It was raining the next morning.

The champion frowned at this realization as she lay curled up on her bed. Well, even if she did decide to go to Sinnoh, she certainly wasn't going today. She hated the rain. But she had nothing to do instead.

She trained in her champion room for a while, pitting her pokemon against each other in mock battles and coming up with new strategies. She wished someone was here to keep her sane right now, but, once again, her usual partners (Lance and Silver) were busy and the Elite Four members had to keep their pokemon healed and ready for any challengers. Word was that there was a kid from Cherrygrove that just wouldn't quit, so he'd been making it difficult for everyone.

After a bit of light training, she decided to take her pokemon for a quick check-up at the center. She returned the rest of her pokemon inside their pokeballs and had Cav trail behind. She was just passing the lobby when-

"Lance…" The girl paused as she almost walked by the dragon master who was sitting in the lobby. "And Steven!" Her face brightened considerably at the sight of the former Hoenn champion, who met her smile with a crooked one of his own.

"Lyra," he answered pleasantly. "How have you been?"

"Good…" Her voice trailed off as she gave the two of them an once-over. Not only did they look rather soaked from the rain outside, but also were pretty beat up. Both were in clothing that was fairly low-key for them (meaning that Steven didn't have a suit and tie and Lance was without his cape), which meant that it was a mission in which they did not wish to be immediately recognized. " You guys… Wouldn't happen to be waiting for the Pokemon Center, would you?"

"Yes," Lance answered, wincing a tiny bit. He then pointed to his upper arm, which was covered in dried blood and still oozing more. "Patch me up later?"

"Well, that looks pleasant," she made a face and there was a touch of exasperation in her voice when she spoke again. "Was it Groudon and Kyogre again?"

"Hush about this," the red-head warned her, glancing around the lobby to make sure no one heard. "This is G'men business. Very important and secretive, you know."

"It was Rayquaza this time," Steven offered casually, shrugging, destroying any illusions of secrecy that Lance might be constructing. Lance, upon hearing this, sighed, as it meant that he could, indeed, speak freely about this and that he had some explaining to do.

"Another one of your theories?" She asked neutrally, keeping the critical tone from her voice, yet implying it anyway.

"Yup."

"Any success this time?"

Steven made a contemplative face. "That depends on your definition of success."

She turned to Lance, giving him a disapproving look. "Are Ryo and Mach okay?" Ryo was Lance's dragonite and Mach was Steven's metagross. The both of them were Lance and Steven's first line of defense and their most trusted partners.

"They should be fine," Steven answered, leaning back in his plush lobby chair. "They're getting healed up in the center."

"Alright, then come with me, dragon boy," Lyra sighed, motioning for the Kanto champion, who slowly rose, gritting his teeth at the strain. He glanced back at Steven, who appeared to look right at home.

"I'll catch up with you later?"

Steven stretched, yawning, even though it was noon by now. "Well, I'm not planning on leaving until I get some rest, so, yeah. I'll get Ryo and Mach and meet you at your place in ten."

"Thanks."

Steven settled in his chair, closing his eyes briefly to rest his eyes. It was at that exact moment that his phone chose to vibrate. He pulled it out of his pocket, squinting with one eye to read the text that he had gotten.

He sighed, closing his eyes again and muttering to himself. "Well, I'll save that problem for later."


At Lyra's place, Lance was proving himself to be quite sensitive to Lyra's ministrations.

"Ow," he muttered as she pulled the bandage around his arm a bit tighter. "That hurts."

"Big baby," she giggled, but her hands seemed to work lighter anyway. Smoothing out the bandage on his arm, she bit her lip, deciding to see what information she could get out of him. "So… What happened?"

A sheepish smile passed over the Kanto champion's face. "We were investigating the possible abilities of Rayquaza when we seemed to disturb the very creature we were studying. Yeah. That went well."

"Sounds like one of your usual escapades," the girl grinned, glad that it wasn't anything more serious. Deciding to look around to see if he was hurt anywhere else, she prodded his side experimentally, unprepared for the reaction that she got.

"Ah, oh," Lance groaned, shying away from her. "What'd you do that for?"

"Dude, that might be a bruised rib there," the Johto champion answered, crossing her arms. "Now will you please stop messing with legendary pokemon? You're cutting your lifespan in half doing this."

The dragon master grimaced. Lyra didn't dish out disapproval like this very often and, when she did, it was hard to ignore it. "I suppose that you do have a point. I guess some aspects of nature shouldn't be messed with."

She paused, crossed arms loosening. "Nature. Legendary pokemon."

He could see the wheels turning in her head and he stared at her curiously. "Ly? What are you thinking about?"

She turned away toward the window and he could see her lift her hand up to bite her nail. "Nothing. Now, listen, I've been thinking and I really want to go to Sinnoh."

"Did you get some kind of lead there?"

She nodded, mind obviously still processing.

"Well, you know that Steven's birthday thing is only a few days away, so maybe this investigation could wait until after that," Lance suggested carefully, trying to read Lyra's feelings on all this. How serious was she on getting to the bottom of this?

The girl nodded, hand falling back to her side. "Of course. I wouldn't miss Steven's party. But I want to go."

"Okay."

"I talked with Ethan about all this while you were gone and I think I know what I want to do about all this finally."

"And that is?"

"I want them to live again. I want them to honor Leaf's sacrifice instead of-"

"Wait, her sacrifice? Where are you getting all this, Ly? What have you found out?"

She paused, still not looking at him, hands tapping at the windowsill as she stared out at the rain that was still falling. "Nothing, Lance. I have proof of nothing. It's just gut instinct right now."

"Just give it time," he answered, leaning forward in his chair and deciding not to push her about it. He had his own theory about what happened anyway, which was mainly why he didn't want Lyra getting involved in it all. "You'll get answers."

And then he flashed back to memories of his own, when Red had asked questions without answers and Lance had seen a cynical boy that he didn't recognize.

That wouldn't happen to her. He wouldn't let it. She was the one that he would protect. She would never end up disillusioned like Red and Steven. Like he sometimes wondered if he was.

"Lance?"

He broke from his thoughts to see her questioning face. "Why don't you go change and get out of those clothes before you get sick? And help out Steven. From what I heard, he's pretty eager to sleep. Oh, and-" he paused from his slow movement of standing up, "will you and Steven be back in an hour for Silver's match? He's in the finals of the Sinnoh Grand Cup and they're televising the match. I was going to watch him kick the kid's ass."

He nodded, getting up from the chair. "Yeah, I'll come back, although I assume Steven will want to rest. And thanks for cleaning me up."

"Anytime," she smiled, but her mind was obviously still elsewhere. "I'll talk to you later."

He left, the thought still nagging him that this was going to end up bad for her. There were so many things that he had to shelter her from that he didn't know what to do.

He still remembered seeing her tame the Red Gyarados at Lake of Rage. He had never seen a girl more precocious or fearless, nonetheless one that drew that courage from her complete and utter trust in her pokemon. As she faced the gyarados on the back of her comparatively small quagsire, he wondered if perhaps she was the next champion.

This one wouldn't turn out like Red. Not when there was something that he could do about it.

Lyra would be Lance's to protect, whether she wanted it or not.


"So, I guess you want to crash on my couch."

Steven Stone was already sprawled on said piece of furniture, soaked clothes and all. He nodded, looking half-asleep already.

Lance ran a hand through his wet hair, shaking off raindrops. "Really,dude? You can't even change first?"

Steven grinned wryly, eyes still closed. "I was kinda assuming that I could do whatever I wanted, seeing as you'll probably be down the hall the entire night anyway."

The Kanto champion groaned, rolling his eyes. "Really, Steven? This again?"

"She's totally got a thing for you, Lance," the Hoenn ex-champion sighed, stretching out further.

"Please," Lance retorted, eyes scanning his quarters to make sure everything was a he left it. "I'm much too old for her. I'm practically an old man." His age was the most handy reason he could think of to deflect Steven's seemingly innocent accusations.

Steven was grinning again as he was still half-asleep. "Seven years? You're right. That's ages. And if that's how you're gonna be, then fine." He then adopted a much more serious tone, much to Lance's relief. "How much did you tell her about our little encounter?"

"Virtually nothing," Lance replied, walking into the kitchen to get food. "We don't really know anything, so what is there to tell?"

Steven opened one eye, squinting toward his friend who he could hear rummaging around, as only a counter and fifteen feet separated Steven's couch of choice and Lance's refrigerator (a fact that pleased Steven immensely when he stayed here). "How about the fact that Team Magma and Team Aqua are back, but they're just lying low? We haven't seen hide nor hair of them for three years, we get one whisper of information, we mess with Raquaza, and they only intervene when they're forced to. They're back, but they're not doing anything. Almost as if they're lying in wait. They're obviously planning something. That and the fact that Unova is practically falling apart spells trouble for everyone. You don't find any part of that alarming?"

Lance shrugged from where he was in the kitchen. "She's got enough going on right now. She doesn't need to worry about this too. You and I can take care of it."

Steven sat up, eyes fully open and face twisted in a contemplative expression. "So you guys do have something going on."

The closest thing to the dragon master's hand was promptly flung over the counter and towards Steven. A bag of sliced bread hit Steven Stone right in the face. "Good shot, my friend," the Hoenn native held up the bread, gazing at it objectively. "You keep your bread in the fridge?"

"Yeah, I don't know how that happened."

After a moment's thought, Steven continued. "Hey. Do you happen to have any peanut butter?"

"Yeah, but you're making your own sandwich," Lance answered amicably, apparently having already gotten over Steven's earlier comment.

The steel-type trainer sighed. "Fine."

He got up and ambled into the kitchen, rummaging through the cabinet. "Seriously, though. We do have to talk about this. The good guys don't always win like in your idealistic world."

"Ever the practical one, Stone," the dragon master grinned. "And I'd like to test that theory."

He shot his friend a look. "Well, at least Lyra is distracted with this whole 'Pallet Trio' thing. If you want us to take care of everything without her involvement, that should make it easier. Although I don't think that she'll thank you for keeping her in the dark."

Lance scowled as his friend grabbed a knife to spread the peanut butter. "I'm not 'keeping her in the dark'. Don't act all cynical like that. I just think that she did her part when she single-handedly disposed of Team Rocket four years ago. She doesn't need to know all this."

"I just don't know if she'll see it that way. She's a champion and she'll feel bad if she's not keeping an eye on her region."

"That's what she's got me for," the Kanto champion retorted, then explained at the doubtful look on his friend's face. "She's not like that, Steven. She doesn't get angry. She just gets frustrated and I'm willing to risk that. She can be frustrated with me, as long as she's not in danger."

Steven looked up from his sandwich-making. "Dude. She seemed pretty concerned today. This may be more important to her than you think. And," he paused, motioning at his friend with the butter knife. "You better hope she doesn't ask you about the Pallet Trio. I know that you know more than you're telling."

"She'll find the answers on her own."

The steel-type trainer shrugged, putting together the two sides of bread of his sandwich. "Okay. If you're sure. I just think that your habit of trying to control everything is gonna get you into trouble on this one."

"Stone. I don't need your admonishment either," he snapped, not feeling hungry all of a sudden, even though he had taken out a can of soup to heat up. Arceus, he hated being judged above all else. He then sighed, trying to take out some of his previous aggression. "I'm gonna go shower. I'll be back in a few."

Steven decided that perhaps he had been a little too harsh. Lance had a lot on his mind, obviously. And although his friend often acted and claimed to be an idealist, Steven wondered if perhaps he had some doubt that plagued him. Perhaps practicality did have some hold on him. The day that Lance Wataru became a pragmatist would be a sad day indeed.

So much drama and Steven hadn't even told him about Cynthia's news. Well, she did say that she was taking care of it. He took a bite of his finished peanut butter sandwich. He'd save that for later.


When Silver arrived at the stadium for the championship match of Sinnoh's biggest tournament of the year, he immediately noticed that things were different.

For one, security was rather high. It was hardly subtle, but then, Silver supposed that he was quicker than the average bystander at noticing such things. Tournament security was at every entrance to check people in and many seemed present just to observe. Of course, some of this was protocol, but the former champion of Sinnoh being present was not, as he caught a glance of her in the stands as he walked past one of the entrances on the way to where he was supposed to enter the stadium.

Cynthia Shirona. Former champion of Sinnoh and key G-men member of the region. Ex-girlfriend of Steven Stone and one of Lyra's revered idols. Oh, Silver was familiar with Cynthia Shirona and he wanted nothing to do with her. There were way too many people that would be pissed at him if he was rude to her and Silver not being rude was asking for a lot. Still, she had a presence that drew his eye to her, even if only to question why she was here.

With all the obvious lack of subtlety, he wondered if perhaps such a show was intended to scare off any potential threats. He mused his way through various possibilities until he reached where he would be walking onto the battlefield, at which point, he began to put his game face on. Unlike Lyra, he was not the kind to research his opponents or watch the other matches of the tournament. In fact, he wasn't even sure who he was facing, but, to him, it didn't matter one bit. He was the same caliber as any of the champions of the League and usually dominated most of the tournaments he entered. This would just be another one in the bag.

Glancing at his clock, he saw that he had about a minute to spare-

And then the door opened in front of him and a tournament official ushered him onto the field, which made him curse his own inability to set his watch accurately. It was so vexing.

And, yet, he still wondered why Lyra always told him not to let the little things get to him.

Striding onto the tournament field, he reveled in the adrenaline rush that accompanied entering such a large stadium. It didn't matter what people thought of him, they only wanted to see a good battle. And he always gave them that, albeit the harsh and merciless way that he did it (which, as Lyra informed him, was much milder that it used to be).

Silver ran a hand across the line of pokeballs on his belt as he pondered which pokemon to send out first, which he had been debating for the last hour. He supposed that Gengar would be the first one, mostly because of his ability to perform spectacularly very soon into the match. Gengar was always ready to own whoever he was put up against. Silver had grabbed Gengar's pokeball when he finally looked up to see who was facing.

His blood ran cold.

Everything seemed frozen in time for a brief moment as he stared across the battlefield to meet the stone cold eyes of the enemy that he thought he had escaped and then, all of a sudden, it sped up again and Silver felt as if he could hardly keep up with what was going on around him.

He had missed them announcing his name, but he heard his challenger's name.

"- and there's Ben Walker from Johto on the opposing side, whose impressive victories have made quite a buzz about his chances as a dark horse challenger."

Silver's eyes narrowed as he studied the situation around him, not having lost that much of his nerve as to be unable to reason. A fake name. Silver's opponent was up to no good, he could tell that much, and the red-headed trainer wondered if this was the reason that security was so tight. But, if they already knew, then why would they let him compete? It didn't make sense. None of this made sense and Silver wanted out. Right now. But he couldn't lose face like that and just walk away, so he tried to compose himself. He had to pull himself together.

He instead studied his opponent once more, although already knowing what he was going to find. The bastard had that same icy, composed front as he always did and the kind of looks that had women fawning over him, although he never seemed to care. Zeke was never the kind to show too much emotion, while Silver seemed to be all about the anger that motivated every single one of his actions.

And yet it comes down to this yet again. The irony of the entire situation was not lost on Silver as he remembered all the times that they had competed, with this same kind of tension in the air. The face-off and the silent challenges that never had to be spoken, only understood. He wondered what pokemon Zeke had now, but realized that, by Silver's own arrogance, Zeke knew everything about him and Silver knew nothing about Zeke. Nothing recent, at least.

The two trainers locked eyes for a moment and, to Silver, all the progress and growth over the last four years hung in the balance- in the no man's land that lie between him and his rival for as long as he could remember.

"And the battle begins!"

Both trainers had their chosen pokeball clenched in their hand as the flag to start the match went down and Silver hesitated, that split second giving the impression to his opponent that he was uncertain.

"Go, Rhydon." Zeke called out, voice icy.

"Gengar. Let's go."

Elsewhere, a certain champion worried.


"Lance, get in here!"

"Hold on, Lyra!"

"No, I mean now. This doesn't look good."

The dragon master stuck his head in the door to the living room, expression curious. "What are you talking about?"

"I mean quit finding something to eat in my fridge and actually get in here. Silver's battle doesn't look good."

The commands that Lyra were issuing were only stemming from her extreme anxiety at the moment, an anxiety that apparently was not unwarranted, as were a large majority of her worries. He had been hoping to heat up some leftovers in Lyra's fridge, since both he and Steven really only had the culinary skills of making food that came premade from a can or package. Despite their bachelor status, neither of them had really ever bothered to learn how to feed themselves.

But, for now, he took a seat in one of Lyra's armchairs and watched the battle. Silver seemed to be using his gengar (a tricky little bugger, as always) and was facing off against a rhydon that looked more than capable.

"Who is that?" Lance pointed out, curious at who Silver's challenger was. "He's worrying Silver right now? I've never even seen him before."

"Shhhh," Lyra hushed him, already leaned forward with her eyes trained on the television screen. "Just watch what's going on."

Although he hated being hushed, Lance nonetheless obliged and immediately started feeling as if he wanted to knock his head against the wall. He watched as Silver made Gengar move into an aggressive close quarters attack with Focus Blast. "Why's he doing that?" Lance muttered in exasperation, voice strained. "I worked on him with that before he left. With the mediocre trainers he has been facing, aggressive attacks like that work, but it leaves his pokemon unguarded and open to a counterattack."

"I know!" Lyra answered, eyes still glued to the battle. "He's battling so recklessly. It's like he's reverted back to rookie Silver or something."

Lance shook his head. "He keeps this up and he's gonna lose this match for sure."

And, in the end, Lance's words proved most prophetic.

And, as champions, both Lyra and Lance separately wondered if they should be worried.


1) So, there's a little bit of the overall plot developing here with trouble mentioned in Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova. Also, little bit of subplot for Silver with his blast from the past.

2) I know! I'm taking a long time for the main plot to come out! I want to write some action NOW! But, I have some things to take care of first, unfortunately.

3) Yes. This fic will be Steven/Cynthia. What can I say? I shlike them.

That's all for now!