Everything was dark. I was wrapped in a cocoon of black, blissful unconscious. Then all at once, the blackness lifted and I was thrown back into the real world. Where... where am I? My eyes fluttered open, and I saw a wooden wall inches from my face. I immediately felt a burning sensation around my entire neck. I could hardly swallow, when I did it hurt immensely.

   I tried to move my hands, but couldn't. They were bound together in front of me at the wrists. I slowly and painfully rolled onto my back and sat up, deep aches shooting through my sore muscles. I was in a small wooden cell with a metal door and a small porthole window a foot under the ceiling. The room oh-so-slightly shifted from side to side, and it dawned on me that I must be on the ship Nate and I saw. Then everything came flooding back. Nate has shielded me from the Liepard's attack!

   "N-Nate... where... where are..." I wheezed, not able to finish from the pain it caused.

   "Rosa? You're... finally awake." The pain-filled voice of my brother responded.

   I turned, trying to avoid moving my neck and saw my brother curled up in a far corner of the cell, facing away from me. "You... okay?" I wheezed, walking on my knees over to him.

   "Uh, define 'okay.'" He said, weakly laughing. I reached him and tried to roll him onto his back with my tied hands. When Nate realized what I was trying to do, he protested with a cry of pain. "No, don't! They'll open up again!"

   I ignored him however and managed to roll him over. My face went white. His wrists were bound like mine and he held his restricted hands tightly to his stomach. Nate's hands were red with... blood. Under his hands I could see poorly-wrapped bandages. As I thought, they were also dyed a deep red.

   "Oh... oh Arceus..!" I gasped, feeling disgusted and shocked. Sure, the injury to my neck was painful, but that didn't even hold a Litwick to how much pain Nate was in. I looked at my brother's face and knew my assumptions were correct. His eyes were squeezed shut, his face was streaked with tears and he was breathing short, shallow breaths through clenched teeth. He looked so helpless that I began tearing up myself. My little brother in so much pain, all because he tried to shield me... It didn't just break my heart, it shattered it.

   Okay, okay. Calm down Rosa. Calm. Down! I took a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself, only to get another lungful of the metallic reek. Ugh, it smells awful! I thought, feeling bile beginning to rise in the back of my throat. I choked it down and steeled myself for the task I had to do next.

   "Nate, move... m-move your hands," I said, my throat seizing occasionally as I talked. "I-I need to... s-see how they... look."

   "No!" he cried.

   "Move them!" I yelled, feeling like my throat shredded in the process. Nate then nodded and unwillingly moved his hands away. I tried to assess the damage, doing my best to block out his cries as I did so. It made me feel awful, but it had to be done. It thankfully wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The slashes weren't as deep as I expected, and they could most likely be fixed with stitches. Me moving Nate seemed to have made them begin bleeding again, however, and what blood came from them was sluggish and dark.

   I hurriedly pulled the bandages back over the slashes, wrapping them as tight I could and applying pressure. I wouldn't let anything else happen to him, I refused to!

   I had no idea how long I kneeled there, trying to stop the bleeding. It could've been hours or no more than ten minutes, I couldn't tell. I just knew the cell had started growing dark when I heard a key turn and the metal door swung open. Light spilled in from the hallway and filled a section of the room. I squinted against the sudden brightness, trying to make out the figure standing in the doorway.

   "Rosa?" the figure spoke my name hesitantly, as if they weren't sure they were speaking to the right person. My heart leapt when I recognized the voice of No. 18. It had been weeks since I last saw him, but I never forgot his voice.

  "18? Is... is that... y-you?" I croaked, my own voice not having improved in the slightest. 

   "Yeah, it is. Guess I have to thank 20 for making me take his guard shift," he said, stepping into the cell and closing the door behind him. The room was plunged into darkness once more, it was even darker since my eyes hadn't readjusted yet. "Sorry, I didn't want to risk being seen. I'll provide some light for us. Come on out, Lucy." A blue and white flash briefly lit up the room and faded almost instantly. "Lucy, could you use Charge please?" 18 asked. A bark sounded in the darkness and the faint outline of 18's Pokemon slowly grew brighter. It soon became clear that several parts of the Pokemon were glowing yellow with self-generated electricity. "This my Manetric, Po. M32, or Lucy for short," 18 said.

   "Th-that's... amazing!" I gasped, staring in awe at the Manetric's glowing fur. Every once in a while, a bright strand of electricity arced over her fur. The buzzing sound it emitted made me pretty sure that she would unintentionally shock me if I were to touch her. 

   Nate, who had stopped talking a while ago, abruptly moved under my hold. "Why's it so bright?" he groaned. "It's like someone finally turned on the light switch."

   "Nate! 18... 18's here."

   "What?!" Nate bolted up, but only made it halfway before the pain hit and he laid back down. "Yeah... I'll just talk from here, okay?" he said, gritting his teeth in an attempt to not scream.

   No. 18 looked down at my hands, which were now red with Nate's blood. "Did Umbra's Liepard do that?" he asked.

   "Whose?" I said.

   "Umbra is the leader of the Shadow Triad, and he tends to sic his Liepard on people. You're lucky she didn't use Fury Swipes. Wait a second, I can help you with the bleeding."

   Shadow Triad? That must've been the Triad Hugh had referred to, I thought.

   "Here we go," 18 said. He was holding another Poké Ball. A very small light bolted from the ball into 18's free hand. The light faded and he now held a very small Pokemon in his hand, no longer than the length of his wrist to fingertip. It was a yellow Bug-type, a Joltik if I could recall. "You've met Lucy, and now you should meet my next Pokemon: Po. J45, or Charlotte." Charlotte blinked all four of her blue eyes and skittered around in place, performing a little twirl. I had to admit, in a weird way the tiny Pokemon was cute.

   "How... how can she... help... Nate?" I asked.

   "You'll see," 18 replied. He let Charlotte crawl onto his shoulder and kneeled down on Nate's other side, opposite of me. "Nate, I'm going to sit you up, okay? I promise you'll be fine."

   Nate took several deep breaths and nodded firmly. "Okay," he replied in a brave tone. 18 nodded too and made my brother sit up. Nate's breath hitched and he inhaled sharply. Other than that, he didn't make a sound. I removed my hands from Nate's wounds, starting to get what 18 was trying to do.

   "Of course they didn't patch you up properly. Charlotte, String Shot." Like I thought it would, Charlotte's String Shot wrapped completely around Nate's lower torso, creating a silk bandage. It was a brilliant idea, and seeing the wounds covered made me feel at ease. Though weak, Nate's previously unsteady breaths soon became more even. "And to finish this off, Fury Cutter." Charlotte used her tiny fangs to slice through the bindings around mine and Nate's wrists. Once they were off, I rubbed where the bindings had been, reveling in the fact that I could move my hands freely. I checked to see if my Bolt Pendant was still around my neck, and to my relief, it was.

   "Th-thank you," I stammered.

   "No problem. It would be heartless to not help you. I'm disappointed though, you should've left Neo Team Plasma alone. They weren't like they were two years ago. They're... much, much more upfront with their actions." 18 said, shaking his head. "That's besides the point. Finding you was only step one, step two is getting you three off this ship."

   "Three? So Hugh's here?" Nate asked hopefully.

   "So Hugh is his name... Good thing I remembered it right," 18 said. "And yeah, he's here too. Right in the cell next to yours actually."

   "Great!" I got out without my throat feeling like it was on fire.

   "I'll explain more later. I have the night guard shift too, so you can make your escape tonight," 18 said, standing up. "It's clear all three of you need medical attention, and staying here any longer will make it worse."

   Hugh was hurt too? I hope he's okay, I thought sadly.

   "I'll be back in a few hours and we'll get this party started. I have one question before I leave though," 18 raised an eyebrow. "Do either of you have any Water-type Pokemon?"