Thank you for the review! Made my day. Sorry I haven't updated, guys. I have no excuse except lack of motivation. It came back the day before school starts again -.-' I had all winter break...

Disclaimer: I do not own anything! I am just a regular person writing a fanfiction about my favorite games.

Chapter Four

As soon as Jade entered the Professor's lab, she was swarmed by police officers asking questions. Officer Jenny had to shout at them to calm down. When it was finally quiet, she and Professor Elm made their way toward her. Neither looked particularly happy.

"Who are you? We are investigating the case of the missing Pokémon here," she asked loudly irritating Jade just with her voice. It would seem thatthe Jennys were annoying in every region. "Rule number one! Whoever did it will come back to the scene of the crime. Is this the one who did it Professor Elm?"

Before she or Professor Elm could say anything Ethan came bursting in and spoke up in her defense.

"Hold on a second!" he shouted and the nice, shy boy that Jade was used to seeing outside her aunt's window disappeared. "She has nothing to do with it! I saw it. There was a red-haired boy looking into the building!"

It took Leaf's mind a few seconds to register what he had just said. When it did a terrible feeling overcame her and she whispered, "Silver."

"You know that guy?" Officer Jenny asked loudly leaning toward her with her hands on her hips. It looked like she was trying to talk to a ten year old which annoyed Jade to no end considering she was sixteen and almost as tall as the policewoman. "Well, don't hold back on the details. Spill them out!"

"I battled him. That's all," she said with a tone in finality that gave Jenny the hint to not question her anymore. Jade tried to keep her composure but it was hard to do when one of your old friends was being accused of committing a crime. It was unlike for Silver to ever even think about doing something that could hurt others on purpose much less steal a Pokémon from a Pokémon Professor.

"I see. Well thanks for helping my investigation," she said not sounding thankful at all and then turned to Professor Elm. "Don't worry, professor. I will find this individual and bring him to justice!"

She walked out of the lab with her police force. Even when Jade wasn't Leaf anymore, she and the Jennys still didn't get along. She figured it was partly her fault for generalizing them and treating them all like the one from Cerulean City, but that was a story for another time. After every officer was out everything became silent for a few seconds. Jade was glad to see her gone but questioned exactly how Jenny was going to find Silver. The only thing she had was that he had red hair and stole a totodile. The Jennys back in Kanto would have at least done a police sketch.

"I'm glad they understand you are innocent, Jade," Ethan said to her reverting back to his quiet self. He left the laboratory and Jade turned to the professor who looked devastated.

"Jade, this is terrible…" he said before regaining his composure and even brightening up. So much so that Jade found herself wondering if he had some sort of mental problems. What kind of person gets that happy in only a few seconds? Maybe he was the sort to look on the bright side of things… "Oh, yes, what was Mr. Pokémon's big discovery?"

"A togepi egg," she said distractedly still thinking about the boy she had battled.

He looked at her in surprise before asking, "How do you know it's a togepi egg?"

"Different Pokémon eggs have different patterns and colors on their shells depending on the Pokémon it has inside," she stated a bit surprised at how a Pokémon Professor who studied evolution didn't know such a simple fact. "I figured this out when… I was in Sinnoh and my neighbors who bred Pokémon would show me all of the eggs that they found in their yard."

He knew she couldn't say anything more than that but his eyes looked as if he was dying to know more.

"Mr. Pokémon is always fascinated by eggs," he said. "I'll be sure to tell him this new information. He'll be ecstatic to hear it but before I do I know he'll want proof. We'll take a picture of it before it hatches and a picture after so we can compare. I'll keep it for a while to find out more about it."

She nodded and was beginning to walk out before he stopped her with a loud exclamation.

"What?!" she turned back to him. She was getting sick of surprises. He stared at her hand and she looked down to find she forgot to put the Pokédex back into her bag. She started getting hot at the realization that she had it in her hand since Professor Oak had given it to her. She could have dropped it without even noticing! "Professor Oak gave you a Pokédex? Th-that's incredible!"

For a moment he seemed to be too lost in his excitement to remember exactly who she was. When he did, he just asked, "Are you going to take the Pokémon Gym challenge? If you manage to defeat all the Gym leaders, you'll eventually challenge the Pokémon League Champion… Or not! Ha ha!"

He went on another long and winded explanation just for show. It amazed her how quickly his moods changed and how easily he could go from talking about one thing to another so easily. Jade was grateful that he put so much effort into treating her like a newbie but she wished she didn't have to hear everything all over again.

"The closest Gym is in Violet City. If you're thinking about doing this, before you leave make sure you talk to your mom."

She didn't really need to. Her aunt and mom both knew she was going to take on all of Johto's Gyms. She went back to her aunt's house just to rest up for the start of her journey. For the rest of that day Jade thought about all the events that had happened that morning. She hadn't even left and already so many things had happened.

No matter what her thoughts always seemed to go back to Silver. Her Silver. The same kid that had helped her throughout her journey in Kanto. The one who was like a little brother to her and somehow managed to make her smile when she didn't want to. The one who for some reason became cold and distant and eventually disappeared. Leaf remembered calling him one day but nobody answered. She tried every day afterwards but nobody would answer. Eventually, she stopped by his house and was surprised to find it empty with no sign of anyone living in it. She asked some of the locals but they didn't know what had happened to him.

Leaf, Clara, Ruby and Ditsa ate dinner quietly. Leaf had forgotten to tell Ruby exactly what was going on and nearly gave the poor Pokémon a heart attack when she pulled Ditsa off of her face. It took a while to explain to Ruby and she tried to give as many details as she could not wanting her new Pokémon to be completely in the dark about everything. Leaf was relieved when he accepted it as if it were a normal everyday occurrence. She let Ditsa and Ruby get acquainted and hoped that they would get along.

After dinner, Leaf put Ditsa back on trying to get in the habit of doing so whenever she called her mom. That morning she told Leaf she couldn't take any chances. Leaf had to be cautious at all times. It's been a few weeks since she left but the occasional reporter still stops by the house. More were expected to be visiting soon considering she was officially declared missing the say before. She called her mother using the PC so they could see each other.

"Hey, sweetie. How was your day?" she asked and it looked like the coast was clear until she heard someone cough in the background. She immediately recognized it as Red's mom.

"Great, Auntie T! I got my first Pokémon from Professor Elm today!" Leaf said excitedly slipping into her role as Jade. She tried to make her voice higher and tried to sound and act younger when she talked. Red's mom was a really smart woman and Leaf hoped that would be enough to trick her. She grabbed her cyndaquil from the ground and held it up to the monitor. "I called him Ruby! I explained to him what happened and he agreed to help me look for Leaf!"

Without skipping a beat Ruby said, "Cynda cydaquil!"

Leaf saw Red's mother poking her head around from behind her own mother's body trying to get a look at Jade from where she was sitting. She looked confused and before she could get up and have a closer look, her mother quickly said, "Oh, my! How cute! Thank you for joining in the search, Ruby! I would love to talk but I have a guest over. I'll call you later, okay?"

"Alright! Bye, Auntie T!" Leaf said before she hung up. Leaf looked at the cyndaquil in her arms and said, "You're a natural born liar. Good work."

The next morning Jade set off again to Route 29 hoping that she could actually get somewhere today and stay there. Sadly, Ethan had other plans. He was waiting for her on Route 29 and insisted on teaching her how to catch a Pokémon. Everyone treated her like she had no idea how to even hold a pokéball much less use it. This was the worst part about her new life she decided. He gave her five pokéballs and went on his way towards Cherrygrove. It seemed he was starting on a journey of his own.

Jade caught a pidgey and rattata just to enter them into her pokédex then released them. This was a new journey in a different region and she was determined to make it different. She would not use any Pokémon that she had used before. This made it a bit harder since she was working with the unknown but that was what made it interesting.

Sentret. That was the first Pokémon she caught and was going to keep in her party. She had seen and caught the furry little critter back when she visited the Sevii Islands but released it like she did with every other Pokémon she didn't intend to train. She would rather release the Pokémon and let it live normally than send it to Professor Oak's field where it would stay forever. She would only keep the ones that she was going to train or the professor wanted to study. Sometimes he would even ask that she catch multiple Pokémon of the same species to compare.

Jade decided that she would nickname all of her Pokémon after gemstones and such to match her name. Amber was what she called her new sentret.

She spent an hour on Route 29 trying to train Ruby and Amber as much as she could. When she first started out her journey, she didn't train her Pokémon as much as she should have and ended up having to challenge Brock five times before she finally got the badge.

Leaf started to remember just how hard it was training Pokémon of a low level by fighting other low leveled Pokémon. She had somehow managed to get them both to at least level ten before walking into Cherrygrove to get them healed. Instead of just training on Route 30, Jade went right through it trying to get to the end. She didn't need to waste any more time on training until she got to Violet City.

"Wait!" a boy shouted as she passed by. She smiled knowing what he wanted. "You look weak! Come on, let's battle!"

The only Pokémon he had was a rattata that she easily defeated within just two turns. She wondered if she somehow was over training her Pokémon.

"Hey, can I get your number?" the boy asked. "I'll ring you up to battle."

"Yes!" she nearly shouted in excitement. This was the first trainer whose number she was going to register from Johto. Of course she was going to say yes.

He seemed taken aback at first but told himself it was because of how great he and his rattata were.

"My name is Joey."

"Jade."

Not long after she and Joey separated, she was challenged by another trainer. He didn't ask for her Pokégear number and she didn't offer. If she registered every trainer that she fought, her Pokégear would be ringing off the hook 24/7. Pokémon trainer after Pokémon trainer challenged her as she went through Route 30 and 31. She found herself trying to avoid them but they could hear her easily.

"Jeez Louise," Jade sighed after her last battle on the route before she got to Violet City. "Do they all go to some special trainer catching school?"

"It sure seems like it sometimes," she heard a familiar voice say behind her. Jade turned to find Ethan and his marill. "You got past me somehow so I guess I should ask some of these trainers for tips on how to catch a Pokémon trainer."

Jade laughed and said, "Please don't. I don't think I can handle any more trainers challenging me because they somehow heard me breathing from twenty yards away."

"You don't have to worry about a battle. Marill and I still need to do some training before we can challenge anybody," Ethan said and Jade wondered what he was like when he did battle. He seemed really quiet and shy most of time. She couldn't imagine him shouting attacks at his Pokémon. "Anyways, I just wanted to give you something. It's a Vs. Recorder. It can record your Pokémon battles so you can watch them later. I never liked watching myself battle. It's kind of embarrassing seeing all the mistakes I've made. I thought since you seemed like a pretty serious trainer you could use it. It helps you find what you need to improve on."

He handed her a small device with a screen and a camera before telling her she wouldn't get past him again and running off into Violet City without much of a goodbye. She followed after him stopping only to take in the sight of the city. It was much larger than Cherrygrove and everything seemed darker somehow even though it was just past noon and the weather was clear.

"We care about the traditional buildings around here. That's why even the Pokémart and Pokémon Center are painted somberly to blend in," she heard a girl say to some tourists near her.

Violet City seemed lively considering how dreary everything looked. A man danced to catch everyone's attention saying he would trade them three berries for a shard. This seemed strange to Jade. Why would you want a shard over a berry? Shards didn't do anything, did they? She let it go knowing some people liked to collect strange things just because of the way the things looked.

Finding the Pokémon Center wasn't very hard. It was almost right next to the route she came out of. Jade gave her Pokémon to Nurse Joy and sat at one of the tables waiting for her to finish. A boy sat across from her looking uncomfortable. He couldn't have been older than ten and Jade wondered what he was up to. She didn't want to ask fearing the answer was something like a Pokémon battle in the middle of the Pokémon Center. As ridiculous as it sounded, it has happened before and she did get kicked out of that city's Pokémon Center permanently.

The kid seemed to have settled his quiet battle with himself and blurted out almost crying, "Do you have a bellsprout?"

Jade was taken aback wondering why he was asking her that. She nodded remembering the bellsprout she had caught on Route 31 that she forgot to release.

"Want to trade it for my onix?" his face was ruby red. Jade almost felt bad for the kid.

"Sure. Let me just get my Pokémon from Nurse Joy."

The kid seemed to perk up and watched her as if he didn't believe what he was seeing as she retrieved her Pokémon. When the trade was over Rudy, that was his name, looked like the happiest kid on earth.

"Thanks you so much!" he shouted and ran out of the building. Jade felt a warm feeling in her stomach at being able to make Rudy's day. He acted like he got rejected a lot before he had asked her. The onix's name was Rocky but Jade didn't mind. It made him special and different from all of her other Pokémon. She was definitely keeping him. What did bother her was the fact that he was only on level three.

"Looks like was have to do more training huh, Ruby?" she sighed and pet her fire type starter beside her.

She went back to Route 31 not being able to go through the city knowing she had a Pokémon in her party with a different level than the others. She couldn't stand having a party full of Pokémon who were all different levels. Luckily, traded Pokémon grew fast and she was able to train him in a lot less time than it took her to train Citrine, her hoothoot which she had somehow found out in daylight on the route. Citrine took hours to train even with all the Pokémon trainers challenging her left and right.

When Jade went back to Violet City she didn't challenge the gym right away. She wanted to see all the city had to offer. She also didn't like going into the gym before she got to see the city. Gyms were always the most exciting part and they ruined every other thing the cities and towns had to offer by making them look boring in comparison.

She heard someone say that ghost Pokémon showed up in Sprout Tower at night and decided to wait until it got dark before going. Ghosts and ghost Pokémon had fascinated her since her encounter with Cubone's mother. She had never believed in ghosts until that fateful and terrifying night in Pokémon Tower. Jade had never trained a ghost-type Pokémon but maybe this was her chance.

Because it was still bright outside and the sun didn't seem to want to set yet, Jade decided to visit the Ruins of Alph which, according to the map in her Pokégear, were just outside Violet City.

After an hour or so of wandering around and trying to ask for directions, Jade finally made it. There was a small house with a sign on the front which read, "Ruins Research Center." She decided to go into it first. She didn't just want to wander around the ruins without knowing anything about them.

She entered and made some small talk with some of the researchers. She found out that even though it was a research center nobody seemed to know anything about the ruins except that they were about 1,500 years old. Jade left the small house feeling dissatisfied. She loved old buildings and mysteries but sometimes they weren't good for her.

She remembered when she once refused to leave the Sevii Islands for two months wanting to figure out the mystery of the Pokémon unown in Quest Island thinking all the islands were connected somehow into one giant… THING that would reveal the answer to a mystery. She even went as far as to catch all twenty eight different forms of unown and try to decipher a message she believed was made by using the maps of the islands. After a while she got bored with it and decided there was nothing to find. It was all in her head. She left without learning a thing and feeling silly for ever thinking half the stuff she made up could have been real. Mysteries weren't good for her and never would be. Her imagination sometimes was too much and could drag her away from reality.

Jade was half tempted to just walk out and go back to Violet City to spare herself the long and sleepless nights that would be inevitable if she decided to have a look around, but the allure of something new and exciting overpowered her sense of self-preservation. The first stone building she visited was the biggest and the only one with a sign which warned her to watch her step.

Inside there were four statues of an ancient Pokémon that she thought closely resembled a rhydon. In the middle was a ladder leading down a narrow hole. She climbed down to find people scattered about. Most of them were tourists but some were researchers. She heard a woman describe the place as ethereal. That seemed to be the perfect word to describe it. The only word to describe it. She felt as though she had gone back in time.

Jade marveled at the walls surrounding her that were carved with mysterious patterns. Statues of the same ancient Pokémon were everywhere and somehow the ruins were well preserved despite the amount of tourists it must get every year.

She walked around the room and the rest of the ruins for who knows how long just gazing in amazement and talking to the people about the beauty of the ruins. She made it to one building that was a bit different from the rest. A woman stood near the center of the room. As soon as she noticed Jade, she said, "Welcome to this chamber! We are reconstructing ancient Pokémon stone panels. You can rotate stone-panel pieces by touching them for a short time. If you touch a panel and slide it, you can move it around. We think you should be able to put them back to where they were…"

In big unown letters there was a single word in the back of the room, 'ESCAPE'. It sent chills down her spine but she forced herself to ignore it.

She looked at the panel. Above it in unown letters she could easily read, "This Pokémon hides on the seafloor and watches the shore with eyes on its back." Stones were scattered around like a puzzle and one by one Jade arranged them into what she thought resembled a Pokémon she once saw Bill, a young Pokémon researcher, wear the costume of, kabuto. Once all the stones were in place, something strange happened. It started to glow.

"Um… Miss?" Jade tried to get the attention of the woman that greeted her when she walked in.

"Yes?"

"Is this supposed to-"

Jade gasped as the floor fell from under her and she hit the ground hard. Ruby landed on her face then bounced off. They were thrown back into the same underground room they were in before.

"Did you just come down from above…?" a researcher asked looking at her with shock which was quickly placed with excitement. "You must have solved the stone-panel puzzle! That is wonderful! You seem to have some talent with archaeology. I will give you this Unown Report. I bet you're some sort of professor in the making. "

Oh, no. I should have left when I had the chance, Jade thought ruefully as the man handed her an electronic device. She found herself wondering if she really did have some sort of talent or if everyone else was just stupid. That puzzle was clearly a kabuto. Stop! What are you thinking?!

"It records unown as you capture them. I'm sure it will come in handy!" he said then walked away to probably tell his co-workers about the new development in the mystery.

"We have to get out of here!" she whispered to Ruby and ran as fast as she could towards the exit only to be stopped by an unown blocking her way. AN UNOWN! Another appeared next to it and she panicked and didn't think when she threw pokéballs at them. Surprisingly, it worked. She caught them.

Jade bolted out of the ruins and back to Violet City ignoring the surprised shouts from tourists and researcher she might have bumped into. "No no no no no," she chanted as she did so. "I will not get wrapped up in this again!"

She slowed down and nearly fell to the ground gasping for air. When she looked up she noticed she was right in front of Sprout Tower's bridge. Jade got up and straightened herself out trying to focus on the building in front of her instead of the ruins. It wasn't as hard as she thought it would be.

She stood before the tall building and looked up at it trying to engrave something so beautiful and old into her memory. It had some sense of elegance to it that Jade admired. The small sign next to the door of the tower read, "Experience the Way of Pokémon to Cast Aside Your Doubts."

The brunette realized that the sun had finally set. Vaguely she wondered how long she had been in the ruins for before opening the door to the tower and walking in.

An old lady greeted her and told her a bit of history about Sprout Tower. The pillar helped to protect the tower from earthquakes and symbolized the battles taking place on the upper floors. Sprout Tower was built long ago so people could train their Pokémon. Apparently a bellsprout that was over a hundred feet tall became the middle pillar. Looking at it, it wasn't hard to guess why people thought that. The pillar's movements were like a bellsprout. It was amazing something like that could even hold the building up.

Jade maneuvered her way through the second floor taking on any trainer or Pokémon who wanted to battle. She was able to catch a gastly seemed to be the only ghost-type Pokémon in the tower. It disappointed her a little but she shrugged it off and kept moving.

When she reached the third floor, she noticed three sages positioned in a way that wouldn't let anyone advance forward without battling at least two of them. It surprised Jade how rowdy they were. She had somehow expected them to be a lot more calm and peaceful. They all sent out bellsprout. Only one had a hoothoot which wasn't very hard to beat.

"Ember!" she said and Ruby listened sending off small fireballs aimed at the hoothoot from his mouth. The bird Pokémon didn't stand a chance and never got to land its first attack. As soon as it was knocked out, Ruby started to glow a bright white color. Jade's heart skipped a beat as Ruby's body started to morph into a different form. The transformation only took a few seconds but it felt like minutes to Jade as she waited to see what her cyndaquil would evolve into. "Oh my Arceus you've evolved!"

Ruby looked frightened at first not being familiar with the concept of evolution but once Jade explained it to him, he didn't seem to have a problem. He even seemed happy to be in a bigger body. They continued through and once they reached past the pillar heard, "You showed us what you've got, and it is indeed good… Take this Technical Machine. However, you should care more about your Pokémon. The way you treat your Pokémon can be too harsh… Remember, Pokémon are not tools of war..."

What this man said reminded Jade of Blue and she wondered who he was talking to. She didn't have to wonder for long. She stood in stunned silence when she heard, "Humph! He calls himself the Elder, but he was no match for me. Sure enough, those who lecture how you should be 'nice' to Pokémon… They cannot defeat me. All I care about are strong Pokémon that win every time. The rest of them don't mean anything to me."

Silver didn't even notice her before he used an escape rope to leave. Jade really wished she had stopped him from leaving and just talk to him... or at least knock some sense into him. She had never felt that anger towards Silver before. Not even when he started acting cold and rude to her. She hated that feeling but she hated the way he was acting even more. She really needed to teach him a lesson.

Thanks for reading! I have decided to put these side stories in another story. I tried to add Silver's history into this chapter but it just didn't fit anywhere -.-' I'll have it up hopefully this weekend so you guys aren't in the dark.