Braviary and Swanna didn't take me back to Rena's Widgets or the hideout like I thought they would. It was strange. I'd normally stay awake when we flew, but with everything we had encountered, I somehow had fallen asleep. My Pokémon must've noticed that and thought it was reasonable to take a break.

The place were I woke up at was dark with sparks of light shimmering on the walls. My eyes blinked a couple of times, hoping that they were just playing tricks on me. That wasn't the case. Nothing seemed to change. Just the ripples of light flickering across the walls. It was almost like watching the night sky, but on uneven walls and a ceiling that was much closer than the sky.

A smile flickered on my face for a moment as a memory flashed in front of my eyes. I tried shoving the memories away, but I couldn't. This place reminded me so much of that time when I was in the White Forest with...

No. I needed to forget it. The more I allowed myself to think of those memories, the more distracted I'd get. I couldn't do that. Not when I had my Pokémon counting on me. I pushed down on the ground to sit up and looked around, finding Braviary curled up at my feet while Plusle stirred on the ground beside me. For a moment, I froze. She probably hasn't gotten a decent night's sleep since Gila took her from me.

As if noticing I was up, Plusle's ears twitched. She looked up at me and smiled.

"Plu plu Plusle!" she squealed in excitement as she jumped to her feet and wrapped her tiny arms around one of my own.

I just stared at her for a moment, knowing I should feel happy too. Yet, all I could feel was guilt. It was because of me she got herself in that mess. She was on my team because I thought I could save her from harm. A few months ago, when I was still a part of Team Miasma, we were in a small forest in Hoenn. Team Miasma needed to look for something for the Pokémon they wanted. That was all I could gather as they kept me in the dark about that sort of stuff.

All I knew was that I had to help them. While doing so, one of the Krait twins thought it would be a great idea to set the forest on fire to find whatever item they needed a lot faster. As they did, I snuck away to try and warn as many Pokémon as I could. Not all of them listened to me until the fire crept up behind me. Swanna and Mienshao started getting more Pokémon out of the forest, while Audino and I had found as many that were injured to heal them to get them out.

But that didn't last long when the Krait twins found me. They found me and caught me breaking one of their rules I had to follow: no healing. They caught me red handed as I was pulling Plusle out from under a burning log. I knew what they would've forced me to do if I didn't think of anything quickly, so I caught her.

By doing so, I took her away from all her friends.

Maybe things would've been better if I had just tried to stop the Krait twins instead of trying to get those Pokémon out of the forest. Plusle wouldn't have been in this mess. It was my fault she was here, fearing what could happen next. She could've been safe in Hoenn had it not been for my careless actions of taking her in. There would be no way she'd be tortured by Gila. There would have been no fight against Swanna. She wouldn't have to worry about what could happen next.

"Plusle?" she asked, tilting her head.

Not sure what she was really saying, I gave her a smile. "I'm sorry. Once we're back home, I'm going to make sure you're safe, I promise."

Plusle looked more confused than relieved. I sighed as I grabbed her Poké Ball from my waist, only, it wasn't there. I scrambled up to my feet, wondering what I did with it. I thought I had taken it from Gila, or at least, I thought Braviary would've taken it.

I bent down beside Braviary and shook his wing. His eyes widened just before he glared at me. An unusual growl rumbled from his throat as he lowered his head.

"I need Plusle's Poké Ball. You had it last, didn't you?" I asked.

Braviary rolled his eyes as he lowered he started to close his eyes.

"Hey!" I shouted. "I need her Poké Ball! You have it, don't you?"

My shouts didn't bother Braviary at all. He didn't move a muscle or tried to look me in the eye. The only thing he did was respond with a snore.

I groaned, seeing him act like this. I couldn't deal with this right now. Maybe he didn't have it, so I stood up and looked around, hoping to find Plusle's Poké Ball.

As I looked around, I realized I was missing a valuable teammate. I bit my lip. Where was he? Swanna...he should've been here with the rest of us. I turned around, seeing huge boulders sitting on the ground. Like the walls around us, they'd flash in strings of lights, leaving a luminous glow in its place until they'd dim for a while.

"Swanna?" I asked.

There was no response. I carefully took a few steps towards the boulders, hoping that he was behind there, but at the same time, I didn't. If Swanna was hiding, it couldn't have been good. Could it? I mean, some injured Pokémon would run away from their Trainers if they were afraid that their injuries would end up deadly, but Swanna knew better. He had to. I was a Pokémon Nurse. I could treat him as I wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

"Swanna?" I asked as I peeked from behind the boulders.

Laying there was a pool of white feathers. I held my breath as I carefully maneuvered myself around the uneven ground and towards the small space Swanna was sleeping. As I did, Plusle climbed onto my shoulder, scooting closer to me.

Before I could bend down to see how Swanna was doing, my partner slowly turned his head towards me. I sighed in relief as there were no injuries or signs of even a small scratch on him. There was just one thing that concerned me. The second Swanna saw me, he stood up and started to back away from me. Swanna even shorted his neck, almost as though he was trying to get as far away from me as he possibly could.

I froze as I looked at him. He was afraid. I looked down at the tattered Team Miasma's version of my Swanna Suit. Wherever there was a tear, there was a brightly colored bruise or gash. With everything that had happened, I didn't even notice my own injuries. I turned to look at Plusle, whose body was badly bruised as well.

To think I should've been looking out for this kind of thing. Even if I did, I realized there was nothing I could've done. The only thing I could think about was getting either Audino or Mienshao out of their Poké Balls. I didn't have time to think about my own injuries, but even as I looked at them for the first time, I realized they weren't that serious.

"They don't bother me," I told Swanna. "You weren't yourself, so don't beat yourself over it, okay?"

Swanna still shied away from me, not believing a word I said. I turned to look at Plusle, who tried to climb down my arm. Her injuries weren't what was causing the entire thing to be challenging. It was the height. I bent down and extended my arm, allowing the small Pokémon to hop freely off my arm.

Once on the ground, Plusle tip toed over to Swanna, showing him her scars. It confused me at first as to why Plusle would show her teammate the cuts and bruises that were caused by him, but I started to realize something. Plusle didn't seem hurt by them. If anything, she almost seemed pleased by her new injuries.

It confused me even more.

"Please," I told Swanna, "understand that you weren't yourself. If you were, you wouldn't have attacked. I know you wouldn't have. What matters right now is that you're back to normal."

My Pokémon looked at me for a moment. While he froze, I knelt beside beside Swanna and scratched under his beak. He tried everything he could to pull away, but he soon found himself falling in a trance as he laid his head in my hand. Swanna needed to relax and realize this wasn't his fault. Luckily, I knew what spot to scratch in order to so just that.

"When we get back, I will treat these wounds," I promised. "And I promise, together we'll—"

Swanna swiftly stood up, taking me off guard. He pulled his head away and turned to look around the boulder we were hiding behind. I didn't say another word as I watched him, curious as to what would happen next.

It was then I started to hear something in the distance. I peeked my head from behind the boulder, finding no one but Braviary sleeping in the middle of the opening of the cave. For a moment, I thought I heard him snoring, but it was too distant for the sound to be coming from him.

I waited a bit before I heard the voices growing louder. Voices. We weren't alone. After what happened last night, I knew I couldn't risk being caught by any criminals or civilians right now. I'd either be killed or forced to go to jail. If either of those happened, there would be no way of saving Mienshao or Audino, nor would there be any way of stopping that phony Braviary Man or Team Miasma.

My hand quickly grabbed Braviary's Poké Ball as I knew there was absolutely no way of waking him up. I pointed it at him and watched as the beam of red light wrapped around Braviary, sucking him back inside the capsule.

While that happened I heard a small plonk sound. I looked around, wondering where it was coming from. My eyes widened the moment I saw the small capsule rolling on the cavern floor, away from the boulder we were hiding behind.

Of course Braviary would have hidden Plusle's Poké Ball. I don't know why he chose now not to listen to me, but now wasn't the time for that.

If I left it there, whoever was coming might pick it up thinking it was a forgotten Poké Ball. There were many careless Trainers out there that would drop valuable items like Poké Balls, precious stones, even a single earring. If someone grabbed her Poké Ball and left, there would be no way I could keep her safe.

Thinking about that, I didn't care what kind of people were coming. I jumped over the boulder, hearing a snap, but I ignored it. My legs sprinted over to the Poké Ball as I bent down and grabbed it.

"How do we know this old man isn't some insane person?" a voice asked.

My heart started to accelerate as I turned around and ran back behind the boulder Swanna and Plusle were hiding behind. I held my breath as sweat poured down my forehead. If I had waited a second longer, I don't think I could have made it, especially since the footsteps stopped.

"You want your proof that the man isn't crazy?" a more feminine voice asked. "Here, tell me, what do you think this is?"

I could feel everything started to shake as I feared the worst. Whoever was in here knew I was here, didn't they?

"An Archeops Feather?" the first voice asked. His voice was low and raspy, almost as if he didn't have anything to drink for days.

"Wrong! I'll give you a hint. This feather isn't from a Unovan Pokémon," the more feminine voice answered.

There was a pause. As there was, I took a risk to look over the boulder to find two young teenagers, a boy and a girl, looking at a feather. It wasn't just any feather either. It was the Lunar Wing.

My hand reached for the string around my neck, finding that it was still there. I let out a small sigh as I shrunk back behind the boulder I was hiding behind. Everything was fine. I still had my Lunar Wing. Somehow, I'd just have to find a way to take that one from them.

I ignored the two teens voices for a moment as Swanna gave me a worried look. I smiled as I held out the string around my neck, showing her that there was nothing to be afraid of. We still had our—

The Lunar Wing was missing from the necklace. I looked down, realizing that wasn't the only thing missing around my neck.

"What's this?" the girl's voice asked.

I froze, feeling the blood rushing through my veins. Her voice was so close, as if she was just on the other side of the boulder. Plusle seemed to have noticed my fear as she cuddled closer beside me, nudging her head on my side. Despite her attempts to make me feel better, I didn't. All these Trainers had to do was peak on the other side of the boulder and find me. With Swanna, I could leave, but then people would know where I was at.

"C'mon, Kristina, now's not the time to be looking at lost jewelry," the boy whined. "I wanna get outta here."

"You're such a wuss, Jack," the girl, Kristina, complained before sighing. "Don't give me that look. We can go. That old geezer probably needs that feather ASAP, so he can get better or something."

Get better? My heart sank when I heard that. A feather from a Legendary had many special abilities. It was hard to tell what every kind of ability they possessed, but if the man was sick and could get better with a Lunar Wing, I couldn't take it from him.

I'd just have to find another way to get my Pokémon out of their capsules.

For a moment, I listened to the teens as they walked away. Their voices grew softer, but I heard a few key works while they did: blind, walked funny, limp. I'd feel guilty if I took that from him. There was no way I could do that.

Swanna and I exchanged looks for a moment. Like me, I could see him struggling with the idea of taking that feather away from those teens. Someone needed it more than we did.

True, one of my Pokémon could die if I didn't get them out of their Poké Balls, but this man probably was facing the same fate. To take that chance of life away from him...I couldn't do it. I couldn't do something like that again.

Rena could probably find another way to get Audino and Mienshao out of their Poké Balls. I'm sure of it. All we had to do was fly over to Rena's Widgets and figure this whole thing out.

Then, we could stop Team Miasma and that imposter once and for all.

Author's Note:

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long wait. Editing this chapter in particular was very challenging, and I'm sure there are still a ton of mistakes in it. Again, if you ever see any mistakes, please feel free to point them out, so I can fix them, and I apologize in advance for that. But, I was just so excited to post this chapter because we are so close to one of my favorite chapters. I plan on having the next chapter up in two weeks, but again, don't worry if that doesn't happen as I'm working hard on editing, writing, and other stuff.

Meanwhile, we actually had two ordinary Trainers in this part. I think that's actually a first (if you took out Hilda and Hilbert, but even then they're Champions, not ordinary Trainers). So, for this weeks question: what would your occupation be if you lived in the Pokémon World?

Can't wait to hear from you all! Cya in about two weeks. Take care!