Archive of Our Own

They’re not really friends, Penny thinks. 

They’re definitely something—you can’t go through an experience like what happened in Area Zero without forming some kind of bond—but it’s the only thing liking them together. 

It’s been six hours since everything went down and they came out of the crater shaken and unsure where to go, but there’s still a few weeks left of the Treasure Hunt ’til the summer holidays and she wouldn’t mind getting to know Arven and Nemona better—assuming, that is, that they can get this damn tent up.

Nemona is insisting that they don’t need a tarp and wants all of them to sleep in her massive tent, Arven would rather they each use their individual ones and is having a conniption fit over her comment about tarp, Juliana is desperately trying to mediate between them. Penny has resigned herself to a sleeping bag under the stars, and Flareon for warmth.

Not the most auspicious of starts.

It’s almost a screaming match, and Juliana’s arms are moving faster than Penny can make out—she’s relatively new to sign language, too used to Juliana texting her replies during Operation Starfall.

“You’re going to ruin your tent!”

“So? I’ll just get another one! It’s lasted—”

CRACK!

The argument is interrupted by a thunderclap so loud it makes Penny jump. Above, clouds are gathering; Paldea is well known for its freak storms, and what was a clear, starry sky half an hour ago has become dark and it looks like half the ocean is about to come pouring down.

“That’s not ideal,” Juliana signs, ever the master of understatement, lips pressed together tightly. This was a bad idea. It’s never fun when your friends don’t get along, much less when you’re the only friend they have in common.

“Maybe we should just get a hotel?” Nemona suggests, but she’s cringing—it does feel a bit like giving up. “We’re not far from Medali.”

Arven sighs. “Yeah, let’s just do that.”

Neither ask Penny, though they do look to Juliana to confirm they’ll be getting a hotel. Strange, not being the de-facto leader. It’s not like she thinks she’s above her friends in Team Star or anything, just that they always looked to her for answers and for the big decisions. Makes sense though, neither really knows her.

(Though, they know more about her family life than anyone in Team Star. It’s not like they know about her home life or her dad, even though she’s not been specifically hiding it, it’s never come up.)

So they pack their things up, quick as possible, but beating the rain is a fool’s errand; all four of them are squashed together on Miraidon’s back, whose quite happy to keep being their transport, yet they’re still soaked by the time they make it to the city proper.

“Let’s just find the cheapest place and then go from there?” Juliana suggests, “I just want somewhere warm and dry to lie down in for a couple hours.”

“No way, let’s get something better!”

“We can’t all have rich parents,” Penny snaps, because she’s cold and wet and miserable, and getting really annoyed, now. Arven swallows uncomfortably, so she probably shouldn’t have mentioned parents at all, but her point still stands.

“So I’ll pay! Look, I’ll pay for a big room at something nice, and then we can be together, and out of this rain!”

That’s quite generous of her, actually. “…I’m down for that,” she says, regretting her harsh tone from earlier.

“Yeah, same.” 

Juliana nods enthusiastically, so Nemona fiddles with her phone for a minute, looking for somewhere decent, before grinning. “Lemme make a call quickly, but I’m sure they’ll have space!”

Juliana is standing in the hotel lobby, utterly and totally gobsmacked. She loves that word—doesn’t quite translate into Paldean Sign, but she’s a Galarian at heart—and nothing else quite encompasses the sheer amount of shock she’s currently experiencing. 

When Nemona said something nice, she had thought, oh, there’s a Budew Drop in town, probably that, or something thereabout on the fanciness scale. She had not thought: the Pachiritzu.

There’s expensive, and there’s expensive, and honestly the air she’s breathing probably costs more than her entire house, so she feels totally out of place here. Arven and Penny seem equally gobsmacked, so at least she’s not alone in this.

People are staring. Part of her wants to crawl underneath the earth to get away, though the rational part of her brain knows they’re staring at the two youngest Champions in Paldean history, and it’s nothing malicious.  She shoots Penny a commiserating look; the faster they get into the room, the better.

Over at the counter, Nemona is steamrolling the poor employee with a big smile on her face, making sure everything is in order, and she gleefully procures a key, turning to them theatrically. “All good guys! The Fialka Suite is all ours.”

“Great,” Juliana signs, punctuating with a big smile. “Thank you so much for this. This is a lot.”

“No hay problema! Really, Mother is friends with the owners, so it’s more thanks to her than me.”

“Thanks anyway. This is pretty suite,” Penny adds, smile sly.

“No—absolutely no puns!”

“No choice! We are punstoppable! You must accept the puns!” 

“Oh no, I’m not taking orders from someone who doesn’t lay out a tarp,” Arven hisses, and for a moment Juliana is worried the conversation is going to deteriorate, but Nemona just laughs, and he breaks down into a small smile, and Penny’s snickering at the both of them; and maybe this is going to work out after all.

“Hey, you guys haven’t got any gym badges, right?” Nemona asks, looking pensively at Medali gym. She loved it, and Juliana loved it too, so it follows that—even if they’re not battling fanatics—her new friends should as well. 

Arven shrugs dismissively; Penny winces at the question, as though the very thought of gym badges offends her.

“I was more focused on helping Mabosstiff,” he says, and then elaborates when Penny and Nemona look at him blankly. “He was injured, so me and Juliana went hunting for the Herba Mystica that were protected by the Legendary Titans, so we could heal him. It was a pretty cool adventure,” and he grins at Juliana who grins back. Nemona has to suppress a surge of jealousy—those battles must’ve been awesome!

(She regrets dismissing him and his goals at the start of the Treasure Hunt, knowing now that he was just trying to help his pokémon. And part of her wishes she’d been invited along.)

“What about you?” Juliana signs, nudging Penny, who just winces again. That won’t do.

“I… tried for one. It didn’t go well.” 

“What? No way! Your team is so strong, I bet you’d do well if you tried again—I beleevee in you!”

That draws a little laugh from her—mission accomplished, no more sad times—but she shakes her head anyway. “My team was fine, they’re all wonderful. I’m the one who wasn’t up for it… Anyway, I was busy with Operation Starfall.”

“But you’re not busy anymore, right? It can’t hurt, I mean either of you—“

“Drop it, Nemona,” Arven says harshly, then pauses and starts again more softly: “Sorry. You’re not wrong I guess, but the league challenge isn’t really my style, or Penny’s.”

“You’re both as strong as any gym leader anyway,” Juliana adds. “Take a Champion’s word for it.”

Okay. No gym badges. She knows she can get a bit carried away with her special interest so fair enough that it’s not for everyone. But… “What should we do then? Because we gotta have some sort of goal, but if it’s not gyms…?”

They don’t really have any common interests, if she’s honest. She’s a battle-gal through and through, Arven likes cooking so probably wants to work on his skills, Penny’s a tech whiz but Nemona doesn’t really know her goals, and Juliana’s always been focused on her pokédex above even the gym challenge, so…

“We… could maybe…” Penny starts, but trails off, unsure. Arven just shrugs.

“Anyone have a bucket list handy?” Nemona asks, and to her surprise Juliana snaps her fingers and grins, clearly delighted.

“Sightseeing!” she declares.

“Sightseeing?” Penny asks, brow furrowed. “Like, the Treasure Eatery and stuff?”

“No, no, like the 10 Sights of Paldea. We’ve all been so focused on individual goals, and there was so much stuff to do—I’ve certainly not been to all of them.”

“I’ve spent so much time in my room… I guess I haven’t really seen them. It sounds like it would be fun.”

Arven nods. “Yeah, you’re right. I think I saw one or two along the way, but… I never really stopped to appreciate it. Paldea, I mean.”

And suddenly, Nemona is back in the lab, listening to Professor Turo talk about how he couldn’t bear to see Paldea’s rich and varied landscapes destroyed by the future pokémon, and so please, defeat him. 

She feels excitement building in her, because this is going to work, they’re going to make this work. “Yeah! So, the 10 sights then, a whirlwind tour of the best Paldea has to offer, with the pest people Paldea has to offer!”

The road out from Medali to Collonade Hollow is a long one, and they decide to walk rather than ride on Miraidon. In the interest of not breaking the poor thing’s back, Penny had joked.

It’s pleasant, even though Nemona breaks off to battle every trainer they come across—not, to her immense disappointment, that many dare challenge a Champion—and Juliana’s eyes will sometimes bulge as she sees an ultra-rare pokémon that she just has to catch. 

Arven’s never been one for the pokédex, but it’s interesting to see her process; she caught sight of a Komala, drowsing among a pack of Maschiffs, and suddenly she was laserfocused on her task, releasing Pikachu in preparation. As for him, the little rodent was apparently just as focused as well, flying of all things, (and since when do Pikachu fly?) discreetly picking off the horde until it was just the blissfully unaware Komala left.

She tells him afterward that Komala are prone to rolling away when feeling threatened, but in the moment it was funny to see her crouching and moving a scant few inches per minute, slowly edging her way toward the tiny pokémon. Pikachu darted across, quick as a flash, paralyzing a split-second before Juliana’s ball struck true with a backstrike.

Anyone would’ve thought she was watching the fate of the world be decided as the ultra ball wobbled thrice and clicked, all the tension melted out of her as she held it up triumphantly, high-fiving Pikachu. Arven has seen her deal with the actual fate of the entire world in Area Zero, and he’s pretty sure she was more worried about this than that.

The way she documents Komala, letting them out and petting them and introducing herself, is sweet. They lean into her pets affectionately, and yawn cutely, which she snaps with her phone and inserts the picture into her ‘dex. It’s tradition, she explains. She and her Mum moved around a lot before settling down in Paldea, and they spent a year and a half in Illumina where she learnt to love photography.

The next pokémon she spots is a Persian, and he makes sure to photobomb that picture. Juliana mock glares at him, but she doesn’t delete it.

They arrive in Collonade Hollow on the cusp of sundown, and the sunbeams filtering in cast it in scintillating gold.

“This is… massive,” Penny says. She’s not really paying attention to what she’s saying, too caught up in the sheer scale of what she’s looking at. The columns must be at least fifteen metres in height, not to mention the width; it’s really impressive. 

“Hey what are the chances that the pillars break and this comes crashing down?” Arven asks, eyes wide. There’s a note of what sounds like real concern in his voice. 

Nemona laughs, then stops herself abruptly, so it’s nice of her to try and be nice, but the smile is evident in her voice when she says “no chances. This has been here hundreds of years, it’ll be here in hundreds of years.”

“There are a lot of Dragon pokémon here,” Juliana adds, “there’s been a well-documented nest for the Garchomp line here for almost four hundred years. The oldest living mother is 127 years old.”

“Oh, neat! They must be pretty strong!”

“But,” she continues, staring Nemona in the eyes as she signs clearly and firmly, “it is a protected site due to the species being at risk of poaching.”

“Right, right.” She sighs, and she looks so despondent that Penny feels bad for her. If someone told her there was some awesome, super-advanced tech somewhere and then told her she wasn’t allowed to look at it (like, say, Turo’s programming) she’d also be pretty upset.

“I’m sure there are other strong pokémon around.”

“I passed through on my gym challenge, and there were some nasty Dugtrio around,” Juliana signs, “ and a couple of really vicious Sableye. And a Hariyama almost got me good, too.”

Arven nods. “We need you to defend us here, not all of us are Champions.”

And, it makes her brighten up, and she does in fact defend them from any pokémon looking for a scrap, and they even get charged by a raging Garchomp, much to Penny and Arven’s (entirely reasonable) horror, and Nemona and Juliana’s (mad, absolutely bleeding mad) delight.

Juliana manages to catch the thing, and Penny is not ashamed to admit that she is cowering behind her Sylveon as she eagerly examines their claws and measures their height and lovingly scritches their scary, fearsome-y, dragon-y face. She has Nemona doing a big thumbs up next to them in her pokédex picture; when she asks if Penny would like to be in it to, her answer is a resounding no.

Collonade Hollow to Casseroya Falls is a much farther journey than it was there from Medali; which means lots and lots of camping.

It was alright when they were actually in the Collonade, because the stone was always warm—a side effect of the Garchomp nest, what with those pokémon hating ice so much, they always keep their home warm. Now, however, under the open sky, they need more protection, and so the Tent Debate recommences.

“Nemona,” Arven starts, pre-empting anything she might say, “we’re not all going in your tent.”

To his left, Juliana puts her face in her hands. He feels kind of bad, she’s clearly tired and if they start arguing—which he bets they will—she’ll feel obligated to try and help sort it out, but he is also tired and he wants to sleep in peace with Mabosstiff, which means in his own tent.

“It would be less work to set up just one big tent,” she protests, but she’s also looking at Juliana with mounting guilt. 

“I’m fine doing a bit more work. Penny?”

“Don’t drag me into this.”

“Look, you know what, it’s fine. Separate tents.”

It feels good to win an argument, but Nemona’s clear upset is kind of throwing him. Whatever. Juliana looks relieved enough that she doesn’t stay too upset for long, instead eager to eat—his cooking is, after all, something to look forward to.

They measure their progress by the watchtowers they pass, stopping 15 minutes each time to let Juliana scale it at breakneck speed in order to catch the Gimmighoul she predicts will be there. It’s their preferred habitat, she explains, and it’s really hard to build a decent sample size of this pokémon, considering how rare they are.

The Falls are visible from far away, and only get more impressive the closer they get. Like the Collonade, the grandeur is in the magnitude.

“It’s not the same as just seeing it from the island,” Juliana signs, feeling the spray against her face. The bridge they’re all standing on is a little rickety, and the lack of any handrail-adjacent barrier to protect them from falling into the lake is a little frightening, but it’s lovely, really. 

“You’d think it was raining,” Nemona says, her dyed mesh of green hair waterlogged and plastered against her face.

“Ugh, rain.”

“Well. Um. It’s definitely raining.” Arven clears his throat and laughs, wryly amused, when they look at him questioningly. “Look up.”

“Ohh,” Penny says, before repeating herself. “Ugh, rain. Next time we find civilisation, I’m buying an umbrella.”

“I’m so glad we’re not on those bridges anymore because that was so terrifying,” Penny confesses.

“Worse than the Garchomp?” Nemona teases, because it might be a bit mean—objectively, she is aware that a rampaging Garchomp isn’t something most people greet with a grin and a declaration of battle—but Penny looks very cute when she’s scared.

“Way worse. I can count on you to stop the Garchomp, but even Miraidon probably isn’t fast enough to catch me if I fall.”

“Doesn’t your phone have safety features installed?” Arven asks, looking concerned. He’s kind of sweet like that, even if he’s really annoying too.

“Obviously. I’m more worried about getting wet.”

“Penny…” Nemona doesn’t know where she was going with that one but, talk about twisted priorities. “You’re worse than Julie. You know how fast she climbs those watchtowers? She said she doesn’t even care if she falls from them. Sometimes she jumps instead of climbing down, if there’s a rare pokémon nearby.”

“Speaking of,“ Arven says, looking around, “where is Ju—WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL FUCKS JULIANA!?”

He’s looking down, below the cliff, and Nemona follows his gaze and is greeted by the sight of her tiny, small, fragile friend balancing on a single thin beam of wood over a massive crevasse—slippery, because it’s been raining all morning—arms delicately extended to each side, as she carefully walks toward a Dreepy who chose to float in the middle of it.

She looks up, all angelic and serene, waves at them slightly, and then resumes.

“She is not doing that right now,” Arven says disbelievingly. “What if she falls?”

“Maybe she doesn’t mind getting wet?”

“Penny you are being the opposite of helpful right now.”

“Sorry for scaring you guys,” Juliana signs sheepishly, Dreepy sitting on her shoulder and nibbling at her braid. “I just wanted to catch this little guy.”

“Give some warning next time,” Arven says, faintly hysterical, handing her a bowl of paella—apparently he stress-cooks, and the fact that her antics have incurred more than a kilo of rice do make her feel bad. It’s really good though, the smell of saffron and rosemary strong and appetising.

They’ve all recovered just fine from the shock though, so: “I took a pretty good picture for Dreepy, if you want to see it.”

“Lets see it,” Penny says dryly, eyes narrowed.

It’s her, Dreepy munching on her braid as they’re still doing now, winking with a big thumbs up. Over her shoulder in the background, their three horrified faced are distantly visible.

The trip to the Gracia Stones brings them through an area populated by grasses in burnished yellows and dark browns, trees following the colour schemes with their bark and yellow leaves. 

“It’s like it’s autumn all year round here,” Arven says, “honestly I think this is the real sight, not some rocks.”

“The rocks are meant to be pretty cool, the formation is unusual,” Nemona says, but she’s looking around too, fascinated. “But I mean, you know, it’s like the Treasure Hunt, you find your own Treasure, you find your own sights.”

And then Juliana chimes in: “The rocks are alright, the coolest thing was the god in the vault.”

The what? 

“The what?” Penny asks, eyebrows raised incredulously.

“You know Ms Raifort?”

“The history teacher?” Arven asks, wracking his brain. He attended maybe one, maybe two classes before deciding he couldn’t stand the teacher and asking to be transferred out. “Yeah, she was kind of boring. Really rude about my Dad’s research, I didn’t like her much.”

“Oh man, that sucks. I didn’t take history, I was on the battle track, not the humanities track, but I’m kinda glad I never had her.”

“Yeah, I didn’t take history either.”

“She told me to hunt down these Treasures of Ruin for extra credit—it was really helpful for the pokédex. You have no idea how hard it is for people to register Legendaries, and it got me some recognition in the research community, so.”

Somehow, Arven does not think that Juliana is treating this with the severity it deserves. “Go back to the part where you caught a god?”

“It was nothing, I can show you to vault if you want.”

“Hell yeah! Also, you are battling me with your god. An actual Legendary! That’s so cool.”

“Really? I have four, so.”

“Juliana your concept of normal is so far divorced from reality that it’s scaring me.”

“Aww Pen-Pen, don’t say that! I’ll protect you from Julie’s insanity!"

“Never mind I’ll take the insanity.”

“At long last!” Nemona delcares, theatrically sweeping an arm to present: “The rocks!” 

Penny peers judgingly at them. “Overhyped.”

When she agreed to see the 10 sights of Paldea, she’d not realised that 20% of them were located in an icy mountain region where temperatures are sub-zero and wifi is patchy at best.

“Ladies and gentleman,” Penny says, ice in her bones, murder in her eyes, “who came up with this idea? And how shall we punish them?”

“Glaseado’s Grasp isn’t far! And after, I know the way to Montenevera. They serve hot chocolate and other warm beverages,” Juliana signs, before quickly shoving her fingers back into her pockets.

“Ladies and gentleman, the court has decided to acquit the guilty party.”

Nemona laughs. “It’s not that cold.”

“Yes it is!” Penny and Arven chorus, both borderline scandalised.

“Please, please put a pair of trousers on. Tights are not enough. And a coat. You’ve got to be mad not to be cold right now,” Arven says.

She only rolls her eyes dismissively, and ignores him.

They’re all shivering by the time they get to Glaseado’s Grasp, and Nemona in particular regrets not packing a warmer coat than the school blazer, which she had begrudgingly put on halfway through the climb, at Arven’s insistence. It’s only because he’s worried that she’d catch cold, but there’s no way she would; her blood’s always pumping because of all the battles!

They set up camp—with their separate tents, in the interest of not creating more conflict—and whilst everyone’s gathering around the fire and sipping hot soup from their thermoses, she gets in a little more training against a group of Cetoddles. 

She gets a bit carried away because it’s way, way darker than she thought when she gets back, and the fire’s been extinguished. There’s a thermos left out for her, but it’s lukewarm, though that’s okay because they’re all being a little dramatic about the cold. Setting up her tent is a hassle but she manages, and Dudunsparce is always a good heat-source on cold nights like this, so she goes to sleep comfortably.

Juliana rises early, and finds that the cold isn’t as pervasive as last night. It makes sense with the sun, she supposes, as she tries to stretch, only to shove her face into the canvas of her tent by accident. 

Right. Glaseado’s Grasp. Tent. Not home in bed. (She’s not been home… since she started school, actually. She should call her Mum, see how she’s doing.)

She changes into her school uniform, but leaves off the puffy jacket, sticking to just the blazer, it really is that much warmer than last night—Penny will stop complaining at least. 

She goes outside and sits in the snow for a bit, shiverring erratically without really feeling it. She feels kind of strange, to be honest, a bit disconnected. It happens.

The sun is warm on her face.

When Arven gets out of his tent and sees Juliana sitting, dazed, in the snow, with neither jacket not blazer, alarm sirens start blaring in his head.

“Juliana? You feeling alright?” 

No reply.

Okay. Don’t panic. Call for help. He checks his phone, and curses loudly—no signal. He looks around, and there in the snow is Juliana’s discarded blazer, now wet, so he takes his own off and puts it around her shoulders, shaking her gently, to no avail; she still doesn’t respond. She’s breathing, though a little shallow, she’s still breathing, 

Out of the cold, out of her wet clothes—the bottoms of her trousers must be soaked by now—warm drink, then they need to get her to the closest hospital, Montenevera, fast. 

He runs to Penny’s tent and unzips it, uncaring about propriety or anything like that, shaking her roughly awake, much to his displeasure.

“Whazzup—what? Arven?”

“Get up, Juliana’s got hypothermia, we need to get her to hopsital.”

“Shit. Get Nemona, I’ll pack up. Where is she?”

“I left her with my blazer in the snow—“

“You what!? Get her into a tent idiot, she needs to be warm—what does she need?” Penny asks, panic saturating her tone. She’s not dealt with hypothermia before.

“Can you change her into something dry? I need Jolteon to make her something to drink.”

“Yes, yeah, here’s his ball.”

Penny barely bothers to lace up her boots, grabbing a change of clothes for Juliana and running out in her eevee-themed pjyamas. Arven watches her bring Juliana into her tent for a split second, before turning toward Nemona’s tent, and waking her up as well, bringing her up to speed.

He releases Penny’s Jolteon and has him fire up the kettle with a quick thunder shock, willing the water to boil as fast as possible, and starts packing up Juliana’s stuff, hunting desperately for Miraidon’s pokéball. Once they have her in dry clothes and she’s had something to drink, they’ll just have to send her off on them alone; Miraidon is fastest when carrying a lighter weight, and they’ll only be able to pray they get to Montenevera in time.

The water boils. He adds a peppermint teabag and enough cold water that it won’t shock her system too bad to drink, whilst making sure it’s still warm enough to help, and doesn’t bother announcing himself before going into Penny’s tent, smiling grimly at Nemona as she finishes packing up all of their stuff.

Inside, Penny’s Flareon is curled up with Juliana, who still seems somewhat spacey but is at least present enough to focus on Penny as she babbles anxiously about her time abroad. She’s wearing one of Penny’s grey, oversized jumpers, and a larger pair of purple school trousers that might be Nemonas, seeing as hers are too wet.

“You’re here! Good. Good, give that to her,” Penny says, lips pressed together so tightly they’re completely white.

Juliana accepts the drink, but has to be prompted to drink, so Arven keeps his hands on the cup as well to make sure it doesn’t spill. She’s drunk about three quarters when he decides that’s enough, and he brings her out of the tent, Flareon keeping her warm in a sling around her chest, and calls Miraidon out.

“You have to get her to Montenevera hospital as fast as possible, okay?” he tells them, helping Juliana into a sitting position on their back. “And make sure she doesn’t fall off. She’s not well. And go quickly!”

Nodding sharply, Miraidon takes off in a burst of speed, carefully balanced. Juliana stays stable on their back.

Arven, Penny, and Nemona watch them disappear in silence, hoping that everything will turn out alright.

Juliana comes to in a white hospital room, under heavy blankets and with an IV drip in her arm. 

This is… suboptimal. They were meant to be heading to Paldea’s Highest Peak today, making a stop at Montenevera for the night, and instead she’s gone and done… something to land herself in hospital.

Nurse Joy comes in, smiling brightly. “Champion Juliana! It’s so good to see that you’re awake—your pokémon was really quite worried when they brought you here this morning. How are you feeling?”

“I feel adequate. Perhaps a little tired,” she signs, trying to remember the formal signs she uses with professionals and teachers and such, willing the fumbling out of her fingers. They feel half-numb, and far too warm under the layers of thin white bandages. At least they’re wrapped individually. “I am quite hungry. What time is it?”

“It’s about 21 and a half o’clock, I’ll bring in some warm soup for you. Do you know what happened?” Juliana shakes her head no. “That’s quite alright, dear. You came in with a nasty case of hypothermia this morning. We’d just like to keep you for a couple of days, to ensure everything is okay.”

“Of course.” She hesitates. “Has anyone asked for me? Like Champion Nemona? I was with my friends at Glaseado’s Grasp before…”

“Not that I know of, but it’s quite the way from Glaseado’s Grasp, so I’m sure they’ll be here soon. Your pokémon must be very speedy, to have made it here in such a short time.

“Now, about the treatment—“

They make it to Montenevera in the early hours of the mourning, exhausted out of their minds, but determined to keep going. Nemona almost gets into a shouting match with the hospital secertary when he tells them they can’t go and visit their friend that moment; they’re all worried. Even the glamour of where Nemona puts them up can’t cover the anxiety they’re all feeling.

At 11 o’clock the next day, they return to the hotel, and Arven does the talking to ask about seeing Juliana. They’re lucky she’s asked after them, which is apparently enough proof to let them see her during visiting hours.

“Julie! You’re alright!”

“Hey guys,” Juliana signs, somewhat clumsily, pushing herself into a sitting position. Her gestures are far more sweeping than usual.

“How are you feeling?” Arven asks, looking worriedly at the drip in her arm and various monitoring machines next to the bed. “What did Nurse Joy say?”

Juliana starts to sign, but her hands hang still in the air, word truncated as she frowns.

“Hey, it’s fine if you don’t—it doesn’t really matter,” he says.

Penny laughs. “Anyway, it’s your fault for dragging us here.”

And then Juliana shrivels in on herself, and poses her hands squarely on the white quilt. They’re trembling, and she’s blinking fast, turning her head down and—

“Hey what gives? Julie?” Then whirling to face Penny with a glare—“What was that for?”

“It was a joke! Besides, she is the one who said we should come here!”

“Shut up! Get out!”

Penny storms out.

She finds her in a coffee shop, sitting in a corner with two paper cups, head down.

“I’m not a bully,” Penny says as she approaches.

Nemona sighs. She’s really not the right person to be saying this, but Arven is too irritated to speak to her, and Juliana needed someone to sit with her, so she’s the only one.

“You’re not.”

“Yeah. It was a joke.”

“I know. Julie knows too.”

“So why’d she cry?”

“Oh come on, you’re not an idiot! She’s in hospital, she doesn’t need to hear that it’s her fault—“

“Well, she’s fine!”

“No she’s not! They might have to amputate her fingers!” Penny stares. “They—she’s going into the operationg room soon—it might be fine but it might also—she can’t speak Penny!”

People are staring. Nemona knows she shouldn’t have shouted—knows how anxious Penny is—so she closes her eyes, takes a deep breath. These things happen. No need to get agitated. 

“Let’s go outside?”

Penny nods, grabbing the cups. The wind is brisk, but the glacial temperatures of night haven’t yet set in, so noon is only chilly and not freezing.

“I didn’t mean to make her cry… I didn’t realise…”

“Yeah.”

Neither of them speaks for a while. Penny sips at her drink, and throws it into a bin as they walk, semi-aimlessly, through the town.

They veer, slowly, toward the hospital.

“The cold sucks,” she hears Arven saying from outside the door, a pause, and then he laughs. “Maybe… I’ll talk to the others about it.”

Another round of snickers, at whatever Juliana must’ve signed.

“Go in,” Nemona faux-whispers at her, staring expectantly. Penny hesitates, but doesn’t get the choice when she opens the door, pushing her inside. 

“I—“ the three of them are looking at her and a part of her wants to run away and hide, wants to disappear away for a few days and then forget this ever happened, except, she said goodbye to that part of herself. She just has to say “I’m sorry. I didn’t know—it was rude of me, and, uh, in pretty poor taste. I got you a present?” She holds out the cup.

Juliana looks contrite. “I’m not supposed to have caffeine.”

“It’s hot chocolate.”

“Oh, thank you then!” She smiles, full and proper, eyes crickling at the edges, and Penny feels like all is right again. “And, I forgive you.”

Juliana goes into the operating room that evening, and they get kicked out of the hotel and told to come back the next day, when Juliana is recovered. She texts them the minute she’s out; thankfully, it all went well, and Juliana’s in perfect health once more.

They’re not allowed to see her for a couple of hours, and Arven recalls what he and Juliana had been talking about yesterday with a grimace. There’s probably no better time for it, and he doesn’t want Juliana to have to be the one to say it, right after the ordeal of hypothermia.

“Penny, Nemona,” he says, voice measured. Both girls turn to him with an apprehensive look in their eyes—seems he wasn’t as good at hiding his discomfort as he thought. “Me and Juliana talked a bit yesterday, and… this hasn’t really been going great. I mean, we’re always fighting,” he gestured between him and Nemona, “and Penny you hate everywhere we’ve been, and… this might have been a bad idea.” 

“Wait—what? So we just give up?” Nemona sounds heartbroken.

“Are you that unhappy?” Penny asks, looking uncomfortable. “Is Juliana unhappy?”

“No, she’s loved it!—Apart from the hypothermia, it’s been a lot of fun, but… you two don’t seem to be happy at all. And maybe this just isn’t working out. Maybe… we should just turn back. Take the short road home, as it were.”

Nemona doesn’t say a thing. It was her idea, he supposes, and she doesn’t feel like she can say anything. Juliana’s dejected and he knows she wants this to work and he’s willing to try but… are they?

“No way.” Arven blinks, surprised at Penny’s determined tone. “Yeah we fight a lot but, we’re friends aren’t we?” Are they? He doesn’t know. “I want to keep going.”

“Yeah. Definitely,” Nemona says, voice smaller than usual. “Let’s do this.”

The’re allowed to see Juliana a few hours later. She looks up as they come into the room, a worried expression on her face. “So… are we going home?” she asks.

Nemona grins, shakes her head excitedly: “no way!”

“We all agreed, we wanna keep going,” Arven adds, Penny nodding her assent, and Juliana lights up.

“Onwards, then!”

Paldea’s Highest Peak is two things; cold, and dark. 

“Didn’t we agree,” Arven grouses, “that we hated the cold? And it was better to avoid it? All we need now is for it to snow and it’ll be just like that first night.”

“Don’t even joke about that,” Penny mutters. There’s no Pachiritzu near this time, only a multi-hour long trek down to Montenevera, and she would actually die if she had to do that.

This far north, there’s basically no cell signal either, so calling a flying taxi is off the table.

She stares at the sky, which is blessedly empty tonight, every constellation clear on display. It takes half a second to locate Cassiopeia, and she smiles fondly at it, thanking it for letting her borrow its name—and then, the sky seems to ripple.

Almost like water, an undulation shudders through, and she’s almost worried that it’ll be something terrible, that the time machine somehow survived and all of time and space is collapsing, until a thread of soft green light starts to dance, joined by more and more until curtains of green and pink and blue waltz gently across the void.

“I don’t think I’ve seen anything more beautiful,” Nemona says, and Penny couldn’t agree more, her eyes fixed on the show. She’s seen pictures of this online—her desktop background cycles and one of the images is this—but nothing can compare to this. 

“Anyone wanna put my tent up for me?” Penny asks, glaring balefully at the bundle of tent pegs and canvas sheets. 

Juliana’s no better, tucking her hands into her pockets and sighing, wishing for a hot chocolate. 

“We could… we could share a tent.”

Nemona’s head snaps to Arven. “Did you just…?”

“Only because it’s less effort! And you have the nicest tent anyway.”

“Huddling for warmth decreases the chances of catching hypothermia,” Juliana signs quickly, before showing her hands back into her pockets. 

“Well,” Nemona says, a big grin creeping over her face, “it would be pretty bad if you got hypothermia again.”

“Absolutely,” Arven agrees with an imperious nod, and trudges toward her. “Come on, lets set this thing up.”

They only just manage to fit all of their sleeping bags and their pokémon—Pikachu and Flareon and Scovillain are all excellent sources of heat—pressed side by side, whispering and giggling, and happy.

“Slow down!” Arven groans, panting and out of breath. Next to him, Nemona’s in scant better condition. The topography surrounding Fury Falls suddenly got dramatically more mountainous in the last few kilometres, and it’s been a challenge getting through. At least, when climing Mount Glaseado, they were too cold to notice how exhausted their muscles were.

“Can’t keep up?” Penny taunts, high-fiving Juliana, both smugly even of breath. “Weak.”

“You’re literally on Miraidon!”

They finally arrive, having alternated taking turns on Miraidon’s back in order not to exhaust them too much, at the base of Fury Falls. The twin waterfalls are impressive, though not as scary as Casseroya Falls, in Penny’s opinion. They can’t fall off any bridge here, and it comforts her, knowing that there’s a zero percent chance of her getting wet—

“Dra! Tini-tini! Dra-ti-ni!” 

With a running start, Juliana dives into the pool, armed with a pokéball, creating a massive SPLASH!!

Penny’s nice, warm hoodie is now soaked through. As is all of her other clothing. She closes her eyes and takes an even breath in through her nose, then exhales through her mouth. She is calm. Zen. Serene. 

Nemona, however, is not: “Julie—you little!”

Penny opens her eyes, and sees her friends in the same unfortunate predicament. Mabostiff shakes himself violently, Arven making a small noise of dismay as he gets hit with the brunt of the sprayed water.

Treading water in the pool, Juliana waves with good cheer. “I caught them They’re super rare! Are you—“ she has to cut herself off to push herself up in the water—it’s hard to sign and stay afloat simultaneously, apparently— “impressed?”

Three voices chorus an angry: “NO!”

“Oh, that reminds me, there was another god in a vault around here.”

“Julie where did you even find the time!?”

Levincia’s skyline is beautiful, but honestly, it just doesn’t measure up to the northern lights. It was a stroke of luck that they happened to be on the mountain peak for that show, and it’s an experience that Nemona will never forget.

“It doesn’t really measure up, does it?”

All the others nod or make noises of assent, looking at the neon-lit city.

“Last chance for a gym anyone?” she suggests brightly, and takes the arm punch from Arven with a good-natured grin, before laughing it off. “Iono’s a bit much, especially if you’re not prepared for her.”

Penny nods somewhat tersely, and Nemona frowns. She’s gotten better at reading her friend’s moods, and there’s something about Levincia that’s bugging her, but she doesn’t want to push.

“She made me participate in her stream for her gym challenge,” Juliana mentions, a little amused. “She was pretty blatant about wanting more subscribers out of me.”

“Yeah—she doesn’t really give you a chance to refuse, huh?”

Nemona turns to Penny questioningly, but the gears are turning in her mind, and if this is what she thinks it is… 

“You tried to fight Iono?” Arven asks, surprised. “How come you don’t have her badge? You’re definitely stronger than her.”

“Her strength… wasn’t the problem. She started filming me and no one had said anything about it and I—I panicked, I guess,” Penny admits, shame edging into her voice. “I really don’t do well with crowds, so I just… ran away. I didn’t try any gyms after that.”

“Penny, that’s terrible!”

“I know it’s dumb—“

“Wait, no, that came out wrong, I mean what Iono did was terrible! She shouldn’t have just filmed you like that. No wonder you don’t like gyms, that must’ve been horrible for you.” Penny blinks, surprised, but less needlessly shameful, so Nemona forges on. “She means well, but she can be such a forceful person sometimes, and the way her gym test is set up is super unthoughtful for people who don’t like the spotlight like you do. I’m sorry that happened to you.”

“Oh,” Penny says quietly, a little bashful. She smiles, like some of the weight is off her shoulders, pure and genuine. “Thanks. It’s over now, though. Maybe I’ll try a different gym in the future.”

“Yeah! There are a lot of more chill ones—like, Brassius in Artazon makes you find hiding Sunfloras, and Grusha in Glaseado has a snowboarding course that you have to clear, and you could ask to have the match privately, I’m sure they’d say yes. If you want, that is.”

“That might be fun… I’ll think about it.”

Juliana looks at the map. Nemona looks at the map. Arven looks at the map. Penny looks at the map.

“We really didn’t plan this route very well, did we?” Penny asks rhetorically.

“No not really,” Juliana signs, eyes creased and lips pursed.

The trek from the 10 Million Watt Skyline to the Half-Sunken tower has them traversing the entirety of Paldea, travelling it’s entire diametre to arrive at the slanted thing. It’s frankly a bit disappointing, sitting dramatically tilted in a pool of water, the stone half-crumbling.

“I bet there’s a Gimmighoul at the top.” Juliana muses, assessing the tower. 

“No. No—Juliana that thing is one strong breeze from toppling down!”

“Forecast said no wind.”

“Julie I hate to say it but Arven has a point.”

“See! I have a point!”

“Don’t listen to them Juliana, you climb the dangerous and unsafe-looking tower that’s probably crumbling right as we speak, nothing could go wrong!”

“Wow! This brings back memories,” Nemona says, gazing over the Grand Olive Orchard. “I started my Treasure Hunt here.”

“Me too,” says Juliana, scanning the horizon, then pointing to a watchtower in the distance. “I caught my first Gimmighoul there.”

Penny huffs a laugh. “You and your Gimmighouls…”

“I don’t think I’ve been here… I went straight for Klawf, the Titan,” Arven says. 

“You’ve missed out on the olives! Speaking of, lets go get olives, I am absolutely craving olives right now,” Nemona says. “There’s this great little shop in Cortondo.”

“Why no just pick from the trees?” Penny asks, peering at them.

“Most of those are baby Smolivs! Really good for sample size, super easy to document.” 

“Yeah, and super not edible. Do not eat,” Nemona says emphatically.

“Speaking from experience?” Arven teases, then gapes when Nemona goes red. 

“You did not!” Penny insists, trying—and failing—to conceal her smile.

“I was five! And stupid! And Smoliv was fine, my sister adopted them.”

“Champion Nemona, bane of Smolivs…”

“Not you too! Julie you’re supposed to defend me!”

Nemona looks at the gym, and then at Penny. She did say maybe, when they were at the 10 Million Watt Skyline… but then again she doesn’t want to pressure her friend… 

But Penny’s also looking at the gym, expression pensive, and so she decides that it can’t hurt to ask. “So, you thinking of taking it on?”

She’s quiet for a second. “Maybe.”

Nemona nods, and doesn’t push. She really, really wants Penny to say yes, wants her to see that taking on gyms can be fun, but it’s her choice in the end.

“What’s the gym challenge?”

“The Olive Roll! It’s not public, I promise, the only people watching will be the gym trainers.”



“But the gym battle… that’s public.”

“Uh… yes. Just because people tend to hang around the court all day, it’s not like it’s broadcast. We can go when there’s no people. Or less people.”

Nemona grins and Penny smiles back. 

“Then let’s do it.”

“I admit,” Katy says, tapping her pokéball contemplatively, “I don’t usually take on battlers so late.”

Penny winces, but Juliana jumps in for her: “Thank you so much for being so accomodating.”


“Oh, of course! I didn’t mean it as an insult, lovey,” she says to Penny, “it’s admirable that you’re pushing through your anxieties for this. I’m so proud of you.”

“We all are!” Nemona says, and Arven pats Penny’s arm reassuringly.

“You’ve got this,” he says confidently. 

Katy sends out Lokix first, and in response Flareon jumps out of his ball, mouth sparking and ready for a scrap. 

“I’ve got this.”

Katy’s Ursaring  goes down to a Moonblast from Sylveon, and a round of cheering goes up from the three on the sidelines as Penny smiles.

"Your strength rose during our battle like a nice bread in the oven,” Katy compliments. “I feel that I may need to work on my own strength as well! And so, congratulations! You passed! As proof of your victory against me—the Gym Leader—allow me to present you with this Gym Badge.”

Penny exhales quietly, petting Flareon’s head. Her eyes are shining. “Thank you.”

“Off you go, then. Until we meet again!”

“For the record, I have been peer pressured into this,” Arven grumbles, looking at the massive olive. He pokes it tentatively; it wobbles.

“Go Arven! We believe in you!” Penny cheers, putting on her widest and most facetious smile, striking a pose with a big thumbs up.

“Yeah! You can do this!” Nemona adds, apparently not picking up on the sarcasm and punching the sky. 

Juliana mirrors Penny’s pose, then breaks down into silent giggles, leaning on Nemona for support. She smiles at him genuinely enough that he’ll feel bad if he doesn’t go through with this though—as he said, peer pressure. 

Arven smiles, almost bittersweet, as they walk away from the Grand Olive Orchard, fiddling with the badge in his hand. “That’s all of them, right?”

Juliana frowns, because she swears they’re missing something but she’s just not sure what.

“Hold up, Collonade Hollow, the Gracia Stones, Casseroya Falls…” Penny starts listing them under her breath, counting up on her fingers. Nine. “Nope, we’re definitely missing one.”

“Wait, really? Ace!” Nemona says, unabashedly joyful. “We’ve still got time. The Treasure Hunt isn’t over, you know! What is it though?”

“I’m Yungoogling it,” Juliana signs—sort of, it’s hard to sign when you’re typing with one hand, but they get the gist of it and nod. The Ten Sights of Paldea! A Must-See when Visiting this Beautiful Region! 

Nemona peers over her shoulder to read as she scrolls down the page, ignoring the touristy information, and she whoops loudly when she sees what it is.

“Beach holiday!”

“Huh?”

“The one we forgot, it’s the Secluded Beach! I hope you guys have swimming costumes, let’s hope the weather’s nice!”

The weather is, in fact, nice; the sky is a matte azure, a scant few white clouds drifting lazily through it. No strong winds, and the temperatures simply beg you to go for a swim. Even Penny gives in after fanning herself determinedly on the shore for 15 minutes, stepping into the cool ocean with relief.

“This is just this once,” she warns the other three, “and only because it’s stupid hot.”

“Sure,” Juliana signs deadpan.

“This is never happening again so enjoy it.”

“Never?” Nemona asks, tone falling, though she snaps right back to a grin when Penny starts looking guilty. “Well, guess that meant we gotta make the most of it. Waterfight!”

“What? No—no way—stop splashing me! Vaporeon! Surf!”

“Cheater!” Arven shouts, now soaked from head to toe, long hair sticking to and half-obstructing his face. “Cloyster, whirlpool!”

Nemona shrieks as she gets pulled into the torrent, right after getting hit full on with the surf too. “Goodra, use muddy water!”

“You’re the worst Nemona!” Penny shouts, cringing at the dirt in her hair, before screeching as she feels something wrap around her ankle and dunk her underwater. She resurfaces spluttering, Arven and Nemona in the same situation as her. 

Miraidon’s tail releases their ankles and they all look to Juliana, who winks and waves cheerily from where she’s perched upon the Iron Serpent, hair unacceptably dry, hiding behind a light screen. “You’ll never hear me coming!”

“This. Means. War! Penny, Arven, us versus her! This cannot stand!”

The war ends with the alliance proving victorious, toppling the tyrant from her iron throne with a soundless wail.

Juliana laughs as she resurfaces, pushing dark strands of hair out of her eyes, tripping backwards and falling back into the sea, breathless. 

“The queen is dead!” Nemona proclaims, standing regally on Miraidon’s back. “Long live the queen!”

“Wait, the queen?” Arven asks, “no way—“

“Yes way!” And she pushes Penny and him back into the water, with a significantly louder wail than Juliana’s.

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Penny says, shaking her head sadly. “Arven, Juliana, new alliance?”

“Yeah!”

“Let’s go!”

Basking in the sun, Juliana flicks through her completed pokédex, the photos she’s captured of every pokémon. All the recent ones have one of them posing goofily in the background—Miraidon’s she retook today, the four of them on their back, drenched and laughing.

Let’s take the long road home, Nemona had said. 

Best decision ever.