The girl swung beneath the tree on an old wooden seat, secured by ropes that had seen better days. 

Despite this, they held firm, defiant of their age as they supported the girl that had become lost in her thoughts. Thoughts that sped through her mind like a wind in a storm, yet as gray and melancholy as the sea below. Thoughts she had not been able to shake for the past seven years, try as she might.

Memories of her anchor, her rock, her brother. Memories of pranks shared, heated words exchanged, and the promise of a kinder tomorrow, no matter the severity of the arguments. Time and time again, she recalled the flippant promise made to him to exercise caution, only to later be found and accosted by two sinister thieves. Thieves temporarily thwarted by her savior, throwing himself into the fray and taking an attack that had been meant for her. Her savior, a boy she had befriended and played with, much to the chagrin of her brother...her rock.

She glanced over to a spot not ten feet away, where her brother and her savior met for the first time...or to be more accurate, where the two clashed. Her brother had not been happy about the supposed intrusion, of course, and it was only exacerbated by the arrival of her "twin", who had ordered Latios to continue attacking, despite the naive barrier that had placed herself between the conflicting males. She had been glad beyond measure when her caretaker had shown up and calmed both his granddaughter and the mistrustful charge she called her brother. With hostilities eased, she had free reign to play with her new friend and his Pokémon, roping her brother into the activities as well. 

Hours of fun and trust built...until nightfall when the thieves invaded their home and stole away her brother, forcing her to flee into the arms of her savior, hoping against all odds he would do something, anything, to rescue her brother and their home from the assault.

The following morning was a grim reminder of the cage she lived in, and the price that had been paid to keep it from sinking beneath the waves.

A cage now empty of her brother, save for the singular orb that contained his life, leaving only her sister in all but blood, and an aging caretaker for company. And-

"Oi, watch where you're going! You keep flying into me!"

"Maybe if you actually opened your eyes, you wouldn't be flying into me!"

Latias' mouth curved slightly upwards as the voices permeated the air, rapidly getting closer before a breeze indicated the bickering pair had flown by. Took them long enough, she thought, curious as to why they had taken as long as they did. Gracefully getting up from her seat, Latias called out to them with a gentle, honeyed tone. "Welcome back, you two. You've been gone for some time. I hope there wasn't any trouble." 

Quickly, the pair circled back around and hovered in front of her, gradually shedding their invisibility as they ducked their head. On her left was a Latias like herself that Bianca had jokingly dubbed "Ti-ti", something the young dragoness surprisingly didn't mind. Latias wasn't overly fond of it, but because her friend refused to call both of them "Tia", the name stuck. Meanwhile, the sibling that was to her right had been named "Sirius", also given by Bianca. When prompted, the girl had explained it was a reference to both the star and the fact that he "didn't have a humorous bone in his body". Latias believed this was slightly ironic and hypocritical, but who was she to judge? The twins had accepted the names, albeit begrudgingly on Sirius' part, as it helped differentiate the two from Latias and the brother that was no longer with her. 

Ti-ti looked pleased, although the way she bobbed side to side in the air indicated something had irritated her. This was made more obvious as the youngster quickly replied, "It was wild, you wouldn't believe it. This genius here got himself targeted by some crazy trainer, and I was on my way back to tell you about it and see if your friend couldn't figure something out to help him, you know? But as I was flying, I got hit in mid-air by a group of weirdos and crashed into a lake. That was crazy scary. Then this other trainer guy apparently sees this, and comes to rescue me, although I didn't know that at the time."

Latias' lips twitched in amusement as her younger kin rambled, pleased she had the fortune of running into a kind-hearted trainer, much like she herself had. The "crazy trainer" concerned her, however she felt at ease seeing the two free and relatively unharmed, minus the bruising. 

Ti-ti continued to blabber on as Sirius donned a flat expression. "Anyway, this guy recognizes what I am, oddly enough, and pulls me from the lake. I tried getting away, but those dinguses had hit me harder than I thought, so I just passed out. When I woke up, I realized that the trainer guy had bandaged me up and then fell asleep on me, the nerve of him, before I freaked out and woke him up as I pulled away. I really wish I hadn't, because my wing was still super sore, and he was a surprisingly good cuddle buddy, but I wasn't taking any chances with that psycho trainer on the loose. After that, the weirdos had come back in this strange balloon and sucked me into it with a super strong sucker-"

"That's called a vacuum. You should know, since that's what you become whenever you come across my stashes of berries."

"-and the nice trainer jumped in with me. He landed on my back though, which was pretty annoying. The weirdos started filling the bubble thing with super cold air, and it felt the absolute worst. I thought I was a goner, until the nice trainer put himself against the glass bubble, and told his Pikachu to electrocute him through the glass! I have no idea how he knew that'd work, but it did, and the bubble thing broke. We fell for a bit, and the trainer reached out to me with both arms. I finally realized he wasn't evil like the crazy trainer and the weirdos with the balloon, and I flew both of us down to the ground. He defeated the weirdos with his Pokémon and sent them off flying. After that, I was gonna leave, but I decided to stick around this guy for a while, cuz I guess he seemed pretty capable, ya know? Maybe he could help CItrus over here-"

"Don't mutilate my name."

"-defeat the crazy guy and his super mean mount."

Latias blinked a few times as she processed the influx of information. She was intrigued at the mention of the Pikachu, given her own savior's partner was also a Pikachu. Maybe trainers with Pikachus as their partners were all super kind and helpful. Or maybe-

"Go on and tell her what you did, I'm sure she'll get a kick out of it," Sirius said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Latias blinked and looked towards Ti-ti as she shoved her sibling, before pressing on. "I followed him around, like I said! I even swooped in and caught him and his Pikachu when they jumped off a cliff."

There was a moment of silence as she frowned, wondering why this trainer would jump off a cliff. Did he need help of some kind? Was his life bad enough that he felt he needed to resort to-?

"Of course, I don't think he meant to jump off a cliff. They had gotten separated, you see, and they jumped to each other, all happy-like. Unfortunately, their jumping point of choice happened to be a ravine, and neither of them noticed. Not gonna lie, I was pretty worried this guy was stupid or something, and couldn't help us because he was so stupid."

Both Latias and Sirius snorted at that, with the older of the two thinking to herself she'd probably feel the same way. Cocking her head slightly, she asked, "And so what did you do after that?"

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"Oh, well I put the two of them back up with his friends, of course."

"His Pokémon, you mean?"

Ti-ti looked slightly annoyed as she replied, "What? No, his friends. The human ones. Wait, did I forget to mention those two? My bad."

Her brother rolled his eyes again, shaking his head as his sister cheerfully jabbered on. "Anyway, I'm still following them around and watching them. I gotta say, Tia, I was impressed with this guy. Everywhere he went, anytime a Pokémon was in trouble, he stopped and helped them, even if it took a lotta effort. The most impressive one was probably this thing with a Wailmer-"

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Ti-ti, I really am, but can we please cut to the chase? What happened with the trainer and him?" Latias gently interjected as she glanced up at the sky; the sun was just starting to dip down past noon, and she promised she would hang out with Bianca. While she mostly enjoyed the ramblings of the younger Latias, she didn't have time for a tale that lasted the whole day.

The dragoness pouted and sniffed, replying in a mildly hurt tone, "I was getting there, geez. If you must know, O Great One, the trainer and his friends got separated by the weirdos from earlier, until only the Pikachu was left. It was a pretty clever plan, I'll admit, but they never counted on me being there," she said with a puffed-up chest. "Just as they were about to snatch him up, I alerted the nice trainer, and he came along and helped defend the Pikachu. Kinda sucked for them, though, cuz all the Pokemon they had sent out to distract his friends came back, and surrounded both of them. That's when I decided enough was enough, and long story short, I revealed myself before casting them far away!" Ti-ti cheered, throwing her clawed arms into the air. Latias smiled at this, while Sirius merely shook his head. "And what was your dear, wounded brother doing while you were off messing around with your trainer friend? Oh, right. He was trying to evade the crazy guy and his Pokémon."

Ti-ti looked down and muttered, "You said to go get help, didn't you?"

Sirius heaved a breath while Latias looked sympathetically at them both. "Well, this trainer helped you, didn't he? That's why you're here, instead of being captured." She gently asked, hoping the male would understand what she was getting at. Sirius looked away for a moment, glancing at his downtrodden sister before carefully responding, "I just.... I remembered what you said, about what happened that night. How you placed your faith in a human, and he was unable to save your brother. I didn't want...I didn't want that to happen again."

A cold pit formed in Latias' chest as her expression turned stony, Ti-ti's eyes widening as she turned to look at her brother in horror. "Sirius, you can't just....you can't just say things like that, that's mean!"

"I'm sorry, but it's the truth! I didn't want myself or you to die because of misplaced faith! We both know-"

"What happened in this city,"  Latias began with gritted teeth, "was nothing short of devastating. My brother's life was taken by the action of selfish and cruel humans, that is true. But the lives of everyone in this city, including mine, were only spared because of the actions of selfless and kind humans. He...they did the best they could, and I owe much to them. I do not begrudge their inability to save my brother's life the only ones to blame for that have been imprisoned. I trusted them to do what they could, and that's what they did. Your sister is no different. In fact, I'd argue she exercised more caution with your own savior than I did with mine. It was her faith in this trainer that led to your safety, wasn't it?"

Sirius looked downcast and nodded, while Ti-ti stared at Latias with tears in her eyes. The Latios muttered in a regretful tone, "Sorry, Ti. I just....I have no excuse."

Latias shook her head as she replied, "That's not entirely true, SIrius. While I stand by what I said, I will not question who you choose to trust, or not. Just remember that your sister cares for you, and with equal care, found someone and made sure her faith wasn't misguided."

The Latios chewed this over as Latias looked towards the younger dragoness. "Now, how about you finish up with that story? The short version, please."

Ti-ti did a loop as she eagerly continued. "Right, so, after his tall friend cooked some food, the nice trainer fed me. It was suuuper yummy-"

"You- he did what?" Sirius choked out, looking aghast. His sister looked over to him and replied cheerfully, "He fed me. He took the weird pellets out, and gave them to me one by one." 

Sirius glared at her, although Latias could tell he was more concerned than angry when he responded, "He could have fed you something weird, like poison or something. What if he had been working with the hunter?"

"If you had seen the things he was willing to do for all the Pokemon he's met, you wouldn't be saying that," Ti-ti scoffed, before she smugly stated, "And I certainly wouldn't have cuddled up next to him when we slept that night, either!"

Latias fought the urge to giggle as the Latios dropped his arms down, looking like his world had ended. Before he could gather regain his ability to speak, Latias gently prompted Ti-ti, "And after that?"

Ti-ti looked over and yawned suddenly, replying in a semi-calmer voice, "Well, Sirius woke me up and told me where he was at, so the trainer and his friends packed up their things and we took off. Probably could have made it to him faster, but I had to make sure to keep pace with the tall guy's Pokemon since it was carrying them. Well, except for the Pikachu, who jumped on top of me. Said he's done it before with another of my kind, and it really showed. Didn't fall off once."

Latias blinked, feeling a tingle in the back of her mind as her eyes slightly widened. A Pikachu that had met and interacted with another Latias before? One who was owned by a caring and kind trainer-

"Anyway, we get to the cave where Sirius was healing up, and as soon as he sees them, he goes all mean," Ti-ti rambled, not noticing Latias' increased interest. Sirius was not so impressed and snapped back, "It's not dumb to not want to be caught, you know."

"Yeah, except you completely ignored the fact that I was telling you to attack, cuz I knew this guy wasn't a big jerk like the crazy trainer was. And yet, you still attacked him, and got a Pikachu tail to the head as a result."

Latias giggled this time, remembering way back when her own brother had attacked her own savior and knocked around his Pikachu. To be fair, it wasn't as though Pikachu could actually see Latios, she reasoned. She watched as Sirius rubbed the top of his head and look away, muttering, "If I had been at full strength, that Pikachu would have never even touched a feather on me."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Anyway, after Sirius stopped attacking for like three seconds, the nice trainer told him he was trying to help, and introduced himself. As though either of us could communicate back properly," Ti-ti giggled.

Feeling her mind tingle again, Latias subconsciously leaned closer and asked,"What did this nice trainer call himself, if you don't mind me asking?"

Ti-ti looked at her curiously as she replied, "Uh, pretty sure it was 'Ash', or something-" 

The younger dragoness yelped as Latias surged forward and got right up into her face, although the elder barely registered this as shock and excitement surged through her. "Did you just say 'Ash'?" Ti-ti nodded, her eyes wide, while Latias made a split second decision. "Show me," she urged. Nodding quickly, Ti-ti quickly obeyed, both Latias' eyes flashed for a brief second as the memories transferred to the eldest Eon. When it was over, Latias immediately teared up and let go of the alarmed Eon. Ti-ti looked at her in concern, asking in a small voice as Sirius glanced over them with confusion-filled eyes, "Um...what was that about?"

Latias didn't reply as she processed the information. "I...I can't believe it. That's.... It really is him."

Before either of the siblings could question her, she made a split-second decision, wiping her eyes as she asked, "Where did you leave him?"

They looked at each other before turning back to her, Sirius cautiously saying, "I'm not too sure, we didn't really check-"

She lost her patience and snapped, "Then at least tell me what direction and how far, I can figure out the rest!" The siblings quickly nodded, and Latios' eyes glowed for a brief moment before the elder Eon nodded. "Good, thank you. I'm very sorry for snapping, but I...had to make sure. I have to know if that's him." In a flash, her guise fell of of her as she tore out of the Garden, leaving the siblings alone.

They looked at each other for a moment, before Ti-ti broke the silence and asked, "What's gotten her to go weird like that?"

Sirius muttered a reply, "I have no idea, but I think it was a mistake." 

His sister shot him a surprised look. "Why'd you say that? Maybe that's an old friend or something."

The Latios looked unimpressed as he turned to face the pool, gesturing towards it. "Because it means we're stuck here, guarding that." 

Ti-ti looked in the pool's direction and then groaned. "Great, I should have kept my fat mouth shut. I really blew it this time." 

Sirius merely snorted, resigning himself to his fate as he drifted up into a tree and settled down on it. Hopefully, it was nothing and Tia would be back soon.