I sat down, cross-legged on the bed with my eyes closed, and focused.

Think calming thoughts, Lea. Come on, you can do this! The pitter patter of rain on the sidewalk, just... imagine that sound. White noise filled my ears as I let my thoughts drift away, and I could feel the cold start to fade.

An uneasy feeling bubbled up in my stomach as the world started to fade, and I opened my eyes to Tapu Masks and plain walls.

Damn it all.

“You almost managed it that time.” Emilie said, before leaning her head back on my leg.

I nodded once. “Yeah, I felt the world start to shift. It’s what freaked me the fuck out.” I sighed. “This’d be a lot easier if you could just send me to lala land like you did before.”

Emilie lifted her head up and glared at me. “How exactly do you expect me to do that through your stupidly strong mental barrier, that shit’s stronger than the thing you made in practice.”

I leaned back. “Really?”

“Perks of you being scared out of your mind, I guess.” May said as she came out of the bathroom. “As a heads up, we don’t have any more hot water. You’ll probably have to shower in the morning.”

“Wouldn’t be my first cold shower...” I mumbled.

May glared at me before joining me on the bed. “Yeah, well this time I lost it in like, ten minutes, so it’s not my fault.”

“This time.” I grinned cheekily at her.

She poked my forehead and pushed, and I fell backwards onto the mattress, laughing.

“Rude.” The word was accompanied by a pout.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry, I’ll be good.” I lifted up both of my arms and put them behind my head. “I didn’t ask earlier, but when do you want to leave to go hunting for Steven?”

May froze. “Honestly, probably the day after tomorrow. I still want to give you some time to train with Wayne’s Nuzleaf, and I want to shop for some better hiking gear now that we’ve got the pay day from the gym battle.”

I nodded once before closing my eyes. “Think you’ll be done in time for my rematch?”

“If we’re not, I’m teleporting up and watching, progress underground be damned.” May grinned at me. “You think I’m going to miss the chance to see all these ‘new and cool ideas’ you have?”

I blushed. “Thanks.” I popped an eye open. “Sorry I missed your match.”

“Meh, you can watch it on Sergei if you want, he taped the whole thing.” May glared at the phone as it floated up from her pocket. “Just don’t upload this one to Poketube.”

Sergei floated away from May into my waiting hands. “This is why I like you more.”

“Yeah, I think you’re pretty awesome too, little guy.” I thumbed through Poketube before pulling up the official video covering the match. “Don’t know why you care, your actual video covering the match has like, a zillion views on it.”

May’s face went white for a second before she groaned and sat next to me. “What are the comments saying about the fight?” Her voice was nervous as she pulled the phone over and scrolled away from the match as Leshy put Brawly’s Meditite to sleep.

“Oi, you can’t just-”

“Huh, no one’s commented on my mark, yet,” May said, sagging down. “At least not in the top comments, that’s good at least.”

“Probably too busy being blown away at how fast you cleaned Brawly’s clock, considering the video isssss” I fought with May to scroll back up. “Ten minutes long?”

May blushed. “I was in a hurry.”

I giggled. “Yeah, yeah, I wonder if my video’s as popular.”

May let go and I swiped up for the search bar, I typed in my name and-

Nothing.

What?

“Dude, where’s my match?” I asked, glancing down at the possessed smartphone.

A bunch of infographics and letters flashed across the screen all at once, before a single error message appeared on the screen.

“We’re sorry, but the video you’re trying to find doesn’t exist?” My voice slowly started to increase in volume as I read. “What?”

“Your first match is still up.” May said, grabbing Sergei. “It’s probably just a glitch in the system, they happen all the time. That or Brawly’s about as bad at making sure they get posted consistently as Dad is.” She leaned up against me and threw her arm around my shoulders. “You do know you can upload your own video, right?”

I shrugged. “I guess it doesn’t matter. Honestly, this is probably a good thing, the masses don’t get to watch me get creamed. I can just study Sergei's video.” The fact that the idea of uploading a video of my own now made me nervous as fuck was probably something that didn’t need shared.

“Fair enough, though the fight was still a ton of fun to watch, right up until you passed out.” May frowned before resting her head against my shoulder. “Thanks again for agreeing to stay up here.”

“Thank you for listening to my list of demands.” I smiled. “I figured we had enough of us being idiots for a while with how we got together.”

May smiled bitterly. “Yeah, probably.” Her voice dripped with exhaustion as she closed her eyes, and I smiled down at her still frame.

The smile slid from my face at the first snore.

Emilie teleported up to my pillow and stared at me with a grin. “Sergei, picture.”

The ghost phased through my hands and floated upwards, before turning around and complying with Emilie’s demand.

“Just how many pictures do you have for the scrapbook, anyway?” I asked.

Sergei just sent me a smiley face emoji.

“Right, so we’ll keep trying to meditate tomorrow, I want to sleep now.” Emilie turned before rolling into me and cuddling against my shoulder.

“Both you and May are lucky I can sleep on my back,” I complained.

Emilie just chuckled. “Just do me a favor and tell me about whatever dreams you have tomorrow, okay?”

“Sure thing,” I said to an already sleeping pokemon. I groaned before letting my eyes close, hoping that I wouldn’t see any new horrible things.

----------------------------------------

Dark cave walls once again painted my vision as I blearily opened my eyes. The viewpoint this time was far more familiar as carved out black stone doors loomed just within view. This was the same cave that May carried me through when I was bleeding out. I moved to stand, but my body wouldn’t listen.

‘What?’ I could perceive the question, but no sound left my lips.

An odd ethereal sound played through my mind and a single word appeared in my head. ‘Watch.’

A dull ache thrummed behind my skull as the word took shape. It was like telepathy, but at the same time, different. The thought lacked a voice. There was no emotion or drive guiding the order, just a single word, backed by an unwavering will.

“Daddy!” A high-pitched tone pulled me out of my thoughts as my body jerked up all on its own. A small, white furred Pokémon rushed into me and hopped up on my back. It was an Absol, without question, but it was far smaller than what I was used to. “You’re awake! Wanna play?”

A deep chuckle sounded through the cave as I slowly stood up, my back bowing slightly under the weight of my newly acquired passenger. I turned my head and-

I had white fur.

This wasn’t me. Why did it feel like me? Why was I looking through someone else’s eyes?

“I think I can spare a bit of time for a game of tag, but we should probably find your mother first. I think you left her behind with how excited you were.” The deep voice sounded old. Tired.

“But I wanna play now...” The child's voice came through whiny, and I couldn’t help but laugh. Oh, I had used that same tone on Eve so many times.

“But think of how sad your mom would be if we played without her.” The deep voice was light, playful even. “You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

A pained look crossed the small Absol’s face as she hopped down from her father’s back. “No.”

A throaty laugh sounded through the cave, and my eyes were drawn to the base of the cave. A large Absol stood tall. “She giving you trouble, love?”

“Hardly, little one’s just got way more energy than me. Did the hunt go well?” he asked.

The new arrival puffed up her chest. “Of course it did. Didn’t even have to go out that far for breakfast. A tasty set of morsels thought they’d try their luck with our daughter.” A malevolent grin crossed her face. “It was their final mistake in a series of many. Honestly, venturing this close to the crypt.”

Childish laughter filled the room, and I idly wondered what kind of kid laughed at something like that.

Dark-Types. Dark-Types laughed at stuff like that.

“Mommy was super cool! She was all like ‘Rawr’ and the bullies were all like ‘ahhh’ and then she pounced on them and-”

Loud raucous laughter filled the room as my viewpoint started walking closer to the little Absol pup. “Sounds like your mommy put on quite the show for you, eh?”

“Uh-huh. She was amazing,” she said, bouncing up and down as she rambled on.

This little thing was just too precious for words. The way she was carrying on was almost enough to make me forget that she was talking about some random Pokémon getting eaten.

Almost.

“Think it was from the same group?” Words echoed through the hall, and I realized the voice was coming from me again.

I was so focused on the adorable little thing in front of me that I had lost track of where we were looking. My viewpoint was now focused on the strong female Absol in front of me.

“Errant psychics that don’t really belong here? Yeah, I’d say they fit the bill. It’s odd. You’d think someone trying to break in would be sending in things that might actually have a chance. I was grateful for the meal, though. Been a bit since I’ve had pork.” A bit of blood made itself known as she grinned.

Pork? What was she-

Oh. Grumpigs. That or Spoinks.

“Don’t take them lightly. This is the third time this week, and the things they’re throwing at us are getting stronger.” Our gaze shifted to the pup, still rambling away about how cool Mom was. “I’m going to start training the little one. Showing her the ropes.”

A snarl pulled our gaze back to Momma Absol.

“You will do no such thing. She’s still far too-”

“She’s older than you or I were when we learned.” A sigh filled the room. “We’ve put it off for long enough, and... I’m worried things are going to get worse, before they get better.”

“A few psychic types are nothing to worry about.” Momma Absol puffed her chest up and glared at us.

“The sword stirs,” he said.

Momma Absol froze.

“I can feel it from here. It’s... I don’t know if alive is the right word, but it’s active.” A deep sigh filled the hall. “Our duty may be coming to an end soon.”

“The basics only.” Momma Absol’s voice was firm.

I felt us move backwards, and I felt... insulted?

That wasn’t me feeling that, but I felt it anyway. Fuck this was so weird.

“I’m not putting her through the same torture we went through, love. I’m not them.” My gaze shifted back to the little one, and the adorable little thing had stopped talking completely.

“I get to learn how to fight like Mommy?” she asked.

Fuck me, this thing was so cute.

“Well, honey. First things first. You’re going to learn to fight like daddy, okay?”

The look of joy on her face made me want to scoop this thing up and hug the crap out of it.

“Okay!”

A loud buzzing sound filled the air, and the cave distorted, before disappearing completely as I opened my eyes. May groans right next to me before turning and slamming her hand into the alarm clock. She stretched her arms out as she slowly sat up.

“Did you set an alarm?” I asked, my voice thick with sleep.

May quickly stood up before turning around. “You mean you didn’t?”

“I’m glad, if either of you intentionally made me get up this early, you would not have liked what I would’ve done to you,” Emilie muttered.

A loud knocking echoed through the room, cutting my reply off.

“You girls awake, we got a lot to do today, and I want to make sure we get it all done,” Wayne said through the door.

May and I both stayed still, our eyes trained on the door as another round of pounding started.

“Come on, I know Wally said y’all were heavy sleepers, but this is ridiculous,” he said.

“Excuse me for a moment.” Emilie disappeared, I froze for a split second, and the knocking instantly stopped.

“Oh, hey Emilie, I- ow. Ow ow ow, mmmphh, mm mph...” The muffled shouting trailed off and I grinned.

Serves you right, the sun’s literally just now coming up.

“Should we do anything about that?” May kept glancing between the door and me.

I chuckled before sitting up and turning. “Nah, Emilie’s not going to do anything that would... permanently injure Wayne.” I think. “Probably just going to make sure he never does something like this again. We should be good.”

A particularly loud muffled shout made my smile slip slightly from my face, and I heaved a sigh as Emilie reappeared on my shoulder. I opened my mouth-

“He’s mostly fine,” she said.

I glared at her.

“Mostly. I’m like, ninety nine percent sure he can still have kids.” She batted her eyelashes at me.

I sighed. “You’re lucky you’re on a self-imposed cookie break. Though I suppose I could just extend the days.”

Emilie shrunk in place, before puffing up and glaring at me. “Don’t give me that, you wanted to hurt him too.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

I grinned at my starter. “Yeah, but I had restraint. I probably would’ve just snuck something fun into his food later.”

“You’re both terrible.” May was caught between glaring at us and giggling. Her face quickly took on a more severe look as she met my eyes. “Any other premonitions?”

“Only if they’ve somehow managed to figure out how to turn people into Pokémon. I think this was just a lesson in not eating a big meal before bed.” I started rifling through my bag for something easy to wear for training.

“That’s good, at least,” May said.

Emilie remained quiet as she stared at my head, her eyes focused. “Yeah, nice.”

I didn’t like that her voice sounded less sure than May’s.

“Regardless, I’m enjoying the rare chance to get a hot shower in.” I walked into the bathroom before shooting my starter a grin.

“What?” she asked.

“I got you a present.” I grinned as I turned on the hot water for the sink and dropped the drain. “Well, more specifically I had May get me something for you.”

“Oh, what’d you get...” Her happy voice trailed off as I pulled out a small rubber psyducky and squeezed it a couple of times. “You’re an ass.”

“I can take it back if you don’t-”

“Gib.” She had both hands out in front of her and I started laughing. She teleported down to the sink the second I gave her the toy.

----------------------------------------

“Is it bad that I’m getting tired of this beach?” I asked, looking out across the sandy training field with a sigh before turning to my two training buddies.

Wally and Jasmine were both put in charge of getting supplies for our... their cave diving.

Legends above, I hated that a lot more than I thought I would.

May’s nose was scrunched up as she looked out across the ocean. “Yeah, a change of scenery would probably be a good idea, but all the ‘training grounds’ on this island are fucking beaches, so...”

“Not all of them.” Wayne gave the two of us a relatively laid back look, but I couldn’t help but notice his voice was a bit higher than usual.

“No.” May and Emilie refused at the same time.

Wayne backed up slightly from the angry psychic on my shoulder and brought his hands down. “At the risk of getting brutalized again, it’s” Wayne paused as he looked back towards the city. “Cathartic. I paid a visit with Jasmine when we got out of the hospital, mostly because she dragged me there, but it helped a lot more than I thought it would.”

I reached up and whacked Emilie on the forehead, and Wayne instantly relaxed as my starter shifted her glare to me.

“Be good.” Honestly, I half wondered if Wayne was right. I understood why May and Emilie wanted nothing to do with the place, but...

The whole point of my training was to push past my own hang ups. This felt like a good place to start. S’not like bashing my head against the brick wall a million times was making any significant progress.

“I think Wayne has a point,” I said, hoping-

Yeah, no. May’s mad.

“Are you nuts?” she shrieked, and I held my hands up against my ears. “In what universe is going back to where we were attacked supposed to be healthy?”

“The one where we need closure,” I replied. “May, you keep looking at me like I’m a glass doll. You jump at every overly loud sound, fuck you probably need something like this more than me!”

“I don’t-”

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you freeze up when Wayne pounded on the door this morning.” I cut her off with a glare. “It’s a big grassy field with palm trees. You’re treating it like the place is going to open up and swallow us whole. If you really don’t want to, I won’t force it, but...”

“It might be good for us,” Emilie muttered quietly.

May looked at everyone else before groaning, her hands clenched together so hard that I was a bit worried she would draw blood. “Fine, we’ll go to the stupid training ground.”

I sagged and let loose a breath I didn’t even know I was holding. “Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me yet, I still think this is stupid, but I’m not going to let a fucking training ground of all things scare me off. I fully intend to complain and freak out the whole time, and you get to-”

I reached out and grabbed her hand, before leading the way. May’s mouth snapped shut, and I grinned before shifting my gaze over to Emilie.

“I’m fine. I’m just... not thinking about this rationally. You’re right, it’s just a bit grassy field. Well, mostly grassy. The battle ground might be a little charred, but-”

“I’m a little shook up too,” I said, a sad smile on my face. I felt May squeeze my hand.

An explosion of light brought my attention back to our largest friend, and metal grinded against metal as an angry screech filled the skies.

We got a few looks from the locals, but most of them just went right back to what they were doing.

“Skarm’ll show the big bad training field whose boss, don’t worry.” Wayne grinned up at his best friend before shifting his confident look to the two of us. “I wasn’t a whole lot better about this, honestly. Jasmine forced me to go there, I think I mentioned that already, didn’t I?”

I nodded once but didn’t say anything else.

We spent the rest of the walk in silence, and stopped as we left the city proper and passed into the training field.

Someone had replanted grass.

“Huh,” I said as I walked out into the large open field. “I half figured this place would still be trashed. That Draco Meteor was... exceedingly stupid.”

Wayne winced. “Don’t remind me. I’m keeping my girl away from the casinos in Mauville.”

I chuckled lightly, before frowning as May let go of my hand and walked forward. “May?”

“It’s fixed,” she said, before walking further in, towards-

Damn, just going right for it, huh?

“May, wait up!” I shouted after her as she quickly walked into the tree line. I felt my heart pick up as the familiar trees started to take shape in my mind's eye. I swallowed down a bit of bile before pushing through.

May’s dealt with enough of my crap, I can help her deal with one stupid fucking thing without freaking out.

Calm thoughts, rain drops, white noise, just... focus on your girlfriend. Come on.

Another loud screech sounded out behind me, and I whipped my head up to see Skarmory glance down at me with a small smile. He flew down and hovered right next to me and Wayne as we kept pace with May.

May froze in place as we reached the small clearing I had talked to Jasmine in. I half expected the entire area to be destroyed, still. But the debris the space rocks had thrown around had been cleared.

What I wasn’t expecting, though, was for the person fixing the place to still be here.

“Good work, Kahuna. Whole place looks good as new.” That voice sounded exceedingly familiar.

I stared in slack jawed awe at the towering Pokémon in front of me. Giant white spikes stuck out of its back as it casually lifted an entire tree up, planting it back into the ground with a practiced ease that blew me away. A very tightly bundled Brawly knelt down and started shifting the dirt in place.

“Chesnaught!” The cry was almost deafening as the large bipedal pokemon let go and admired his work. He smiled, before turning our way. “Ches.”

“Visitors?” Brawly turned away from his work and grinned. “Ah, it’s you guys. Glad to see you up and about, little one. Didn’t think you’d take losing that badly.”

I blushed. “I didn’t faint because of the loss.”

“Looked like it, but I’ll take your word for it. Still, I thought I closed this training ground off. Tito was supposed to chase off anyone that came in while we worked.” Brawly started looking around the trees.

“We didn’t see anyone on our way in.” Wayne said, staring eye to eye with the lumbering grass type. “I’ve never seen a Chesnaught this big before.”

“Of course you didn’t, lazybones probably took a nap under the shade somewhere.” Brawly looked annoyed, before smiling at Wayne. “Yeah, Kahuna eats his Wheaties. Special blend that I make myself, in fact.”

“You fixed it,” May muttered in a lost tone of voice. “How?”

Brawly chuckled. “Yeah, this place was pretty thrashed. Going off your reactions, I’m guessing you were here for that?”

May nodded once, before swallowing. “Did- did Dad tell you what happened here?”

Brawly winced. “Yeah, got quite the earful for that one. I’m sorry Dewford hasn’t been the kindest place in the world to you guys.” Brawly turned and nodded at Chesnaught. “My friend here helps me keep the training ground in order. Brings the grass back to life where it grows, replants trees...”

“Ches!” The big guy thumped his chest before putting an arm around Brawly’s shoulders.

“Keeps me out of trouble. Everything really.” Brawly laughed before returning the sideways hug.

May walked forward and placed her hand against the freshly rooted tree, and I quickly ran up to stand by her side.

“It’s not much, but... It’s better than what it was. Sometimes, that’s all we can offer. Might not be enough, but just that little bit can make all the difference sometimes.” Brawly lifted up a poke ball and recalled his pokemon. Chesnaught waved as he disappeared into the ball.

May turned and smiled at the gym leader. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. Next time some big scary monster tries to screw with you, come get me, alright?” Brawly winced. “One session with the old man was enough.”

May laughed. A solid hearty laugh, at that. “Will do.”

Brawly nodded before walking back through the clearing of trees.

“Lea,” May said.

I whipped my head around to look at my now smiling girlfriend.

“Thanks for dragging me here.” May pulled me in close and hugged me. “I-I can’t explain why, but...”

“You feel lighter?” Wayne asked. “Like what happened is actually behind you?”

May nodded into my shoulder, before pulling away. “You ready to do some training?”

I smiled, before releasing the full squad. Rain clouds instantly started to form, and Emilie lifted her hands up into the air. The clouds moved away from us as the first rain drops started to fall.

“Pelipper.” Apollo appeared on the ground, his left wing rubbing the back of his head. “Pelipper, pel.”

“Honedge.” Lucas appeared next to him, looking incredibly smug.

I held my hand out to May. “Sergei me, please.”

“I can translate, you know?” Emilie complained.

“Yeah, but you don’t SAY everything like Sergei does. I want my crazy team, not my crazy team through your filter of restrictive stupidity,” I complained.

Emilie glared at me as Sergei floated into view.

“It’s alright, hon. We all have performance anxiety sometimes,” Sergei messaged, before opening up the live feed.

“Alright, first things first. Apollo said sorry about the weather, Captain. Legends above it feels good being called that again. I missed it so much and I’ve only been deaf to you guys for a couple days.” I grinned at my now much larger water fowl. “The constant rain is something we’re going to try and fix. Well, more specifically, May’s going to try and help you fix it. My pokedex gave me jack all and shit to work with.”

May nodded before reaching into my bag and grabbing my umbrella. “I think Lea could do it too, but she’s going to be busy with her own thing.”

“Honedge.” Lucas snickered as they walked off.

I scanned down through the messages and noticed Lucas taunting his superior officer in the chat room. That couldn’t stand, now could it.

“I wouldn’t act so cocky, you’ll be going with them and working on your current move pool.” I grinned as the color in his sheath seemed to fade. “Hop to it, he can give you pointers while he works on his own stuff.” Pointers, heckling. Same thing, really.

“Hon hon Honedge.” Lucas hovered after my friends.

Now that sounded like sass. I glanced down at the phone before putting my hands around my mouth. “He’s being insubordinate, Apollo. Give him hell!”

“Pelipper!” Apollo shouted out, glaring at the spectral sword as he turned and glared at me.

I shrugged, before giving him a pleasant smile and wave.

“Lombre.” Joern lifted his hand into the air, before looking pointedly at me.

“Yeah, that’s where I come in, big guy.” Wayne stepped forward. “If you’re going to go toe to toe with a strong psychic type, Dark Type moves are your best friend. Nuzeaf is going to be giving you a crash course on how the type works, and we’re going to try and figure out what works best for you.” He turned back towards me. “About as far away from Lea as we can get.”

“Skarmory!” Skarmory nodded his head up and down as he glared at Wayne’s belt.

Wait.

“Wayne, you have a third pokemon?” I asked.

Wayne winced, and I wondered if this would be another Misdreavus incident.

“Ball’s empty, actually. I keep it as a good luck charm,” he quickly explained.

“Right, at any rate. Joern, this will be the first time you’ve worked outside your type. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get it at first. Just try and absorb as much information as you can so we can work on it once they go down,” I ordered, before sitting down in front of the tree, my legs crossed and my hands on my knees.

“Lombre.” Joern nodded before following Wayne into the deeper foliage. I wasn’t sure if that was really part of the training ground, but whatever made Wayne feel more comfortable.

Now.

“Alright, let’s hear it. What’s the cool idea?” Emilie tapped her foot on my shoulder.

“Well, I just figured that we need to expand our naming scheme, right?” I asked with a grin.

Emilie chuckled. “Yeah, we can come up with cool names like The Emilienator or Sand Burial.” Her laughing became a bit forced. “Let me guess, you want me to come up with them all.”

I smiled at her. “Actually, I think I’ve got a rather nice collection of names we can copy wholesale. To start things off, why don’t we call your funny little water ball trick... Guard Sphere.”

My smile split my face as the realization started to dawn on Emilie. I was worried it actually might when I watched her brain process all the different ideas that thought gave her.

“You’re literally having me design moves and abilities... based on a video game you played when you were twelve?” Emilie asked.

“Do you have a problem with any of those names?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

Emilie thought for a moment, before grinning at me. “Just one. I think Azure is a bit of a miss for us, huh? I think Jade Strike sounds better off the tongue.”

I laughed at that. “I’ll let you work through how you want to recreate your toolkit on your own for a bit, okay?”

“But Lea, the whole point of this is getting us to communicate better, how can I do that if-”

“Guard Sphere. Azure Strike. Bullet Rain. Spin Dance.” I cut her off. “If you think I don’t remember all of these, you’ve lost your mind. Your memory trick is stupid, and I love it so much.”

Emilie smiled at me, before chuckling. “I’m guessing you want me to think of some cool creations for those while you do... whatever it is you’re going to do.”

I giggled. “Emilie, I’m going to be completely honest with you, I haven’t been this relaxed in a while. My brain isn’t screaming at me that the world’s going to blow up if I close my eyes for too long. It’s... peaceful.” I closed my eyes, and took a deep, calming breath. “I’ll be back in a bit, okay?”

The world faded away, and for once, I didn’t jerk back.

----------------------------------------

A giant brick wall stretched out before me, extending out infinitely in every direction.

How the fuck did I get around this?

“Alright, my subconscious was very... dedicated to keeping everyone out.” I muttered. No response. “Right, I’m just talking to myself now... That’s healthy.” I put my hand against the wall and put a bit of weight against it. Solid. A gut feeling told me that trying to feel for a weak point would be a waste of time.

“So, the easiest solution here would be to just imagine the wall away.” A sudden feeling of apprehension and dread filled me to my core, as if the very idea would court death in the most painful, gruesome way imaginable. I leaned against the wall to steady myself as I tried to get my breathing under control.

“Right, brain still doesn’t like that idea. Legends above my head is so fucked up.” I sighed before looking at the wall again. This would be way easier if I had any clue how the fuck I did this in the first place. How the hell did I come out of my own head if I built a massive ass fucking wall around my brain, did I teleport th-

“I’m a fucking idiot.” I closed my eyes and visualized myself on the other side of the wall. I didn’t need to change anything, I just needed to shift my perspective.

I opened my eyes. I was still staring at the wall.

“This is fantastic, I get in and I can’t even get in!” I briefly wondered if I was saying all of this outside. Meh, Emilie’s used to my brand of crazy.

I turned around and sucked in a breath.

I’m still an idiot. Yay. Good to know. Of course I was still staring at the wall. The wall has two sides.

What greeted me as I turned around was my old house In Petalburg. Eve’s herb garden was in the windowsill, the paint was peeling in all the right spots, there was even that small hole in the roof next to my room!

I started to move forward but stopped myself. Instincts were screaming at me, telling me this was wrong, that this wasn’t where I needed to be.

Damn, maybe I’m not stupid. That’s actually really clever. Anyone who’d breach the first layer of defense would just assume this was my inner sanctum, and dive right in. I’d be willing to bet I put something nasty on the other side of that door.

“I wonder if I’m cruel enough to have intruders face down Eve in her face mask?” I was acting on instinct and terrified out of my mind when I made this, of course I fucking would.

Yeah, not going in there.

I started walking towards where our mother’s bakery would normally be in town. This was honestly the first chance I had to really look at my creation. I kind of peaced out in a hurry when I made it, considering I was mad at Emilie, and last time was... that.

I honestly did a really good job, all things considered. The houses that weren’t important to me weren’t all that detailed, which made sense. I didn’t know a ton of people, and I barely paid attention on my way to and from work. There were a few stand outs though. I saw the gym in the distance, and May’s house next to it.

I briefly considered if either place would hold my home away from home but dismissed the idea entirely. Everyone knew how close May and I were. Fuck, random people on Chatot were aware at this point. That was WAY too obvious a hiding spot. I turned to where the bakery was, grabbed the door, and froze.

Come to think of it, this place would be way too obvious too. I let go of the door as if it burned my skin.

All of the more detailed buildings were important to me. They were obvious hiding spots. I know how I think, I wouldn’t put my Mental Palace in any of those places. Especially if I was terrified beyond all belief when I made it. Emilie knew where all of these places were, I couldn’t let any psychic types break in!

“Where the fuck did that last thought come from?” I shook my head and tried to focus. “Worry about your weird ass fucking brain once you get there, Lea.”

So where would I put it? It would have to be a place of some significance to me. I couldn’t just stick it in some random, generic house. I’d never be able to keep it straight with how many homes there were, but I wouldn’t stick it somewhere obvious, either. It would have to be a middle ground, like...

Wally’s house.

I suddenly found myself standing in front of the plainest building I had ever seen. Gray siding, single entrance, a couple of windows on a two story, and surrounded by a white picket fence. The grass was perfectly trimmed, and the bushes were square and uniform. It was the perfect picture of a house out of suburbia, and the only thing distinguishing it from the other houses was the fact that it was right next to the gym.

I know Wally’s house. Wally showed it to me on our way out of Petalburg when he grabbed all his shit. This wasn’t it, and I would a hundred percent have made this place to scale.

The only reason I wouldn’t was if I was trying to hide something here.

I walked down the sidewalk with confidence and grabbed the plain brass door handle. It was locked.

Of course.

I groaned. Alright, think Lea. Where would you stash a key so that you could get to it easily? Door mat was too obvious. Honestly, the whole door is a bit obvious. Where else would you try to go in?

A window.

I slowly walked around the side towards the only window on the first floor and lifted. It opened without any issue, and I climbed inside. As I stood up to full height, the world around me shifted to a black, empty void. I briefly worried I had gotten it wrong until a single spotlight shone down from on high on a single, wooden door. I took a step forward and the window behind me faded into the abyss.

I wrapped my hand around the door, opened it up, and frowned. The only thing that greeted me was more blank space. I leaned forward, and sighed as I remained exactly where I was.

I thought for sure this was it. I could feel the heat from the oven on my skin, for crying out loud.

Maybe it was the other window... No, that seemed wrong. Instinct had brought me this far. I knew my own mind. I might not remember how I hid my mental palace, but I knew it had to be on the other side of this-

“Wait a minute.” I pulled the door closed, a small smile forming on my face. “Clever girl.”

I walked around the door, grabbed the door handle, and pushed. My bakery, fully formed and looking better than ever, greeted me on the other side. Not sure how that was, considering all the shit I’ve been put through, but I’ll take it.

“Hallelujah.” My voice was dry and deadpan as I walked inside. Holy fuck that was convoluted. The wall was completely unnecessary, nobody but me would be able to find this place. Damn.

Nope, brain still hated the idea. Not as much, though. The dread felt subdued. Almost manageable.

Progress. Yay.

I froze as I heard it. This was my mind. Sealed up tighter than a pressure cooker and hidden behind about twenty different illusions. Most of which I didn’t even know what they were!

I should be alone here. Completely and utterly.

So why is it that I heard sniffling?

“H-hello?” My heart leapt up into my throat as I heard a very familiar voice, sounding out into the Aether. One that I had gotten used to all my life.

It was mine.