》You know dark clouds harbour tears.They carry your sorrow, my pain,children's broken hearts, and despair.They let out what you swallow every day.Tell me, my child, when will you let go?《

  Counting the days and nights seemed impossible without going a little mad. Part of him wanted to record them on a list so as not to lose track. The rest relied on Zoroark’s statements and clues – the weeks that had simply come and gone, as if he hadn’t been there. Even the joyous moments between the Rising Volt Tacklers on Halloween had passed him by like a fever dream. The only thing he understood was that the cold was pressing more insistently through the cracks with each passing day.

  Looking down at his hands, Natural clenched them into fists, only to loosen them again. Since the night with Friede in front of his bed, his nightmares had become lighter. At least he no longer woke up to someone else’s desperate shaking.

  “Looks good,” Mollie commented behind him. “All the wounds have dried, the infmmation is gone and most of the areas are almost healed.” She stood up and walked round him, a small smile on her lips. “The scars will barely be noticeable, and if anything should open up again, Chansey can heal the injury without problems.”

  “I’ll do my best!” the pink Pokémon added, raising a thick arm before cheerfully grabbing the bandages as if it was already going to treat him.

  “Sounds good.” His enthusiasm was cking, and yet, for a breath, he was surrounded by the lightness that always appeared when he got a little too involved with the people on board this ship. They were nice and so colourful and cheerful that they infected him on some days.

  However, the spell only sted a moment before someone ripped open the door and burst into the room, causing Natural to grab a nearby bnket and hide his battered body. In the next blink, his expression met Friede’s, in whose hands rested a Rotom Phone.

  “I hope I’m not coming at a bad time.” He raised a hand apologetically before smiling at Natural. “But why the bnket?” Awkward ughter swept over him, and before Natural knew how to answer, Mollie stood up to brace herself in front of Friede, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

  “You should work on your behaviour.” Mouth twisted, she tilted her head. “What’s so important that you’re rushing in here?”

  “I’ve received an update on our job,” Friede began more seriously than before, “along with a ... considerable advance payment.”

  “Because of the girl?”

  He nodded. “I passed on the encounter in the Gar mines to him and expined that it could be very difficult to free her from the hands of the Explorers, but he insisted and paid us another significant sum in return.”

  He wanted to interject, wanted to say something, to make sure they were talking about Domino, but the conversation didn’t allow for a gap. So Natural bit his tongue.

  “And you took it because you knew we needed the money,” Mollie added. “We should have looked for other jobs.”

  “Maybe this way we’ll get one step closer to the Six Heroes.”

  “In what way?”

  “Dot has been working on gathering information and found out that the Explorers – Amethio and his team – will make their way to Hoenn as soon as the new year begins.” A quick snort escaped him as he put a hand to his side. “Whatever they’re pnning, maybe it’s best to watch them.”

  “She’s fine.” Against the silence he had wanted to sit out inside, the comment came off his tongue.

  “What?” Friede immediately turned to him, and Mollie seemed to look down on him as well.

  “Domino,” Natural added. “You’re talking about Domino, aren’t you?”

  Friede nodded hastily. “She fell into the hands of the Explorers. You know her?”

  “We’re friends.” Only the thought left him with a hint of warmth. Right now, he didn’t possess a Rotom Phone or remember her number. There was no way to call her and gain extra security, which colpsed with every passing nightmare. “She helped me a lot in Unova. The Explorers are good to her, and she likes being with them.”

  “At least that’s good.” A sigh settled on Mollie’s face. “According to her father, the Explorers kidnapped her.”

  Quickly, Natural shook his head. “She joined them because she wanted to be free. To take that dream away from her ... that’s not right. She would never voluntarily leave her team, and she’s in good hands with them.”

  “She’s not,” Friede countered. “We don’t know much about the Explorers, but they’re a mysterious, dangerous group who are after one of our Pokémon. They’re up to something, and I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

  “A feeling is nothing more than that. No proof and no reason.” Natural finally lowered the bnket and reached for his jumper. For a moment, his battered body no longer mattered.

  He knew the consequences of prejudice. Accusations without proof, without having investigated anything himself, were nothing more than poison that eventually led to ill decisions and compulsions. That was how it had been with him, caught up in all his father’s words, which he had never seen for himself; not to this extent. And it was probably the same for Ghetsis, who had clung to something without checking the facts first.

  Perhaps he was simply prepared to believe anything as long as it led far away from the cell, the Liepard, and the st few years of confusion. Images that didn’t fit together and decorated themselves with a sense of understanding he probably shouldn’t possess and yet did. It kept catching up with him. Like an old rule he wasn’t allowed to break.

  “We’re not done with your-” Before Mollie could finish her sentence, Natural waved her off. Then he brushed past Friede in casual strides towards the door.

  Something inside him longed for fresh air, for freedom, which he couldn’t find in this almost sterile-smelling room. Burying his hands in his trouser pockets, he disappeared into the corridor, shuffling along the wooden floorboards to an exit that led to a wide area with enough space for fights and games.

  “You look stressed.”

  A gnce over his shoulder brought Zoroark into view, to whom Natural gave a tired smile before lowering his eyelids. “Probably.”

  “Are the humans to bme?”

  “They’re looking for Domino.”

  “Why?”

  “To save her from something she doesn’t want to be saved from.” He snorted. “A bit like Psma trying to help the Pokémon in a way they didn’t want.” Again he looked at the wide open space. Two children had teamed up, barely older than fourteen. “It makes me wonder if the people of the world are all pursuing simir goals in different ways.”

  “Maybe it’s just a coincidence.” Zoroark shrugged. “You shouldn’t think about it. We haven’t had fun in a very long time.” He moved closer. “Be sunny again. You’ve got it good here. You can let go!”

  “Sunny?” A smirk crept onto Natural's lips.

  “Cheerful. Just like back then.”

  Like the days when they had pyed tricks on his stepsisters. The hours when they had ughed and raved as if the world would end tomorrow. He remembered those moments. All the extra trouble they had sat out together and all the little offences that hadn’t been punished harshly, so they had sometimes swapped pces. Zoroark as a second Natural, and he himself hidden between branches and leaves.

  “You’re very patient,” he noted slowly. Zoroark was pyful, constantly looking to annoy someone. But ever since he had been in the cell, his best friend had held back. “I’m sorry.”

  Zoroark threw his body against him, causing his soft fur to tickle his nose. “Don’t apologise. Just go back to being you.”

  “I’m... working on it.” He nuzzled his head against the bck hair. “I just need a little more time. Can you wait that long?”

  “Of course!” He put his arms around Natural. “Forever through thick and thin.”

  A vow they had made when Natural had been just eight and Zoroark had still been a Zorua.

  “Forever...”

  “Let’s watch!” In the next breath, Zoroark broke away from him, his gaze fixed on the children whose Pokémon stood ready to fight.

  Watching was cruel. Natural recalled his own battles, the fact humans resolved conflicts with Pokémon instead of raising a hand themselves. Ghetsis had once expined it: if a trainer was injured in a fight, it was an accident. Then again, if you hit someone in the face, it was considered assault, and you could be punished for it. Almost everything became a little more legal if you simply sent a Pokémon ahead.

  Still, Zoroark stormed out through the framed gss door, leaving Natural dragging behind his friend. Thinking back to the battle with Domino and her match against that guy at her side, he realised even things like that held a certain appeal for some Pokémon. Until now, he had never listened to his friends in a fight. The others had always been more important – everyone he had thought was trapped and injured.

  The few steps down to the wide training area greeted him with cool air, which at least made him aware he was still conscious. On the lowest one, he settled down. Zoroark found space on the ground in front of his feet, his eyes fixed on the action.

  The battle unfolding before them was simir to those he had sometimes witnessed between other trainers – all those he had walked past with a furrowed brow, not knowing what to make of it. The Pokémon’s words had stuck in his head in disbelief back then, and a part of him hadn’t wanted to accept them.

  This time, it was different. He listened as Liko commanded her Sprigatito with the first attack, dodging the ember of Fuecoco. With lightning speed, it chased forward, rammed its opponent and nded galntly in front of its trainer – its nose raised.

  “Hah! You have no chance of winning this fight!” Its chest fur puffed out, and Natural recognised a girl’s voice.

  In complete contrast to the Fuecoco, who struggled to get back on its feet. “I do!”

  “As if!”

  “Can do this! Am strong!”

  “Not stronger than me!”

  A smile appeared on Naturals’ lips. There was a healthy rivalry between the two Pokémon, a bit like it had sometimes been between him and Zoroark when they had been fishing.

  “This Sprigatito is good,” his best friend commented somewhere in between, while the Grass-type Pokémon conjured a storm of leaves that almost swept the Fuecoco off its feet.

  “It’s at a disadvantage,” Natural replied. “If Fuecoco releases fire now, the leaves will set each other on fire and create a storm of fmes that would reach Sprigatito.”

  But it seemed too fearful for this pn, and the ck of orders from Roy didn’t improve matters. Together they endured the storm before Fuecoco tried his hand at stomping tantrum, driving the Sprigatito from one corner to the next.

  “Coward! Come here and attack me properly!”

  “You come here!”

  “I’d wait until it’s tired of stomping and then attack,” Zoroark continued. “Or maybe I’d run around it until it feels sick and then scare it from behind.” He giggled. “Then I’ll win because it’ll fall over in fright!”

  “I don’t think this Fuecoco will give up that easily.” Resting his head in a hand, Natural propped himself up on one leg. “Maybe it would blow a fmethrower in your face out of sheer terror.”

  “I’m flexible! I’ll just lean back at the right moment!”

  “That won’t save you.”

  Without further ado, Zoroark puffed out his cheeks. “You can extinguish the rest of the fire, then.”

  Unintentional, half-swallowed ughter washed over Natural before he opened his mouth, ready to continue this nonsensical discussion, when someone sat down diagonally behind him.

  “What are you talking about?” Leaning slightly forwards, Friede drew attention to himself.

  The crity of the moment, the certainty of not having to worry for one second, brought the conversation to the front of his mind. In those breaths, there was no oppressive tightness in Naturals’ chest, nothing to hold him back as he replied, “Zoroark thinks he could take on a sudden fmethrower from Fuecoco.”

  “I know I can!” his mate protested, and another stifled ugh escaped Natural; restrained, yet pleasantly warm on his lips.

  Friede, meanwhile, raised his brows. “You ... really understand what it’s saying?”

  Opening his mouth, the next words caught in his throat. He remembered his father’s praise of his gift and also that communicating with Pokémon in his way was unusual. Very few humans understood their partners. Even Domino had had to make compromises.

  “It’s ... unusual.” Natural awkwardly wiped his sweaty hands on his trousers. “But yes, I understand what Pokémon say. I grew up ... with them. It was the first nguage I learnt to understand.”

  “That’s incredible!” Friede’s enthusiasm spilled over as if Natural was something special. “Probably even unique. I’ve travelled a lot, and I’ve never met anyone who could actually speak to Pokémon.”

  “It’s not unique,” Natural disagreed slowly. “Domino can do it, too. She knows how to talk to Legendary Pokémon.”

  With Zekrom, which was still resting in its Poké Ball, and also with Reshiram, which had sided with her in Unova.

  “That’s probably why she’s with the Explorers...” Friede muttered. “They probably want to research her gift... I can’t bme them, even if I don’t trust their means to do so.”

  Research – a desire shared by many. Natural realised that. The curiosity of others had always been an integral part of his environment. His father had prepared him for it.

  “Harmonia, what makes you special is your ability to talk to Pokémon.” Hard, Ghetsis smmed the end of his walking stick to the ground. “It’s the potential you need to become King of Unova and convince the people of an ideal world in your hands.”

  He tried to stay attentive, but outside the sun was shining, his friends were pying with each other and he was the only one sitting trapped in his room, listening to his father’s words again. Sure, helping the Pokémon was important, he had understood that. But in those breaths, the air was stuffy, and he wasn’t being told anything new.

  “Harmonia!”

  His father’s sudden excmation made Naturals’ whole body flinch. If he allowed himself to get too distracted, he would get in trouble – well-deserved – and that was the st thing he needed on his eleventh birthday.

  “It’s important that you listen to my words and do as I advise!” The stick smmed to the ground again. “I care about your well-being. You are my son, a gift entrusted to me in the face of this corrupt world. I only ever wish the best for you!”

  “Yes, I know,” he replied sheepishly, looking down. It was probably one of those moments when he was ungrateful. Ghetsis had already mentioned it more than once when he preferred to look at the outside world instead of showing interest. Ungratefulness wasn’t worthy of him.

  “You don’t have to worry that the world won’t understand you. If my calcutions work out, you won’t be walking this path alone for long until you find a companion for life.” Ghetsis‘ hand rested heavily on Natural’s mop of hair. “And then you will teach the nguage of the Pokémon, pass it on and create a foundation on your own efforts.”

  Just as he had been taught – like all those days in the b when they had attached him to cables and tortured his body with electricity in the hope of transferring the knowledge of another nguage. The burn marks on his temples were still visible even after two weeks.

  But it was the best way to help his father. This way he could make him happy, be useful and show his gratitude. After all, he had been taken in and chosen for something great. Ghetsis was a generous man. Probably even one of the kindest.

  But when he handed Natural a small knife, he blinked in surprise. Then he looked up at his father.

  “Colress will be here soon to prepare you for new tests. You know we need something to restrain the power of the legendary dragons.” Ghetsis’ gaze travelled to the window. “Research is a cruel act, but you must learn to make decisions like this.”

  “What decisions?”

  “Those that determine the suffering of many and the suffering of few. Remember. All the punishments you have been allowed to divide between you and your sisters have prepared you for days like this. Before, you felt it all firsthand. Now you will be empathetic and learn to make wise decisions in front of cruel moments.”

  His eyes widened. Sometimes his father’s words seemed like incomprehensible phrases that he could barely follow. Just like in those seconds, so Ghetsis let out a sigh.

  “Today you will decide whether to give Colress this knife or not,” he expined. “Give it to him, and hundreds of Pokémon, who no longer believe in hope, will be saved. However, keep it to yourself if you want to save Munna’s life.”

  The Pokémon that slept most of the day and appeared so deep in its world that Natural hadn’t been able to have a single normal conversation with it. However, he liked it because it had wonderful dreams and sometimes told him about worlds that sounded like hot ice storms and bitterly cold rain of fmes. It was a nice, headstrong Pokémon that carried peace deep within it.

  And he had to protect that peace.

  In a fsh, Natural buried his face in the crook of his arm to stifle the nausea. Friede’s hand was safely on his back, and for a moment he thought he was being spoken to. But he was sick to his stomach, even as Zoroark pressed his wet nose firmly against his fingers.

  He didn’t want to remember. Not the day Colress had appeared and Natural had hidden the knife. Not of how happy he had been about his decision to save Munna, only to learn two weeks ter that hopeless Pokémon had crawled out of the shadows and been killed by others. Pokémon that he could have helped, with Munna’s death and its Dream Mist and DNA, able to repce lost souls with happiness.

  Natural had learnt to grieve early on. He piled up this grief, permanently and endlessly. In all those years, he had only been left with the pain that created guilt towards everything that could have been, that had never happened and that he hadn’t been able to save.

  Even his escape harboured this certainty; the thought of the Liepard that could have lived if freedom hadn’t been so tempting; the assurance of never having said a word to anyone to incriminate his father or to avoid all that had happened. And also the knowledge that more Pokémon in Psma would suffer at Ghetsis‘ or even Colress’ hands because he – Natural Harmonia Gropius, child of the forest and wannabe king – couldn’t save them, drilled through his body.

  He couldn’t change anything.

  He wasn’t hero enough for that.