Age is a virtue. Wisdom is not a sin. Yet arrogance, when fettered and tempered over many years, curdled into a very dangerous blade. Rex was not yet there. He would not make it to the zenith of his capacity for a long time.

"Temp? You mean the guy on all the wanted posters?" Rex frowned at the mention of Tempest Quinn, one of Team Rocket's longest-running beasts. The younger man had always wanted to try his mettle against a Rocket Beast and see if he could win. How hard could it realistically be? "I could take him. Maybe I wouldn't win, but that doesn't matter. Think of the fight! The rush! The excitement!"

He clenched a fist, eyes wide as his Gallade fell forward. His Gallade had once been knighted from a fairy tale, but that tale had disappeared when Dialga had descended from the heavens and buried a city in the sands of time.

That name was lost, just like the Pokémon itself as it fell forward. Yet Gallade caught himself on a bloody hand as he turned to face Lancelot.

"Who cares who dies? We're all gonna make it to the end eventually. As long as our last expression..." He spread his hands. "...is a good one, it doesn't matter."

---

Hitoshi Inoue
CATCHA THE RABSCA

There was, eventually, no Keiko to cuddle. Such a tragedy was exchanged with the fact that there was finally room in the shelter for Rex to spread out. A worthy trade, if not for the fact that the sun was rising.

Dreaming gave way to dozing, and dozing gave way to wakefulness as Rex's eyes shot open.

Gallade, meanwhile, stood vigil over Keiko as she played in the surf. His gaze was sharp, though he often averted his eyes in the same way that a knight would when protecting a princess's modesty. The Gallade had a name, naturally, but Rex rarely used it. A knight from a distant fairy tale had been sealed away and only the name of the species remained to the loyal knight.

That fairy tale had been stripped away by Dialga. Now the knight toiled in the realm of men.

Still, the knight clapped in appreciation as Keiko emerged from her tussle victorious. That sound eventually summoned Gallade's master, who slipped through the trees like a shade. Rex's bedhead had grown even more frazzled. Perhaps a comb was necessary.

"Woah." His eye widened as he saw the courier. "Nice."

Whether he was talking about the Tatsugiri or its captor was up in the air.

---

keiko mori

Rage is a noxious thing, ugly and cruel. Black-hearted rage is responsible for much of the suffering in the world, and this Annihilape proves it as it sends Gallade careening through a dozen large, sturdy oaks before the thirteenth brings the knight to a stop.

Shadow Pokémon hit like sledgehammers. Rex wanted one. Yet first, the animalistic part of his brain needed to deal with the blade embedded in his arm. It hurt. It bled. It was proof of existence in the most vile way possible. His body could drip blood onto the floor, which meant that it could continue working.

Compared to the sensation of being removed from existence, Rex decided that fighting like this was vastly preferable. The rush of adrenaline was enough.

"Like fighting nature, you say?" Rex pulled out the blade, before dropping it as a spasm of pain coursed through his arm, searing and hot. Confidence threatened to crumble. "You're describing a battle that I can't win, right?"

He chuckled as he clasped at a locket around his chest.

"That sounds..." Energy poured from the Key Stone embedded in the locket's center. A reminder of Littleroot.

"FUCKIN' INCREDIBLE!"

Suddenly, the nearby forest is cut in two by a mighty Psycho Cut, seizing an innocent Cincinno in the process. Through discarded groves, a knight emerges with a fluttering cape.

---

Hitoshi Inoue
CATCHA CINCCINO

"Tsk." Rex peered down at Keiko as she sprawled out all over the shelter. "What the hell?"

What was this chick doing? She had laid claim to the entire shelter! What a tyrant. She was the type to purchase a queen sized bed and splay out everywhere, kicking off any nearby stragglers as she laid claim to plush pillows and fluffy comforters. Keiko Mori was an evil woman.

Rex nudged her. She didn't move.

"Hm." He shuffled around to find a corner he could sleep in. He tried to slide in next to her, but he didn't fit. "Hmmmmm..."

He tried another angle. No dice.

This was unfathomably ridiculous. Finding a comfortable sleeping position was harder than wading into saltwater with a dozen cuts. She was making this impossible. She may have dreamed of nothing, but neither did he. Incidentally, that was because Rex couldn't actually get to sleep.

"Fine. Let's try..." He forced Keiko to scoot slightly in order to sleep next to her, using the courier as a makeshift pillow as he did so. "...this."

---

keiko mori

She stormed off, and Rex couldn't help but smile.

"Don't worry, big guy." He pat the Gogoat on its side and scratched into the foliage that adorned its neck. The sensation reminded Rex of wandering through the tall grass to catch his Ralts when he was younger. The sense of nostalgia made him smile. It was one of the few times he liked to look back. "She'll come around."

Probably.

"You just gotta stop eating cards, but I'm sure she likes you deep down. It's just... super deep down."

Probably.

He nodded to Gallade, who sat in silent vigil as his eternally loyal knight. A sword with the sole purpose of engaging in warfare. Rex returned him to his Pokeball and held the orb against his lips.

After a moment of waiting, he meandered towards the shelter.

---

keiko mori

His heart burned for a moment, before the embers quickly returned to smoldering. The faint taste of Pinap was still on her lips, and he considered seizing them again. Yet restraint was a virtue, and it was one he would continue practicing on this island.

Even as she loosened up, even as he teased the stargazer from her distant sights down to earth. Those twinkling lights were do far away, but she'd reach them someday. Perhaps she was already up there. Perhaps she was already a star.

The thought was a strange one. Maybe the oxygen deprivation had made him silly. How long had they kissed for?

"Ah, Gallade will be fine. He's a noble soul. I wouldn't be surprised if our camp was a fortress by the time we return. He's always been reliable." Ever since they had huddled in that cellar together during Littleroot, they had trusted one another absolutely. Gallade had his back, and Rex had his. "He's like Pelipper, in that way."

Yet as they made it back to camp, there was a familiar foe awaiting the courier.

---

keiko mori

She tugged her arm free. He grabbed it again. Keiko's embarrassment was growing, and all that did was make Rex's eyes grow more intense. If she hid her face, this window into her soul would disappear into the ether and who knew when he'd see it again? It could be days. Weeks. Months. Years.

There was a chance he'd never see it ever again, barring this precise moment.

So he capitalized on it by kissing her. Hard. When they broke apart to breathe, he hugged her.

Something flickered in Rex's chest.

"If it's nothing, then I'll just worry about it later, right?" A flicker of change. Even tradition could shift, given enough time. "We can just wait and see, yeah?"

---

keiko mori

"That's a good amount of time, it'll-"

He stopped, his expression unreadable. The conversation of sacrifice and Pelipper was lost in the wind, even as she wrapped her hand in his. He squeezed it tight, but Rex's expression didn't change as he turned to her.

Had she...?

"What did you say?"

---

keiko mori

He was a passable swimmer, but he pursued physical activities with a perverse sense of fervor. He suspected that she would have better form, and form was important when contesting the shore.

"You've spent this entire time looking after me. You've planned for me. You've cared for me. Do you think I'd be half as useful if you got hurt?" He was quiet for a spell, though that was because he refused to dig deep enough to answer his own question. "I want to help you. All I have is my name, my body, and my Pokémon."

Eventually, the trail widened. Sharp cuts in the trees guided their way, and Rex felt them as he passed. A reminder that like the Pokémon that made the marks, that he was a sword that coveted victory.

Even if, sometimes, that victory didn't need to be for him. It could be for the courier by his side.

"And besides," his voice trembled slightly. " I don't want you to be alone here."

Even if she deserved to trod upon the land, she would eventually have to return to the sky.

---

keiko mori

She was so competitive. Even as they requisitioned their clothes from where the various alcoves they were perched at, it was the trait that shined the most. Maybe that was why he felt a twinge of sadness when her hair was knotted into buns for the sake of efficiency.

She looked liberated with her hair down. When it fluttered in the wind, he couldn't help but stare.

"Nah. No storms since we ended up here, and not a cloud in the sky. More likely he's just meandering." Rex tugged on his shirt and tried to flatten his hair. A lost cause, he was beginning to accept. His little dance with Keiko had messed it up further. "Probably doesn't realize that things are a little dire."

He attempted to downplay their circumstances, lest Keiko burst a blood vessel.

When their clothes were on, Rex clucked his tongue at the path they had taken to reach this point. The trail was still clear in the moonlight, so he led Keiko down it. Absentmindedly, he popped a Pinap into his mouth and chewed, before swallowing.

"If he doesn't get back soon, I want you to take Togepi. It's a risk, but he might be able to teleport you to Dewford. Just make sure you don't forget to come get me."

His voice was casual, but his expression was serious. It was his attempt to protect her.

---

keiko mori

"Now? Whatever we want. There's nothing stopping us from simply... being."

There were no eyes on this island. As far as the world knew, Keiko and Rex did not exist. They were simply two names that had disappeared into the uncaring maw of Hoenn, and the region had simply refused to spit them out. Instead, it had swallowed them up.

And now they were here. Animalistic and uncaring.

"But." Somewhere in his heart, he knew that Keiko would want to return to the real world. He would, as well. "First things first, we should get back to camp and get some sleep. It's been a long day."

His grin grew sly as he basked in her brilliance.

"Assuming..." He nudged her with a teasing expression on his face. "...that you're not too weak to stand, courier~."

---

keiko mori

His words cause the young man to pause.

"Is it a crime to be home?" He had not chosen Littleroot to seek glory. He had simply been chosen by circumstance to be born into a small town that had suffered the rage of Dialga. "Lotta people like me. Change on the dollar, man. Same as you."

He wiped his lip, the sarcasm unnoted, unappreciated, and misinterpreted in the seriousness of the moment.

"Don't worry, dead people are even cheaper. Filthy fuckin' Rocket. I'll kick your a-"

Rex had been raised on traditional battles. He had watched them on television, fought them in tournaments, and had observed enough Gym Leaders and their exhibition matches to interpret his own version of Pokemon battles. Yet that had almost blinded him to his experiences in Littleroot.

Almost. Not quite.

Rex twitched, attempting to dodge the knife as it flew within centimeters of his chest. Instead of finding a heart, it finds an arm. In exchange, Gallade marches against a Pokémon cloaked in shadow to wet the sand with its blood, sending a Psycho Cut towards the ape's chest.

---

Hitoshi Inoue
CATCHA ALAKAZAM