My stomach churns and I feel a bleat similar to the ones a young Mareep would give out rising in my throat. The carnage is everywhere. Something repressed within me is rising, and I breathe it out. Why did it never bother me before? Why now? Why couldn't I just have told Pich to solo this?

 She's more than capable.You know what? So is Chrona. So is Klaki. Any single one of my Pokemon could have handled this and I chose this.

 Smoke festers in my nose, gray and ugly.

 My legs move on their own, far more determined than I, as we reach the last platform where the gym leader sits, calmly stirring his tea. His old eyes, lined by wrinkles, smile far more than his mouth does. The smoke rises straight up from the tea, which he proceeds to sip delicately, as if every sip is precious.

 "Here for a challenge, sprout?"

 I don't respond.

 "Lilly." Chrona says.

 My fist clenches."Lilly!"

 "Where's Rune?"

 "Lilly, those Pokemon back there are fine! You know Rune way better than that and you know it. You've been off ever since... well, ever since you saw Ashley back in there... is something wrong?"

  "Where is he?!"

 "I'm right here." Rune says, placing a long-clawed hand on my shoulder. He's a carnivore, given away by a soft smile lined by sharp teeth. His stick is singed. Pich's talons are covered in green and blue, a sick mix between red mammal blood and grass stains.

 "Alright. I'm here to challenge the gym." Ramos can't hear the Pokemon I just spoke to, but he looks as confused and worried as they do. He sets down his tea and sends out his Jumpluff. Its beady red eyes fix on Rune.

 He lights his fire and I'm back at the Lake of Rage.

 There's fire across my vision. This isn't the first time lightning has struck the Lake of Rage or the surrounding area- but is the first time anything has set on fire. I'm newly evolved, and my sister stands besides me, her eyes watching the fire. Her tail stiffens up when she's scared or worried. It's a sign things are going to get difficult.

 "Are you okay?"

 "Where are the water types? They should be putting this out." She mutters back, ignoring me.

 Rune's fire sets ablaze the Jumpluff's dandelion-like seeds, an attempted Leech Seed attack. Chrona yells at him the proper counter for the attack she's mastered so diligently. Rune slams his stick forwards like he's whacking an invisible pinata.

 There are scars on my sister's leg from when she was a trainer's Pokemon. She told me that it was something she would do again a million times, but no one else should ever endure. It's as if it was an inside joke she would never share, that no one else could know. A secret. A bloody, horrible secret.

 Psychic energy sends the Jumpluff down to the ground. It's over with a scattering of seeds and a single fiery attack. Gogoat races forward, horns on stick, hooves on claws. Rune snarls in indigence as the earth shakes- Bulldoze. A ground type attack, of course.

 Trees fall over in the inferno's anger as it feeds from the earth. Our home is over that way. My sister turns around. I no longer remember her face. It is nothing but yellow, no tears or any expression, but I still watch as a cut opens where her mouth would be. It utters one familiar word.

 Pich swoops over Rune, who has fallen to the ground. She dives into an Aerial Ace, locking her talons around Gogoat's horns and battering it relentlessly. Ramos looks disturbed but mutters only another command and the Gogoat flicks it's head upwards, slamming Pich in the stomach with an angry screech.

 Oh Arceus, there's fire everywhere.

 It's so hot.

 So dangerous.

 So warm.

 Gogoat goes down. Pich has won out of sheer grit. The last Pokemon, a Weepinbell, tumbles forward, terribly unintimidating. "Go for it!" yells Chona.

 I was alone and there was fire again, and I let it warm me like it warmed my sister at the lake.

 That unintimidating, comical mouth releases a vile purple poison. Pich falls from the sky. Critical hit. She coughs, sputtering, screeching, hurt. Rune yells in agony.

 Fire by the lake again, burning bright in the hearth. He's going to propose. He's going to propose to you because he loves you. He loves the Flaafy who ran away from home. He loves the Ampharos you're soon to become.

 The fire fox rushes forward with his stick blazing like a sword. Pich extends her wings, fragile and delicate, as she lies there, the purple liquid consuming feathers as the acid advances across her body.

 "Lilly! Get out an Antidote!" yells Nico. It's the first time I've ever heard him yell, but only half of me processes the words.

 "Oh for Mew's sake, let me handle this." Chrona's words echo in my ears as she acts for me, using her vines to fish through my bag and pulling out an Antidote. She applies it gently as Pich groans in relief. Before the last of it is gone, Rune pulls Pich into an embrace, her wings stiffening and extending behind him, her heart pulled up against his.

 I feel the warmth of their love. His protectiveness is mine as well, her coo of ecstasy as she feels the fire of his heart.

 Chrona stands back, smiling. She lowers her head.

 Rune whispers something into Pich's ear. I hear the three words he says to her echo in my mind, remembering Bronze's fire in every place we went. I carried that fire with me.

 He loves everything about you.

 ... I know.

(Yikes. Has it really been 16 days? Well they say good things come to those who wait. Hopefully this is good.)