Ferris announced he was taking the bed the moment they walked into the dingy ass room. The room somehow had more decoration than their rooms in the Rocket base, although it was still minimalistic at best. Faded paintings that were obviously printed; flowers or of grandstanding pokémon. They drew Claire's eyes, but the quality of the works eventually diverted her attention.

Dull Guy left them to their lonesome when he got the rooms and the keys for them.

Claire would have laughed at the situation because they did look pretty goofy sitting there in their Team Rocket uniforms waiting for him. She imagined they didn't really look like they belonged in them, for one. Claire's pants were rolled up to avoid getting them dirty. They were children dressed up in uniforms they didn't really earn.

Claire sighed in relief when Dull Guy saved them before they could get questioned by the kids playing outside slowly drifting over.

Thirty minutes later they were all settled with their backpacks and pokemon out cramped in their one-bed room. They were eating some type of chicken or bird faux meat because Claire was seventy percent sure chickens didn't exist in this world. The chicken was baked with a side of pasta, Claire didn't know the name of. It had a citrusy but absolutely unfamiliar taste. Must be a berry or something.

"All they got on are reruns and old battles on this TV. It's older than someone's dumbfuck grandma." Ferris said. Boredom was evident on his face as he strolled through the same three channels.

"What are you even saying?" Hill snapped.

"What battles do they have?" Claire asked, attempting to derail the conversation before it blew up.

"Just some of Lance's battles we've all seen a million times." Claire was curious, to be honest, but she didn't really want to ask Ferris to change it back to the battle when he settled on the action movie.

So instead, she just listened to Samuel and Ferris argue about the plot of the movie as they all ate together. Even though it was unpleasant on a basic level, hearing them bicker was also comforting in some way. Even Hill's judgemental stare at them all wasn't wholly terrible.

She started to think about that more and tuned the others out. Toto was asleep so she hugged him to her chest as she thought. Looking at the black skin around his eyes.

Claire had grown so alone in that training base. She had just started to realize how alone, the longer she had left. Totodile had kept her from being completely alone, but he couldn't speak to her in a language she completely understood. Claire was a social creature, and Ethan had been as well.

That was another thing. In the span of being away from the base, despite still being in a forced situation, she now had time to think about Ethan. Who he was and who she was compared to that.

Of how much she had pushed him down and still had acted like him anyway. She realized with dread that she had pushed every part of him down to only bring him out as a defense.

She reverted into a shy, behaving child in the face of terror. Fearing punishment and pain, she had silenced herself. Pulled in every aspect of herself until a superficial version of what Ethan used to be appeared.

A stammering, insecure child trying to act more mature than they were. Maybe that was what Claire was at her center, and that was why she was chosen to be placed into Ethan's body. In the constant training she had endured the past few weeks, she had little time or energy to think of herself as something outside Ethan. In being indoctrinated into Team Rocket, Claire had shut down and unconsciously forced herself to not think of herself and Ethan as two separate entities.

For functionality's sake, she didn't have the liberty to. Or maybe she was just trying to come up with excuses for how weak she had been in the past few months.

She had always been a child fearing punishment. Looking behind her back and expecting the worst. Claire had never escaped that mindset, which she had accepted after a lot of contemplating Before.

Maybe she was always going to be like this, and it had little to do with reverting to Ethan-like behaviors. Now Claire seemed to have two hurt inner children inside her reaching up and up.

The rest of the movie played out while she ruminated on her thoughts. Samuel threw all their plates away and the sun had gone down. Ferris claimed the bed but he was eventually bullied to allow Claire to sleep there as well by both Samuel and Hill. Ferris built a pillow barrier out of their extra pillows.

It kind of felt like a normal sleepover if Claire closed her eyes.

...

Claire's dreams were full of running in a blizzard. Of running circles in the cold. Lost forever, turning and twisting.

She was running from some apex predator that wasn't there.

At this point in her existence in Ethan's body, she had grown so used to the nightmares that even though they woke her up and unsettled her, she could handle them. But fuck, if she wasn't tired.

Tired of dreaming about Toto being pummeled into the ground and separated from her. Tired of thinking about everything she had left behind.

Did anyone miss her... from Before? Her siblings? Claire didn't really want to think about it.

She looked at the other three teenagers sleeping around her. Samuel was cuddled up to Garnish, who had glowing eyes on her in the dark. She looked at Hill and saw the girl's mareep staring at her, too.

She looked at their levels, 13 and 14 respectively, and remarked on how even though the numbers glowed they cast no light. She had noticed it in the dark with Toto all those nights, but never had she truly thought about it in depth. It was one of those things that she had just accepted existed now.

When Claire saw the numbers glowing above pokémon, she tried to ignore it more often than not. For one, it didn't even make sense. Levels in a world like this were impractical and just absurd. Two, she had no idea what they were even trying to portray. Strength or levels like in the games? The scaling she had seen so far had not made sense besides the 'higher equals stronger' narrative.

Did it signal evolution? Claire was pretty sure she was hallucinating the numbers entirely. Overall it just gave her a headache and made her feel like an idiot for thinking about it. She coughed softly as she caught a waft of fumes.

Man, this motel room really did smell like mold.

Claire had a sudden urge to get fresh air. Getting out of bed without disturbing the others was a bit ridiculous to fear, but it was agonizingly slow. Hill's mareep glared at her the whole time as if promising a thundery death if she messed up and woke up her partner.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

So yeah, Claire had a lot of motivation to not wake her roommates behind being a courteous being.

By the time Claire closed the door as quietly as possible and looked up at the stars evident from the lack of light pollution, she wondered if the effort was even worth it.

Then she noticed the man sitting by the moving truck. She was about to retreat back into the limited safety of their room, but he saw her first.

"Gold..." She heard him trail off. "Come over here."

So she did.

Dull Guy was sitting there, half curled and half splayed out. For some reason, Claire could almost imagine this scene in her old world. However, wherever they were, instead of it being a motel with cigarette butts and empty bottles with the accent of random trash in some random parking lot, it was a cleaner version of the same thing with goofy posters plastered all over the walls.

But this place looked far more rural and clean than what she thought. There were little signs that made her feel like an imposter. Like the snoozing weedles still in the yard barely visible in the moonlight, and the grown man in front of her with a Team Rocket pajama set on.

"Wanna bum one?" He asked slowly. He held out a cigarette with a wave of his hand. Man, who the fuck offers a kid a cigarette?

"I've never smoked before." Which wasn't a complete lie. Claire had smoked, mainly for social reasons, but Ethan had never smoked before in his life. Which was a good thing. Claire was a loser for giving in to peer pressure and all that jazz. Jazz, fuck. Claire missed jazz. Was there anything close to it in Johto, or hell, the pokemon world?

Dull Guy raised his eyebrows and shook the cig in between his fingers. Claire contemplated whether or not she should take it. A few hours ago, she had been iced by this guy. His aura, or whatever the fuck that was, made her feel like death.

Being on his good side was the best situation for her.

"Okay, sure," Claire said, though the last thing she wanted to do was do drugs in any other circumstance, even recreational. However, the chill of her nightmares coaxed her to seek companionship and act stupidly, even with the guy who caused them.

The cigarette was awkward in her hand, but she did her best to hide that fact. Dull Guy laughed.

"Fuck, here, let me help you." He dug into his pocket and brought out his lighter, holding it up like a trophy. "Come on now, hold your hand out."

Claire felt as if she was being toyed with to some degree. She held her hand out, and Dull Guy wasted no time to light up the cigarette. The scene she had been trying to ignore hit her like a truck, and now she was stuck with it. Trading the smell of mold for shitty cigarettes made Claire feel even more stupid for coming outside at all.

The silence of the night hung around them. Dull Guy took another drag of his cigarette and faced away from her.

"You don't really have to smoke if you don't want to." The man said in front of her. His face was illuminated only by the moon and the cigarette in his mouth.

Instead of answering, Claire put the cigarette in her mouth and breathed in shallowly. It burned the back of her throat, and she probably did it all wrong because she had the urge to cough. Pure stubbornness prevented her from doing it, however. She did have to clear her throat after a few more seconds of the sensation.

Then, the rush hit her. Her body, Ethan's body, was underweight, and even though he had eaten a few hours before, it hit her stronger than it had in the previous life. The taste was not appealing, but when she breathed it again, the taste settled into something easier to handle.

It was comforting. The taste and feeling started to remind her of how Ethan's old bed felt before she was forced to leave and their mother died.

"You like it?" Dull Guy chuckled quietly. He ruffled her hair but Claire wasn't even bothered by it.

"Yeah," Claire admitted. Her body was relaxed more than it had been for days, even months.

"I was about your age when I started smoking cigarettes." He chuckled again. "Not good for you, so don't keep it up."

They smoked in silence after that, with Claire breathing in the cigarette smoke and closing her eyes at the sensation. It was almost easy to forget where she was.

Suddenly, a warm hand gripped her shoulder. Claire blinked over, and Dull Guy was watching her with a slow drag of his cigarette.

"Take the box," he said and threw the box at her before turning away again. Claire caught it with fumbling hands. "I'm not giving you my lighter though; tough luck."m

Claire fiddled with the box of cigarettes. She should've handed them back, or maybe she should have just left them in the parking lot of that shitty motel.

But she took it anyway.

...

If there was one blessing of being in such a young body, Claire thought, it was that it was easy to fall asleep. Of course, because she was unlucky, she had nightmares most of the time. But right now? She practically slept the rest of the way to Eggseter. After smoking her first cigarette, she slept like a baby the night before.

If Claire ever had to ride in that moving truck again, she would have rather have been drugged the entire time.

...

They were being assigned to a farm. A farm. There were rolling hills dotted with trees, and the horizon was crowned by a nearby mountain range if you looked through the bush the right way. It was pretty and something Claire hadn't seen before. Before she was used to wet forests and dense foliage. Even the air felt different from how Cherrgrove had been.

Miltanks strolled through the hillside fenced-in, and some of them had looked at them before getting bored.

"Put your pokémon up before she sees them." Dull Guy said, putting his cigarette out under his boot. They all rushed to do what he said and then sat for a couple more minutes in silence.

"Oh, the parasites have arrived." A loud voice announced, breaking through their stupor with bruteness. They all turned to see a woman with long dark green hair, which was crazy in hindsight, staring down at them like insects from the top of the barn. She had on overalls, almost like Dull Guy and his pink shirt, but she looked far more serious than he ever could. If anything, she looked muscular enough to break all of them in half without even trying to.

"Hi Hat," Dull Guy said, and Claire had to keep her serious from hearing that the woman's name was fucking Hat.

Then the woman jumped down from the top of the fucking barn like it was nothing. This was impressive because the barn stood at least two stories high and it was a dark blue that swallowed the air around it. She and Samuel shared a shocked look as Dull Guy walked towards her with his arms open wide.

"So, who did you bring me this time? The last chumps I got didn't last a month." She rubbed her face and spit out something nasty, probably chewing tobacco, and then looked over them. Her face looked wearied, and she had a heavy scar on her face settling in like brick.

"You brought me kids?" she said while she squinted her eyes at them. "Fuck me, I guess."

"Come on now, be nice." Dull Guy said, leaning forward with no expression on his face. "Besides, I need to talk to you before I leave."

"I don't really care if you need to talk to me. I told Arianna I need real trainers, not some dumbfuck kids who probably don't have one badge. Fuck, this one is a baby."

Hat stomped forward until she was in front of Claire and poked her in the forehead hard enough for her to lean back. Holy shit, this lady was going to knock her head off.

"Basically fresh from the fucking womb, what the hell Prince?" The woman said, and she was intimidating enough that Claire really didn't want to be standing in front of her.

The woman studied her, then looked annoyed at... wait did she say Dull Guy's name was Prince?

"As I said, I need to talk to you about something. Let's show the newbies where they will be sleeping, yeah? Stop being such a whiny bitch." Prince said, then he plastered the fakest smile Claire had ever seen in her entire life on his face. The air seemed to chill around them, but Claire was tempted to think she was imagining it.

"Arcues... you are one fake fuck." Hat said, and then she seemed to give in to his higher authority. "Come on dumbfucks."

Then she left them all to stand there, with Prince, who pulled out another cigarette.

"What are you guys waiting for? Follow her."

Claire knew that the guy probably didn't give a shit about them, but she truly could not believe that the guy who was nice to her only a few hours ago was leaving them with someone who seemed as crazy as this chick was.

"She jumped off a roof," Claire said and Prince raised his eyebrows.

"And?" Well, Claire already felt stupid for talking anyway, so she didn't answer. Eventually, Samuel patted her on the back in sympathy or whatever, and they were on their way.

The path was just dirt decorated with small rocks placed there deliberately to designate a walkway. The house they walked up to was big, but not big enough to seem grand or large.

It was similar to a log cabin, but it obviously was built by professional builders and not by one person. Plants were decorating the front in various bushes and flowers, which was different from the brash exterior the woman presented. Nestled in her garden were small statures of pokémon. There was a stable right next to the cabin with multiple ponytas inside; their flames were visible even from how far away they were.

For such an abrasive woman, at least at first impression, her house looked... well nice. It looked nice.

It was just that this place looked lived in like someone cared about it. Comfortability and... Claire could not imagine this being the secret Rocket hideout it was because it looked normal. Like Lyra's parent's house. Hat was talking to them but Claire was too busy listening to the song playing on the radio. A woman's voice was shining like a diamond through the air: soft and airy.

Eventually, Hill yanked on her sleeve hard enough for her to pay attention. Then they were led through a short hallway and shown into a room. It was as big as the living room and looked like a storage unit. Now, however, it was fit with two bunk beds and a bed in the corner. It was decorated with posters on the walls and plants in every crevice. There was a little mat in between the bunk beds for... pokemon? It had to be, and the bedding on the beds looked soft. These were actual blankets and not cheap versions of them.

Like real comforters.

This room was nicer than her room at the orphanage and both of the bases they had been assigned to combined.

"This is where you will be staying. I don't really give a shit how you designate what beds go to who. Just do so without fighting." They all nodded their heads like the little guppies they were. Claire was enraptured by how soft the blanket was and brushed her hand across it.

"And you guys," Hat said further. "I know I roomed all of you together, but no touchy stuff. If I catch you guys getting handsy with each other, I will feed you to my cows." That...

Claire was grossed out by the implications, and the others looked the same.

As soon as the weathered woman turned their back, they all made disgusted faces to each other.

"I would rather die," Ferris said as soon as Hat left the room.

...

They were all sent back outside to say goodbye to Prince when the adults finished their chat. They had spent so long discussing their plans that Claire had been able to explore the whole room. There were boxes of stuff you expected in houses under the beds. Knick-knacks and cleaning supplies.

"'I'll give you guys some pointers. Hat is a bitch, so don't piss her off. Don't get eaten by wild pokémon, and most importantly: don't be fucking idiots." He clicked his tongue, saluted them, and hopped into the car without a care.

Then he drove away and left them to their new fates.

"So... you kids ready to shovel the stables?" The tall women across from them laughed loudly. "Let me work you midgets a little... then I'll show you around. Like little lilipups." Then she laughed louder and motioned them to follow her to the stables.

Claire has never met a normal Team Rocket member, they all are some kind of crazy.