"Saber, use Aqua Jet!"

   Nate's Samurott rushed towards Charlotte, cloaked in a high-powered stream of water. I smiled, this was playing out exactly like I had planned.

   "Dodge and use Electroweb!" I commanded. Charlotte dug her claws into the sand and launched herself into the air, leaping over Saber and dodging his attack. She flipped onto her back in midair and shot an electricity-laced spider web at Saber. He was ensnared by the web and tumbled to the ground.

   "Use Slash to get out!" Nate yelled.

   "Quickly use Thunderbolt!" I countered. Before Saber was able to slash his way out of the web, Charlotte generated a bolt of lightning and electrocuted the Water-type. Saber collapsed, knocked out.

   "Yes, yes, yes!" I squealed joyfully, jumping in place as I did. My heart soared, and I never felt more alive.

   "Nice job, sis!" Nate congratulated me. "Now let's try Suki against Soul. You need more practice when it comes to Special Attack type-advantages." He sent out Soul, who had since evolved into a Reuniclus. Of course, Bow evolved right alongside her pseudo-sibling into a Gothitelle. 

   A few days ago, we had finally arrived in Undella Town. We said good-bye to Suri and we unanimously decided to take a much-needed rest. Bianca was going to leave too but Hilbert convinced her to stay with us for a while longer. Obviously, she didn't mind that. While she and Hugh were out on Route 14 and Hilbert was busy doing something back at the Pokemon Center, Nate was giving me the training he had promised me back when he won his third badge.

   "Okay, let's go Suki!" I sent out my new Mienfoo. I was going through with my normal routine on Route 14 when I saw that there were wild Mienfoo there. I thought my team needed a Fighting-type, so I caught a second Mienfoo and added her to my team as my sixth team member. I was impressed with how good of a Pokémon she was. She was pretty powerful for being so recently caught.

   "Remember, we're focusing on countering Special Attacks," Nate reminded me.

   "I know, let's get started!" I said, ready for anything he could throw at me. Suki sensed my confidence and got into a fighting stance, letting out a sharp battle cry. "Start off with Calm Mind!" I ordered. Suki put her paw-like hands together and hummed quietly to herself. She emitted a calming pink aura, and her defenses were raised.

   "Raising stats, huh? That's so you, Rosa!" Nate laughed. "Soul, use Psychic!"

   "Suki, Detect!" I countered.

   Suki created a dome of light around herself as she was hit with a powerful psychic blast. She received some of the attack, but she blocked most of it.

   "Clever move, too bad you can't use it for the next few turns! Use Psychic again!"

   "Use Force Palm!"

   This time, Suki was constricted by the aura and was lifted into the air where she was then smashed back down to the beach. Due to her raised stats, she was able to withstand the blow. She easily picked herself up and took her fighting stance again.

   "Soul, use Psyshock!" Nate yelled.

   "Force Palm again!" I countered.

   Soul summoned the familiar ethereal purple shards and launched them at Suki. She ducked underneath them and slammed her palm into Soul's gelatinous body, static arcing across his body. The static continued crackling, meaning he had been paralyzed.

   A small smile snuck its way into my face. "Now use Drain Punch!"

   "Try to use Psychic!"

   Soul tried to move but was frozen from the paralysis. Suki raised her balled paw into the air, glowing with a red-tinged light. She then punched him as hard as she could. The red light spread over Soul's body before turning green and being pulled back to Suki where it then vanished. The HP shehad lost was restored, and she was at full health. She gracefully back flipped away from Soul and skidded to a stop on the sand a few feet back.

   "Soul, use Energy Ball!"

   I was momentarily confused. Since when did Soul learn Energy Ball? My moment of confusion cost me though and the attack hit Suki full-force, lowering her Special Defense. She was sent flying into the air where she was constricted by a Psychic. That last Psychic finished her, and she collapsed to the beach. My confusion turned to frustration as I recalled her.

   "That wasn't fair! How does Soul know Energy Ball?" I asked.

   Have you seen Hilbert's collection of TMs? He has practically every move out there and I wanted to know a Grass-type attack, Soul said, crossing his arms.

   "It was his choice," Nate said. "Hilbert offered to teach him a move and he chose that one. If you want your Pokémon to learn any TM moves, Hilbert would be glad to let you use them," Nobody else was on the beach at the moment so Nate didn't bother using Hilbert's alias. "But back to our battle. You held up well there! That Calm Mind worked out great! Making stats your main focus was a great choice. You managed to win four out of the six battles we had, and that's nothing to be disappointed about."

   "Really, Nate. Thank you for doing this for me," I said, my frustration fading. "I thought that waiting this long to train would have been a little pointless."

   "No problem. A promise is a promise, and this was a request of yours I wasn't going to turn down. Besides, this let me get some practice in too. The seventh Gym Leader uses Dragon-types and they don't have too many weaknesses. The best I could do for coverage was have Saber learn Ice Beam. It'll probably be a one-sided battle unless August pulls off a miracle and actually listens to me," Nate said, looking worried.

   When we had first started my Special Attack training, Nate tried using August. She ended up using Dig instead of Wil-o-wisp, Facade instead of Flamethrower, and flat-out fell asleep in the middle of a turn. I could tell Nate was already getting fed up with her disobedience but was determined to earn her respect.

   "I'm sure you'll do fine. You've done so well with your other Gym battles, I'm surprised you're even nervous right now!" I said with a smile. "We were both able to get in some practice today. Two Pidove, one stone!"

   "Did Hugh teach you that phrase?"

   "Maybe..." A cold gust of wind swept past us, cutting right through my coat and chilling me to the bone. I shivered, shoving my hands into my jacket pockets. "I can't believe how cold it is right now! It's only the beginning of winter, so why does it feel like it's below twenty degrees?"

   "Wanna go back to the Center and warm up?" Nate offered. I quickly nodded and began running towards the building, wanting to escape the cold as fast as I could.  

   Hours had passed since we finished our training and we didn't exactly know what to do. Hugh and Bianca weren't back yet and Hilbert was busy talking to someone on one of the Center's Communicators. It must have been important because he had been talking for a quite a long time. Tired of waiting for the others, I called Bianca on my Xtransceiver. She picked up on the fifth ring and I was greeted by her sheepish smile.

   "Hey Rosa! If you're calling about what's taking us so long, a wild Absol stole my tablet! I record all of my notes on that and I couldn't afford to lose it," she said. "It's all good now! Hugh caught the Absol, and my tablet's screen only got scratched. Nothing important was lost! Tell Hilbert that we're on our way back now."

   "Okay, I'll see you in a bit." I hung up and went to tell Hilbert. He had finished his call and was hanging up when I told him what happened.

   "An Absol stole her tablet?" Hilbert laughed. "Only something like that could happen to her. It's been two years and she hasn't changed in the slightest!"

   I was going to nod and end the conversation there, but a question I had been dying to ask slipped out. "How did you and Bianca get together?" As soon as I said that, I felt my stomach drop and I wanted to slap myself across the face. I can't believe I had just asked that! I looked away from Hilbert, embarrassed out of my mind.

   "Why do you look so embarrassed?" Hilbert smiled warmly. "I don't really mind you asking. It's better you ask first because I know Bianca would tell you eventually whether I want her to or not. She loved to brag about how 'perfect' we were together when we were sixteen."

   "So who confessed?" I asked, already getting myself excited for the story. I had nearly asked Bianca what happened back in Lentimas Town, but I didn't want to be rude. Like I said again and again, I was a sucker for romance.

   "Bianca did. We'd known each other for around ten years before we started our journeys, and I could always tell she liked me more than a girl should normally like her guy friend." Hilbert's face flushed red, and he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "It... took nine of those ten years for me to realize she liked me, and a full three months for me to return her feelings. We dated for a few weeks and then we made it official. Well, she made it."

   "And I haven't regretted it since, even after not talking for two whole years!" I turned and saw Bianca standing behind me, smiling. "I could tell Rosa wanted to know, and I was going to tell her if she asked, but it looks like you beat me to the punch," she said.

   "I know, that's why I talked first."

   "And that's so unlike you! I don't exactly mind that change." She walked up to Hilbert and actually jumped a little so she could kiss his cheek. "The only thing I don't like though is how tall you got. Talk about a late growth spurt! And I thought Cheren was going to end up being that tallest out of the three of us."

   "Are you talking about the Gym Leader Cheren?" I asked, remembering the Normal-type Leader.

   "That's the one! The three of us were best friends when we started our journeys, and we traveled together for most of them. After what happened with the Legendary Dragons and Team Plasma, Cheren decided that becoming the Champion was a bit out of his league. So when the original Normal-type Leader retired, Cheren took up the mantle," Bianca replied cheerfully. I tried to imagine the three of them traveling together, and it reminded me of the few weeks I had spent with Nate and Hugh before all of this craziness began.

   "Hey! I'm trying to keep an illusion going here!" Hilbert hissed, noticing that his disguise had worn off when Bianca kissed him.

   "Stop with the disguises for once, will you? Nobody will recognize you with all the changes you made." She tugged lightly on his Ponyta-tail. "I mean, where did this come from? You look like N with that hairdo!"

   I was confused by Bianca's words. "Who's N?" I asked.

   "A friend of mine. I traveled with him for a while and we became pretty close. I guess you could say that I idolized him a bit," Hilbert said. "But that's besides the point. I was talking with Iris and she gave me some bad news. You remember Iris, right Rosa? Kinda short, purple hair, used Dragon-types?"

   While I did remember Iris, the memories were very faint. I personally wanted to ask more about who that "N" person was, but I could tell Hilbert wanted to drop the subject. "Yeah I do, why?"

   "You might want to call Nate and Hugh over to hear this," Hilbert said to Bianca. She agreed and brought the two boys over. Once our group was assembled, Hilbert told us something very unsettling, "Iris was in Opelucid City the other day meeting with Drayden, the city's Gym Leader, and he reported seeing people in black with either Ice or Electric-type Pokémon skulking around the city at night. They were trying to break into storage buildings or other similar structures, like they were searching for something."

   "So it sounds like some of the Neo Plasma grunts survived the wreck too, huh?" Hugh said.

   "Definitely. They wouldn't keep all of their members on the Frigate, in case something went... wrong."

   "Hilbert, what are you talking about?" Bianca asked, her eyes widening.

   "I already filled you in. Team Plasma reassembled and they're trying to use Kyurem to take over Unova," Hilbert said.

   "I know that! You never mentioned anything about a wreck," she retorted.

   "And I didn't for a reason. When I said my mission went wrong, it really did go wrong. If I didn't have Design destroy their base, none of us would be here now."

   "When you said 'survived,' do you mean that Design..." Bianca trailed off. Hilbert didn't respond, he just nodded solemnly, confirming Bianca's suspicions. I thought she would slap him or freak out about how his Pokémon had actually killed people. But to my surprise, she didn't. "I... I understand. If it really was a life or death situation, I know you had to do what you had in order to survive," she said.

   "How can you forgive him that easily?" Nate asked, shocked.

    "Team Plasma can never be forgiven for what they did to the people and Pokémon of Unova," Bianca began. "The ex-members I once met in Driftveil were trying to make up for what they've done, sure, but they were still part of the same people that tried to separate me from my Pokémon and take the one I love away from me forever. And anyone who is willing to hurt others to fulfill some twisted sense of self-righteousness deserves nothing." Her eyes had a look of intense hatred in them and her tone reflected that. Any bubbliness she once had was nonexistent. "Call me a heartless person, but I will stick to my word no matter what."