Till We Meet Again - Chapters 2 and 3

Chapter 2 - Contest Blues

We arrived in Jubilife City in the morning and Dawn signed up for the Contest that was happening tomorrow. I signed up for the Sinnoh League and Dawn was practicing some new moves she's been working on. I watched her as she worked with Bunery and Quilava.

"White are you ok?" Dawn suddenly asked me and I snapped out of my daze and looked at her.
"Um yeah why?" I asked her and she sighed.
"You seem a little down." She told me and I shook my head.

"Nope just thinking." I said and she nodded and went back to training. We had lunch later on and I started training Lucario and Ninetails along with Dawn and the rest of the day flew by. I was talking to mom on the phone and she told me what's been happening with everyone else. Apparently Cheren is in Hoenn now collecting badges for the Hoenn League. Bianca and her Pokémon are the stars in the Pokémon Musicals and she's traveling around creating new clothes for Pokémon all over the regions.

"How are you holding up honey?" She asked me and I smiled and then sighed.
"I'm fine mom, why do you keep asking me that?" I asked her.
"It seems to me you've been traveling a lot to find him." She said and I knew who she was referring to and frowned.

"That's not true." I said a little coldly and instantly regretted it.
"Honey you know I'm only worried about you." Mom said calmly and I sighed.
"I know mom and I'm fine." I told her but she still didn't look convinced.
"As long as you're sure." She said and I nodded.

"I have to go, I'll call you soon." I said and she nodded and hung up. I sighed and went to the room we hired for the night. I noticed Dawn wasn't there but Lucario was meditating on his bed. Something he picked up from Brycen back in Unova.

"Where's Dawn?" I asked him while grabbing my stuff.
"She's outside." He said without opening his eyes and I nodded and got dress in some pants and a singlet. I went outside and saw her looking at a ribbon in her hand and I smiled.
"Thinking about tomorrow?" I asked and she turned around and sighed.

"I don't know why, I've been doing this for a year and yet I still get nervous." She sighed and I smiled and nudged her.
"That's a good thing though, that means you still enjoy it." I smiled at her and she grinned back.

"What about you? Do you still enjoy battling?" She asked and I shrugged my shoulders.
"I really don't know anymore. At first it was fun but now I think it's just something that's become daily. Maybe it's because I don't find it challenging." I told her and she nodded.
"Maybe." She agreed and yawned.

"Come on, time for you to head to bed." I told her and she smiled and grabbed Piplup. I fell asleep as well and I started dreaming about colors and shapes.

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Dawn started screaming and Lucario and I ran backstage to see what was up.
"Dawn what's wrong?" I asked bursting into the room and looking around.
"My hair is not working." She cried out and I saw her hair sticking up on all ends.
"Is that all?" I asked and she glared at me.

"White!" She said and I rolled my eyes and helped her fix her hair. Piplup was sitting on the table as I fixed her hair and when I was done, she was happy again.
"Thank you!" She said and I laughed and helped Pachirisu and Piplup into their little cheerleading outfits and bumped into Zoey, a friend of Dawn's.

"Hey White." She smiled and I smiled back.
"Hey Zoey." I greeted and Lucario nodded at her.
"Are you entering?" I asked her and she nodded.

"I'm going to go get changed." She told me and I nodded and saw Dawn coming.
"I'll go get seats." I told the both of them and they nodded.

"Come on you three." I said and Lucario, Piplup and Pachirisu followed me as we found seats. Marian the announcer came out and started the show. Zoey appeared first and was wearing a green vest and some green pants.
"Leafeon Spotlight!" Zoey said throwing the ball into the air and flower petals appeared and so did Leafeon.

"Leafeon use Leaf Storm." Zoey commanded and leaves surrounded Leafeon.
"Now use Energy Ball." She said and a green ball came out of Leafeon's mouth and Leafeon shot it into the air in the middle of the Leaf Storm and it exploded and green sparkling lights appeared and made Leafeon look elegant. The crowd cheered and I clapped along with a smile on my face.

"The way you showed Leafeon's moves was wonderful." One of the judges said.
"I loved it." Nurse Joy commented.
"Remarkable," the last judge said and I saw Zoey smile as she went backstage. Soon more coordinators appeared and some of them were really good. A couple stuffed up and left bad impressions to the judges. Soon it was Dawn's turn and she appeared onto the stage in her pink dress and her hair in a ponytail.

"Bunery Spotlight." Dawn shouted throwing the ball into the air. Love hearts surrounded the stage and Bunery broke through and posed.
"Go Dawn!" I cheered while Piplup and Pachirisu cheered as well.
"Let's hope she does well." Lucario said and I nodded.

"Bunery jump into the air and use Ice Beam." Dawn commanded and Bunery jumped into the air and spun around while shooting out beams of ice. A huge spiral of ice appeared and the crowd cheered. I noticed a purple haired boy in another seat watching Dawn closely and I frowned.

"Who's that?" I asked and Piplup saw who I was looking at.
"Piplup pip." Piplup said and I looked at Lucario.
"He said that's Paul." He translated.
"Who's Paul?" I asked Piplup.
"Pip, pip, Piplup, pip." Piplup said.

"An old rival of Ash's." Lucario translated and I nodded. I missed the rest of Dawn's performance but she made it through to the next round along with Zoey. During the whole contest I watched this Paul closely; I noticed he only got interested whenever Dawn was on. I noticed him looking at me once from the corner of my eye and saw his eyes widened. I looked at him and saw he quickly looked away and I frowned. The contest finished and Dawn won the ribbon. I met her outside and smiled and congratulated her.

"Great work." I smiled and she grinned back. As we were walking back to the Pokémon Center we ran into Paul. He looked up when we got back and he looked at Dawn first then me.
"Paul? What are you doing here?" She asked shocked.
"I heard White Rowan was here so I came to challenge her." He said looking at me but I knew that wasn't the real reason but I played along.

"Sure thing, two on two ok?" I asked and he nodded. We went out the back and I got ready.
"Torterra stand by for battle." Paul said and those words made me think of Ghetsis. A shiver went down my spine and I told myself to forget it.
"Ninetails let's go." I said throwing the ball into the air and Ninetails appeared.
"You may have the first move." I told Paul and he nodded.
"Torterra use Leaf Storm." He ordered and leaves surrounded Torterra and shot straight at Ninetails.

"Use Fire Blast." I commanded and Ninetails shot out huge flames that made a star shape and collided with the leaves.
"Torterra use Mega Drain." Paul ordered and Torterra grabbed Ninetails with vines from its back and I smiled.

"Ninetails use Flame Thrower on your body." I ordered and Ninetails shot out huge amounts of flames from his mouth and covered his body. The fire caught on the vines and traveled to Torterra and surrounded Torterra. Torterra fainted and Paul recalled it back to its ball.
"Weaville stand by for battle." Paul said throwing the ball into the air and a Weaville appeared.

"Ninetails cover yourself with flames." I ordered and Ninetails did what I asked. Paul frowned, trying to figure out my plan but he wouldn't be able to find it. No one has ever figured out my battle plans and how I work and I would like to keep it that way.

"Weaville use Night Slash." Paul ordered and Weaville's claws glowed red and he charged at Ninetails. He got closer and closer and Ninetails stayed where he was. When Weaville was near his face that's when Ninetails dodged and jumped into the air.

"Use the flames on your body and use Fire Blast." I ordered and Ninetails focused the flames from his body and transferred them to his mouth and made a star out of fire and shot it at Weaville which cause him to faint.
"Weaville return" Paul said and I smiled and scratched Ninetails behind his ear as Paul walked over to me.

"As expected of the Champion of many regions." He said and I nodded.
"You were surprisingly good." I told him and he nodded and looked at Dawn who was walking over.
"I know the real reason why you came to the contest." I told him before Dawn reached us. Paul raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything as Dawn smiled at him with Piplup in her arms.

"That was great!" Dawn smiled and I saw Paul look away and quickly blushed. She didn't notice it and looked at me.
"I'm going to head inside and grab something to eat." Dawn said and I looked between her and Paul and grinned.

"I will and Piplup why don't you join Lucario and I." I said running past, leaving Paul and Dawn alone outside. When we sat down and ate it was a while before Dawn joined us and I saw she was alone.
"Where's Paul?" I asked her.

"He left." She said releasing her Pokémon and we all sat down and ate. After we finished I went and called Bianca and started talking about her latest musical she was in. I told her all about Dawn's contest and about Paul watching Dawn closely. Bianca giggled and I frowned and raised an eyebrow.

"What's so funny?" I asked as she grinned.
"You're jealous aren't you?" She asked and I frowned again.
"Jealous about what?" I asked.
"That Dawn has an admirer and you don't." She said and I gave her a hard look.
"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." I said a little bluntly and her face fell a bit.
"But aren't you missing N?" She asked and a pain went through my heart but I kept my face normal.

"Bianca I do not care about him." I said coldly and hung up. I walked away and back into the room we hired and I saw Lucario meditating while Dawn was in the bathroom.
"You're aura's wack." Lucario said to me and I looked at him.

"You need to calm down." He added and I sighed and got dressed into some pants a singlet and went outside. A breeze went past and my hair flew along with it. I sighed and took a deep breath and stared into the night sky. Why was everyone assuming I missed N and that I was looking for him? It was so annoying that everyone assumed that. Can't I travel around for myself? Why does there have to be a reason for it? And why would I miss N? He abandoned me a year ago. Why should I feel anything for him? I mean, sure I still loved him but after six months I became angry and hated him.

"What's on your mind?" Dawn asked and I sighed and put on a fake smile.
"Nothing." I lied and she raised an eyebrow and I sighed again.
"White you know you can tell me anything." Dawn said leaning on the railing like me. We were silent for a bit, just staring into the sky.

"Everyone believes that I'm on a journey to find N." I said breaking the silence.
"Well are you?" She asked after a few minutes.
"No." I said and then bit my lip and looked down.
"I don't know." I whispered and she nodded.

"What should I do? I hate him but I don't know what will happen if I do see him again." I asked and she looked at me seriously.
"Well I highly doubt we'll run into any time soon, but if we do then just do what your heart tells you." She said and I nodded and hugged.
"Thanks Dawn." I said and she hugged me back.
"No problem." She said and went headed to bed and I fell asleep that night with ease.

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Chapter 3 - A Rocky Road

Dawn and White arrive at Oreburgh City for White's first battle in the Sinnoh Region but what's going on at the museum?
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Dawn and I arrived at Oreburgh City around afternoon with my newly caught Kirlia. I did some training before walking over to the gym.
"Hello is anyone here?" I called, as we entered the gym. When no one answered I saw a guy coming in.
"Excuse me where's the gym leader?" I asked and the guy looked at me and then pointed outside.

"Roark is at the museum." He said and I nodded.
"Thanks." I said and we left and headed to the museum and saw it was chaos.
"Whoa what's going on?" I asked to no one in particular. Someone saw us and walked over, some kind of scientist I think.
"Sorry the museum is closed at the moment." He apologized and Dawn and I looked at each other.

"I'm looking for the gym leader." I told him and he sighed.
"Look I'm sorry but Roark is tied up at the moment." He said and I sighed. I really didn't like to use this.
"My name is White Rowan." I told him and his eyes widened.
"Come this way." He said leading us to a room and I saw a guy with red hair and a miners suit with glasses.

"Roark there's someone here who can help," the guy said and Roark turned and frowned.
"White Rowan, what are you doing here?" He asked and I smiled.
"I came to challenge you." I told him and he gave me an apologetic smile.
"Yeah I'm sorry about that. It'll have to wait until we solve this problem." He told me and Dawn and I looked at each other.

"Can we help?" Dawn asked and Roark thought about it.
"Sure we could use all the help we can get." He said and Dawn and I smiled.
"So what's going on?" I asked and he sighed.
"We've gotten reports of some thieves about to steal some fossils tonight at six." He informed us.
"Who would do that?" Dawn said and I shook my head.
"What do you want us to do?" I asked and Roark explained the plan.
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It was just ten minutes before six and Lucario and I were in the vault with the fossils guarding it while Dawn was outside patrolling. Lucario was meditating while I sat on the desk bored as hell.

"You should try to meditate." Lucario said and I pulled a face.
"I think I'm good." I said and Ninetails and Kirlia appeared and Ninetails sat down and Kirlia sat on the table with me.

"Hey you two." I smiled and Kirlia made a cute noise while Ninetails licked his paw.
"How's Dawn and Piplup?" I asked Lucario and kept his eyes closed.
"They're clear, haven't met anyone yet." He told me and I nodded. Soon it was two minutes and the vault opened.

"Roark has asked us to take over in here." Two guards said and I knew something was wrong. I looked at Lucario who looked at me and I knew he was thinking the same thing.
"Oh really, then you won't mind if we stick around here? I kinda twisted my ankle." I said and they looked at each other and Ninetails growled at them and came closer to me.

"Our instructions were to swap with you." One of them said and I smiled.
"Really? My instructions were to not leave this place." I said innocently and this just pissed them off.

"Serviper use Poison Tail." One of them ordered and a Serviper appeared.
"Kirlia use Psybeam." I said and Kirlia shot a rainbow colored beam from her mouth and it hit Serviper and made it faint.
"Carnivine use Bullet Seed." The other ordered and a Carnivine appeared and it shot seeds at us.

"Ninetails use Flame Thrower." I said and Ninetails shot huge amounts of flames from his mouth and it collided with the seeds and made Carnivine faint. The two guards tried to escape but Lucario was behind them straight away.

"Where are you two going?" He asked them and soon they were arrested. Lucario did an aura sweep and made sure no one else was going to make a surprise visit.
"Thanks for your help." Roark said and I nodded and left for the Pokémon Center with Dawn and fed everyone.

"I'm going to call my mom." Dawn told me and I nodded and headed to the room. I looked out the window and I thought I saw a black Pokémon flying in the sky.
"N?" I whispered.