Josh's baggage was taking a bit of extra time, leaving them waiting at the baggage claim a little longer than they would have liked. "Not yet," Josh frowned, thinking about his meeting with Nathan's soul at the Border. "It's hard to find someone to work such a high profile position in a region as war-torn as Hoenn. I just hope... no more people have to throw themselves in front of me." Josh offered to give Elise a hug. "I'm just glad you're safe is all. That could have been you, but it wasn't." For the danger that dorian westcliff put the royal in, Josh wanted the Mad Dog behind bars. Maybe even dead.

At last, Josh's baggage had left the plane and onto the conveyor. Retrieving it, he headed toward the bus station on the lower level. "The first thing I want to do is see my family. Did I tell you that the last time Rocket tried to invade Johto, they captured my mom and dad? I fought Rocket tooth and nail to get them back." It was a harrowing story that made Josh a good fit for a Gym Leader: he had a personal motivation to mete punishment for those loyal to Rocket.

Once the two had left the bus station, Josh sent out his Manectric, Zebstrika, and Luxray, loading the first two with his luggage before taking a seat on the black and yellow cat. "It's a bit of a ride to get to my old apartment, but it's not clear across town. You bring a Pokémon to ride?" Josh asked.

Of course being held hostage was frightening, Captain Obvious. While there were many in Hoenn that were qualified, funding was the bigger issue; finding a team competent enough to fill the job while not going significantly overbudget proved to be a major hurdle. "And you have me in part to thank for that," Josh tooted his own horn. "You've come a long way since I first met you at Pyre."

So the royal was originally from Ecruteak? No wonder she was so invested in Mauville Gym. Could it have been Josh's fixation with Raikou? "I am so sorry for your loss. It seems both of us suffered greatly at the hands of Team Rocket. As much as I'd love to carpet-bomb them into oblivion, I just... can't. There are people there not by choice. Look at how many people the League's gotten out from under Rocket of late. It's amazing that people are getting the message and waking up."

Josh whistled at the giant's presence, its blue rings brightly glowing and visible even in natural light. "Your Umbreon's impressive. Next time I get the chance, I should see if I can get Kamuy transferred here." Nodding, Josh led the way to his family's apartment, the fast electric-types a little disappointed Goldenrod's speed limit was so low. The ride to the residence was relaxing and uneventful.

A knock on the door was answered by a warm welcome from a retired couple that appeared to be in their late sixties. "Dad!" Josh slid off his Manectric to give his father a big hug. "Wow, you've lost a lot of weight!" The two made small talk about goings-on, including the man's recovery from a terrible virus, before the Gym Leader waved Elise inside to take a seat in the family room. The PFL's opening week was on television, and Goldenrod appeared to be losing badly.

"Not only a Gym Trainer, but a Gym Leader in your own right," Josh added. "Elise, you should be proud of yourself." At the mention of her son mentoring a new Gym Leader, his mother walked over to give her son a big hug.

"I'm so proud of you. You've made so many of your dreams come true." All but one, and it was one he had no control over whether it would be fulfilled. As long as he was on good terms with the Top Champion, though, a ride on the Johto Beast's back was just a phone call or text away, provided it was done with reasonable frequency. Kyle was quite a busy man, after all!

Josh took a seat next to Elise, his father pinching the bottom of his ear seconds later. "Can you knock that off, please?" The old man turned his head away from the Master of Faster, a big grin on his face. There was little more he enjoyed than pushing his son's buttons every time he came to visit.

While his recollection of the Galar Memory was foggy, Josh vaguely remembered the level of destruction Necrozma and Eternatus weaved upon Galar. If that was what happened abroad... he didn't want to think about how many people lost their lives. "You can't blame yourself for that. Yes, you had a duty to protect your region, but there was no way you could singlehandedly protect Galar from a disaster of that magnitude. While it's not exactly the same, I know where you're coming from. I want to blame myself for things that aren't my fault if it will make people around me happy--"

"And that's one of your problems, Josh," his dad turned back toward him. "Stop over reacting and focus on what you can do, not what you can't do. Take a step back and listen to what other people are trying to tell you. You'll find more people will be happy if you're just honest with them. Don't do what you think will make people happy. Do what's right. You can't make everyone happy, and you'll make more people unhappy if you try."

As the game went to a commercial break, Josh's mother arranged small folding tables in front of the sofa before briefly heading back to the kitchen. She returned with several plates of mini-ham sandwiches. "Figured I'd fix your favorite holiday meal for the occasion. Dig in. You too, Elise."

"But don't the Scriptures say you should always put others before yourself?" Josh's self-loathing continued, trying to find excuses to express his own internal inadequacies with himself.

"That's not what the Scriptures mean," the Gym Leader's elder continued. "Yes, you should take care of those around you, but not at the expense of your own health. You have to take care of yourself, too. If you don't take care of yourself first, you won't be able to take care of those around you. Josh, forget what you were taught in school. All they did was brainwash you. Had I known how they would teach you, we would have had you go to Goldenrod East, just like we did."

While religious schools were protective, they did not have to abide by standards that public schools did. Perhaps the triggered self-loathing was unintentional. Perhaps it was by design, attempting to the next generation in a way that they could be usurped when they came of age. Abused for the good of the generation that raised them.

The conversation would be interrupted by some awful news from Elise. Josh gasped, then frantically chewed the rest of the mini-ham sandwich as she made the delivery. "Elise, I am so sorry. No one deserves to have to go through that. If you need me to support you, I'm here for you."

That could have been Josh with his dad. It was a minor miracle that the eldest of the Devlins had recovered from that horrible virus. During an ad break, Jamie remarked on how cute Rhea was while Jim stood up to take his plate to the kitchen sink. "We're... used to it," Jamie replied with a somber nod. "When Josh was a teenager, three of my sisters died within a six-month period. He couldn't even go to all their funerals because of his school's limit on bereavement days."

"Stop, Mom," Josh protested. "That's not going to make Elise's feelings any better."

Not long after, Jim returned with a deck of standard playing cards and a small whiteboard while the others were still finishing their food. "How much of a card player are you, Elise?" Josh's father asked. "Up for a game of Hearts? It's family tradition every time there's a gathering. We can't play it with just the three of us, because you need four people to play."

"You can't trust him, Elise," Josh teased. "His dad was a card shark, you know."

"If you played any trick-based game like Spades, Bridge, or Euchre, it's simple to understand," Josh started to explain before his dad cut him off.

"Hearts are worth one point each, the Queen of Spades is worth thirteen points, and you don't want points. Once someone gets to 100 points, the game ends and lowest score wins."

"The only exception to that rule is if you get them all, everyone else gets 26 points instead." It was rare for Josh to be able to pull such a feat off; he had multiple obvious tells for when he was trying.

After the first eight hands of the game, Mrs. Devlin breathed a deep sigh. "Josh, I've got something else I want to tell you. We... we're moving to Mauville Hills in December. There's a lovely retirement home there we're going to be closing on in a month or two, and we should finish the moving process before Christmas."

The Gym Leader's heart sank. "Do you know how dangerous Hoenn is? I've only been there for a year, and we've already had an apocalypse, two major domestic terror attacks... Why would you want to move there, when you can live peacefully in Johto? The Great One has kept you safe for the past six years since Team Rocket's occupation of Kanto." His voice slowly started to rise out of concern for the old-but-not-elderly couple's well-being. "That isn't the first apocalypse we've had to survive since the Kanto invasion, either. You don't want to. Trust me."

"But we do. Because we love you. We want to be with you. We're so proud of what you've done there. You said you've always dreamed of being a Pokémon racer. And now, look at you. You're known all around the world for having some of the fastest Pokémon in the world. I still remember when we got you Saber when you were ten years old. Josh, you should be proud of what you've done."

"Plus, going for a trail ride at your Gym sounds like fun--" Mr. Devlin added before his son rudely cut him off.

"You're sixty-two years old!" Josh raised his voice perhaps a little too far. He went on and on about health concerns, just like he once had with Elise when she first started working at the Mauville Leader's Gym. She had adapted to high speeds easily enough. But she was young. These two were getting up there in years. If they suffered a fall, it wouldn't be pretty...