"Step! Right lunge punch!"

In unison, Hayley and Barrett stepped forward and thrust their hands into a punch. Okay, next step—

"Step! Left lunge punch!"

Calling out the instructions was more for Hayley's benefit than Barrett's. She remembered better when she said them out loud. Barrett had already committed all of the katas they'd learned to memory.

"Step! Right lunge punch! Kiai!"

It was the evening before Hayley's gym battle, and she was naturally a bundle of nerves. It wasn't nearly as bad as it had been the night before Roxanne—her type matchup was better, and she'd gotten plenty of practice against the Pokémon she knew she would be facing. But the question remained: could she do it? And if she couldn't, what would happen?

"Left, nine o'clock, back! Knife block left!"

As she saw it, the fallout from losing would be this: Barrett would be pissed, and he might resent her, though hopefully not as badly as after their first loss against Roxanne. They'd both grown a lot since then. Sen would lose respect for her and might decide not to join her team. And she'd have to choose between waiting a week to challenge Brawly again or cutting her losses and returning to Connie as a one-badge trainer. Waiting another week would push them up against their three-month mark, the point at which the official partnerships ended and everyone was free to travel with whoever they wanted. So Miriam and Chad and Howie and Kei and Melinda would leave Dewford, just like Caleb already had, and Hayley would be alone—

"Right, nine o'clock, back! Knife block right!"

Physical activity helped calm her down. She couldn't spiral into her own anxiety when she was focused on punches and blocks. She already knew where this train of thought ended, and it ended in the absolute worst-case scenario, with her winding up in Corbin's place.

"Right, four-thirty, back! Knife block right!"

It wouldn't happen. Her Pokémon weren't Taillow, and Brawly wasn't Jin. And Miriam had won against Brawly yesterday without any casualties. Her strategy had been cheap and brutal and carried entirely by Yuna, but a win was a win. She'd opened the battle by having Yuna lay a stealth rock—the TM she'd picked from Roxanne—turning the sandy arena into a minefield. Then Yuna had completely sapped Brawly's Machop's will to fight with fake tears and sweet scent, grabbed it in her jaw, and slammed it into the sand and the stealth rocks over and over until it fainted. Then, she'd used her switch to send in Xena against Makuhita in a sacrificial play. The Elekid's job had been to tank hits while firing off her electricity nonstop, and by the time she finally went down, the Makuhita was so fried it could barely move. It was an easy target for Yuna to come and finish off with fairy winds and bites.

"Left, three o'clock back! Knife block left!"

Hayley couldn't run a strategy like that. She'd considered having Barrett fight Brawly's Machop, then withdrawing him, having Ceres soften up and exhaust his Makuhita, and then sending in Barrett again to clean up. But Barrett would never let himself be recalled from a fight, and wouldn't stand for the implication that he couldn't beat the Makuhita on his own. Hayley was going to have to do this the hard way, just like she'd done against Roxanne.

"Ready stance! Finish!" Hayley held still in the final stance for several seconds, then dipped her head in a bow to the air and let her arms slump to her sides. They'd been running katas for almost an hour, and she was exhausted. Barrett, though, was full of vigor and ready to keep going. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye and snorted.

"I've got a bigger body than you," she said. "It takes more energy to move around." That was her excuse, anyway. The real truth was that Barrett was simply growing stronger than her. Part of her was afraid to think of what he might do when he found that out.

From the sidelines, Sen watched them, face stoic as ever. Ceres was at his side, as she usually was. Barrett met Sen's eyes and growled, but Hayley held up a hand. "No fighting tonight, remember? We've got a gym battle tomorrow. And if you win, I'll let the two of you fight as hard as you want—fires and force palms and whatever else you can throw at each other." Barrett huffed and crossed his arms. Sen didn't move, didn't even blink.

Letting them turn their spars into a no-holds-barred battle could backfire, badly. But Sen still wasn't getting better. He was still collecting new injuries. And he still hadn't agreed to join her. What she was doing now clearly wasn't working, and this was the only other thing she could think of. In a couple days, she would be leaving Dewford, whether or not she had a badge, whether or not she had Sen. She could only cross her fingers and hope that things would go her way.

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

The next morning, Hayley woke up to find the cabin door ajar and Ceres missing. Panic leapt into her chest and throat, choking her, as she dashed blindly back and forth from the bathroom to the door. The bathroom—shower empty, water dripping on an abandoned towel, Barrett still asleep in a corner beside it. The door—undamaged, open, nobody in sight. The bathroom—still no Ceres. The door—still open. The bathroom—

After several circuits, Hayley found her voice and croaked out, "Miriam!" There was no response from the top bunk. Hayley clambered onto the edge of the bottom bunk, pulled herself up by the railings, and shook Miriam's shoulder. "Miriam! Wake up!"

Miriam grumbled, rolled onto her back, and squinted one eye open. "Whu…?"

"I can't find Ceres! I think someone took her!" Hayley was shouting now. Miriam winced and began patting around on the mattress for her glasses. Dammit, they didn't have time for this! Hayley jumped off the bed, dodged the piles of junk on the floor, and ran back into the bathroom. Barrett, woken by her yelling, was just starting to stir. "Barrett, I can't find Ceres. Did someone come in here last night? Did you hear anything?"

Barrett squinted at her the same way Miriam had, then turned groggily to examine the empty shower. Back in the other room, Hayley heard the thumps and rattles of Miriam climbing down the bed.

"You think someone took her?" Miriam asked, sluggishly and not at all as frantic as she ought to be in this situation. Why was Hayley the only one capable of functioning before eight o'clock? She let out a half-groan, half-whine and pivoted to face Miriam again as Barrett pulled himself slowly off his mat.

"Someone had to have taken her! She's gone!"

"Yeah." Miriam rubbed her eyes behind her glasses. "But that's dumb. Who'd break into a room just to steal a Slowpoke?"

"Maybe they wanted to take her to sell her tails." Hayley's heart hammered in her throat as she imagined Ceres in a dark cage exactly like the one they'd found her in. "Maybe that guy from Rustboro tracked us down, and—"

"And took her without taking Barrett? He'd get way more money selling a Magby than he would selling Slowpoke tails."

Hayley whimpered again, turned back to Barrett, and crouched down to look him in the eye. "Barrett. This is important. Did you hear anything weird last night? Or see anything? Anything at all?" Barrett, still staring at the empty shower, gave a one-shouldered shrug. This was bad. How had someone broken in without any of them hearing anything? Had they used a teleporter? But then why would they have left through the door? If they did have a teleporter, they could be anywhere in Hoenn by now, or maybe even—

"Hayley." Hayley shot up and raced out of the bathroom. Miriam was staring out of the open door, and Hayley joined her. But she didn't see anything.

"What is it?" she asked, pleading. In response, Miriam pointed down towards the wooden boards that formed a path over the sand.

"Down there."

Hayley's brain raced as she tried to figure out what Miriam was looking at. Then, all at once, she saw it. The ever-present scattering of sand across the boards had been swept clean in a one-foot-wide trail. A Ceres-sized trail. Hayley's mind boggled.

"You think…"

"I don't know. Let's follow it." The two of them laced up their boots, not bothering to change out of their pajamas. Miriam grabbed her two Pokéballs, and Hayley beckoned for Barrett to follow them as they bolted out the door.

They followed the path as it ambled towards the outskirts of town—towards the beach—and as they turned a corner, they finally saw her. Ceres was sitting on her hindquarters next to a planter full of rawst berry bushes. Hayley began to run towards her, but Miriam grabbed her arm.

"Wait. What's she doing?"

Ceres was staring at the rawst bushes like they held the secrets to the universe. Her eyes were so squinted in concentration that they were almost shut. Seconds ticked by with nothing happening—and then, finally, one of the berries wobbled and pulled free of the bush.

"That's… that's confusion," Hayley gasped. "When did she learn to do that?" The first berry plopped onto the ground in front of Ceres, and moments later, a second one followed it. Ceres picked both of the berries up in her mouth—gently, holding them between her teeth—and began walking once more, carrying her prize towards the beach. Hayley and Miriam exchanged a wordless glance, then resumed following her at a distance.

At this point, Hayley had an inkling of what might be happening, and she was proven right when Ceres plodded across the dunes to reach one particular spot—the spot where Sen always sat and watched them train. Sen was on his feet, eyes closed, one leg in front of the other and arms extended to the side. Concentration radiated off of him, to a degree that Hayley felt she was intruding just by watching, but Ceres wasn't bothered. She walked right up to him, dropped the berries on the sand, and let out a loud bellow.

Sen cracked one eye open and frowned. It was a level of emotion Hayley rarely saw cross his face. Still, Ceres was undeterred, and she nudged him in the side with a friendly headbutt. Sen dropped his yoga pose to stand normally and cross his arms, and Ceres gave a pleased rumble. She squinted her eyes just as she had in front of the planter, and after several seconds, one of the rawst berries lifted off the sand, floated in front of Sen, and bopped him in the face. Sen's frown deepened and he swatted at the berry, but Ceres floated it back to poke him again and again.

She was trying to get him to eat. She must have remembered what Hayley had said to her, about how she was worried—had she been planning this? Working on it in secret? When had she found time to practice her confusion technique? Had Sen somehow taught her, during their long periods of silence sitting next to each other, or had she figured it out from watching him telekinetically toss Barrett during their spars?

And as amazed as she was that Ceres had pulled all of this off, it was nothing compared to the bewilderment that shot through her when Sen finally, begrudgingly, took the berry and began to eat. It was almost impossible to convince a Meditite to change its diet; even the best trainers struggled with it. Somehow, Ceres had managed to accomplish what Hayley had been trying and failing to do over the past three weeks. She'd gotten through to him. She'd made him listen, and understand, and adjust.

"Guess she's psychic after all," Miriam muttered from beside Hayley. "Think you can use that against Brawly?"

Hayley gave a small half-laugh. In all the excitement of this morning, she'd completely forgotten that she had a badge match coming up in a few hours. "Probably not. But hopefully, we won't need to."

Ceres and Sen slowly ate their respective berries, and despite the way Hayley knew Ceres could gobble down rawst berries, she matched her pace to Sen, taking slow, dainty bites. When they were both finished, Sen gave Ceres a look that Hayley was sure meant "I did what you wanted, now go away and let me finish training." Ceres rumbled again, got to her feet, and turned back in the direction she came from. When she spotted Hayley, she bellowed and picked up her pace, coming to greet her with a headbutt in the legs. Hayley, grinning so wide it felt like her face would break, knelt down and stroked her head.

"You scared me, Ceres! I thought someone came and took you!" Ceres stared up at her and blinked, uncomprehending, but hummed an apology anyway. Hayley laughed. "It's okay, I'm not mad at you. But just warn me before you do something like that again, okay? Wake me up, let me know where you're going." Ceres rumbled in agreement, and Hayley, heart full of joy, gave her a spontaneous kiss on the forehead. "You learned confusion! And you made friends with Sen! I'm so proud of you! You're really growing, you know that?" Another hum. Hayley patted her on the head one more time, then stood up. "Let's get back to the dorm. I'm sure you want to rest after all that."

Sure enough, Ceres' eyes were already drooping. She'd probably be back to a hundred percent after a nap. If she wasn't, then it might impact her performance in the gym battle, but right now, Hayley couldn't bring herself to care. Whether or not they ended the day with a badge, today already felt like a victory.

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

"This is a second-tier gym challenge between Hayley Summers and Leader Brawly. The format will be a two on two single battle. The challenger is allowed one substitution. Standard League rules are in place."

Breathe in, breathe out. She could do this. Her fingers squeezed Ceres' Pokéball—she and Barrett had agreed to be recalled, just for a little bit, so that Hayley could use their balls to position them on the field. From across the arena, Brawly called to her.

"I've seen you hanging around my gym the past few weeks! Finally decided to take the plunge, huh?" Like everything else about his gym, Brawly's appearance and attitude was a lot less formal than Roxanne's. His sky-blue hair, pulled into a sloppy ponytail, showed brown roots and had the distinctively crunchy texture of having been dunked in seawater and left to air-dry. He wore an unbuttoned short-sleeve shirt, blazing orange, with nothing underneath it, and he completed the look with swim trunks and sandals. If Hayley hadn't known for a fact that he'd been battling all morning, she would have thought she'd interrupted him during a trip to the beach.

"I wasn't ready before. I'm ready now." Despite her nerves, her voice was steady. Brawly grinned and flashed her a thumbs-up, then nodded to the referee. The referee pushed a button on the remote she was holding, and the scoreboard on the sidelines blazed to life.

"Leader Brawly, send out your first Pokémon." With a flick of his wrist, Brawly tossed his Pokéball, and a Machop appeared near the center of the field. "Challenger, send out your first Pokémon."

Hayley threw Ceres' Pokéball as far as she could manage, and felt a surge of satisfaction when it hit the mark directly next to the Machop. Ceres materialized with a bellow, ready to fight. Brawly chuckled. "Taking us on in close quarters? Bold move." Hayley didn't answer. Her eyes were fixed on the scoreboard, where numbers and an image of crossed flags had appeared. After several interminable seconds, they began counting down.

3! 2! 1! Begin!

"Yawn!"

"Karate chop!"

The orders came at the same time. Ceres opened her mouth in a jaw-popping yawn just as the Machop brought down its hand in a knife-hand strike. It hit her directly between the eyes, but as with Nolan, Ceres didn't react. Her yawn completed as strong as ever, rippling the air and staggering the Machop. Good. "Yawn again—"

"Back up and bulk up!"

She couldn't let his Pokémon buff. "Cancel yawn! Use water bullet!"

"Push through!"

Water bullet was just a variation on water gun where Ceres fired the attack in a single glob, rather than in a continuous stream—an intermediate step as they worked their way towards water pulse. Ceres inhaled deeply while the Machop leapt back, planted its feet, and flexed its muscles, flooding its body with stimulants. Ceres rolled her head to the side and then snapped it forward again, launching a pressurized ball of water from her mouth. Following Brawly's orders, the Machop crossed its arms in front of it and took the hit. Another Pokémon might have been knocked over, but Brawly's Machop, having been trained in the rough surf around Dewford Island, simply grunted and took a step back. Still, Hayley saw an opportunity.

"Tackle and yawn!"

"Jū, sukui-nage!"

"Stop! Don't tackle, use water wave!" Perplexed but obedient, Ceres lumbered to a stop and opened her mouth again. Hayley didn't know what a sukui-nage was, but she knew that Jū was Brawly's reactive, counterattacking style—Brawly had been setting a trap.

Brawly laughed. "Gō, karate chop! You did your homework, grom." The Machop lunged forward and struck Ceres on the skull again. But not only had Hayley done her homework, she was setting a trap of her own. Water wave wasn't another variant of water gun—it was a codeword for yawn. And the Machop, expecting another water attack it could easily tank, ran right into it. Ceres gave the biggest yawn Hayley had ever seen, and the Machop slumped to the ground. Hayley's hands clamped into fists as she fought to keep her face steady. It was time for the next phase of the fight.

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"Body slam! Pin it!"

It was a risky, risky move, one that opened Ceres up to dozens of free counterattacks and might get her launched across the battlefield if things didn't go exactly right. But after countless battles with Chad and his Machop, this had been the only way they'd been able to eke out a win. Using all of the leg and core strength she'd built up over the past several weeks, Ceres reared back, lifting her entire front half off the ground, and came crashing down on the Machop. The Machop cried out and tried to struggle free, but another yawn from Ceres put it back into submission. Now, Hayley couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her face. "Great job! Now water gun, as long as you can!"

"Stay focused! Bridge and roll!"

Ceres blasted the Machop in the face with a jet of water, which unfortunately cancelled out the effects of the yawn, but now the Machop had a new problem to deal with. It visibly fought to draw in a breath, flailing its body as it thrashed its head from side to side. Victory was within their grasp—except, the wild bucking of its hips turned out to be not so random after all. After several seconds of struggle, it lifted Ceres' midsection into the air by just a couple inches, then hooked its arms around her front legs and knocked her over onto her back. In one move, it had reversed her advantage and left the most vulnerable part of her body exposed. The smile fell from Hayley's face.

"Roll back over! Stand up!"

"Thrust punch! Keep going!"

Ceres struggled to right herself, but was cut off when the Machop began raining punch after punch onto her stomach. She cried out—not because these blows were hurting her, but because she was starting to feel the pain from the first karate chop at the start of the match. Hayley bit her lip. "Curl up! Roll!"

By some miracle, Ceres managed to curl herself up like a Sandshrew and wobble away from the hail of punches. The Machop's fist hit the sand and it stumbled, which gave Ceres just enough of an opening. Without waiting for a command—or maybe it was just by accident—she swayed back into the Machop and knocked it onto the sand.

"Yes! Now headbutt it into the ground! Don't let it back up!"

Brawly called for his Machop to roll and escape, but for once, Ceres was faster. She smacked her skull into its ribs, eliciting a pained cry, then did it again, and again. The Machop fought back, landing strikes to her jaw and stomach, but she kept going. It was a knock-down, drag-out brawl, brutal to watch, and Hayley knew the only reason Ceres hadn't fallen was that she hadn't yet started to feel the blows. Finally, after the fourth headbutt, the Machop's arms went limp, and after the fifth, its whole body went still. A buzzer sounded, and the referee declared, "Brawly's Machop is unable to battle! Victory goes to the challenger!"

Brawly recalled his Machop with a flourish. The scoreboard flashed and updated, now showing 1-0 in Hayley's favor. And Ceres, belatedly, gave a moan of pain.

Hayley held up a hand. "I'm withdrawing Ceres. Ceres, come here." Ceres limped back towards Hayley, and Hayley's heart ached to see the condition she was in. Her eyes were crossed, her head drooped, and her belly dragged on the sand. Hayley knelt down and wrapped her in a hug, as gingerly as she could. "You did so well," she said. "I'm so proud of you." Ceres hummed and nuzzled her chest. "I'm withdrawing you now, okay? I'll bring you to the Pokémon Center, and we'll celebrate after you've had a chance to rest." Another hum. Hayley tapped her ball against her to recall her, then stood up again. Brawly was watching her with a curious expression.

"You ready to go for round two, grom? We don't have all day."

"I'm ready. Let's do this."

Round two was Barrett versus Brawly's Makuhita. Barrett scowled at the taller Pokémon as he materialized, blowing a plume of smoke. Despite the disadvantage his fire attacks would have in this matchup, thorough testing with Chad's Makuhita had brought Hayley to the conclusion that he was still the better pick. Ceres' water attacks simply bounced off a Makuhita's tough skin, and Makuhita were too bulky for her to knock over. The Makuhita would resist Barrett's flames, and both Barrett's fire and poison attacks would boost its attacking power, and it could overpower Barrett in a melee fight—but even with all that working against them, they had a chance. And that chance lay in whittling it down, one attack at a time.

Off to the side, the scoreboard began counting down again.

3! 2! 1! Begin!

"Focus energy!"

"Ring of fire!" Hayley had released Barrett one quarter-field away from the Makuhita, close enough that he could easily move into fire spin range but far enough that the Makuhita wouldn't be able to blink and hit him with fake out or bullet punch. Barrett ran forward as the Makuhita stood in open-eyed meditation, breathing in deeply and spinning up his flames. He thrust them forward and just barely managed to graze the Makuhita's legs before the Makuhita sprang back to life and hopped away. But Barrett's flames were still active. "Follow it!"

"Blow it away!"

As Barrett's flames swirled towards the Makuhita, it stuck out its chest and took in a deep breath. To Hayley's dismay, the resulting wind extinguished Barrett's flames as easily as if it was blowing out birthday candles. But—if she could get the Makuhita to do that again—

"Try again! Ring of fire!" Hayley was hoping it might whirlwind again, and then maybe Barrett could feint in and pull off a quick smog before it finished inhaling. No such luck.

"Wide guard." The Makuhita held out its palms, and a shimmering wall appeared in front of it, blocking the flames completely. Dammit, that negated basically all of the long-range attacks Barrett could use. They could try to keep going and hope the Makuhita ran out of stamina before Barrett did, but they couldn't afford to exhaust themselves before they even got the chance to deal real damage. Hayley exhaled slowly. No choice, then.

"Plan B. S-feint." Barrett's eyes gleamed, and once again, he raced across the sand. The Makuhita dropped its barrier and reached out to grab him, but Barrett vanished into smoke and reappeared behind it. Just as the Makuhita spun around, Barrett blew out a giant cloud of noxious smog. It wasn't as effective as it would have been if they'd managed to make it breathe it in deeply, but the Makuhita still lumbered back, rubbing at its eyes and nose. "More smog!" Barrett inhaled again.

"It's still in front of you! Tackle!"

"Move! Get behind it and ember!" The Makuhita lunged forward, and Barrett dropped to the sand and rolled—a trick he'd picked up from Xena. He popped up behind the Makuhita and spat a mouthful of embers into the back of its knees. Disabling the legs of any martial artist, Hayley had learned by now, was a quick path to victory. The Makuhita shouted, either in pain or in anger, and turned to hit Barrett, but leapt away and kept behind it.

"More embers—"

"Suso-harai!" The Makuhita spun around, faster this time, and knocked Barrett's legs out from under him. Barrett yelped and crashed onto the sand.

"Feint back!" Barrett disappeared just as the Makuhita's palm came down and re-emerged several feet back. The Makuhita stood up to follow him, but winced, collapsing onto one knee. The burns had gotten through. Hayley clenched her fists, knowing what came next. "Barrett. Fire shield, now."

The Makuhita's eyes snapped open, bloodshot both from the irritating smog and from sheer rage. Its muscles bulged and seemed to grow as hormones released and raced through its body. Pain from the burn forgotten, it lifted its fists, roared, and lurched toward Barrett.

Barrett was ready. As the Makuhita powered up, he was gathering a long spiral of flames around his body, and as the Makuhita came in with a straight-arm thrust, he coalesced them in front of him into a solid shield. The blow hit him square on the stomach and sent him tumbling across the sand, but his concentration didn't break; though the flames burst from his body and hovered in the air, they didn't disappear.

"Sand attack!" Brawly shouted. "Wipe him out!"

"Get back and regroup!"

The Makuhita, ignoring its newly burned hands, reached down to the area and scooped up two truly massive handfuls of sand. It ran forward, flung them into the air, then scooped up more sand, all without stopping. The sand glowed red and fell to the ground as embers as it punched holes in the curtain of flame. Half the flames were extinguished by the time Barrett had pulled them back to himself, and now the Makuhita was closing in and ready to snuff him out too.

"Keep away! You need more fire!"

"Work him over!"

Barrett ran, and the Makuhita followed. Barrett was faster, but the Makuhita's legs were longer, and Barrett struggled to put distance between them. The burns on the Makuhita's legs and feet cracked and bled as it ran, but it didn't seem to notice them at all. Its ability made the Makuhita like the opposite of Ceres, where the longer the battle went, the less pain it felt. It was terrifying. "Keep going!"

With one last burst of speed, Barrett pulled ahead. The Makuhita was still closing in, but now he had a few precious seconds, which he used to breathe out more flames—shaky, since he was panting for breath, but they were enough. He spiraled the old and new flames together, weaving them into a ball of fire that surrounded his body completely, and now, finally, it was time for their finisher.

"Flame wheel! Grab on!"

Barrett launched at the Makuhita, and the two of them collided. The Makuhita shouted a battle cry and shoved Barrett backwards, but Barrett latched onto its arm and held on tight. The Makuhita's rage momentarily dissipated as it looked at Barrett in shock, but it came back in full force as the flames surged and burned its skin.

Brawly smiled. "Tsuri-dashi!"

Hayley had expected the Makuhita to respond to the grapple by smashing Barrett into the ground, or by hitting him with its other hand, or possibly its head. Instead, it closed its free hand around Barrett's waist, lifted him higher into the air, and began running towards the edge of the arena. Hayley's eyes widened, as did Barrett's. They were trying for a ring-out.

"More flames! As hot as you can!"

"Keep going!"

Barrett briefly ignored Hayley to struggle and claw and the Makuhita's arms, the same way he did the few unfortunate times she'd had to pick him up. But his claws weren't strong enough for the Makuhita to even notice, and neither, apparently, were his flames. The Makuhita was racing closer and closer to the boundary lines. Hayley bit her lip. At last, Barrett realized his struggling wasn't working, and breathed another jet of flames directly into the Makuhita's chest. The Makuhita yelped as the pain of the attack finally broke through. It lost its footing, stumbled forward—but now it was rolling, still towards the edge of the battlefield, with Barrett in a submission hold. Three feet from the boundary line—two—one—

And then it stopped. For a moment, both the Makuhita and Barrett lay on the ground, motionless and wreathed in flames. Then, the flames faltered and disappeared, and Barrett wriggled out from under the Makuhita. He staggered as he got to his feet, but he didn't fall. The referee raised a hand, Brawly recalled his Makuhita, and the scoreboard lit up, declaring Hayley as the winner.

Hayley raced onto the arena, kicking up sand as she went. "Barrett! You did it!" Barrett looked up at her and huffed, as if to say of course he had. Hayley reached into her pocket and pulled out an aspear Pokéblock, which he took and burned with his last reserves of fire before chowing down.

"Congratulations, trainer." Brawly had come to meet her, and now he stood over her with one arm outstretched. "That was a peak battle! I like someone who's mad enough to fight me up close and personal."

"Thanks," Hayley said, not wanting to admit that if she'd had the option of keeping his Pokémon at a distance, she would have taken it in a heartbeat. She shook his hand, and felt something hard and pointed press against her palm. When she pulled back, she was holding the Knuckle Badge.

"How's it feel?" Brawly asked. "A lot of trainers never make it this far, you know."

"I know," Hayley said, and suddenly her mind was flooded with thoughts of Gavin, of Corbin, of Caleb, of Kei. Of Melinda saying "some people just aren't trainers." Hayley swallowed and looked up at Brawly again. "Um. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure thing," Brawly said, grinning.

"It's…" Hayley scratched the back of her neck. All of the anxiety she'd felt before the battle was flooding into her again, all at once. "You've been a gym leader for a while, right? And you fight a lot of new trainers. So I'm wondering, is there… a way you can tell, who's going to make it, and who won't?"

"Hmm." Brawly hooked his thumbs into the pockets of his swim trunks. "Hard to say. Even the smallest swells can grow into crashing waves—"

"But that's oceans. Not people." She startled herself with her own rudeness, but she'd asked a real question, and she wanted a real answer—not platitudes. "I actually want to know. When you're fighting someone, is there something that tells you whether they're going to wash out or not? And if there is, does that feeling usually end up being right?"

Brawly studied her for a long moment, smile still on his face. Then, infuriatingly, he reached out and patted her on the head. In that moment, Hayley understood exactly why Barrett hated when she bent down to touch him. Her face flushed about ten different colors, but before she could sputter out a protest, Brawly drew back again, leaned back on his heels, and said, "You want to know if you're going to be a champion, or if you're wasting your time. I can't tell you that, grom. But I can tell you that you've got guts, and you're stubborn as anything. Keep that stubbornness with you wherever you go, and it'll point you in the right direction."

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Stubbornness. Brawly's words rang in her ears all the way into the next day, all the way down to the beach, where Sen was already waiting for her. What was stubbornness, exactly?

"We beat Brawly," she told Sen. Barrett stuck out his chest proudly, and Ceres hummed. "So it's time for the two of you to have a real battle, just like I promised. No holding back, just—try not to break any bones or anything, okay?" She didn't want Barrett to get stuck in a cast again, and she didn't want to drag Sen back to the Pokémon Center. No matter how badly he got hurt, she was sure he wouldn't go willingly.

He was too stubborn.

Barrett and Sen squared off on the sand, while Hayley and Ceres hung back. Barrett, as usual, wanted to do this fight on his own, without her direction. The two Pokémon stared each other down, Barrett in a ready stance, Sen with one foot and one arm drawn back. Then, in the same instant, they both moved. Sen's hand sparked with blue light as he lunged forward, and Barrett leapt to the side, barely avoiding the blow. As Sen caught himself, Barrett spat a volley of embers into the back of his knees, then leapt back and inhaled.

Sen was stubborn. He had to be, to take an explosion point-blank and be willing to fight ten minutes later, to refuse medical care until he was on the brink of death, to pick fights with Pokémon bigger and stronger than him with the full knowledge that he might lose and get hurt. To keep coming back to the beach day after day, evaluating Hayley and her team, without giving an inch.

Barrett blew out a spiral of flames that circled towards Sen. Sen tried to knock them away with a telekinetic blast, but the flames simply reformed and curled towards him from the side. The attack hit, and though Sen didn't wince or cry out, the muscles in his chest twitched slightly, and Hayley knew it had hurt.

Actually, Sen had given an inch, eventually. Because Ceres had been stubborn too. She'd sat by his side day after day, staring at him, trying to uncover his secrets and forge a friendship. No matter how long Sen had gone without acknowledging her, she'd never given up. She'd taught herself confusion, formed a plan in her slow and steady brain, snuck out on her own initiative, and gotten him to eat. Had she even known that she could learn confusion? Or had she simply believed that if she tried enough, eventually, it would work?

Taking advantage of Barrett's focus, Sen grabbed Barrett by the wrist, but this was a move that Barrett had learned by now to counter. Barrett spun so that their interlocked arms were behind his back, then brought his other arm down on Sen's elbow. Sen kept his footing, but his hand spasmed, and Barrett slipped out. Now, Barrett completed his turn and headbutted Sen directly in the chest.

Barrett, of course, had been stubborn from the start. She'd known it since the first time she'd let him out of his ball. He refused to listen, even in life-or-death moments, until he was sure he'd get something out of working with her. It had struck Hayley as rude, at first, or self-serving, or even cruel, but by now, she had come to appreciate it. Who had she been to him, in that first day, first week, first month? Just another trainer in a long line of trainers, all of whom had failed him. Barrett was determined to grow stronger, and if he didn't think she could help, then he would work around her. Even now, despite the slowly building mutual trust and respect, their relationship was transactional, and Hayley was sure that if she slipped up too many times, he'd leave her behind. He was his own Pokémon, and he wouldn't be held back by any obstacle, even if that obstacle was her.

Sen grabbed Barrett and threw him, but that was a mistake. Barrett rolled his landing, putting more distance between himself and Sen. Barrett had long-range attacks, and Sen didn't—Sen was going to have to approach. Sen sprang forward, and Barrett backed up, breathing another long ribbon of fire. This time, Sen took the hit and powered through, but Barrett was ready. Sen, burned and blinded by flickering flames, didn't see Barrett raising his arms for a cross chop.

And Hayley knew that Brawly was right—she was stubborn, too. Her mother called her "strong-willed" when she was being polite, "hardheaded" when she was scolding. But at the same time, she'd always told her to keep working and to never give up. And working at something over and over, trying it again and again no matter who told you to stop—there were a lot of words for that. One, sure, was stubbornness. Another might be guts or tenacity. You could even call it patience.

Hayley's mother had always been a suspiciously patient person. She'd have to think more about that, later.

On the battlefield, Barrett's cross chop landed, and Sen staggered back. Sen pulled back a fist for a force palm, but Barrett disappeared into smoke at the last second, reappeared behind him, and knocked him down with a fiery tackle. Sen grunted, which was the most noise she'd ever heard him make during a spar, and tried to roll out, but Barrett smashed his forehead into the back of Sen's skull, and that was it. Sen fainted. Barrett had finally won.

Barrett pushed himself back to his feet and crowed like he owned the entire beach. After a few seconds of staring at the motionless Sen, Ceres bayed in concern. Hayley patted her head and stood up.

"It's okay. It was just a regular fight. He'll be fine again after we give him some medicine." She pulled a burn heal spray from her backpack—Sen might not like being treated with it, but in the event he decided not to join them, she was not having him run back to the wild covered in burns. And if he did decide to join them, he was going to have to accept that she wouldn't let him walk around with open wounds. Barrett dashed up to her as she approached, chest stuck out so far she was surprised he didn't fall over. She gave him a smile. "You did really well! You didn't even get hit with force palm. You've gotten so much stronger since we started working together." Barrett still loved hearing that—that he had grown—and if it happened to remind him that she was the one who had helped him do it, well, that was all the better. Barrett beamed and resumed strutting as she sprayed Sen down. The burns healed over and faded into angry red marks, new colors on the tapestry of bruises he always carried with him. After several minutes, Sen stirred and sat up again. The first thing he did was look at the newly-healed burns and frown.

"If you don't treat burns, they can get infected," she said. "You don't want your legs to fall off, do you?" Sen gave a soundless scoff and looked away from her—but that just meant he was looking at Ceres, who had wandered up to sit at his other side.

"Ceres really likes you," Hayley said. "She wants to be friends with you." Sen didn't answer, so Hayley pushed on. "We're leaving Dewford later today, Sen. You can come with us if you want. If you don't, then we probably won't see you again. Ceres will miss you, and Barrett will be disappointed too, since he'll miss sparring with you." There was a huff of protest from where Barrett was standing, but Hayley ignored it. She knew she was right. "I'll miss you too, since I like spending time with you, even if you don't talk much. But, if you do come with us, I can help you be a better fighter."

Sen crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes in a motion she suspected he might have stolen from Barrett. "I mean it. I've been spending a lot of time in the dojo, and I've learned some things about fighting. Your force palms are really strong, but they're slow—you need a faster way to use them. Something like this." She stood up, separated her legs and pulled her elbows into her side, then threw out her right arm in a straight punch. "Well, like that, but with your palm out. You get the idea."

Sen's expression was still cold, but the judgment in his eyes was slowly shifting into interest. Hayley continued. "Your psychic attacks need work, too. I noticed you can't use confusion except on things that are right in front of you. I'm meeting up with a friend in Slateport who has a Ralts, so she can help you learn better distance and control. Ceres, too." On cue, Ceres bellowed. "And I have a TM—uh, it's like a machine that can teach you moves you normally could never learn. And if I use it on you, you'll be able to grab rocks right out of the ground and throw them."

Sen's eyes un-slitted—he was openly curious, now. Time to bring it home. "If you come with me," she pitched, "I'll put you in as many fights as you can handle, against Pokémon you'll never see if you stay here on Dewford forever. I'll bring you to the Pokémon Center or give you medicine if you're hurt enough to need it, but aside from that you can heal on your own, if you want. We'll train every day, and if you end up really not liking it, I can bring you back here. Or to Mount Pyre, maybe. That's where Meditite and Medicham are from, did you know that?"

Sen stood up so quickly that Hayley almost flinched. He stared her down, unblinking, and Hayley stared back. The base of her skull prickled, and then, Sen's hands moved and formed three signs.

Fight. Train. Yes.

"You'll come?" Hayley asked, barely believing it despite all the work they'd done to get here. Sen nodded firmly, and a smile broke across Hayley's face. "That's great! Do you need to do anything here before we leave, or—" A shake of the head. He was ready. Hayley breathed in deeply, squelched her giddy trembling, and nodded back. "Okay. Welcome to the team, Sen."