Virah woke up to silence for once.

She sat upright and looked around their tent, a bit of light broke past the thin plastic walls, illuminating the interior just enough to let her know that it was nearing the end of dawn.

Whitney and Grene were still asleep while their Pokemon were...

... Gone. Huh.

She got up from her sleeping bag and walked out of their tent, the early morning air breezed past her, the cold startling her awake and causing goosebumps to grow on her skin.

She rubbed her forearms and exhaled a shaky, misty breath.

Stepping out, she scanned their camp for any signs of their Pokemon and saw Hollie chopping berries with a focused expression on the side.

Hollie was so focused that the Machop didn't even notice her as she approached.

"Good morning Hollie," Virah waved to the Fighting Type as Hollie looked up at her, the Machop smiled before continuing with her task. Virah sat next to her, "so... you guys went out to hunt again?"

"Machop!" Hollie nodded energetically, "Ma- Machop!"

Virah sat down in front of Hollie and curled her knees together, she turned her gaze to the skies.

"Thank you," she said softly, "I... I didn't know what I- actually, yeah- thank you guys."

"Machop." Hollie placed her hand on top of Virah's, "Machop."

Virah smiled, "I know," she sniffed, "I know you guys are only doing your part of the bond but I really don't know what me and my friends would have done yesterday if all of you weren't here to help us out,"

"Machop." Hollie replied, "Machop."

Virah giggled, "yeah, I guess." Her tone went a tad lower, and she adopted a serious expression, "but I think that it's normal for criminals like Team Rocket to mistreat their Pokemon the way that guy did."

"Machop." Hollie shot her a dry stare.

Virah chuckled, "I guess? But I don't think you should feel thankful for us for being kind to you since that's the bare minimum that should be expected from our bond."

Hollie nodded, "Ma- Machop."

"Right?!" Virah giggled, "we Pokemon and trainers are partners and we shouldn't abuse our relationship, we shouldn't ask for more than what each of us could provide,"

"Machop." Hollie gave her a serious look and nodded, "Machop, Ma- Machop."

"Mhmm." Virah hummed, "bonds will last forever and that sort of thing should be treasured with that kind of mindset, trainers and pokemon should act with the expectation it will be remembered by each other for years to come,"

"Ma- Machop." Hollie replied.

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"Yeah... I guess." Virah turned towards Nitro, "but that's only for certain Pokemon, and... well, a difference in our lifespan is only expected but I'm sure that it can be extended, it happened before and it'll happen again,"

Hollie went silent and Virah turned away from her Beedrill in favor of looking up to the skies again. The light blue hue of the early morning was calming to look at- in most circumstances at least.

Right now though, Virah felt nothing but an aching melancholy as she chewed over Hollie's words.

She's always known that she would outlive Nitro, that's just obvious, because even the oldest Bug Types that belonged to the strongest veterans die a few years before their trainers.

She liked to think that she's already accepted that kind of inevitability, that at some point, she would accept the fact that Nitro is going to die of old age, and that, at some point, she and her team would move on from being amazing trainers and battlers and...

Fall off.

They would reach their prime, fall off, and then retire on some land somewhere to live the rest of their days peacefully.

Maybe she could even become a professional breeder or move tutor or something other than a trainer during that time.

That day would come, and she knew that all it would take for it to arrive is a single blink.

One day she would wake up and realize the present for what it is, that all of her past experiences, all of... this would be nothing more than a memory and that her future will hold nothing but nostalgia and a longing for the past.

That one day, she would become someone weaker. Lesser than what she once was.

And she really liked to think that she's already accepted that inevitability, that she would face that eventual reality in stride and calmness, and stoicism but she knew deep down that she hasn't.

And that the only reason why she feels this way now is because she knows she still has decades before she gets to that point.

Virah looked down and found herself staring at her hand, it wasn't wrinkled, her skin was still smooth, and she was still young. A kid.

And that's weird because she didn't know if kids normally had these sorts of thoughts.

Sure, she was only a foot away before "officially" reaching the heights of adults but she was still only 10 years old and her physical features don't matter at the face of that.

"Machop."

Virah broke out of her stupor and touched her cheeks, her fingers trailed down to her lips, "I'm frowning huh?" She smiled at Hollie, "sorry I was just thinking of something,"

She shook her head and stood up, she turned towards her Pokemon, "Nitro, Jet, we're continuing what we were doing last night,"

Her Pokemon responded by calling out their names energetically. Jet suddenly dropped from the branch he was hanging on while Nitro buzzed away from the ground, both of them quickly made their way towards her.

Virah smiled at them as they neared, "we're going to train, come on."

She took her Pokemon to the grove she meditated in and once there, she picked up a rock and threw it to the skies, "split it in half Nitro,"

"BEEDRILL!" Her Pokemon moved far too quickly for her eyes to track him and he turned into a yellow blur that sped through more than half the clearing in a few seconds.

A sharp crack echoed out and when Nitro became visible again, he had a rock that was cleanly split in half on the ground beneath him.

Virah went near and picked up both pieces, she hummed as she inspected it. Moments later, she tossed them away and nodded towards Nitro, "your Sniper ability is becoming pretty handy huh?"

"Beedrill." Nitro returned her nod.

Virah smiled and went on to grab several rocks, hoarding and stacking them near the edge of the clearing.

"Okay," she stood calmly next to the small mountain that she had built.

Bending down, she grabbed one of the pebbles and started throwing it up and down her hand, "Nitro, I'm going to start throwing as many as I could and I want you to break them all like you did to the last one alright?"

Her Beedrill slowly nodded and asked, "Beedrill?"

"Ah- well the most I'll be throwing only goes up to 10 or so, which means that you'll need to use Fury Attack if you want to break all of them," Virah replied.

She thought that this was the best way for her Pokemon to learn how to be precise when he uses the rather chaotic move he had learned after his evolution and with Nitro's progress so far, she knew that this exercise was the right one.

When her Beedrill nodded, Virah returned the gesture and his training officially started.

She threw around 4 rocks at the start, which her Pokemon had no trouble breaking and the number of rocks after that- 5 - also proved to be too easy for the Beedrill.

She slowly went up in number as the rounds went on and by the time she reached eight rocks per throw, she started spreading her throw, putting distance between each projectile to give Nitro some challenge.

And, as it turns out, that had been the right call because her Beedrill started to struggle once she started doing it.

The exercise went on, with Nitro eventually going all out and using Fury Attack just to make sure that all of the rocks were split apart.

Not cleanly, mind you, but that was why they were doing this- to get him used to relying on his Sniper ability to make sure that his strikes always landed on his opponent's vital areas.

When the rocks by Virah's side ran out, her Beedrill looked visibly worn and was barely hovering off of the ground.

"Good job Nitro!" Virah commended as she neared her Pokemon, she tossed an oran berry shake his way and her Beedrill caught it with both his drills to secure a grip, "how about you go take a break while I clean this place up huh?"

When Nitro left, Virah looked down on the rocks surrounding her, she put on a strained smile, "welp,"

She cleared the field and when she was done, called Jet and Nitro over, "okay so here's what you're going to do, Nitro, I want you to hover in place and buzz your wings as quickly as you could, I want you to exercise the muscle that moves them,"

"Beedrill." Her Pokemon found a spot and did as told.

When Nitro started producing a buzzing sound loud enough to strain Virah's ear, the poison specialist grabbed a bunch of berries from her bag and started throwing them on the ground around him.

Virah looked up to where Jet flew in circles above them, "Jet, grab all of the berries, use your sense of smell and hearing to locate them,"

She moved away as Jet started his training and Nitro continued with his exercise.

'Precision training for Jet and exercising Nitro's wings,' Virah nodded at herself in pride as she watched her Pokemon work tirelessly.