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As the sun set on Mount Coronet, Dawn and Lucas took ahold of each other’s hands and wandered into the distortion world to save Barry. It was that day they knew, that years coming after these first thirteen, would never be the same for the trio.
It was Lucas who first lost his left boot. He distinctly recalls the day when his dad presented him the pair. Showering him with praise about how he was going to grow up to be such a smart boy, going to travel with Professor Rowan and those kids from Twinleaf. He would need a shiny new pair to set off on the right foot, his dad said, a pair that would properly prepare him for the deep snow of the Sinnoh mountain range. Yet he could only watch as one slid off his feet, falling down infinitely in the distortion’s void.
Then it was Dawn who lost her right mitten. She remembers how her mom gifted the pair to her on her thirteenth birthday. Dawn remembered they were knitted by Johanna herself. She would sing about how she was all grown up now, and how her previous pair was outgrowing her new ones. Her mom would still remind her though, her little girl still needed a pair of mittens to shield her hands from Sinnoh’s frostbite. Yet there her right went, throwing itself off as she threw her Empoleon’s ball, falling into the infinite void. Dawn just stared, being left with one.
Finally, it was Barry who lost his scarf. He’s reminded of the evening his mom and dad presented it to him. His dad came to visit the week before his journey and Barry was playing around with Dragonite. He was only taken out of it by Palmer and Charlotte calling his name, approaching him with a cotton green scarf. Charlotte scolded him for losing his old one, while Palmer chuckled, saying when he was Barry’s age he’d run around in basketball shorts. Only for both mom and dad to gently remind him to not lose this one, as even grown ups need to keep warm and safe from Sinnoh’s snow. Yet he lost it. And he just stared at it, helplessly, vacantly as it slid off his shoulders and falling to the distortion world’s emptiness.
And as the three came to awaken in their home world, surrounded by their parents, they looked at their foot, their hand, and their neck. They realized they had each lost something that evening.