anything on me that can cure poison, so I worked fast and got through the entire match with my Pokémon barely hanging on. Koga's Pokémon had fainted first before my own, declaring his defeat.

"Even with the brief of panic and overthinking, you hung on till the very end" he then started laughing very loudly, coming up to me "I subjected you to everything I could master, but my efforts failed. I must hone my skills. Your battle strategy amused me every time. That monster you call a Pokémon made things much easier on you, right?"

"I try not doing it as much. Didn't mean to scare you" he laughed.

"I like you!" He patted my shoulder a little hard "You did good out there! Get that acceptance letter or win the league, whatever fits better for you!" I chuckled and left back to the Indigo Plateau to heal my Pokémon and wait for the next day to come.

I had defeated the next Elite four member, Bruno, the next day after defeating Koga and it was finally time to face the last Elite four member of the Pokémon league. I somehow felt myself feeling nervous to enter the place, but I've gone this far. It's all or nothing.

I walked into the building that was badly lit up. There was only one single light in the room that was on, and it was the one in the very middle of the battle field.

"What is this? If I can remember correctly, the last member has to be specialized in dark type... so was this on purpose?"

"Funny you may say that" a voice spoke in the darkness. A few new light bulbs started flickering. One kept flashing on the next spot the opposite party would be standing. I choked up and cupped my hands when seeing her mischievous smirk and crossed arms "It's only a mere coincidence, but I haven't been in this building in a long time due to taking care of some business"

"Business, huh?" I remained in the darkness, trying to keep myself unknown for the moment "So you were gone enough that your lights stopped working?"

"Frankly, I just gave birth, you know? It's not something I can just put to the side and remain here all the time. It's my first time in a long time that I came back, so I might be a bit rusty on battling, but it won't change the fact that you are facing the last of the Elite four. My name is Karen. It would be nice if I can see you. I apologize for this"

"Don't worry about it" I send out Dragonair "I'm use to being in the dark. It doesn't scare me if that's what you're thinking"

"You say that now, but people do end up getting nervous when they have to battle in the dark. It's quite minor" she giggled "I enjoy the dark a lot. It's quite calming, really"

"You stay in the dark for so long that you've forgotten to pick up your phone from time to time" Karen looked confused "Dragonair! Flash!" Dragonair flashed her body, letting us see our surroundings clearly. I looked at Karen's face form in horror and slowly make her way towards me.

"Wait a minute... Do... I know you?" I stayed put and watched her making her way towards me, shakily coming up to take my cheek and stare at my face "Kitty..?" I removed her hand.

"I appreciate if you didn't call me that, Lily" she frowned and lowered her hand.

"I'm sorry... I hardly recognized you. I didn't know your real name long enough to call you by it. Valerie Zoe..." she bit her lip "I can't believe my eyes..." she took my cheeks and squeezed on them hard. Ow! Ow! "You've changed so much!" She then grabbed my shoulders and pressed my face into her breast as she hugged me tightly "My little kitty!" She cried "Look at how much you grew!" She pulled me off so she could rub her cheek on mine "Your skin is so much softer than before! You're not as underweight as I last saw you! It's crazy!" She played with my hair "Look at all this hair!" She laughed and grabbed my... "These gotten bigger too!" I took out the first thing I got out my bag and slapped her with it.

"Stop touching me like that!" I continued hitting her as she squat down to block her head.

"I'm sorry! Sorry!" I stopped hitting her and put my fan away "Kitty!" She whined at me.

"My name is Valerie!" She stood up and calmed herself.

"Valerie... Look at you. You became someone I didn't even recognize. You've matured so much... It breaks my heart that seeing you like this wasn't even close to how I last saw you" she looked down "I knew I had a reason why I was hurried to take this challenge so quickly. The name Valerie had triggered me to leave home for a bit and see this person. Just as I saw your face, I realize now why I got here so fast"

"Lily" I shook my head "No... your real name is Karen. I had forgotten" I frowned at her "Why... Why haven't you responded to my messages?"

"How can I even explain without making it seem like it's just an excuse?" She looked down "I had a lot of family issues after losing my job. Our old job. Even if I work here, we don't get many trainers. I had to find another place to work to pay the bills. I couldn't talk to anyone, to be honest" she rubbed her arms "Also... many of us had attended a funeral"

"Us?" She nodded.

"Our old coworkers" I suddenly remembered Aaron being upset "Sunny had died from illness, leaving 6 daughters and a husband behind" I choked up a sob and cupped my mouth "I helped arrange the funeral"

"Sunny... died?" I grabbed her arms "Why... WHY didn't anyone say anything to me?!" She bit her lips.

"We all agreed to keep this from you because you were still in the beginning of your journey. You told everyone how wonderful life is becoming and we couldn't do that to you... We couldn't break your heart while you were just starting to pick yourself up. I made that decision... I know what I did was wrong, but I wanted you to stay happy until I could finally respond to you. I wanted to wait until your journey was done"

"My journey is not done..."

"I'm sorry... V" she looked down "We never intended to hurt you. We just wanted to protect you" I chewed on my nails.

"Protect me... even if you know damn well I don't like others helping me" I pressed my jaw in anger "You should had told me..."

"Sabrina told me not to" I froze "Even if it was my idea to not tell you, she came to me, expecting me to tell you because it wasn't fair to you. She said you're going to go through your own hardships and to keep it from you. She didn't tell me when I could tell you, so I'm hoping I didn't make you hate me"

"I understand... It was all for the sake of my sanity" I cupped my face "If you said that this happened in the beginning of my journey, you were right to not tell me. I would've been a mess... I'm still a mess... but I was a mess. You've always seen me as an angry person, but you never seen how easily sad I get" I tensed up "Where is she buried?"

"Her family lives in Johto, but she wanted to be buried in Kanto, where she was born" I nodded.

"I'm planning to go to Kanto after this... Can we go together?" She took my hands and smiled.

"Of course..." I looked up at her and smiled, which shocked her.

"Thank you... for thinking about me" she sobbed at the sight of my smile and hugged me "Lily..."

"I'm sorry!" She cried "I'm so sorry... Valerie" I frowned and hugged her back "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." I closed my eyes, letting my tears fall on her shoulder.

"It's okay... You've always did make sure I would be okay. Thank you for thinking about me from the beginning" we remained as we were for a long while, almost forgetting I was supposed to be battling her for the name of the champion. Who would have known... Lily, a popular stripper in the dark streets of Saffron, was a Elite four member. What a surprise...