"Everyone stay calm and keep moving!" an officer announced as he blared his metallic whistle to keep the crowd in check. People of all kinds were packed shoulder to shoulder, the sea of people overflowing the docks and poured themselves into Vermillion. The police man stood on the border of the wooden docks and slate walkway of the town as a child's foot just slipped. The kid tipped and nearly plunged into the coast if the officer hadn't swept them up by their stomach. He handed the child over to a single mother who nodded in thanks with dead eyes. He turned back to the crowd and roared, "And keep your children close!"

Copycat tugged at my skirt softly to snap my attention down to her. The silver-eyed child outstretched her bare arms to me and mumbled, "Up."

I gave her a half smile before sweeping her up. The toddler's pudgy arms ringing around my neck while her pink doll was shoved into half my face.

Red hovered close as we were tossed about the swarm to reach the ferries in a feathered silence. My ears picked on the monotone buzz of the people that only became louder when the current ferry was full and we would have to wait for the next.

"Please let me on, my son is sick and all the doctors have fled to the Sevii Islands already!"

"Get back, lady."

"I can see there's plenty of room for at least my family!"

"When we say it's full, then it's full."

"What about my child! Take my child there! I'll be there for them soon."

And so the crowd rolled on. The hours hissed away in the sweltering heat that emanated from each person. My hair clumped together in thick groups while Copycat breathed down the back of my neck. It was when the ferry was in breathing distance and the sea spray sunk into my skin when I felt a weak tug at my arm.

"Hm?" I hummed, turning to the person. It was an older woman, her turquoise hair turning gray at the roots, bags of skin pulled below her tired eyes as she stared to me with a flickering hope.

Her voice was strained as she pulled out her words, the side of the woman's face twitching with slight clicks, "Please, they won't let me on," she begged. "I have a piece The Glitch inside of me. But my daughter, she is healthy. Her father left this world many years ago, but once she's on one of the islands..."

The woman sputtered, her profile fizzling about before facing back to me. I smiled sadly to her, "Where is she?"

As if on cue, a girl peaked her head from around her mother. Crashing waves of teal locks brushed past her shoulders while the child's cerulean eyes spun with curiosity. Her mom weakly ushered the girl towards me, "Her name is Amber... Please, take care of her."

I nodded and wrapped my finger's up with the new characters, "Hi Amber. Once we get to the first Island, we will find someone who can take care of you. Right now we are actually finding one of our traveling companion's parents." I told, motioning to the girl in my arms who gave a pout as I only balanced her in one arm. "Red, can you take one?" I groaned quietly, tilting my head back.

The quiet trainer snickered before pacing to taking Copycat into his arms. The child squirmed a bit before scrambling up to sit on his shoulders. The avocado haired girl giggled and ran her fingers over his cap, "Forward, Forward noble steed!"

The trainer simply kept his monotone disposition as our party continued onto the ferry.

An officer keeping the crowd at bay tracked our party from the corner of his eye before clicking his tongue. "Too young for kids."

I shot him a glare before half-lying with ease in my voice, "They are my sisters. He is my brother. Our parents were swallowed by the glitch. Don't make blind assumptions."

I felt somewhat hypocritical saying that. But my assumptions are less blind, more apathetic.

The cop mostly sweatdropped before continuing his duties of wrangling the herd. Our feet stepping onto the ferry, the bundle of hand within my own clenched. I turned to look down at Amber, her eyes squished shut as her body trembled. "Amber?" I called out, receiving no answer. Tenderly, I bent down to her level once I pulled us off to the side of the boat. "Amber. Answer me, it's okay. Just take a breath."

Our noses brushed as her eyes slowly peeled open, revealing her broken heart. "He said it was me... It would always be. Why isn't it now?"

I've never been one to be good with kids, yet something just clicked. I ran my fingers though her hair, pulling though rough knots as I caressed her soft angelic face, "What are you talking about?"

"Him!" she wailed, cringing away from me harshly. "The boy from the lab! We met every day! He told me! And then he just stopped coming! Th-th-then the fire! It burnt everything! And when I finally find him, I can tell! It's no longer me! He broke it! He broke our promise."

I blinked at her sharp turn of emotions before I grabbed her by each shoulder and held her tight. "That's not clear. And time has went on." I breathed as the rumble of the ferry vibrated at our feet, "I really have no idea who he is or any of this, but I'm going to tell you know... People will break promises. Not all of them will be kept. But you shouldn't be throwing a tantrum about it."

For some reason, I had the gnawing feeling that I was becoming my mom.

Waves tossed up from the propellers below us, the smell of salt clinging to us with the small droplets. "...Why," she hissed while staring at her feet. "Why is it you..."

"Still unclear," I told her bluntly. I rose to my feet, scouting the condensed ship of people before an avocado-haired imitator on the quiet boy's shoulders stuck out like a sore thumb. "Hey! Guys, over here!" I summoned.

"Turn around Copycat's steed! Copycat hear big sis! Big sis! We are coming! We are coming!" Copycat shouted, grabbing Red's head to turn it violently. He spun around, shooting me an annoyed stare. "Onward! Hya!" Her heels dug into the trainer's rib cage, he choking back a sputter.

The two weaved and sew their way to where Amber and I waited. Once arriving, Red removed the six year old from his shoulders, "Trade." He simply announced before reaching for Amber's paw.

She drew back and hid behind my leg.

"I guess the children love me more than you!" I stuck out my tongue to Red with a smug pride. And I thought I was horrible with children. For a moment, Red's expression flinched with sorrow. I shrugged it off though and turned to the two girls who waited for some sort of entertainment, "Anyone want to play with some pokemon?"

"Copycat does! Copycat does!" Copycat belted, cuddling her doll closely.

Amber merely gifted an expectant gaze.

I fingered though my pokeballs naturally, no need to check for labels as I pulled out one. "Come on out," I sung sweetly, letting the pokeball pop open in a glimmering shine.

"Pix!" The she fox cried out, flicking her torn ear as she blew out small embers. Her glazed pools curiously examining the girls, landing on Amber for a brief moment. "Vulll...?"

Amber gaped for a split second before regaining her child-like composure, "It's you..." She stared to me quickly, "The fox travels with you?"

"Yes?"

The long waved girl nodded, "Okay... I guess if she approves, I will too."

"You make no sense, child."

"When do children ever?" A familiar voice rang from behind.

I spun around to meet a pair of pink eyes calmly surveying our group. Her black and red suit/skirt combination unmistakable as her midnight blue hair snaked around her ankles. "Sabrina," I greeted the gym leader with a friendly smile.

While I was on my pokemon journey, I had challenged Sabrina. After being utterly crushed by her on my first try, she took me out to eat in Saffron City. She and I grew as close friends then. And after a few days of training alongside the gym leader, I was able to beat her. Right now, seeing a friend was nice.

She, though, paid no mind to me and focused on the teal-haired child with a grimace. "Once we reach land, you will come with me." She spoke in monotone to Amber who nodded with a sort of fear. Sabrina's head snapped back up to me. "Troubled. You are troubled by something."

"Other than you just walked up and snapped away a child I was put in charge of---"

"Oh shush. I will tell you more. Once we reach Knot Island we will converse and Red will watch the children." Sabrina practically planned without consent. Red's face turning paler than it was once before. I took a wild guess that he wasn't the best with children.

I let out an exasperated sigh, "You haven't even greeted us, Sabrina! Don't simply waltz in and make plans!" I lectured more in a motherly way than an annoyed friend.

She gave a somewhat blank look, "We haven't? Oh. Hello Leaf. Red. Copycat. And. A-Amber." The gym leader looked back to me with a somewhat smile, "Better?"

"Good enough."

"Stranger knows Copycat's name! Stranger knows Copycat's name!" Copycat shouted, cowering behind Red. "Fight her, big bro!"

After a long boat ride of explaining to Copycat that Sabrina was a psychic who was also a gym leader, we arrived to the first Island. A pokemon center being nestled between mountains was swarming with hundreds of refugees. The island seemed more like a small chain before we scoured it for Copycat's parents.

We came up with nothing.

Though she didn't seem too disappointed about that.

So, our party of Red, Sabrina, Copycat, Vulpix and Amber (who was cuddling my pokemon), trudged into the center for the night. It was at the dining hall where I split off with Sabrina, a perfect view of the sinking sun from a wide window.

The leader pushed back a lock of dark hair that fell into her face, "I know something is eating at you."

"Don't," I told her sharply, knowing the others were far from earshot. "I can't tell anyone. Being around Red and the kids right now, I feel like I can forget my problem. So let me."

She shook her head as her eyes narrowed, "You cannot just bury your problems, Leaf. They will still come. I won't tell another. It would be safe with me."

No, no it wouldn't. I can't tell anyone. Or he will come and hurt them. My vision shot over to where Red sat, spooning ice cream into Copycat's mouth. Amber begging for a bite. Which reminded me, I took a bite of my sandwich which I finally got. I wolfed down the food, the feeling of utter hunger washing over before I was left only licking my fingers.

Sabrina's expression grew long, "Oh..."

"Yeah," I breathed. "But I still--- I want to tell them."

The woman cocked her head slightly.

"I don't know what to do," I admitted to the psychic who sat there tentatively analyzing each of my words. "I don't want to hurt him. By telling him, I would do just that. Emotionally and in a new way, I guess. I mean, what I'm withholding involves him. But holding it in, holding back the truth from him is eating me away..." Again, I stared to Red with sadness.

The navy-haired lady cocked her head to me, "It's difficult," She whispered. "Loving people. Whether you claim he is just a friend, you love your friends. No? When we begin to grow closer, we fear of hurting ourselves. Then, we forget about ourselves. We put our friends first. And we fear of hurting them."

I watched closely as Sabrina held a spoon in her psychic powers, slowly twisting it with a tender stare, like she was recalling her own friends.

"But it's inevitable," She vocalized distinctively, the spoon clattering to the cool metal table as her fuchsia eyes darted to lock with mine. "No matter how we try to stop it, the more you care about one person then the more you are going to hurt them. And they you. You may even hurt yourself. It will shatter your hearts, but in the end we still love one another with each broken piece."

She continued, Sabrina's face turning softer, "As the time passes, we will also find we have healed one another more than we have hurt. The pain will sting, but if you are true to one another, then you will choose the healing. For everyone is broken already in some way, looking for someone to heal them without realizing it," her long hair blew in the wind as she turned to look towards where Red sat, letting the two little tykes climb about him with a hint of a smile. "The more you hurt and recover, the stronger the bond grows. It doesn't matter if you cause pain, because in the end, the one we love the most is the one who healed our hearts. Despite the faults they have driven into us."

I turned my head to her and smiled, "So, in short, no matter what I do... I'm going to hurt him because I care. And I'm going to hurt myself. But as long as I still am there, being is his friend, it won't matter. Because that's what friends do?"

"Though the best and through the worst. You may be late in each other's lives, but it doesn't mean you don't have the ability to heal one another," she told me. With a pearly grin, her final sentence warmed my heart. "You don't need any special powers for that, you just need to be who you are. That's all they can ever ask for."

"You're amazing."

The psychic tilted her head with a smile, "I am aware."

"Your humbleness is outstanding." I replied dryly.

She seemed to shrug it off. Sabrina still read deep into me before saying, "But remember, no guy is worth thousands of tears if he never even showed a hit of interest when it came to how you felt. To hurt and never heal is too common in this world, and is always mistaken for just bumps in the road." Sabrina grew grave as her head fell to her shoulder, "Your eyes are too beautiful to not have cried many tears. In any sort of relationship, you will get hurt and hurt the other. What means it will last is that you forgive one another and carry on. I once looked for something that was never there. I knew it wasn't there. But I gave myself false signs, and when I found it--- I knew it was a lie."

Standing from the Center table, Sabrina threw her head over to where Amber and Copycat crawled about Red, "Come Amber!" her voice suddenly filled with a beautiful and lighthearted joy.

Our groups gathered up on the shore as we saw off our friends, Sabrina and Amber. My eyes scanned for any sign of Mew, finding nothing. Red brushed by my side as the imitation girl sat in my arms, cuddling her doll.

We gave our waves to Sabrina and Amber who walked hand and hand as the sun broke the ocean line in the distance. Though I was disappointed we couldn't find Copycat's parents, I still felt happy we could find Amber someone who would protect her.

That was when Copycat leaned over, her lips brushing the skin of my ear and she whispered in a sad tone to me.

"She's not real."

"I know," I figured it out. Sabrina being hesitating on a name? That is truly impossible.

"I couldn't turn into her... It hurt, it hurt, when I tried."

In the distance I could hear Sabrina speak in a heartbreaking voice, "Go home," a gentle glow lit from her palm and like that, the young girl disappeared.

I tipped my head up to stare at Copycat who fought back tears, "What was she?"

"A ghost who stayed because of regret. And also, a memory. A memory." Copycat replied. Her head swiveling to look upon the ebony haired boy beside me, "From his memories."

I gave a long watch to Red, seeing his stone expression hold with a stiff upper lip. His blood eyes slowly closing as his shoulders slumped. He muttered something under his breath, and though I couldn't completely make it out--- I am sure it was:

"I'm sorry..."

~~~

A/N: ... Does anyone else love Copycat as much as I do? *tackles copycat into a bear hug* SHE'S JUST SO ADORABLE!

-Avalon R. DAY