FAQ
Like in a trance, Dawn trudged to her Sandshrew and crouched next to her ground type. Sitting up, it looked at her out of its almond shaped eyes and she sensed its worries. Though weakly, she could give it a smile. An honest smile.
"You were great, really! Your best performace, yet. I promise you, next time we'll win." She patted its head and felt the rough scales, "I'm proud of you, Sandshrew. Thank you."
The tight lump in Sandshrew's chest seemed to melt instantly into relieve and joy. For Dawn it felt like apleasant breeze. Wordlessly, she wrapped her arms around Sandshrew and held it close. With a delighted "Shrewww" it returned the gesture.
That moment, Dawn felt incredibly calm as if the outcome hadn't affected her in any way. She retrieved Sandshrew into its ball and stood up, all collected and restrained. The only evidence of her inner tourmoil was the iron grip she had on the pokeball. Her wrist was stiff from the strain.
She pressed her cool knuckles against her forehead, hoping that it would dim the pain in her head.
"Dawn..?" Sakura asked her hesitatingly. Dawn sensed her uncertainty and wondered how she must have looked like from the side. She turned around and met the eyes of the Kimono Sisters and the gym leaders.
"Sorry." Dawn slid the pokeball into her pocket. "I was... lost in thoughts."
Sakura just nodded at the explanation and was courteous enough, not to question her any further. Her expression was unreadable. "It was a draw."
"Which means that I didn't win," Dawn vocalized, what the Kimono Sister left unspoken.
"Well, yes, but if it hadn't been for... something interfering, you probably would have won."
Dawn snorted inwardly.
"I think it would be fair, if at least we gave you another chance," Sakura offered.
Dawn averted her eyes. "Why are you trying so hard to battle me?"
The answer Sakura gave was surprisingly passionate. "Because I wanted to battle you ever since I found out you were in Johto."
Crossing her arms in front of her chest, Dawn lent back on the wall behind her. She hoped the gesture looked casual and didn't give away the bout of dizzyness that suddenly crept over her. Her eyes were fixed on a dark spot in the wood as she tried to recall if she had any connection to Sakura. The mist in her head, though, complicated her search.
Since Dawn was silent for quite a while, Sakuraexplained her answer. "You know, I haven't been here with my sisters for very long. Just a few weeks ago, I was still traveling, like you. While I wanted to return here and finally start my training to be part of the Kimono Sisters, it's been hard to get used to it." She chuckled. "I don't know how about you, but I still wonder when I'll be off to the next city."
Dawn could remotely relate to that; it was, what any kind of outcome of her contest quest would bring. She would go back home and settle down for a while - and she was anxious that she would face the same difficulties.
"I think it would be much more bearable, if at least part of my life here resembled all the excitement I had during my journey. That's why I was hoping to battle you, because I know you're a challenge."
Dawn's lips twisted into a humourless smirk. "Then I'm... sorry I disappointed you."
"No way!" Sakura denied vehemently. "You were great! It took impressive skill to even score a draw against Vaporeon. Don't belittle yourself!"
Dawn stared at Sakura and she felt her insides tense. She had to get out of there, because otherwise she feared she would unleash her anger at the wrong people. "I'm sorry." She shook her head and held her forehead. "I'm not usually like this. I'm just tired... and my head hurts. Even if I agree to a rematch, it'll have to wait. I'm not capable to do anything right now."
"Would you like something? Maybe some water?" Sakura offered, her expression reflecting her geniune concern.
The question called attention to Dawn's dry throat and she nodded. As Sakura scurried away once again, Piplup waddled over to its trainer. Their looks met and wordlessly, Dawn spread her arms so the water type could jump into them. Gently, she brushed over its smooth head.
"Will you retire for the day?" Satsuki asked.
"Yeah... I really need to sleep."
Jolteon's trainer nodded. "That will probably be for the best."
"I think so, too," Morty chimed in. A Gastly had appeared and floated next to his head. "Maybe you'll have more luck finding J. Gengar lost her."
"Really? When?"
"Before your battle started, actually. I didn't want to trouble you before, because it's not really your responsibility."
"How did she disappear?"
Morty took a look at Gastly, as if to make sure he understood right. "Apparently, she had trouble with a police officer and then just... disappeared. None of the ghost pokemon found her, yet."
"How can they loose her in their own city?" Dawn murmered, not happy at all with that revelation. At least it explain a few things, like why my headache only worsened.
"Usually, that wouldn't happen," Morty said, then he forced a smile. "But ever since the Bell Tower burned down, the ghost types have been agitated and influence my partners. Even I can feel it."
He held Dawn's stare, until she sighed and mumbled a small "sorry".
Sakura rushed back with a glass of water, which Dawn gratefully accepted. While she drank the beverage, Sakura asked, "For how long will you be in Ecruteak City?"
Dawn shrugged. "Not sure, a few days at least."
"Good, that means we can still have a rematch, if you like."
"Sure..."
It took another five seemingly endless minutes, in which Dawn had to convince the others that she was well enough to walk back on her own. Then a few more minutes of saying their goodbyes, until she finally managed toleave. Once outside, she felt the heat of the sun on her skin, but didn't allow herself to enjoy it.
Her pace was fast and her strides long. She was almost boiling over with rage; only the question of where the responsible person was, made her dim those feelings. It was still enough to overshadow the pain that built up in her hip at each step.
About two blocks away from the theater, Dawn noticed a pink haired individuum following her. She hesitated in her steps, but then decided to ignore the gym leader. A few seconds later, though, she stopped again, sighing deeply.
Why won't they leave me alone? Dawn wondered, but knew the answer. They worried. And right then, she could see the concern behind Whitney's determined expression. Dawn closed her eyes and nodded for the older girl to come closer.
Whitney beamed at her with never ending energy. "Thanks!"
Dawn shrugged, but returned the kind gesture with her own small smile. "You couldn't leave me to myself, could you?"
"Nah." Whitney shook her head. "You seemed to have something on your mind. Wanna talk about it?"
"Oh." Dawn hadn't anticipated that. Guilt pricked at her insides. She had underestimated her friends - a stupid mistake that had happened too often those past months. "Sorry... uhm. I'd love to tell you sometime... but right now is a bad time," she admitted relucantly. Nonetheless, it lessened the weight on her shoulders.
"That's too bad... But whatever." Whitney shrugged, a smirk playing on her lips. "I'll still bring you home, Bubble Queen!"
"Welcome back, Dawn-sama! J-sama is awaiting you in the patio," said the monk of the temple and bowed at the young coordinator.
Dawn winced inwardly at the message; she felt her anger bubbling up again, engulfing any memory of her calmness. "Oh, is she?" She had to pull herself together not to storm past the monk and even more so, when she turned around and thanked him with a bow. Nonetheless her stride was stiff and she gritted her teeth.
Before anything else, she went to her room, where she put Piplup on the floor. She tried to contain her anger at a reasonable level, did every trick she knew of to calm down. Count to ten, concentrate on her breathing and think positive. But the relaxation only seemed to intensify her headache and she quickly found out; she didn't want to calm down.
To hell with being nice! Dawn declared and slid open the door leading to the patio. And there she was, Pokemon Hunter J. She sat with her back to Dawn, propped up against Salamence's side. The dragon type opened an eye at the newcomer, but otherwise didn't budge. J showed no sign, whether she had noticed Dawn yet or not.
Dawn grabbed the wood of the door and slammed it shut. She then stormed over to J, drew herself up in front of her and scowled at the woman. "Was that you? Did you manipulate my battle?!"
J eyed Dawn, her face blank. She halted any work she did at the moment, but didn't pull her fingers from the keyboard of her laptop. "Technically, no I didn't. I didn't directly interfere with your battles, confuse your pokemon or hinder them from executing your-"
"I don't have the patience to deal with your nitpicking!" Dawn snapped at the huntress. She watched J glance at the screen of her laptop and push a few keys. The distraction fueled Dawn's rage so much, she threw all caution out of the window and slammed down the lid. She almost caught J's fingers in the motion. Almost. "Or any patience for that either!"
All of sudden their faces were merely inches apart and Dawn was satisfied to see a twitch in J's eye. She glared at the coordinator, but her voice was still reserved. "Yes, I did correct the sequence of your pokemon."
"Correct? Correct?! Are you joking me?"
"You were going to rely solely on type advantages, which might be alright for arranged battles, but not when you fight enemies like -"
"I repeat: Are you JOKING me?!" Dawn straigthened up and gesticulated in helpless anger. "Thanks to you Sandshrew lost and neither Piplup nor Absol even had a chance to battle! You owe all three of them apologies!"
"I don't apologize," J murmered so quietly, Dawn almost overheard it.
"Then better start! All of it is your fault! You didn't do anything against Joy and her sadistic Rotom like you said you would! I collapsed under all the pain you caused me! Do you even know that? Lucky for you I was alone when it happened! You - and Joy, too! - You should be grateful that I still cover you! I told no one you threatened me and forced me to babysit you! You deserve to be in jail by now!"
She paused to catch her breath as her voice rose to a yell. She remembered what Morty said about J's disappearance and her police troubles. "What the hell were you thinking anyway? Were you so confident you forgot every bit of caution?! I don't know how you planned to get here unnoticed, but you failed! And I suffered the consequeces! I would have loved to see the faces of your contractors, if I had passed out and bashed my head against an edge - all because you are a stubborn, uncaring, inattentive, selfish -"
J endured most of her rant, but interrupted her before Dawn could lose herself in her scolding. "I did not intend to kill you with these headaches. I tried to talk Joy out of it, but she thinks its fair you suffer from a bit of pain yourself-"
Dawn snorted at that explanation. "I can't even begin to tell what's wrong with that - what kind of pain do I deserve? Why should I suffer from your self-inflicted problems?! Is that the reason my head still feels like its about to explode, even though you're right here?"
"That's your own headache, not the one Joy inflicts on you," J stated calmly, but otherwise remained oddly silent.
"It still wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for you two!" Dawn growled and waited for another reply.
J parted her lips, but seemed to think it over. She laid aside her laptop, straigthened her spine and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Her light blue eyes rested on Dawn, as if she wanted her to continue.
Which Dawn did gladly. She had so much she wanted to tell the huntress, how she had no right to butt into her life, how her whole way of living was wrong. Dawn quickly ran out of valid arguments, but still found more and more rage that just wanted to break free.
She was ranting for what felt like hours and Dawn found herself unwilling to stop, until her voice broke from all the strain and she fell silent, panting. Her shoulders were stiff from the tension and her head felt as if a storm wreaked heavoc in it.
When it became apparent that Dawn was finished, J let out a sigh. "I take it, you're done," she said and got up.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that..." whispered Dawn, but her words didn't match the anxiousness that crept up in her. What she had just done - yelling at J - was beyond foolish, she was aware of that. That J wasn't allowed to harm her in anyway was probably the only reason, she didn't spin around and fled the patio there and then, but even that thought was no longer putting her at ease.
Dawn staggered backwards, as the huntress approached her. The first step, though, already felt too much for her. Her injuries, especially her hip throbbed like a buzzing objection to her actions and Dawn felt her legs shake. She didn't even realize she lost the strength to stand, before her knees bumped on the ground, driving a stone in her shin.
She tried to support herself by pressing her palms on the grass, but it didn't stop her fading vision. As she toppled forward, she felt something - or rather someone catch her. Even without looking, she knew who it was - logically the only person in the patio, but at the same time the most unreasonable individuum to help her.
A growled and chirped discussion roused Dawn from her sleep. Here and there, a human voice chimmed in.
"No... not an option..."
Growling.
Frantic chirping and a sigh.
"Salamence... just stay there! And you -"
Even more chirping and by then, Dawn was awake enough to make out Piplup's voice. Her back lent against the smooth, but still uncomfortable trunk of a tree and felt the tips of grass tickle her exposed shins. A light stinging from her legs reminded her of her fall.
"Girl, time to wake up. Come on," J's voice called out to her. Dawn couldn't think of anything she wanted to do less. She furrowed her eye brows to show her dissapproval.
"Fine. Dawn, wake up. It's getting hard to keep both your Piplup and Salamence at bay. That and you'll end up sleeping the whole evening away."
Though Dawn for once liked the outlook J spoke of, she relucantly pulled herself out of the rest of her slumber. She blinked and noticed that the sun in her back didn't shine with the glaring intensity of midday. She wondered for how long she had passed out that time.
Piplup sprinted next to her side and embraced her with overflowing joy. It comforted her, how easily pleased it could be sometimes. "Hey... No need to worry, Piplup..." she murmered and stroked its head. Her throat was sore.
"What a bold, delusional claim to make." J chuckled.
Through narrowed eyes, Dawn looked at the huntress. She crouched a few feet away from Dawn and seemed to inspect her.
Dawn was the first to avert her eyes and whispered, "Sorry for not being a pessimist." She probably could have talked louder, but the scratching sensation in her throat was uncomfortable enough. Not to mention that her head still ached, though not as intensely as before.
"I see you screamed your lungs out. That's actually quite convinient, since it means you won't interrupt me."
Dawn shot her a glare.
"Probably." J nodded at a plate sitting to Dawn's right. "Have a drink and something to eat. I don't want you to pass out again - or else you might bash your head in."
There were triangular shaped riceballs and a greenish teapot with cup, as well as a glass of water with two different pills resting next to it. The capsule one reminded Dawn of the medicine J had showed her earlier that day. The other one seemed to be a usual headache tablet that would dissolve in water. J confirmed her guess after one sceptical look.
It still didn't satisfy Dawn, so J added "Joy wasn't here to poison anything. And you can believe me, when I say that if you die, I'll be the one in the world who'll suffer most from it.
"I'm also willing to give you a full explanation, if you eat first."
Dawn still wasn't convinced, especially when she thought of the drama earlier. "Aren't you... mad at me?"
Glancing back, J acknowledged Salamence's position and stepped next to it. She sat down on its broad back and placed one hand on its shoulder. "No, I think I can handle a fit of rage from a sixteen-year-old girl."
The coordinator raised her eyebrows. She didn't doubt J's words, it was just that she thought the huntress welcomed any reason to torment her. "You're... uncharacteristingly nice. Again."
"Really?" For the first time, J showed her annoyance. "I suppose I should be glad to hear you say that."
"Why would you?"
"Good question," J said and motioned one more time at the plate.
Sighing, Dawn reached out for the teapot and poured in some fresh green tea. She took a careful sip and felt how the warm liquid soothed her throat ache. It was her turn to focus on J. Though still relucant to forget her initinal anger, she was curious enough to listen to J's explanation without a fuss.
Sighing, Dawn reached out for the teapot and poured in some fresh green tea. She took a careful sip and felt how the warm liquid soothed her throat ache. It was her turn to focus on J. Though still relucant to forget her initinal anger, she was curious enough to listen to J's explanation without a fuss.
"Since you were involved with Team Galactic and the lake trio, you must have known that I died all those years ago at Lake Valor," J opened up her story.
Dawn pursed her lips. "Presumably."
"No, not presumably - I really did die. Though it would probably be more specific to say that I ended up in Azelf, Uxie and Mesprit's dimension." J smirked slightly as she watched Dawn's partly surprised, partly sceptical expression. She quickly dropped the hint of amusement, however.
"I guess I would have stayed and rotted there for all eternety, if Team Rocket hadn't increased the ammount of pokemon they capture for their plans. They need to be stopped, so the guardians brought me back and sent me and my pokemon here. Our only mission was to destroy Team Rocket and make sure they never recover." As J said that, a scowl hardened her expression and she crossed her arms. "That is, until you came along."
Dawn blinked once. Twice. "J, are you serious with this?"
"Yes," J confirmed.
"But... but... that's just..." Crazy! Dawn caught herself, before she said that out loud. The bandage wrapped around J's head caught her gaze. She winced with guilt. "Oh, uh... sorry J. I never asked you about your condition..."
J rolled her eyes. "This is not a concussion talking. It's how it is! I would prefere any alternative to this, but I've been spending the last five years accustoming to this reality. You said, you were friends with the guardians. Then think about it, instead of labeling it as insane without a second thought!"
Dawn found herself at a loss of words. She had fantasized about a few reasons, but never did she imagine such a scenario.
The point that probably made most sense was that the guardians would oppose a criminal organization like Team Rocket. However, she had never experienced them taking action before, unless they were threatened directly. Knowing Team Rocket, they might have done just that.
Even that J was sucked into another dimension didn't seem farfetched - Lake Valor was the entrance to another world after all.
Dawn decided to voice the matter that made the least sense to her. "Assuming you're right about that... Why in the world would Mesprit and the others trust you with this job? You were the one, who captured them and almost destroyed the world as we know it!" Dawn swallowed. Her throat itched, after all these words. She cast a glance at Piplup now standing at her side, flippers crossed in a similar fashion to J. "I doubt they would forgive you."
"Of course they didn't forgive me. Why should they?" J raised her eye brow at Dawn. "They are sensible enough to see my skills. I managed to capture them, didn't I?"
"You also managed to get blown up the same time."
"That's not the point," J huffed. "It happened and I paid the price. That doesn't change though, that I am the kind of person you would ask to do this job. I'm efficient and have the experience dealing with all kinds of odds. Besides, I'm guessing they also feel much better about themselves risking the life of a criminal, rather than the one of a civilian."
"A civilian like me, huh?" asked Dawn. "Is it my fault now, that you have to look after me? Since I came here?"
"No. This isn't really your doing," J grumbled under her breath. "You didn't just waltz into this mess, you were sent here by the guardians."
"What? No." Dawn shook her head. "That can't be. I've never spoken to them since the battle with Team Galactic."
"They are psychic types; there is no need for them to talk to you or even ask for your permission. I'm sure they just manipulated your mind and made you come here."
"Just because you think badly of them, doesn't mean they are that way! They're my friends and I trust them," Dawn replied. Piplup chirped approvingly and took a step towards the huntress.
"In that case you shouldn't be surprised about anything that's going on here. I had an argument about this topic for a few hours; I think I should know what those three did. Think back. Was there a reason you wanted to come here in the first place?"
It was Dawn's turn to scowl. She kept silent, though, as she drank her tea and mulled over the question. The beverage had become more bitter, so she puckered her lips. "I've never really been to Johto for more than a few days before. So why not?" She averted her eyes and met Piplup's concerned look. Dawn could imagine, where those worries came from. It didn't want the huntress to be right, but it knew better.
A sigh escaped her lips, before Dawn admitted, "Though that wasn't the reason. I actually wanted to stay home for a while and take a break - I promised to take it easy." Her partner nodded. "It kinda felt like an inspiration struck me, so I didn't think too much about it."
"See?" J smirked.
"Well then, care to explain why I'm here?"
"You are here to give me a hand," J said, but a slight hesitation in her words made Dawn suspect otherwise.
"Is that all?" Dawn questioned and rose an eyebrow. "Give you a hand at stopping Team Rocket? Couldn't they have asked somebody else? Whatever happened with your henchmen; they crashed into Lake Valor, too."
"The guardians refuse to revive them. They fear I will go and hunt pokemon for a living, if I ever get my resources back."
"Yeah," Dawn agreed. A memory started to resurface. The police officer in Goldenrod City had revealed her a few details about the huntress. "You don't need your ship to start working as a hunter again. You already did! You've been to Johto for longer than I have; you had plenty of time to harm innocent pokemon!"
J was about to respond, but Dawn wouldn't let her, yet.
"Is that the real reason I'm here? So I make sure you won't go against Mesprit, Uxie and Azelf again?"
"It's what they had in mind, but it's not how reality looks like. They brought me back to stop Team Rocket and that's what I'm doing. If they didn't approve of my methods, they should have thought about it before sending me here on this suicide mission!"
"It's pretty obvious to me that they wouldn't approve," Dawn frowned. "I remember how your methods looked like and I don't know anyone, who would let you get away with them!"
J took a deep breath as if to calm her nerves. "Easy for you to judge; you don't have any idea what odds I'm facing. I have an organization against myself that exceeds Team Galactic in numbers and resources and they are still expanding. I, on the other hand, have neither my crew nor my equipment. My funds have shrunken to a fraction of what I used to resort to.
"All this time I've been trying to avoid direct encounters like the one on top of the Tin Tower. Team Rocket's objective is to gather powerful pokemon, so I would seek the targets out first and made sure they were as far away as possible."
"Just because you may have had some good intentions, it doesn't change that what you did was wrong," Dawn insisted. "What happened to the pokemon you hunted?"
"I shipped them back to Sinnoh, where they are safe. Besides, they helped funding this whole project. I don't see the point in all this complaining," J answered nonchalantly.
Piplup was the one to react that time. It flailed its flippers and chirped, offended at the very idea that it's fellow pokemon had been treated like will-less puppets. It's aggressive behaviour stirred Salamence and the dragon type raised its head. It growled, a sound strong enough to cause a slight tremble in the ground. Dawn was painfully aware, how close they sat to Salamence, so she picked up Piplup from the ground and sat it on her lap.
It wasn't enough to intimidate her, though. "Piplup is right. You should have known that you can't treat pokemon that way!" Dawn firmly believed in that claim, but even so, she couldn't help but notice J's situation. With a slighly less harsh tone, she suggested, "You could have made other arrangements to protect those pokemon, couldn't you?"
"Right. I could've built a sanctuary for dozens of rampaging pokemon. Or hand them over to the police. I'm sure those incompetent morons would keep them safe for at least a week." J let out a long breath and dropped her arms on her lap. She seemed to struggle to keep her posture upright. Another reminder of her injuries. "I did consider dropping a few targets at the pokemon ranger's bases, but they have their hands full with minor problems around their territories.
"It's futile to leave the pokemon here and my solution basically covered two problems."
"Why won't you ask for help, then?"
"From whom?" J demanded to know. "Even you barely believe me, though you are closest to the guardians. If I ask for help, I might not land in jail but in a nuthouse. I'm not keen on psychotherapy."
"How about Joy?" Dawn offered. "You could have asked her to contact her sisters in Sinnoh or any other region. They would have taken care of those pokemon just fine."
"Joy," began J with a sigh, "is a matter for itself. She refuses to get involved into this in any kind of way. She said that I should be grateful for all the medical help she already offers me. Guess it wasn't easy to rehabilitate to a normal job at a pokemon centre."
"If she was working for you... how come, she is still around?" Dawn asked. "I mean, I thought you would have kept her on the ship..."
J rose an eyebrow in her direction. "Two days and you already want her dead?"
Dawn wanted to deny J's assumption, but noticed the smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. Instead of responding, she crossed her arms in annoyance.
"She left a few weeks before I crashed to attend to a family reunion. Even back then, she covered up any association with me. I haven't made up my mind yet, if I should count myself lucky she is still alive, or wish she had drowned years ago."
A few minutes of silence followed, in which Dawn mulled said things over. J's story made more and more sense - Dawn was rather openminded after her mindblowing adventures revolving around mystical pokemon. She still found it hard to grasp the idea of her and J working together, though.
"To sum everything up," Dawn began, "you were resurrected and sent here to stop Team Rocket. I'm here so I can play your... your conscience. In return you have to make sure I get hurt as little as possible."
J nodded, a gesture that looked too casual for Dawn's liking.
With a light groan, she rubbed her throbbing head. "I can't believe I'm going to have to work with you..."
The huntress nodded again.
"I suppose it was the guardians that saved us from our fall? They came out and..." Dawn hesitated. It would make sense for them to intervene - but why would they have left them in the dungeon of the tower, then?
"Their powers don't work that way. It's risky for them to leave their dimension and teleport to our location. Since Team Rocket is after Celebi as well, they observe if anything enters this world from somewhere else.
"Instead, the guardians use their link to us and influence our bodies. Lessen damage, supporte the healing process; that's the reason you're constantly hungry, because this takes a toll on us as well. It might be the source of your empathy, too."
J had given up keeping a straight back and now sat hunched over with her elbows resting on her thighs.
"That sounds amazing! Just think what would have happened to either of us, if the guardians hadn't helped," Dawn exclaimed and shuddered, when she thought of the consequences.
"If it hadn't been for them, we wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place," J retorted.
"Yeah, well... I think it's at least something..." Dawn shied away from that claim. J was right, but the girl didn't let herself worry too much about the 'what-if's just yet. Hastely, she changed the subject. "Do the guardians give you any special abilities?"
At that J chuckled - or rather, she stiffled a laugh that otherwise might have shaken her wounded body. "No, or at least nothing I could use."
"I see..." Dawn muttered, her momentary bout of excitement long forgotten. She could already picture it - more arguments, clashes of interest and overall hardship alongside the huntress. Dawn let out a drawn-out breath that lifted the strands of her blue fringe.
Chirping from her lap made her look at Piplup. It punched the air, its expression highly concentrated. With an uppercut, Piplup finished its demonstration, then pointed at the huntress and cried out in anger.
"Right." Dawn nodded, slightly annoyed with herself that she had almost forgotten about that matter. She focused back on J. "You still didn't explain your actions today."
J shrugged. "I just wanted to see, how you would work in a stressful situation. You're better when you face actual difficulties, rather than pressure yourself."
"I still lost..." Dawn beat her to the point. The fact didn't feel as defeating as usually; not if she had a good reason to blame somebody else.
"It was a draw, get over it. You already beat my expectations with that. Besides," now J's voice grew scornful. "none of this would have happened, if the guardians hadn't interfered once again."
Dawn's questioning gaze made J continue. The huntress sighed; she was clearly fed up with the discussion, but forced herself to finish it properly. "First of all, the cop wasn't the actual cause for your headaches. I took care of him quite easily - without harming him. The problem was that I left today with every intention of getting as far away from you as possible. The guardians weren't happy with my plan, so they reminded me, how fast they are pulling me out of this world, again."
"That's the reason Gengar and the other ghost types lost you..." Dawn muttered. She also wondered, what Joy would have done to her, if the guardians had decided to keep J in their grasp. A shudder rushed down her spine.
"Yes and they were so agitated that coming back was a real pain. It might be the distraction we need, though, so that Team Rocket won't notice that I traveled worlds," J mulled more to herself than to Dawn. She quickly directed her attention to the girl. "I figured that since I don't have much of a choice but to work with you, I might as well get started."
"Sounds more like you wanted to take out your anger on me..." Dawn muttered, crossed her arms and pouted slightly.
"I admit that, but I think we're even." J's tone was more amused than anything else.
"I know, I know." That's why she sulked. Shaking her head, she banned that emotion from her consciousness. It brought a fresh stab to her head.
Finally, Dawn dropped the medicine into the glass of water and watched the tiny bubbles, as it dissolved. "How did you do it? Activating my pokeballs, surveying the battle..."
"I had my Porygon-Z do all the work," J explained. "It transmitted the images and sounds of the battle and released the pokemon I choose."
"Right..." said Dawn. She didn't agree with J's actions, but knew it was futile to argue with the huntress. In fact, now that she knew J's motivation, she wanted to avoid any more tension between them. If they really had to work together in the future...
The girl gulped the medicine down, hoping it would not only drown the pain in her head. "So," she began, "what are you going to do with me? Not that I'm eager to spent any more time with you, as we already do."
"I'll see that we avoid putting you in any more danger than necessary. You'll have the freedom to run after your contests, while I keep taking care of Team Rocket myself.
"However, since you already encountered them twice, it would be foolish to deny the possibility that you might end up in the crossfire, again. I would try to polish up your fighting skills for both battling and close combat. You seemed to have a rough idea, how you can fight, but you weren't ready to act on it."
Dawn wanted to interject, but J cut her of with a wave of her hand. "I'm not going to spent all my time drilling you; I still have plenty of other tasks to do. At the moment, though, we're stuck with each other. I need about a week to recover and Joy will keep an eye on you for most of that time. Might as well push you in a more independent direction."
Why me? Dawn allowed herself to wonder for the first time, but kept her reluctance in check. It wasn't as if the huntress was eager to work with her and Dawn noticed it wouldn't be fair to J, if she rebelled too much. Even if she was a criminal.
But there was one more reason, Dawn accepted the changes that would come with J. It was the lake trio that had arranged that plan in the first place. Azelf, Uxie and Mesprit. Since the day they had met, there had always been a bond between them. She trusted them and their judgement.
J could be lying with her whole story, Dawn mulled, but I really can't think of her as that creative. And even then, forcing me would be so much easier for her.
That settled, Dawn looked at the onigiri she hadn't touched, yet. She really was hungry.
And J was probably, too.
Gingerly, the girl stood up and lifted the plate from the ground. She stepped over to J - making a little circle around Salamence's head as it growled - and finally presented it to the huntress. "You said those healing powers take a huge toll on both of us. So..."
J seemed surprised; she rose a brow at Dawn's direction. When the coordinator offered her a little smile, she reached out for one of the riceballs and accepted it.
Despite all their differences, there was a certain understanding between the two. Neither wanted to be part of the story and opposed the way of the other. That knowledge helped Dawn, even if just a little.
"Come on," said J after her first bite. "You just wanted to make sure they really haven't been poisoned."
I did it! Phew. Most. Complex. Chapter (to edit). Ever. You should have seen the first draft. Or rather the comments I wrote next to it... *shudders*
Hope you like it, hope it explains a thing or two.
So, as always, write ya next time!
