Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1

The sunset is glinting off the waves. There are rainbow reflections on the sand. It's the most gorgeous thing Liza and Tate Arwin have ever seen on the Slateport boardwalk, possibly ever, and the two teenagers privately agree that they made the right decision a few hours earlier. Their senses are on fire, everything alive with a beauty neither can explain. They hear the ocean breathing with them, and they are with the ocean. It's alive, everything is alive, and it's absolutely, hauntingly, terribly, breathtaking.

The twins aren't alone. Lisia and Chaz, two coordinators, are with them, and this is their idea entirely. An idea neither twin regrets. For now.

"Do you see Spinark? I see them," giggles Liza. She leans into Chaz's very nice arms, and watches the stars of the sky swirl into Spinark webs. Tate reaches out, as if he's able to touch the webs that look startlingly real, but he knows that they aren't.

Lisia stares at her own fingernails, smirking, and starts to softly sing playfully, "Two little psychics, lost in the sea, stars in their eyes, as high as can be..."

Tate snorts amusedly. "I think... I think my eyes are melting off. Should I be concerned?"

"That's your acid ridden brain talking," says Liza.

The twins burst into laughter.

Liza kneels down, letting the grain of sand slip through her fingers. It feels euphoric. "Tate, look, feel this. Look at this."

Tate does, following his sister's lead. He touches the sand with his fingers and watches it fall out of his grasp. The twins watch the sand trickle down, spiraling in strange patterns only they can see. At this, they burst into laughter again, joined in by two of their closest friends. Liza and Tate squeal in delight, and continue to laugh well into the night, oblivious to the dangers. They can forget, they can be happy in the chaos.

It's all they've known these past three years.

Three years ago...

Liza and Tate were told they were too young to interfere with Team Magma and Aqua's plans. They had just turned thirteen.

But May Wilmarth, who was younger, did.

It makes Tate jealous. Liza is indifferent.

They watch as May Wilmarth defeats the elite four, then defeats the champion at the time, Wallace. They watch as the girl rejects the championship, finding it odd that they would consider having a child play a big role in Hoenn's structure as a country and didn't get why Red Hassard from Kanto was going to do it. Not that they would really allow it, Liza and Tate think. It was more likely Drake Wyvern would end up being the one truly running things, while May would have the title in name. The same went for Red.

Or maybe it would depend if Steven would take back the championship. Everyone knew that Wallace and Steven continuously booted each other out of the spot, over and over. It's what Hoenn was known for. Well, used to be. Now they're known for having a weather crisis. At least they can comfort themselves with knowing that Kanto hadn't faired too well either. It doesn't do Liza and Tate any good, because Tate's very jealous of the action that May was in, and Liza's more concerned with developing her psychic powers.

Something clicks into Tate's brain. He wants to be the best, to be an elite. Maybe to be the next Lucian Darrow, or possibly even better. Lucian is his hero, not his higher ups in Ever Grande or even Sabrina. It's Lucian, who was the strongest Pokemon trainer that was a psychic and that means something to Tate. He knew that his sister idolized Sabrina, and wanted to become the strongest psychic in her region. It clicks in her brain, too, that while she can't be another Sabrina, she could be something close to it in her region.

Lucian and Sabrina had pushed for Liza and Tate to be duo gym leaders, and what better way to repay them than to exceed their expectations?

The two older esteemed psychics failed to mention the recognition and fame that would come out of this.

During Team Magma and Aqua scattering around Hoenn, Liza and Tate get to meet Lisia, Wallace's niece (well half-niece, technically, there was a lot of family drama involved) who become Hoenn's top coordinator. She is a few years older than the twins and she was already a huge star. The girl had her own fanbase, for Arceus sake. Coordinating became popular again solely because of her. She has a friend the same age that's a popular coordinator too, Chaz, who introduces himself and says he is a fan.

This is also due to the fact that Lisia and Chaz found out that the twins have ADHD and take adderall for it.

"Sharing is caring, sweetie," Lisia had remarked, holding out her hand for a pill. Chaz did the same, grinning in Tate's direction.

At the time, Liza and Tate didn't understand. They assumed prior it was because Lisia and Chaz also had ADHD.

Soon they learned that wasn't the case at all, as they took the pills as a way to feel high, to feel good. Tate didn't like this at first and had opted against it in the future, but Liza had always wanted to fit in with the most popular coordinators and told him to clam it. These older girls were like goddesses and wore amazing clothes and wore makeup and boys loved them. They were so confident in themselves, and Tate got along with Chaz quite well, that maybe instead of dressing like losers they could be perceived as winners.

So Tate and Liza give them pills every now and then, which isn't frequently, and they can lie and get more at the pharmacy. No one suspects a thing.

That's how Liza and Tate ended up being accepted in their circle. Liza and Tate aren't used to having friends that aren't apart of their own family, and the trainers at Hoenn's psychic institute didn't count. Liza claims that she will outgrow them when it comes to psychic abilities. She is entirely correct on this point. But it annoys Tate, because according to their genetic makeup they should be on equal strength when it comes to their psychic powers, but it's clear that Liza is the superior psychic. Who knows why. This only pushes Tate further into his dream to be a better trainer. If he isn't going to be the better psychic, then he absolutely is going to be a better trainer.

On days off from the league, while Liza spreads out her horizons learning about extracurricular things such as fashion and following around Lisia like a Lillipup, Tate is training. In his spare time, Tate watches old videos of Lucian's battles with challengers, over and over. He observes Lucian's strategies, some of it is... morally questionable, but he ends up winning. That's all that really matters to Tate. But he doesn't want to copy Lucian's strategies exactly the way it is. He wants to put his own spin on it, to still be Tate.

Tate calls up Lucian one day. The psychic elite is friendly enough, but it's clear he doesn't want to give Tate too many ideas on how to get stronger. They were, after all, in a competition between the regions, but once every so often Lucian's psychic loyalty will override his region loyalty and slip some tips to Tate.

"Battle people that are way above your caliber. Ones that are way stronger than you. It doesn't matter if you lose," Lucian tells him. Tate wants to ask if he can battle Lucian, but the bookworm crushes that idea instantly. "You're not ready to battle me quite yet. Eventually however. Try fixing up a battle with Norman's girl. Mary, or something."

Tate knocks on May's door in Littleroot town four hours later. The girl stares at him with intensity and asks what he's doing here.

Tate asks if they can battle. May accepts.

He loses.

He battles May over and over, at least twice a week. He loses, of course. Every single time.

After the sixth time and Tate is recalling his defeated Pokemon, May asks why he keeps doing this.

"I want to be an elite one day," Tate responds. "I'm training."

May nods. "Mm. Understandable. Aren't you worried that you'll outgrow your sister?"

Tate's eyes flicker with something close to anger. "She seems to have moved on well without me. Haven't you seen the news?"

It's odd. Having a sister that's able to be making a name out of herself that has nothing to do with battling. Because Liza is starting to become popular just by mere association of Lisia, who's a huge icon in Hoenn. Lisia has cameras follow her everywhere, and because Liza is always with her when she's not at the gym with Tate, the media has seemed to become fixated on the psychic female twin. They want to know more about her. Tate wonders if the same thing will happen to him when he becomes a very, very good battler.

It will.

The media called them "Liss and Liz." Rarely you would see one without the other. It's a Liss and Liz spotting. Liza hates the nickname. Lisia giggles and says that's the price for being hot news. Liza doesn't really comprehend that entirely, because she doesn't get why they would focus their attention on a psychic teenage girl. Liza realizes that it's partially because of Lisia's influence, and Liza almost doesn't mind it. Almost, though. She wants to be her own person, to be the best psychic in Hoenn.

She'll get there. Eventually.

Liza and Tate also friends with three other popular trainers. May Wilmarth, Wally Pendleton, and Brendan Birch. The seven of them would be seen together every now and then, talking, laughing, or battling. They're called the Dazzling Hoennian Seven, a term dubbed by the media about the youngest, promising trainers of their generation in Hoenn. But May, Wally, and Brendan don't seem to like Lisia and Chaz that much, because they're older and are into more mature things. The three of them are a few years younger than Liza and Tate, and start to distance themselves from Lisia and Chaz, while Liza and Tate do not.

Liza notices that her brother seems to be shutting himself out more, almost like he's jealous of the attention that she's getting. This she doesn't understand either, because the media always seems to ask her about him, whenever she and Lisia would run into cameramen and reporters on the street. That allegedly trainers taking on the LNS in Hoenn seemed to struggle a bit more against Tate's Pokemon opposed to her. He's getting attention too, so why is he so rattled?

Liza doesn't mention to Tate that mom and dad are fighting more. It's not like she needs to, because Tate already knows, and she knows that he knows. They both know, it's just best not to talk about it. It's easier to hide away, even though the odds of their mother and father staying together after what happened is slim. So Tate continues becoming obsessed with being a better trainer, while Liza becomes obsessed with honing her abilities.

She takes it out on various objects in the house. A lamp breaks one second, a TV remote next, soon she has the abilities to destroy a whole television set. Mom and dad are clearly horrified, having no idea how to control a teenage girl that has the hormonal urges to destroy things with her powers. Liza doesn't directly hurt her parents. Even with her anger towards them she doesn't take it out on them, she's not that stupid even in her rages.

That is, until, one day their father and mother's shouting is so loud that Steven Stone from next door shows up, and he isn't expecting to be in the midst of the chaos and the arguing. Tate's extremely nervous, biting his fingernails, but Liza's jaw is as hard as granite as she watches them argue, paying no mind to Steven.

Just when Steven ushers the twins to stay over at his place, her father admits what he did, that work's been so stressful lately, and she has no room to talk because she's guilty too. That the woman at his job made him feel appreciated and it just happened as they shared a bottle of wine and suddenly Liza rushes forward to hit him with a book.

She isn't even using her powers.

She hits him over.

And over.

And over.

"How could you do this?!" Liza screams. She hits him over and over. She's aware that Tate, Steven, and her mother are shouting her name, to get her to calm down but pays them no mind. She continues to hit her father with the book, adrenaline spiking to the point where she doesn't use her abilities. "Get. Out! I hate you! I hate you! Get out!"

It's not until Steven grabs Liza's father to get him out of the house, with Liza hitting him as he is pulled away, does Liza fully register that her mother is screaming to get her father out of there for now and Tate's calling his twin's name, each declaration louder than the last.

"Liza. Liza! Liza!"

Liza's only fully satisfied when she storms into her father's study room and destroys her father's collection of action figures. Even then, Liza ends up running into her room, slamming the door, soaking the pillow with her tears and muttering over and over that she hates her father, she hates her father, she really fucking hates her father. And Tate decides that he, on some level, hates his father too, because their father's admission and deflection broke something in his sister, destroying the sweet little girl everyone loved.

Their dad's locked out of the house for a few days, and their mother says they're going to try and work this out. Liza hates this. Tate does too, but doesn't say so, but they both are thinking it. It's better that they separate, the twins think. Steven offers to keep the twins in his house, but Liza and Tate decline. Their mom argues that the twins shouldn't have escalated it. Tate's eye twitches, and remarks that they didn't do anything in this spat, that it was them being stupid and immature.

They don't talk to their parents much after that. It would only end up in a huge fight.

The twins turn to Lucian and Sabrina over the phone. They don't tell them much about what's going on, about the adultery, that she and Tate wish that their parents would just call for a divorce already. Liza and Tate feel that they have no right to complain to them, considering that Lucian and Sabrina's parents were both dead and Lucian's father was allegedly the anti-Arceus, so they settle with telling them that mom and dad are arguing a lot and it's kind of scary. They leave out the part where Liza hit their father with a book. Both have an idea that Steven told the older psychics about it anyway.

Because Lucian asks if they feel safe. Sabrina puts in her two cents saying that if not, she can talk to Wallace about letting them stay at her place in Saffron for a few days. Or if they're not comfortable with that they can stay with Steven. Liza and Tate know that their parents aren't abusive. They know their parents wouldn't touch a hair on their heads. They know that they're safe, and tell Lucian and Sabrina so, and that they'll be okay. Well, okay as two adolescent psychics growing up under the spotlight can be.

Which is not okay at all, it turns out.

Liza spends more time with Lisia at the same time Tate schedules yet another battle with May.

"I have an idea," Lisia says, with that shit eating smirk. A smirk that says that they were going to end up in some trouble. Her usual look.

Lisia is known for partying wild. Liza isn't really into all of that yet, though Lisia has talked about it before. It intrigues Liza, she wants to know all about the beautiful, glamorous people that have no limits. The luxury of losing control without other people telling her what to do. It's a way to feel in control, she thinks. It feels like freedom. Lisia is cool, and older, and Liza figures she owes something to the coordinator for being friends with her.

"Which is?"

"I want to change your look."

Already Liza isn't sure about this. "Why?"

Not that long ago, Lisia had cleaned out Liza's closet. The coordinator claimed that she needed new clothes. All the clothes Liza had made her look like a six-year-old, Lisia remarked. To get even more blunt, Lisia said that if she saw Liza walking down the street with those old clothes on, her friends probably would've laughed at her - gym leader or not. Liza is thirteen now, she's older and mature, and could use a new wardrobe. Liza had agreed, but what more can Lisia do?

Lisia sighs and leans back against her bed frame. "Gosh Liza. Do you see how much Hoenn loves you? The attention you have? You're like, Hoenn's younger sister. Aren't you tired of people asking you about Tate? Don't you want to be known for something else? Which is why I want to give you a new look. To look a little different from Tate. I mean, you two wear those silly blue matching outfits at the gym."

Honestly, this hasn't crossed Liza's mind before. Despite she and Tate being fraternal twins, they look identical. The idea of looking a tad different from her brother gives her some sort of excitement, and the idea of people loving her for it makes her happy. Liza doesn't think her parents have time to love her anymore since they're fighting all the time, but Hoenn... Hoenn loves her. The entire damn region has its eyes on her, and the thought of people marveling and cooing over her new look, makes her giddy.

Liza smiles. "Tell me."

"Have you ever had a piercing?"

"What?"

Lisia smirks and lifts up her shirt to reveal a belly button ring. "I did it myself."

"I am not getting a belly button ring."

"You don't have to," says Lisia, pulling her shirt down. She's already getting her tools. Gloves, a piece of jewelry, alcohol wipes, and a needle. "Yours would be visible. A nose piercing. On the side. It's totally safe. You'll start a totally new trend."

Liza frowns. "And you're sure you know what you're doing?"

"I've given so many of my friends piercings in school, you're totally fine," reassures Lisia. She returns with a needle in one hand, and the jewelry in the other. "Ready? It's going to sting a bit, but that's normal. It'll be over quick. Wait hold on... aren't you a little worried that your parents might freak out?"

Liza rolls her eyes. "They don't even care about anything regarding Tate and I anymore, let's just get this over with."

It's not like they can really stop her. What right did they have, since they couldn't do the right thing and break up.

"Deep breath in," says Lisia.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Liza exclaims with each word and oh Arceus there is a needle in her nose. "What the hell are you doing?"

"There! Done."

"I thought you said you have experience with - wait what?"

Lisia smiles and holds up a handheld mirror. "You look fabulous."

Liza getting a piercing makes the front page.

It's all anyone can talk about the next few days, people are gushing over this edgy new look of hers, like Lisia said people would. Liza's parents clearly disapprove, but Liza remarks that she disapproves of their fighting, so they drop the subject. She likes that her parents are angry, are frustrated. It makes Liza smile. They are powerless.

Tate doesn't say anything about it. He shrugs it off.

Lucian and Sabrina show up at the gym to see if their eyes were deceiving them when the news reached their regions. They see that their eyes are evidently in working order. Liza jumps up with excitement because Lucy and Ri-Ri are here! Liza smiles and bats her eyes and says that Lisia did it for her, and doesn't she look just wonderful?

Lucian and Sabrina exchange a look.

It's Sabrina that speaks first. "Lucian, maybe you want to-"

"No."

"Okay, thank you. Liza. Are you okay? Are you and Tate-"

"We're fine," interrupts Liza, with a smile so fake it doesn't reach her eyes. "You should battle Tate sometime, Lucian. He's gotten a lot stronger. I've gotten stronger too, but mostly my psychic powers. I'm better than everyone at the psychic school!"

"So we've heard," Lucian says. He pushes his glasses up to his nose. "Steven has called us up that you two have been making good progress. You're getting a lot of attention. It's starting to reach the other regions. They're quite curious about your psychic powers and your other projects, and Tate's battling abilities."

"We also hear that you've been running around with Wallace's niece and other coordinator friends," says Sabrina. "They seem... fun."

Ah, so this is the true reason they're here.

"We're okay," Liza replies. "Tate doesn't really do much except, well, battle. He battles May a lot. He always loses, though. He should be coming back any-"

"Liza?" Speak of the devil. Tate enters the gym, and his eyes light up at the sight of Lucian and Sabrina. "Oh. Lucy and Ri-Ri are here."

Liza notices that Lucian and Sabrina don't bother correcting him. In private, the two older psychics allow them to call them that. Liza and Tate have watched Lucian and Sabrina on television since they were three-years-old, and couldn't pronounce their names then. It sort of stuck with them ever since.

Lucian smiles. "Tate. Are your Pokemon battle ready?"

Tate's eyes practically shine with admiration. "Oh my gosh! Yes. Hold on, give me a second..."

They go into another room to battle where Tate will obviously lose.

Sabrina stays with Liza. She looks very serious, however her eyes soften into a look that's usually reserved for her and Tate, along with a cheeky apprentice of hers back in Saffron that went by the name of Will. "...Steven told me what you did." Liza winces. Traitor. "A book. Really?"

"It's the first thing I saw," admits Liza.

"It's quite a reaction, he said," says Sabrina. She looks uncomfortable. "I'm not the most... emotional of persons, but you can talk to me if something's wrong."

Liza shuffles her feet. "It's nothing bad. Just... my dad being my dad, that's all. He doesn't... hurt me or my brother, if that's what you think. Parents just fighting. That's it. I'm just stressed with that. That's all. I don't want to talk about it."

Sabrina respects Liza's wishes, for now. "Also. Liza. I've heard about Wallace's niece. She's wild. You don't have to change yourself to please her."

"So I shouldn't be friends with her?"

"Personally I don't do friends at all, but for you I'm not saying that. I'm just telling you to be careful."

"I'm not going to do anything stupid," Liza reassures her. Sabrina doesn't look so convinced. Liza bites her lower lip. "Really! I'm not. Why don't you think that?"

Sabrina sighs. "I don't know. I just... I see you in front of the cameras. It seems like you've adapted some sort of persona, that involves dumbing yourself down in order to fit in with Lisia and the other coordinators. You're a natural actress, but you don't need to do that. You're a smart girl. You've always been smart. You don't need to dumb yourself down to be appealing."

Liza looks down at the floor. She shuffles her feet awkwardly. "Oh."

"Just promise me that you'll be careful. Promise me?"

Liza takes what Sabrina says very seriously, but she pushes this in the back of her mind. "Okay."

Tate loses against Lucian. It's pretty much a given. But Lucian says he's gotten stronger from when they first battled. This doesn't make Tate feel better.

"It's still not enough," Tate says, shaking his head. "It's not going to be enough for a long, long time."

Lucian stares at him analytically with a tight knit frown. Others would think it's a judgmental look, but Tate knows that Lucian doesn't look at him and his sister like that. Obviously Tate is aware of Lucian's reputation for being cold, unyielding, sometimes downright merciless, but Tate is also aware that Lucian holds nothing but fondness for him and Liza. If he hadn't, then Lucian wouldn't have come all this way in order to check on him and his sister.

"You need to slow down," Lucian finally says, his Espeon hopping onto his shoulder. "Relax. You're doing great. I normally do not say that to people."

Tate avoids Lucian's eyes. "It just seems like everything is all... wrong."

There's silence for a few seconds.

"...Are you okay? What's going on with you? You and your sister."

Tate shrugs. "It's nothing we can't handle. Just... stupid stuff. Family stuff. Those things. I... was kind of hoping that the battle would take my mind off of it. Nothing like, what you and Sabrina went through, so we figure that it doesn't matter."

The gym leader finally looks up at Lucian. The elite's expression held something like concern. "Hm. So you think because Sabrina and I had it harder growing up that whatever you and Liza are growing through is minimal. In order to combat this, you and your sister bury yourselves into something, whether it be battling or honing psychic powers."

...Yes, but Lucian didn't have to be so straightforward about it. Then again, that's Lucian, so Tate knows he shouldn't be so surprised. Tate hesitantly nods.

"I see. Well, you're wrong. It does matter. It's okay to rest. For your Pokemon to rest. Take a leave of absence. I'm sure Steven would understand... or Wallace... or whoever it is nowadays-"

"Wallace. He talks about you a lot. He says you're in love with Cynthia."

"Wallace says a lot of things that he shouldn't."

Tate manages to grin. "Is it true?"

Silence.

"...Wallace would be very understanding if you wanted to take a break. And - I can't believe I'm saying this - have fun. You're young. Enjoy the years of adolescence."

"You said that the years of a psychic's adolescence could be hell."

"Oh absolutely. But you can still have fun."

"Did you have fun?"

"I did not."

Tate scowls and crosses his arms. "Then I won't."

The concern comes back onto Lucian's face. "No. Don't do that. I regret it."

"...Spi?" That soft voice came from Lucian's Espeon, who decided to hop from Lucian's shoulders down to lightly bob Tate's knees with his head. Tate reaches down to pet the psychic cat. Espeon has a habit of selling Lucian out. If Espeon becomes affectionate like that, Tate learns it's Lucian's way of showing that he's worried. They're telepathically linked, Tate knows, so whatever Lucian feels, that translates to how Espeon behaves. Few people know that Espeon is Lucian's right hand Pokemon.

"I'm fine, Lucian, I am," Tate insists.

Maybe it's because Lucian still has that damned concerned expression that isn't given out like cookies that makes Tate realize he has a point.

When Lucian and Sabrina leave, Tate becomes more acquainted with Chaz. Chaz is friendly enough, a bit snobbish, but being a popular coordinator did that to you, Tate supposes. Lisia and Chaz hangout a lot, and since Lisia hangs out with Liza, once again the twins are seen together. It seems like it's been a while that they are spotted together outside the gym, which is what the public also raves about. The Mossdeep psychics with the dazzling coordinators. Whether they are shopping. Going swimming. Whatever it is.

Tate allows himself to have a little fun while still keeping in mind about his goals to be an elite four, and Liza gets in contact with several fashion designers Lisia knows. He knows she's annoyed whenever they ask about Tate whenever they aren't together. They're already together enough at the gym and with Lisia and Chaz, so why bother? But Tate admittedly enjoys the attention when the paparazzi and reporters hound him. When they ask about his training, him destroying the other psychics in battle at the psychic school they go to, that if possible they can tape a battle between him and May. Tate likes it when the cameras follow him around. It's good. He wants them to know his name. To know he's making more strides. With every publication written about him, he knows that he'll be a likely candidate of an elite four member.

However the same can't be said for Liza. When the paparazzi show up, her eyes are brimming with anger, her jaw set as she evenly answers questions. Tate doesn't know why she's so upset. He tries to make it right after work hours, to let her know that it's apart of their job descriptions, that it's just the media. Eventually it turns into a screaming match with Liza hurling an empty potion bottle at the shiny polished floors of the gym with her saying that if he wants to go be a fame hog, then go be a fame hog then.

They both know that Liza's anger is misdirected. It has nothing to do with the media. Well, at least not yet. It's because they have to go home and deal with their parents that still won't sign the damn papers. The twins are walking on eggshells, and despite Lucian and Sabrina asking if they're okay, they insist that they're fine and bury themselves in Pokemon battles, fashion designing, psychic powers, and hanging out with Lisia and Chaz.

Nonetheless, Liza and Tate make a request to the Hoenn league to not do interviews together anymore. It makes headlines, the implication being that the twins had a falling out, but really it couldn't be further from the truth. Liza and Tate are taking different paths in life, while still being co-gym leaders, so they really ought to stop with that talk.

It's time that they're known for something else other than being the adorkable psychic twins that make Lucian and Sabrina seem devilish in comparison.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2-

When Liza and Tate turn fourteen, with their parents still together and not having the sense to realize it would be best if they separated, Lisia and Chaz throw them a big party. It's not like the parties the Hoenn league has whenever the twins are there. They try to limit their drinking whenever they're around, but coordinators don't bother filtering themselves. May, Wally, and Brendan turn down the invitation, and make it clear it has nothing to do with the twins themselves. It's because of Lisia and Chaz.

The big bash is at Lisia's house to celebrate. Here Liza and Tate are introduced to coordinators drinking like it's the end of the world and them snorting a powder that Liza and Tate couldn't name. Tate doesn't know half the people Chaz and Lisia invited, but Liza does. Something that's useful when the coordinators want to talk to Tate and Liza fills him in on who they are. Tate doesn't really get why Liza's so enthralled by them all. She explains it's because they're older and prettier and have connections. They're important people, according to his sister, and while Tate agrees, he doesn't get why such important people did things that weren't necessarily great choices.

"Did you eat anything?" Liza asks her brother quietly.

"Not hungry," Tate's quick to say.

She rolls her eyes. "It's your birthday, no, our birthday. You're allowed to eat. And my birthday present is for you to have an actual meal for Arceus sake."

Oh, that's a new development as of late. Tate's diet, or lack thereof. He's not self-conscious about his body or anything like that, but it's nice to have some semblance of control in his life. Why eat when he could spend that time training? Even Liza gets concerned when he opts to skip meals, but it's not like he's starving himself or anything. He's not hungry at all, and while Glacia would tsk in concern that Tate should eat more, it seems more like a chore anyway. He is eating to live, not living to eat.

Liza and Tate keep seeing groups of people go into the bathroom. Do coordinators watch each other use the restroom? It's all so strange. They come out of there laughing at an uproar. Is that just a rich coordinator thing? Do they find amusement in that? One of them that Tate doesn't know asks them if they want to go to the bathroom together.

"Uh, no. I don't need to watch people use the restroom, thank you," says Tate. Liza agrees, unable to hide her displeasure at the thought with a sour face.

The coordinator laughs. "We don't actually use the bathroom, silly. Come on, we'll show you."

Liza and Tate are then thrusted into a cramped up bathroom with four other people - which include Lisia and Chaz. They're giggling madly, rallying behind the sink that had rows of powder. It's Lisia that takes a turn at it, crumpling up a bill and snorting the powder through his nose and staring up at the sky as she lets out a squeal of excitement.

"What is that?" Tate can't help but ask.

Chaz laughs. "It's coke. Makes you perform like fucking Fantina Dumont in her prime."

Liza's eyes go wide. "You mean... the coordinators... they all-"

"All of us, yeah," says Lisia. Her expression grows serious. "Don't tell Wallace. He's had a problem with coke in his own past, but well, I have a better handle on it. Want to try? We'll be gentle, we promise. If it's your first time."

Tate takes a few steps back. So does Liza.

"You don't have to if you don't wanna, it's your party," shrugs Lisia. "More for us, y'know?"

"No thanks," Liza and Tate say in unison. However they do watch. They're watching the coordinators curiously as they do this, one-by-one. They watch how it effects them, how they leave the bathroom giggling. The coordinators have so much energy, like when Liza and Tate forget to take their ADHD medication, or because the pharmacy ran out.

When Lisia and Chaz are finished, it's Lisia who announces, "Chaz, get them a few drinks."

That, Liza and Tate are familiar with. Their league colleagues drink a lot, they can tell, even if they try to filter themselves. One time Wallace let Liza and Tate try a sip of wine, and it was fine, until Glacia had swooped in to yell at him. Something about Wallace being a terrible influence on them. What a surprise.

Chaz departs to get them a few drinks. Tate appears nervous. Wally once remarked to them that Lisia and Chaz have a reputation of partying too hard, and no thanks, he doesn't want any part of that due to health reasons. Wally explained to them before that he believes that cancer doesn't really go away, despite being in remission. More like it stays asleep. He isn't going to take any chances after hearing that alcohol could make his cancer return.

Liza, on the other hand, is curious. Tate doesn't like that she's curious.

Sabrina doesn't drink, Tate communicated to Liza via telepathy. And Lucian doesn't drink in front of us.

And? Liza replies.

"Oooh, twin telepathy time," smirks Lisia. "What's going on up there?" Chaz returns with two drinks that Liza and Tate are unfamiliar with, and places them in their hands.

"Sabrina doesn't drink," Liza fills in. "She says not to do that. To keep her head on straight. Lucian says that too-"

"Lucian Darrow? Sinnoh's elite four?" Chaz interrupts. Then he snorts. "That man is clearly a functional alcoholic. I can smell those types from a mile away. And he's telling you two to not drink. Hypocrisy at its finest. And Sabrina is crazy. Maybe she can use a few drinks."

Tate doesn't like this. "Hey. Don't insult Lucian in front of me. He's done a lot for us."

"Sabrina too," says Liza, equally as upset.

Chaz holds his hands up in defeat. "Alright, alright. Sorry. Want me to take those drinks off your hands? Again, you don't have to. Your party."

Just as Tate was about to decline Liza takes a huge gulp from the concoction in her glass. She winces at the taste, nearly brings it back up, followed by Chaz and Lisia chuckling and telling her to slow down.

Tate is horrified. "Liza. Mom and dad are going to kill us."

"Does it really matter?" Liza retorts. "What are they going to do, Tate? Tell me. We bring in a big salary as league members. Better than theirs. They did nothing about the nose piercing. What. Are. They. Going. To. Do? They're so wrapped up in their fighting they don't notice or care about anything anymore."

Chaz and Lisia exchange an apprehensive look.

Tate meanwhile concludes that his sister has a point. Unlike his sister though, he takes a few sips of the beverage provided to him every few minutes. It's a wise decision, especially considering that he hasn't really eaten much today. While Liza goes back for a second, Tate is still working on his first drink. It's a very strong drink, and already his thoughts are getting hazy. Liza's too, he can tell, feel it, far worse than him. She laughs a bit too loudly at jokes, even ones that Tate didn't find very funny. He wonders if because of their telepathic bond what the effects of alcohol are between the two of them. All Tate knows is that the problems with his family are nowhere near the front of his mind, and for once, enjoys himself. He and Liza enjoy the party so much that they don't realize what time it is, and by the time it reaches midnight, Tate remembers everything.

And he panics.

"Liza!" Tate exclaims. Liza is giggling with her head resting on Chaz's shoulder. There's a lot to unpack there, but Tate isn't going to get into that. "We need to get home. Now."

Liza doesn't seem to be as worried as Tate is. She laughs out loud at this, mumbling something about what their parents will think, which worries Tate even more.

"Liza. Now. We have to go."

"What time is it?" giggles Liza.

"It's midnight."

"Oh no!" exclaims Liza. She hops off the sofa. She stumbles a bit, but luckily one of her coordinator friends, one that's much older than she, helps her up.

"Yes 'oh no' is right. Let's go," says Tate and how the hell are they going to explain this when they get home?

At this point, Lisia, clearly high and had gone for another round of the coke, swoops in, linking her arm with Liza. "Liz told me I can sleep over."

Tate doesn't know why Liza seems to be okay with making decisions without him, along with inviting Liza to her home when their parents are arguing a lot. He doesn't question it right now, because they really do need to get home. Liza seems able to walk on her two feet, thankfully, but being linked arm and arm with Lisia seems to help her. Unfortunately for Liza and Tate, the paparazzi are waiting for them outside Lisia's home in Slateport.

"Oh my gosh!" gushes Liza happily. "My favorite people in the world! The paparazzi."

Tate doesn't know if she's being sarcastic. Then she rolls her eyes. It gives him an idea.

"Liza and Tate! How are you celebrating your fourteenth birthday?" one of them asks.

"We're fine, thank you," Tate replies curtly. Arceus, his head still hurts. It's like the life is sucked out of him, but he isn't about to tell the paparazzi this.

Liza is more energetic. "It's wonderful. I mean, turning fourteen is miles different from turning thirteen. I swear. I know what you're thinking, 'cause, this is typical, but, thirteen isn't really a teenager. Not like fourteen. Does that make sense? I feel like it makes sense, do you?"

The paparazzi are predictably perplexed. For a second Tate wonders if his sister had snorted the powder when he wasn't around. Then he decides no. He would've felt it. The thing is, he's never seen his sister intoxicated before, and he's never been intoxicated before, and while Tate concludes it's a good feeling it isn't when they had to be home. How the hell do his colleagues do this? It doesn't cross Tate's mind that they're older, much more experienced.

Is it safe to teleport on our own? Liza communicates to Tate. She grins. We should try it.

No. Get Solrock and Lunatone to teleport us. I don't think Lisia should either. I'm going to have Claydol help Lisia too.

Tate and Liza's psychic Pokemon teleport them and Lisia in front of their home in Mossdeep. While Lisia and Tate seem to have sobered up, the same couldn't be said for Liza. Out of the corner of Tate's eye, he sees Steven entering his own home in Mossdeep. Steven stops at the door, then marches straight toward the three of them.

"There you are!" Steven Stone exclaims. "Where were you two? Your parents are worried sick. Ever heard of picking up a phone?" Steven surveys the scene in front of him. Tate is trying his best to put up his 'We Are Totally Sober' face, Lisia doesn't even have to try, and Liza laughs in his face. "Are you..."

"We ate so much spicy food," Lisia cuts in, like she's done this before. "Apparently eating spicy food does something to a psychic. Did you know that? Check in with Sabrina, in case you're curious. Anyway, I'm sleeping over at Liza and Tate's, bye Steven!"

"What... how-" Steven is abruptly cut off with Lisia shoving Liza and Tate into their home and shutting the door. It's here they are greeted by their parents, who look baffled – and angry. Liza, Tate, and Lisia brush past them and make their way to the bathroom to get mouthwash. Multiple footsteps follow. Followed by someone banging on the door.

"Where have you been?" came their father's voice. "It's twelve thirty at night!"

"Doesn't he mean morning?" scowls Lisia. Their mouths are washed, but that doesn't mean the effects of alcohol didn't linger.

Liza opens the door to reveal their parents, as well as Steven. "We told you we would be at Lisia's, and that she would sleep over. What's the big deal?"

"You could at least let us know when you'll be home," Rachel presses.

It's the wrong thing to say. Tate looks over at his sister.

"Oh so now you decide to do something?" Liza asks angrily. "You're telling us what to do, how to behave, when you can't even help your own marriage?"

"Liza!" Tate admonishes. Lisia slowly sneaks away from the scene and enters the twins' bedroom. A wise decision. Rachel and Jin look angry and completely out of their depths.

Liza brushes past Tate to make her way to her bedroom. She's still going. Her voice gets higher, along with her fury. "I mean it. What the hell are they still together for? What the fuck is the point!?"

"Have you been drinking?" a wide-eyed Steven asks.

"No!" Liza shouts with a shrill. Tate says nothing.

"You have. You absolutely have been drinking," argues Steven. "It was Lisia, wasn't it? I have to talk to Wallace. Did that girl force you to-"

"She didn't do anything," snaps Liza. She throws her hands up in exasperation. "None of us did anything."

"And even if we did, we're off the clock, so it doesn't concern you," adds Tate.

"You are fourteen years old," emphasizes Steven, almost frustratedly. "You are minors, and you shouldn't be doing any of that."

Rachel and Jin do nothing. Tate realizes Liza made two points. The first point being that their parents shouldn't be together anymore. It's obvious they're staying together for the twins' sake, when they want otherwise. The second point being that their parents really had no control over what he and his sister did. They don't get in trouble for what they did, and even Lisia is allowed to stay over.

The three of them have wicked hangovers the next morning, as expected, but Liza and Tate don't have to be in the gym until noon, and Lisia is off for the entire day. Their parents have already left the house. Chaz stops by to deliver some good hangover remedies. He's off from a competition today too, and the four of them hangout until Liza and Tate would have to leave.

"Nothing happened," says Liza. "Just like I said."

That isn't quite true. Steven tries to reach them, and even Hoenn's elite four, trying to reprimand them lightly and ask if they're okay. Their parents are fighting all the time and just when they think they'll divorce they don't, what did they think? Did they really think they were okay? They don't really press it. Glacia is especially rattled, almost overbearing to the point where they both wish she would be quiet soon, that they would rather have Drake sternly talk to them again. Drake can hardly believe the little tykes are doing that kind of thing, and Liza and Tate continue to deny, deny, deny.

Lucian and Sabrina have seen the paparazzi footage that gets attention over Liza's behavior. People suspect that the twins are on something. Naturally Lucian and Sabrina leave voicemails on Liza and Tate's phones checking in on them. They call them back when Lisia and Chaz step out for a cigarette. It's a group phone call with Lucian and Sabrina.

"Steven has reached out to us," Sabrina says. "And we've seen the footage. And he said that you both were acting strange when you got back after that interaction."

"It's not a big deal, we were just annoyed at the paparazzi that's all," Tate's quick to say.

"And it kind of boiled over to getting home," finishes Liza.

The two older psychics don't buy it all, and Liza and Tate know they don't buy it.

"Steven says that you both had been partying out with Lisia and Chaz," says Lucian. The twins could hear him frowning on the other end. "Your fourteenth birthday party. Happy birthday, by the way. You came home late at night. And that he smelled something strange-"

"Spicy food," cuts in Liza.

"Alcohol," Sabrina corrects.

Silence.

Tate shakes his head. "He's wrong. He's completely wrong."

"You two are fourteen. Just turned fourteen, in fact. You shouldn't be drinking," Sabrina says sternly.

"Why not? Lucian does."

"I'm an adult," replies Lucian.

"We weren't doing anything," Liza says. "Spicy food. That's all."

"And if you are going to do something like that, for the love of Arceus, at least do it safely. Your behavior was bizarre in front of the paparazzi, and people noticed," advises Lucian. "Not that you should be doing that, because you are fourteen. Did I emphasize that part enough? That you're fourteen."

"Liza. Do you remember what we spoke about?" Sabrina asks rhetorically. "For you to be careful. This is the opposite of being careful. Even if you weren't drinking – which you obviously were – it's still reckless for you to be out at midnight sober."

"Spicy. Food. Steven's totally overreacting," scowls Liza, rolling her eyes. "People think that because we're with Lisia and Chaz that we do what they do, and we don't."

The last part of Liza's sentence doesn't help and she knows she messed up as she soon as she says it. People are aware that Lisia and Chaz party wild and that Liza and Tate are in association with them. But it hurts to lie to the older psychics, it really does. Lucian and Sabrina definitely don't buy it. Liza and Tate tell them they have to go work, and the conversation ends.

When Liza and Tate are done working at the gym for the evening, they enter their house to see their parents fighting yet again, about their own infidelity to each other, about the gym, about the fame, and especially about the twins. The most important thing they spoke about was that they had to stay for the twins' sake. It took everything within the twins to not practice their telekinetic abilities by hurling various objects in their direction.

It's easy to sneak back into the gym and sleep there. They don't want to bother Steven. If anything, Liza can stay at Lisia's. Lisia has her own apartment and it's rich and fancy and everything nice. All the boys love her and she has piercings and she does a lot of things grownups do, and that's just so magnetic to Liza. Lisia says that maybe, maybe one day she can get a belly button piercing, and if she shows up wearing a crop top the Hoennian media would go into a frenzy that Mossdeep's little darling is growing up. Liza isn't considering it as much for that reason, more so that she likes expressing herself through fashion. It's a way to separate herself from her brother.

Tate doesn't really understand this part, and Liza says it's because he's a boy, and boys don't understand it. Tate still doesn't understand, because even though he's a boy and she's a girl gender differences never really got between them, and he doesn't get why it's happening now.

Liza loves the clothes, the glamour, the lifestyle. If she has a day off from the gym, unlike her brother who battles May and is guaranteed to lose, Liza is guaranteed to meet more and more people in the game. All at these parties. A fashion designer here, a coordinator there, and these people that wine and dine and seem so happy. They smoke really expensive cigarettes like grownups typically do and even though she hates the taste she loves the feeling of relaxation and feeling grown. Like she's one of them.

Liza still isn't completely used to having friends that are the same sex as her. Speaking of sex, her new female coordinator friends seem to talk about it a lot. She's kind of used to Lisia talking about it, but not so much the others talking about it in a group. It's so casual too, and Liza feels really out of place. She doesn't like feeling out of place. They turn to her and ask if she's ever had sex, and she says no, and despite being fourteen, they ask her what's taking so long. Liza wants to wait for the right person. Maybe Chaz.

The media hounds Liza. She gets a lot of attention, really. An interview here and there, without her brother, which they agreed to. The interviewer, a renowned one in Hoenn by the name of Ursula Maples, books her. It's an exclusive forty minute interview that asks about her new look, her friends, her job, and what plans she has in the fashion industry. Some of them are pretty invasive questions, Liza thinks, but doesn't say so. She answers them as graciously as she can.

It's fine at first, with Ursula asking about her duties as a gym leader, what it's like having Tate as a brother, and what it's like being psychic and working with psychic Pokemon in the gym, and the challengers they get. But then they get to the meat of the interview, like her coordinator friends, rumors of her wild partying, and if there's any cute boys in her life. Also known as the things that people actually care about in regards to Liza. Any hint of a scandal. Anything to turn it into a gotcha moment, for the tabloids.

Liza refuses to give those vultures the satisfaction.

"When you're out with famous coordinators," Ursula starts off saying, "-you seem to ditch the uniform you wear with your brother in the gym. You're showing more skin, and what message do you think that's sending to young girls, especially young psychic girls that look up to you? From what I understand, psychics are quite reclusive."

Liza presses her lips together. "I think that's a generalization, don't you think? I mean, I'm not dressed inappropriately. It's my artistic expression, the clothes I wear. What's trending-"

"And what you wear, it starts to trend," cuts in Ursula. "Don't you think girls that are your age should be wearing the things that you wear?"

"It feels like, as a girl, I can never win. And you know this. You can't really please everyone. I wear tank tops and shorts, which are just clothes. I don't see what the problem is when I do it. I don't know if you know Gardenia Cricket, from Sinnoh? She's not that much older than me and she wears crop tops and looks great. Misty Williams from Kanto, when she started, she wore shorts like I do. Elesa Glazebrook from Unova, when she was a teen model, she was on the cover of Glamour dressed in a certain style similar to mine and looked nice. So why is it a problem when I do it?"

Ursula blinks and lets out an uncomfortable laugh. "I suppose it's because the public has known you since you were twelve, and people thought you'd have a different image. Like, the nose piercing, for instance. It made many little girls desire to do the same. Don't you feel like you have a responsibility?"

"I'm not their parent," affirms Liza. She lets out a sheepish grin. "Sorry."

Liza does not give a single fuck.

"Would you consider getting another piercing?" Ursula asks her.

"Lisia has a belly button piercing. Maybe I can get one like hers. I have to check if I have the anatomy, however. You can't just get a piercing anywhere, if you don't have the proper anatomy for it, then the professional piercer won't do it because it can get infected."

Liza conveniently leaves out that it was Lisia that did her nose piercing, and she is hardly a professional.

This response leaves Ursula taken aback, Liza can tell. "And why would you want to do that with your body?"

"It's not like I'm promoting to do it myself," says Liza. "If I were to get one, then it would be professionally done. People in that field know what they're doing. And if I do do it, then it would be my choice. It's an artistic expression. There's nothing wrong with being comfortable in your own skin."

It doesn't seem like an interview. More of an interrogation. The woman that's three times Liza's age looks across at this young girl and asks questions with a judgmental undertone that no fourteen-year-old has business answering, but Liza doesn't care anymore. In fact, she decides she likes it, because it gives her a sense of clarity:

The woman sees her as an adult. She is being treated like a grownup, held to the same standard as one, therefore she must be one. She's one of them.

Liza likes that very, very much indeed.

Tate can't take his eyes off May Wilmarth. Maybe it's because she's pretty, he thinks. Maybe because he's hoping to get into her head during the battle and finally win it for once. He decides on the latter because he really, really doesn't want her dad to find out that he harbors a bit of a crush on her. May is not that much younger than Tate, but Norman always goes on and on about his precious little gem and how he'll start to worry if she starts noticing boys. Unfortunately for Norman, May and Tate had their first kiss.

It was before the battle. May wanted to know what it felt like to kiss a boy, and she didn't want to kiss Wally or Brendan so Tate will have to do. A request Tate granted where the paparazzi couldn't find them. It wasn't a long kiss, three seconds or so. But it does explain why he loses the battle, even more so, because that kiss was great and he can't stop thinking about it. Part of Tate wonders if this was her strategy. Hopefully not, but Tate can't ignore May has a manipulative streak. It's one of the few things they have in common and why they got along. She smiles a lot more, though, and Tate likes it.

She said earlier she liked the kiss. It makes him smile just thinking about her saying that.

That smile disappears when she looks at him seriously.

"Do you realize how stupid you're being?"

What.

"What?" Tate voices aloud.

"You and your sister," May remarks, as if that clarifies everything. "Hanging out with Lisia and Chaz. I mean, really? I know you like the fame, the attention, but they're going to drag you down badly. It took me a while to realize this, but they're really bad influences on you and Liza."

Tate considers this. "We're not snorting drugs like they do."

"Now you're not. What about in a year or so? Then what?"

"We're still doing our jobs," says Tate. "It's not impacting our job performances or our goals, so what's the harm? We drink once at our fourteenth birthday party and all of a sudden we're on this dooming path? I mean, most league members do far worse off the clock. Think about it, May, you're not making sense."

May looks so disappointed that Tate almost wants to take his words back. "I just... really care about you Tate. Don't do anything stupid."

Before she departs, she gives Tate a small peck on the cheek. "Just think, okay?"

Oh, Tate does think. About the kiss. All the other stuff she says, flies away in the back of his mind.

His phone starts to ring.

It's Liza. Something about going home after the interview, and coming home to see their parents arguing. Tate doesn't want to hear it, but agrees that he'll be home in a few minutes. He flips the phone shut and hurls a trash can via telekinesis into the wall. One of the gym trainers comes in, asks Tate if he's alright, but Tate shoos him away. He locks the door behind him and retrieves a cigarette. No one knows about this habit, not even Liza he thinks, but it's not like if anyone did know that they will care. It barely registers in the back of his mind that he has skipped a dose of his adderall which explains his irritability. He unwisely decides that a cigarette will calm him down.

Chaz smokes this really expensive brand and have given him a few in the past and Tate is going to make great use of them. Tate's not a heavy smoker, not at all, but he inhales the cigarette in his hand without coughing like an experienced one does. He stares at the lighter, watching it flicker back and forth with his thumb like it's a toy. He remembers not that long ago when he would play with a blowtorch and Liza would play with the fire using her powers. That was the day they met Lucian and Sabrina for the first time.

Tate tries not to think about it. Inhale. Exhale. It's not really working. There's still so much rage that's going through him because of his parents. He could only imagine what Lucian would think if he saw him smoking, but at the moment, he can fucking spare him. Lucian smokes cigarettes, so why is it a problem when Tate does it? Well, logically, he knows it's because Lucian's an adult. Tate's still a kid, despite everyone treating him like he's older.

Tate hears a voice in his head that distinctly sounds like his Solrock telling him to eat something. Tate has since then learned to ignore the voices of his Pokemon nudging him to eat. Normally Tate does eat, but it's minimal, and right now, he just isn't hungry. Not after what he just heard from his sister regarding their parents.

The cigarette helps suppress his appetite. His attention is completely on it. And on the lighter which sucks at the moment.

Fucking piece of shit is almost out of juice. Tate needs to get a new one.

He'll decide to finish the cigarette in his hand. Because if he has to go back home without having a cigarette he's sure that he'll kill someone.

It's ugly.

Liza and Tate recognize that they don't have the control, that if they stayed one more second in this hellstorm of a house then someone was going to get hurt, and it isn't going to be themselves. They meet up at Lisia's home in Slateport. She's with Chaz of course, and when they enter Lisia's stylish room after receiving a text to come inside they walk in on Lisia and Chaz huffing a computer duster. Liza and Tate must look awful, because Lisia responded in her euphoric and dazed haze that the twins have tears in their eyes.

"I just want to forget about it," says Liza, sniffling. "What are you and Chaz doing?"

Chaz smirks. "Have you heard of dusting?"

"We call it the drug that has no dealer," remarks Lisia. "You just inhale it, and you'll meet Arceus, I swear. It's not too dangerous. I don't know anyone that's died from it. It makes you forget. It makes you happy."

Liza and Tate exchange a look. Just because Lisia doesn't know anyone that's died from it, doesn't mean it's not dangerous. Rationally, Liza and Tate know this. But after watching and listening to their parents scream and continue to stay in this unhappy marriage not even two hours ago, this isn't a situation where Liza and Tate feel very rational.

It's stupid, it's reckless, it's irrational, and Liza and Tate can practically hear two voices in their heads, sounding distinctly like Lucian and Sabrina, telling them to stop. Slow down. Do not do anything stupid. Be safe. You're smarter than this. But are they?

"Let's do it," the twins chorus.

Lisia and Chaz eye the twins, almost nervously. "Are you sure?" Chaz asks.

Liza and Tate smirk. It's the identical smirks not of children, but of teenagers. Both of their hearts race - not out of anxiety, nor of fear, but of excitement. The excitement of doing something dangerous. Something that they shouldn't be doing. Lisia and Chaz's lifestyles rub off on the Mossdeep darlings, and they're hooked on it. The drinking, the partying, the clothes, the narcotics, the rush. It's so appealing to Liza and Tate, who used to be so sheltered before the Magma-Aqua crisis came.

Their parents have given up. It's the total realization that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want. They can swear, run around wild with Chaz and Lisia, and nothing will be done. Lucian and Sabrina are in different regions entirely, they can't stop them from doing things that they shouldn't be doing. As for their higher ups and fellow gym leaders, what are they going to do to the most promising teenagers in their region other than May? Liza and Tate are on top of the world, have Hoenn wrapped around their fingers. The Hoennians love them, worship them, need them.

Coming to this realization, Liza and Tate think this is really cool.

Given that they're fourteen, of course they would think this not knowing it's actually the complete opposite.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3-

Liza and Tate are still on top of their region. Liza lets her brother take more control during the battles, letting him telepathically communicate with her Pokemon. Liza's slowly starting to lose interest in battling anyway while Tate's interest grows. He's actually becoming more of a problem, more so because nowadays he is more suited toward the higher leveled trainers, such trainers around the seven or eighth badge level. He's great when trainers from an outside region try to challenge them, but not against those from a six and under badge level. Battling May frequently seems to have paid off. Nowadays Liza is aware that she's there with Tate to balance it out. She's not offended in the slightest.

Meanwhile, Liza becomes more of a star, thanks to Lisia helping Liza introduce a clothing line that became a huge hit. Her psychic powers can rival some of Sabrina's top students in her institute in Saffron. The paparazzi are brutal, naturally, and it seems like the older she and Tate get, the more likely the paparazzi will infiltrate their personal spaces. She's getting more attention than her brother now, and sadly she learned the reason after pressing Phoebe and Glacia for hours. There was a countdown for the day Liza turns eighteen. Lucian and Sabrina found the perpetuators behind it and took care of it. She doesn't want to know what happened exactly, but given that Lucian and Sabrina went together and have certain reputations, she could make an inference.

...It's Tate that comes up with the Holland rumor.

It isn't for the reasons that one would think.

While yes, Liza and Tate held a great dislike for Holland Yelkes, neither would go to the lengths that Lucian and Sabrina have on trying to get that bigot out of the Unova league. But Tate wanted to test out his abilities to manipulate the media, to manipulate the public, to see how far a rumor can go to ruin a man's reputation. Tate argues that with Karen Dillard making Holland Yelkes's life absolute hell, the rumor would be the cherry on top of a disaster waiting to explode.

Liza isn't totally on board at first. She remembers Lucian and Sabrina telling them not to get into the politics of psychics and dark-type specialists, never-mind that they now know that them being hired was totally political. The message had been clear: Look at these cute psychic twins, with no psychic parents, having no choice but to be bestowed with psychic abilities, how can anyone hate them? A rumor like this is how, Liza thinks. But Liza lets Tate have his fun. He's learned from watching Lucian give interviews.

It starts at the Hoenn Psychic Seminary School. Tate spreads the rumor, and the other psychics his age quickly pick up on him and know not to rat Tate out. They spread it to the rest of the Mossdeep citizens, and soon the entire Hoenn region learns of it. It's something that's whispered, then spoken aloud, and the other regions learn of this rumor. It gets media attention, some coverage locally, and soon all five regions of the LNS learn about it and it's hysterical. Late night comedy shows have their material for the next few days.

The paparazzi ask league members their thoughts on the rumor, and all decline to comment, even those who hate Holland, like Lucian and Sabrina, don't respond. Liza tells Tate that this isn't working anymore and it will eventually die down, but Tate says that the rumor is doing just fine. It's what he wants, because eventually, they need a story.

Sure enough, the paparazzi come to Liza and Tate.

"Tate, Liza, what do you think of this rumor circulating around Holland Yelkes?"

Tate had told Liza beforehand to stick to the script.

"Well, you can't prove that he did that," Liza says.

And Tate replies, "Yes, but you can't prove that he didn't do it either, right?"

Later on, some would say that this was just Tate being silly and reckless, that it just slipped out, that the teenager didn't intend to cause this much chaos with that comment. Because Tate's comment puts the rumor back on the map, full-circle, and he had no way of knowing that this offhand remark would cause one of the biggest meltdowns of an elite that anyone had ever seen. There was no way that a mere boy would rile up the media with something that puts an immature, juvenile rumor into a different perspective.

They were wrong. Tate knew exactly what he was doing.

Liza and Tate getting involved in the dark-type specialist and psychic dilemma really shook up Holland. The dark-type elite would expect this from Lucian, or Sabrina, or even Karen or Sidney on a good day, but not from two children, and that's why it worked so well. Holland launches an attack on the Mossdeep twins, specifically Tate, and truly the man looks deranged. It's what Tate wants. He wants to break that man with everything he had and more. He wants Holland to step down in disgrace.

Liza knows that Tate gets some enjoyment out of it that isn't really... normal, but she says nothing. Instead, she replies to Holland online that he's over fifty and wears braces, therefore his bad political opinions meant nothing to her. Social media is on fire, some of the most intense arguments breaking out, and Holland is becoming more unhinged.

It's a good thing, Tate insists. He smiles when he hears that Holland's holding a press conference to save face. Liza argues that it isn't a good thing, but Tate remarks that Operation, Let Him Talk has been successful thus far, and it's only going to get worse. Liza and Tate listen to the press conference taking note of every single thing that he says, because they are going to use what he says to their advantage to bring down Holland once and for all. In midst of the press conference, Liza argues that they shouldn't release a statement on it, that Holland seems to be awful enough without them saying anything about it.

That is until Lucian and Sabrina's names exits out of Holland's filthy mouth. Not in a good way.

That's when Liza agrees with her brother that they will release a statement. The Hoenn league is very displeased with them, their PR team is breathing into brown paper bags, and Lucian and Sabrina are begging the twins not do anything else, and that this is enough. Liza and Tate release the statement anyway.

This statement - a hilarious, humorous and informative statement - will be recorded in future history books on how two teenagers took a veteran elite down.

Unovian journalists are not happy. The twins are being accused of discrediting the Unovian press.

Liza fires back.

"For years you've all tip toed around Holland's hatred. He attacks psychics, which means he attacks me and my brother. And he was like this before Tate and I became gym leaders. You don't debunk anything he's said because he's the best battler behind Alder. I'm officially over it. Maybe actually report facts so we can stick to battling."

One journalist replies sarcastically, "Thanks for telling us how to do our jobs."

Tate doesn't miss a beat. "Do it better today, Laura."

Looking back, this should have been seen as a sign that Liza and Tate were out of control, and were crying out for help.

There's a whole meeting about this. Liza and Tate are in Steven's home, along with Hoenn's elite four, Wallace, Lucian and Sabrina. Steven won't stop pacing, reprimanding the psychic twins for their recklessness of accidentally puffing up a silly rumor. Where the rumor came from, nobody knows. Steven says he heard that it started in Mossdeep.

"Well, rumors do tend to spread like wildfire in small cities. I suppose it's possible, but you know how these things go—who can really say where it all began?" Tate asks, smiling.

Steven narrows his eyes, not buying it. "People are saying it's come from close to you two."

"Speculation, Steven. There's always speculation. But we both know that rumors have lives of their own. Maybe someone picked it up from a passing comment, or maybe it was just the right mix of public opinion and timing." Tate shrugs casually. "Who's to say?"

Tate locks eyes with Lucian, who is studying the younger psychic closely.

The look on the older psychic's face seems to say, Now you know damn well...

Oh, Lucian knows. Sabrina looks at Lucian, then at Liza, and then at Tate, and she seems to catch on as well.

They say nothing about it.

Liza squeezes out a few convincing tears, pouts that she didn't mean to, that they just got caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they're so, so, so sorry. Wallace offers to take the twins out for ice cream. When her back is turned to her superiors, she rolls her eyes - something that Sabrina caught.

Sabrina and Lucian are waiting for the twins when they return. Lucian and Sabrina say that they appreciate why they did what they did, but they didn't have to do that. Now there is a risk of Liza and Tate being in danger because of their strong opposition against Holland and getting him out of Unova's league. Dark-type specialists aren't happy, and the twins can get hurt. And that's something Lucian and Sabrina cannot allow.

"It's quite a convincing show you put," Sabrina remarks coolly, directly looking at Liza. "Very convincing. You really, really should consider being an actress. Those tears? Award-winning. Whitney Allister pales in comparison to you."

Lucian eyes Tate. "I don't know how you were able to do that, why you decided to do that, and I almost don't want to know. I'm impressed, and dare I say a little concerned."

The state of Holland's career ending is forgotten by the public once the twins hear about what happened in Kanto, notably Fuchsia City. The retirement of Agatha Bychkov being one, and a potential terrorist attack that follows. But Liza and Tate don't forget it. They learn there's a lot of arguing and threats involved, but not at them. It's mostly coming from Lucian, towards Sidney, that so help him if the twins end up in danger because there aren't high security measures for them since the death lists are drawn up and Liza and Tate are first on those dark web lists. It's the first time in many years that Liza and Tate now occupy the spots that Lucian and Sabrina held for so long.

Liza and Tate's parents are still together. More often than not Liza would stay at Lisia's home in Slateport. Liza doesn't want to know from Tate on what their parents are up to. She doesn't even care. She cares about the parties she goes to, and the makeup, and the clothes, and her psychic powers, and her boyfriend.

Liza is convinced that she and Chaz are meant to be. He's her first boyfriend, despite that he's a few years older than her, and her colleagues express that it seems unusual that Chaz couldn't find a girl his own age to date. Chaz talks about that his parents got together when they were fifteen and had him a year later and they're still together. Maybe, Liza thinks, as a way to get away from her own family problems, is that Chaz's family will embrace her. Tate doesn't like the sound of this. Lisia thinks it's great.

She goes to Chaz's apartment and over time starts to understand what her coordinator friends were talking about and decides that it's great. Therefore, she spends a lot of time staying over. She has everything; the best makeup, the best parties, the best clothes, the best psychic powers, and the best boyfriend. She has it all.

Chaz is Liza's plus-one when Wallace has a party at his mansion. Liza and Chaz slip through the crowd of people and head into one of the closets to kiss. She's really enjoying herself, they both are, and aren't they just so perfect together? A beautiful, intimate moment, Liza thinks.

That is until Flannery stumbles into the closet looking for a mop due to Phoebe spilling fruit punch.

"Oh gosh!" Flannery exclaims, turning away quickly as Chaz rushes to put his shirt back on. "What in the-"

"Why the hell didn't you knock?" Liza interrupts angrily.

"Why are you doing that in a closet?" Flannery fires back.

"Doing what?"

"Chaz didn't have a shirt on," Flannery replies evenly.

"Nothing was going to happen," Liza reassures and how dare Flannery ruin this? Liza doesn't get what the big deal is, that it's just making out with her boyfriend. Flannery acts like she's stripped down in the middle of the gym.

"Wait, but you said-"

"Shut up," hisses Liza to her boyfriend before he can finish that sentence. He has his shirt back on and sprints out. Liza turns to Flannery. "How can you humiliate me like that?"

"Humiliate you? Why are you with your boyfriend in the closet like that? Liza-"

"He's my boyfriend," emphasizes Liza. "I don't get what the big deal is. I mean, you do that too-"

"I'm an adult. There's a difference."

"So?"

A few days later, Sabrina stops by. Mostly to check to see if the security is in place for the twins, just in case dark-type specialists try to hurt them since their little debacle with Holland. Everything is in working order, and just when Liza thinks that Sabrina will leave, the older psychic pulls her to the side.

"Flannery told me something really, really concerning."

Shit.

"We weren't doing anything," Liza says. It's instinctual at this point.

"Are you being safe?"

Whatever Liza was expecting, it wasn't that. "What?"

"You shouldn't be doing anything of... that nature at your age," remarks Sabrina awkwardly and oh. "But I do want you to be safe, if you are. So be honest. Are you being safe?"

Liza considers this. She folds her arms. "I'm on the pill, if that's what you're asking. Happy?"

Sabrina doesn't look happy. "What is it you see in this boy? Why are you wasting time with him?"

There is no way that Liza is discussing this with Sabrina, of all people.

"It's not a waste of time. I think he's the one."

"No he isn't."

"I love him!"

"No you don't."

"I mean, Chaz and I can be the same! His parents have been together since they were teenagers and got married and then had him? Why can't I? We're going to get married maybe in a year or two..."

"No you're not," insists Sabrina, and has Liza ever seen her look so frightened?

"We're going to start a whole family and everything's going to be happy and great!" Liza declares.

"For Arceus's sake, Liza," Sabrina remarks, almost angrily. "Do you hear yourself? That isn't how life works. What is going on with you?" Concern leaks into her voice. "It's Holland, isn't it? You're stressed about the dark-type specialists. You and your brother are protected, I promise you-"

Liza shuffles her feet. "It's not about that, just... leave it."

She doesn't want to think about people wanting her dead.

Will Callavon has become the first full blooded psychic elite in history. The first psychic to share an elite position with a dark-type specialist. Liza remembers Sabrina saying the rift between dark-type specialists is all but forgotten. So Liza and Tate along with several other league members show up to see Will inaugurated into the Indigo elite four. She and Tate wonder what will happen when Will shakes Karen Dillard's, a dark type specialist's, hand. He is the one student that Sabrina had that she holds a lot of fondness for.

Will doesn't shake Karen's hand. He kisses her, and she kisses him back. It clicks into Liza and Tate's minds what's going on, and they are both appalled. Not that these two people are in love, nothing to do with psychic blood, but that they know what's about to happen arguably before Lucian and Sabrina do. Sure enough, several dark-type specialists came into the mix.

They charge toward Liza and Tate. Lucian and Sabrina act quickly and push Liza and Tate out of the way, and take the blows. Liza is terrified, but for a different reason. Tate's adrenaline kicks in and reaches for a Pokeball. Liza does not want him to fight in a place where battles are happening without any rules, just people with a goal to kill each other. Before Tate can release his newly evolved Gallade, Lucian and Sabrina cut in and tell them to leave. Tate opens his mouth and says he wants to stay and fight, but Lucian and Sabrina aren't taking no for an answer. Teleport out of here. Leave. They do.

Watching Lucian and Sabrina, nicknamed Lucy and Ri-Ri in private, fall down and get injured due to protecting them, does something to their brain chemistry, Liza is sure of it. The idea that their idols aren't invincible really, really irks at them.

It's in wake of this event that Liza and Tate become united in a single purpose, to prepare for war if the time comes, that if something like this were to happen again Liza and Tate would know what to do. They frequently ask Lucian and Sabrina questions about it. However at the same time, they do not want to be involved in it. The two elites, Will and Karen, are in love. Anyone can see that. So in love that they broke barriers. So Liza and Tate are friendly with Sidney even if Sabrina doesn't trust him. In Sabrina's defense, she even has started to warm up to Karen because Will is considered her pride and joy and is willing to put her hatred of dark type specialists aside or lose Will forever. It's around this time that they're approached by a dragon tamer from Unova, of all places, to join her and May Wilmarth and a few others in ending the LNS.

The only reason Liza and Tate said yes is because May Wilmarth said yes. Also because seeing Will and Karen being torn to shreds for the audacity of their love had changed something within the twins, and when Lucian and Sabrina are attacked. Liza and Tate warn May that they aren't going to be heavily involved, not yet. They're the biggest celebrities in Hoenn right now and they need to be careful.

"I'm proud of you," says May, looking at Tate with doe-eyes it makes his heart flip. "Even in little ways, this helps."

Liza and Tate are tentatively treasonous, occasionally slipping some information to May on how Lucian and Sabrina run their psychic institutes. It's mostly harmless.

What isn't harmless, however, are the parties Liza goes to. Tate is sometimes there as well. They bury themselves in these parties when they aren't battling or honing their powers or designing fashion, having a drink or two that's probably more than they can handle, maybe a joint if they feel like it. They once snorted their own adderall to see what it would feel like and decided not to do that ever again.

Once in a while Liza and Tate will be in their room with the door locked to inhale a computer duster. It's trendy and it's cool in their eyes, and they don't care about the danger. They don't care that they don't move for three to four minutes. What they care about is the sense of euphoria. They like the competition of it, too. It's called a "dust-off," and Liza and Tate egg each other on to see who can last with dusting without falling over.

Liza and Tate privately agree that they won't ever do coke. They refuse to indulge in drugs that they have to snort, and don't understand how Lisia and Chaz are able to stand it. Because of this code they have of not snorting any narcotics, acid isn't off the table.

It's the four of them, after Galactic had failed to end the world. Lisia, Chaz, Liza, and Tate. They're off from their projects, and make a day of it. Each of them take a tab, and venture off into the Slateport boardwalk at night. Psychedelics have a different effect on psychic humans. It's almost beautiful. A sensory hell for someone like Lucian, but to Liza and Tate, the world is their oyster. It's as if Arceus welcomed them with its arms. It's to escape the shadow of the paparazzi and the world that is their parents arguing.

"Do you see Spinark? I see them," giggles Liza. She leans into Chaz's very nice arms, and watches the stars of the sky swirl into Spinark webs.

It seems pleasant now, but it'll turn into a nightmare, because eventually they'll have to go back to their reality.

Sure enough a few hours later, Liza and Tate go home, and their parents are stone cold silent. They glance at the twins that are obviously still look high. They look like they want to say something, almost like they were expecting someone else, and go back to something that looked like paying the bills. They don't care.

That is until they're greeted by none other than Lucian and Sabrina. At this time in the night. It suddenly clicks why their parents had looked like that. They had called Lucian and Sabrina up while they were missing.

"You were gone for twelve hours," Sabrina tells the twins matter-of-factly, frowning in concern. "People are saying they last saw you at the boardwalk with Lisia and Chaz."

There's no way either of the twins can hide that they are high in front of Lucian and Sabrina.

"It's not a crime to be on the boardwalk, is it?" Liza retorts. She is fully aware she is probably one of the few people that can get away with back talking Sabrina. That doesn't mean Sabrina isn't taken aback by it. Lucian's eyes go to Tate, who's fidgeting with his hands, more so than usual. Liza knows what Lucian's game is here, to get Tate to crack and spill. And it will absolutely work.

"No it's not," Sabrina replies evenly. "But it's concerning. I have people telling me that you two have gone off the deep end."

"By people, you mean mom and dad," says Tate.

"And Steven. And the elite four. Basically all of the gym leaders," adds Lucian. "Do you know how concerning it is when the elites will cross regional lines to get in touch with Sabrina and I?"

Tate says nothing.

Lucian's eyes pierce through Tate's. "What did you take?"

Tate looks helplessly at Liza, who gives a helpful shrug. Rachel and Jin try to interject, but Lucian puts a hand up to silence them. "Tate. Are you high?"

"It isn't a big deal," Tate immediately says. Sabrina sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "I can't die from it. It's legal, it's just acid-"

"You're not even an adult yet," Lucian cuts in sternly. The psychic elite actually looks surprised, and a tad worried. "You both are smarter than this. Those coordinators are terrible influences on you. When I told you to have fun, this is not what I meant. And I want you to really get this. I don't think you understand how badly this could've ended for the two of you. The danger you're putting yourselves in, under the influence, and I'm not even referring to being caught by the media."

"Then what is it?" snaps Tate.

Lucian glares. "Being so high that you accidentally slip on something and break your neck. That sort of thing."

"You know, the universe almost ended," Liza interjects. "Thanks for that, by the way. Your region. Welcome to it. The least we can do is have some fun."

"You're out partying with people that will never see forty. Is it worth joining their ranks for a little fun?" Sabrina asks rhetorically.

"That's dramatic," says Liza.

"Dramatic. It's dramatic for us to say that you're with people, doing Arceus knows what-"

"Are you just going to yell at us?" retorts Tate angrily, an unusual tone he uses towards Sabrina that even takes the older female psychic by surprise. His voice gets louder, and stands up ready to bolt out the door. "I mean it, if you're going to bother with that, then there's no point. Whatever, we won't do it again, whatever-"

Lucian stops him right in his tracks. His expression is wide-eyed, almost like he's scared. Good. He should be.

"Have you eaten at all today?" inquires the psychic elite.

Never-mind. Tate's the one that's scared. How the hell did Lucian-

"It has nothing to do with that. God."

Nonetheless, Tate sits back down.

Lucian shakes his head. "You both need to slow down. You're too important. What on earth is going on with you two?" Liza and Tate don't recall their own parents ever reprimanding them like this. They wonder when their parents will say something, but instead they're completely quiet. Lucian and Sabrina seem to notice this too.

At this precise moment, their father holds up a bag and dumps its contents onto the living room table. It occurs to Liza and Tate's drug-induced state that their parents had gone into their room without the twins' permission. On the table, there's a few dozen lighters, empty packs of cigarettes, prescription bottles while prescribed to Liza and Tate because of their ADHD, one can take a look at the date and see that they were refilled far too many times. Along with that are two flasks, and a computer duster.

Liza and Tate look over to Lucian and Sabrina, who look almost mortified.

Finally, their mother speaks. "Do you care to explain what all of this is doing in your room? Despite not even having a computer?"

"What do you expect me to say?" snaps Liza. "We huffed it, okay?"

Tate looks over at his sister in bewilderment that she owned up to it.

"No, it's not okay, it's scary," presses their father.

Tate rolls his eyes. "Oh my Arceus, dad you knew what was going on with the parties and all that crap. Arceus, you're not that stupid, are you?"

"I didn't know it was that bad!" their dad exclaims. Their mother looks close to tears. "I didn't... didn't know. We were too wrapped up in-"

"Wait a second, you knew this whole time?" their mother interjects to her husband. "Arceus, Jin, you could've-"

"-that's not what I meant, so don't go twisting my words!"

Liza and Tate are going to blow a gasket at this rate. They know where this is going. They look over at Lucian and Sabrina who look exhausted by the sight of them.

"You said, and I quote, 'I didn't know it was that bad' which, implies that you knew something!"

"Oh and you didn't? Don't act so innocent in all of this! But it's only right, it is you, after all."

"Christ, just sign the fucking papers already!" Liza screams at her parents. "Get a divorce. For the love of Arceus, just get one!"

Tate nods in agreement.

Lucian and Sabrina's eyes widen a smidge. It's as if their looks said Oh, This is How Bad It Is. That's when Lucian and Sabrina order the twins to go to their bedrooms. They would like to have a word with their parents alone. Liza and Tate do just that, and by doing just that they mean going by the top stairs to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Rachel speaks first, in tears. "They're out of control. They're starting to scare me."

It's the total realization that Liza and Tate aren't typical teenagers. Though it's arguable they never were, they're psychic teenagers, for Arceus sake. Psychic teenagers that are gym leaders in a world where psychics are discriminated against.

It's also the total realization, to Lucian and Sabrina at least, that these twins in particular are struggling so much, that, the way they have adapted behavior of manipulation and asserting control are far beyond what is normal. Being such gifted trainers, gifted psychics - it can manifest in these ways, along with other destructive behaviors. Drugs, alcohol, you name it. What's happened is the fame they achieved gave the illusion of freedom, but in reality, it's trapping them. Lucian and Sabrina once said that Liza and Tate were emotionally immature, stunted - that was back when they first met the twins when they were twelve.

Now, they're swinging in the other direction. There's no middle ground to their behavior, and that is concerning.

"Be a parent," Sabrina orders coldly. "Why didn't you stop it sooner? Why did we have to get involved? Are they okay? Have you even asked them if they're okay? After everything they've gone through these past few years? Did you even stop and think about how this could be effecting them throughout your martial problems?"

Lucian tries to interject, "Sabrina-"

"And yes, we know about that, because we ask the twins if they're okay. Just because you and Jin have problems doesn't mean you should stop being parents."

"I didn't know that it would get that far," Rachel tells them. "We didn't know, we got distracted-"

"From what I understand," interrupts Lucian. "That doesn't stop you from putting your foot down. You and your husband-"

"Soon to be ex husband," Jin interjects. Lucian and Sabrina look at him. He blanches. "We're in the process of a divorce. It's been a week."

Lucian sighs. "You haven't told them yet." It's a statement, not a question.

"No."

Lucian starts to match Sabrina's energy. He looks angry. "I swear. If you make the twins think that they're responsible for your divorce..."

"We wouldn't!" Rachel exclaims. "I promise you, we wouldn't. We love them. It's that... they're teenagers. We didn't know what else to do. Steven tried talking to them. Wallace tried talking to them. Nothing worked."

"And so you want us to help as a last resort," Sabrina says. "You should have come to us first."

"We don't know how to tell them," says Jin. "We don't know how."

"You already did," Lucian remarks. Sabrina nods.

Rachel and Jin blink. "What?"

Lucian leans back. "Well, if we know Liza and Tate, telling them to go upstairs into their room means that they're eavesdropping by the top steps, so essentially they already know by now." Rachel and Jin slowly look over to see Liza and Tate had come down. "Ah, there they are."

Liza and Tate run back up the stairs.

They don't know how to feel.

Most children want their parents to stay together, even if they're unhappy. Liza and Tate were in the minority. It's heartbreaking, because of the realization that their parents don't love each other anymore, but they know better that they will be much happier if they simply divorce. All of this, all of this, could've absolutely been avoided had they done that in the first place. They still would've been sad, of course, but nowhere near the level of where they are now.

It's not their parents that come up to comfort them. It's Lucian and Sabrina. They ask the twins to start from the beginning right now, and there's no room for argument.

They do. They cry about their parents. Lucian and Sabrina can tell those tears are real this time. Team Magma and Aqua. Will and Karen's fiasco. The partying. The paparazzi being relentless. Liza is especially rattled about the paparazzi being relentless. The Holland incident. The height of their fame, their popularity, and everything just feels so wrong in spite of it. Had Liza and Tate known that this would happen when becoming gym leaders, they would have never accepted the roles.

Sabrina holds Liza in her arms, and Tate is soaking Lucian's suit with tears. Neither of the older psychics seem to mind, because it's not like something like this would be believable if Liza and Tate told anyone. Maybe people would, since most people knew that Lucian and Sabrina looked after Liza and Tate as their own despite being regions away.

Lucian and Sabrina try not to see them as the idealistic dewy-eyed twelve-year-olds they met, but it's really hard because of how vulnerable they are right now. Lucian rests his chin on top of Tate's head, telling him it's okay, over and over. Sabrina does the same for Liza.

Meanwhile, Liza and Tate's parents have a conversation with Steven Stone.

"You have to take them," breathes out Rachel, exhausted. Steven raises his eyebrows at the admission. Jin appears resigned. "You need to take them, just for a while."

"Liza and Tate? Me?"

"You have to take them in, Steven, you have to," Rachel repeats again, almost begs him. "Please."

Chapter Text

Chapter 4-

Steven takes Liza and Tate in.

The words 'emancipation' comes up a few times, but Liza and Tate don't want to go through the hassle. It's chaotic enough with their parents messy divorce. Liza and Tate figure they can find themselves a new apartment anyway. Steven doesn't give them a strict curfew or anything, but he does do sobriety tests. He's trying to save the twins from being fired, being technically their boss, but he's also trying to be the parent that Liza and Tate's parents never were. At times the twins find this suffocating, but deep down, they're relieved at the structure Steven gives them. More often than not the other gym leaders stop by to talk to them, even some members of the elite four if they're not busy.

Liza and Tate do slow down like Lucian said to. However they don't fully distance themselves from Lisia and Chaz. Steven tries to tell them otherwise, to maybe take a break from them, but Liza and Tate don't listen and that's the one thing that they disagree with Steven about. Steven doesn't stop them, but he makes sure they're sober.

Liza and Chaz eventually break up, it's pretty messy, considering Liza was absolutely convinced that she and Chaz were going to start a family in a year's time. When Chaz gets a new girlfriend, Liza hurls an empty vase at the wall. Tate asks her if she wants him to stop being friends with Chaz, and she tells him that he shouldn't do that for her sake.

As time goes on and the five regions' are ready to burst into flames in a post Team Galactic world, it's hard to control the urge to go party hard like they used to. They see the world that they're living in, and how Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova look ready to declare war.

Liza misses it. Oh, she misses it. Tate misses it too, she can tell. They miss the way nights would spill into the mornings. They miss going into rooms filled with cigarette smoke, perfume, and their bones rattling in time with the bass music. They miss the unpredictability of it all. One drink, because they're gym leaders and have to stay professional, which turns into five. They miss believing that if the world was going to burn, might as well dance in the ashes.

When Caitlin Montclair, a girl from the Battle Frontier in Sinnoh who has been personally mentored by Lucian, defects to Unova as an elite, Liza and Tate know what's about to happen. The twins are officially on the wagon, and are ready to put an end to their oppressive system known as the LNS. They are once again united as a team, and are willing to do whatever Iris Orochi and May Wilmarth tell them to do. Much to Tate's grief when it came to the latter.

But one day, the paparazzi are relentless as ever. Not even an hour ago Liza learned their mother had gone off to Unova to accept a position there with her new boyfriend. Tate's off somewhere with Chaz and Lisia probably drinking until he forgets his own name, allegedly in Sinnoh, and Liza is returning from the gym late into the night. The paparazzi are waiting for her.

They pester her with questions, and Liza can't take it anymore. It's like they don't know about her remarkable psychic powers she had honed and perfected. She screams and swears at them to leave her alone, please, just leave her alone. They don't get the message. In fact, the flashing lights from the cameras are even more intense, therefore Liza shatters all of their cameras and teleports away.

She's aware that photos about this will be printed the following day.

She's aware that her breakdown will reach the media.

She's aware that none of this will end, so it's best not to hope otherwise.

Tate's extremely drunk, no, too drunk. The kind of drunk that's no fun, despite Tate's intentions, it's the kind of drunk that's full of regret and bad decision making that he'll surely forget about in the morning.

How did he end up in Sinnoh of all places? Wait. Yeah. He took a flight with Chaz and Lisia on the latter's private jet and went down to the streets in Canalave. There's other people with them too, and Tate doesn't remember their names offhand, but they're doing things that are far more detrimental than the acid, ecstasy, marijuana, alcohol, and other non-addictive shit that Tate's put into his body for the past few years as a teenager. In this moment he becomes aware of what he's been doing to himself, how he's been doing that to himself, that with the lack of nutrients that came from food was replaced with far detrimental things so he can forget how to feel.

They ask if he wants to try. Tate's been very good about not touching harder things but the worst part is... he considers it. His mom's gone to Unova, their father isn't parenting like he should and the fuck does it matter anymore. He needs to step out for a second, to clear his head, and he does the first thing he thinks of.

Tate calls Lucian. The older psychic sounds wide awake, unsurprisingly, since he is a night Noctowl in every sense, and asks Tate why he's calling this late, and did something happen? Tate admits to Lucian on the phone that he's very drunk, and ended up taking a flight to Canalave, and there's people with him that are doing hard drugs and he doesn't want to be in that environment because he's considering doing it. He says he hasn't done anything but he doesn't know how much longer that's going to be true.

Lucian tells him to stay right there, he's on his way from the league castle.

While Tate's waiting, another figure emerges, the Canalave gym leader – who's also wide awake. Did Sinnohnians ever hear of sleep?

"Tate, right?" asks Byron. Tate nods. "Lucian called me. Wanted to make sure you're safe and away from all that."

Tate hesitates.

"I told Lucian I would let you wait in my gym, c'mon."

Tate follows him.

Byron talks to him a little bit, about his own kid, and he wouldn't want his kid to be caught up in that riffraff. Tate isn't sure why he's doing this, maybe it's a way of showing that he's proud of him, or maybe he's just proud of his gym leader son. Who knows.

Lucian shows up, bursts through the gym doors. Tate looks up with relief, but that's nothing compared to the fear of Arceus in Lucian's eyes. In all the videos Tate has seen of his idol, in interviews, during Team Galactic, never has he seen Lucian look so afraid.

"You didn't do any of that, did you?" Lucian asks quickly. Tate shakes his head and Lucian lets out a sigh of relief. Tate buries his face in Lucian's shirt and Lucian doesn't hesitate to pull him into a hug. "I'm so, so, proud of you."

"What's to be proud of? I got... I am... very intoxicated. I drank a lot."

"Maybe, but you called someone," says Lucian. "This is a good thing. Now can you explain why you did that?"

"Couldn't handle it. Mom leaving. To Unova. And I didn't want to say that to you because your mom is dead and mine is still alive and I should be grateful-"

"She's still in a region far away from you and your sister," cuts in Lucian. "It still hurts."

Lucian has a home in Canalave, despite living at the league castle. It's when he has days off and wants to give lectures at the psychic conservatory he used to run full time. He explains that he usually trains the older students getting ready to graduate. Tate wants to ask him all about the place Canalave locals refer to as Mind Mangle High, but he's too intoxicated to do so. Lucian tells Tate that he can stay here for the night, and by which the entire night Tate spends throwing up in the bathroom.

"And I want to be an elite one day," scowls Tate, after drinking a glass of water Lucian provided. "I'm doing a bang up job of trying to achieve that, aren't I?"

Lucian is standing by the threshold of the bathroom. He seems to be thinking hard about something, choosing the right words on what to say. He makes his decision.

"I shouldn't tell you this," Lucian remarks first, before adding, "But I did not handle it well, being an elite my first week. Would you believe me if I said I got extremely drunk with the colleagues I had then because I couldn't handle it well?"

Tate stares up at him. He can't believe his ears. "You?"

"Oh it was awful. Bertha found out. She wasn't very happy about it. I was throwing up constantly after, like you are now, and held my hair back. She made me drink water. Just a memory I had. Arceus, I think her nurturing persona is rubbing off on me, or that I'm getting older."

"Any advice? So I can achieve my dream of becoming an elite four member?"

Lucian pauses considerably. Tate wonders what a veteran member of the elite four will say in a time like this, in a time of vulnerability. Such profound things that Tate hopes to hear that'll bring him one step closer to being considered one of the greats in not only Hoenn, but in the world.

Then, in a flash of linguistic brilliance, Lucian Darrow deadpanned:

"Cut the shit."

It takes everything within Tate not to gape at him but even that's not enough. It's sound advice, all things considered, but Tate can't get over the fact that Lucian Darrow swore.

Lucian sleeps on the sofa in the living room, while Tate takes Lucian's bed. Tate figures that his parents and sister are going to find out about this, but Lucian remarks that they'll just know he's safe. It's up to him to tell them what's going on. Tate tells him that his parents don't give a shit what he does anymore. Lucian doesn't deny it, pressing his lips together and making a remark on how sad that is, but he thinks that at least his father in Hoenn might be willing to respond since he's still in the region.

"No," Tate hisses, then hiccups. "I hate him."

Lucian frowns. He has that inquisitive look on his face, the same one he had in the threshold when Tate was puking his guts out. Then he sighs.

"No you don't. You think you do, but you don't."

"Don't you hate your father?" Tate calls him out. He can tell Lucian wasn't expecting that question. "It's that... that's what Wallace says. Don't you?"

The psychic elite four member goes quiet. He has that damned expression on his face once more.

"We had a... complicated relationship," Lucian allows gently. And that's all Tate gets out of him.

Tate wakes up with a killer hangover. Lucian gets him some breakfast, that he learned a thing or two from Bertha's cooking. Tate is hesitant at first, that is until Lucian helps himself to a serving and this encourages Tate to have something in his stomach after a hangover. It's something that Lucian does, Tate has noticed. Whenever Lucian stops by Mossdeep, usually he'll be snacking on something around Tate, almost like he knows Tate deliberately doesn't eat unless someone else around him is, which is why Tate would be prompted to actually have some food. Tate gets the feeling that it's intentional, that Lucian is helping in a very indirect way. Tate's kind of thankful for it.

The elite remarks over breakfast that their parents responded and are glad to know Tate's okay. No response from Liza.

They learn why.

It's all over the news. Lucian and Tate wake up to Liza's confrontation with the paparazzi, that reaches all the regions in the LNS, not just Hoenn. They watch as the young psychic girl screams and swears at them to leave her alone and shatters a bunch of cameras.

"Sabrina reached out to her," Lucian tells him. "It's... going to be okay."

"How can you say something like that?" Tate can't help but respond. "It's like the universe is trying to tell me and my sister something. That even if we stop with... what we've been doing... that it's going to be hell for us no matter what."

Lucian shakes his head. "Stop that talk. You're young. You have your whole lives ahead of you."

Tate buries his face in his hands. "Will it ever end? Arceus, fuck it all."

Lucian lets the swearing slide.

Liza wakes up to several messages of concern. Lisia, and fucking Chaz. All of the gym leaders. The elites. Steven a few houses down that had stopped by more than once to try to talk to her. Liza ignores all of them. Even Sabrina's messages are frequent, and a bit panicked which is weird for her, but Liza doesn't have it in for her to care. Dad's out in space due a huge breakthrough in research. Mom's in Unova. The hell does it matter. Now Tate and Lucian are asking if she's okay. Once again, Liza ignores them.

They're never going to leave her alone, are they? The public. Already Liza sees her public breakdown on almost every channel in Hoenn, with most if not all of the media scrutinizing her over it. Some of them are even sprinkling psychic prejudice implication for good measure. She can never win.

"Liza."

Oh is she hearing voices now too, that's great.

"Liza, it's Sabrina. Open the door. Liza, please, open the door!"

She must be hearing voices. Sabrina's voice just doesn't get all high and shrilly like that.

"Open the door, or I will break it."

Liza doesn't want to. What if it's just another paparazzo that had stalked her back to her home? That has happened before, what's stopping them now?

"Sabrina?" Liza calls out hesitantly, wondering if it's bad to engage in what she assumes is an auditory hallucination. "Is that... you?"

"It's me. Please. Open the door."

Slowly, Liza opens the door to see a worry-stricken Sabrina. Immediately Liza shuts the door behind them, not wanting to risk the public getting wind of this. She can only imagine what Sabrina is thinking, here to yell at her over her foolishness and temperamental behavior with the paparazzi, perpetrating a negative stereotype about psychics being violent.

Sabrina rushes to hug her. "Oh thank Arceus, I thought something terrible happened. You weren't answering your phone."

Liza breaks. Because something terrible did happen. She collapses into dry sobs, into Sabrina's arms, saying how sorry she is and how she didn't mean to lose control. Sabrina says she doesn't blame her at all and would she like to stay in Saffron with her for a few days to get away from the paparazzi?

She accepts Sabrina's offer. They get into contact with Tate and Lucian to let them know what's going on. Funnily enough, Tate is with Lucian after learning that Tate almost got into trouble after one too many drinks in Canalave. Tate tells Liza that he'll take over the gym for the time being. Lucian works overtime on defending Liza from the public. If a reporter asks Lucian about Liza's behavior, he replies that they should leave her alone and that he finds it strange that the media is content on breaking a teenage girl's spirit. Liza would've told him that her spirit was broken a long time ago, but she's with Sabrina. Sabrina who gives her a place to stay and holds her when she gets overwhelmed.

The first night Liza wakes up screaming. She's tearing at her face and crying hysterically and Sabrina rushes in. She gathers Liza in her arms like a mother soothing a frightened child, gently rocks back and forth, and had Liza not been so frightened she would've found it embarrassing that the motion works on her despite being a teenager. Liza's eyes droop as Sabrina strokes her hair while the rocking motion persists. Sabrina speaks softly, repeats words and phrases like "it's okay," "just a bad dream," and "you're safe."

The next morning, Sabrina speaks to her. The Saffron City gym leader is known for having a stern gaze that softens around Liza, and this time especially isn't an exception. But there's a hint of that sternness there that says we're going to talk about what's been happening.

"I want to know everything," Sabrina says.

Liza blinks. "Everything, as in...?"

"Everything you have done since May defeated Team Magma and Aqua."

Liza opens up as honestly as she can. She has to watch Sabrina's face grow sadder and sadder as she lists the things that have defined her life as a teenager. Liza lists every single substance she has put her body through, even ones where she had to describe the feeling of it and what it looked like because all she knew was that it was handed to her at a party and she took it no questions asked. She tells Sabrina how much she would love to chase that feeling again so she didn't have to feel anything at all.

That's when Sabrina cuts her off.

"You know Will Callavon, yes?" she asks rhetorically, to which Liza nods at the mention of the Indigo elite four member, also known as a former student of Sabrina's. "He used to experiment with these things, mostly psychedelics, but not to your extent. I told him to knock it off anyway. Psychics minds are far more fragile than the average human's. We are not fully aware and that into research of what can happen to us."

This time, Sabrina's gaze is sterner.

"You are a remarkable psychic that's been poisoning her blood with some things you don't even know the name of. You are young. You are precocious. Stop. This is the last time I will tell you this. Understand? And I don't care how tempting it may be, and I understand it can be, but when that happens, you call me."

Liza nods. "Okay."

Sabrina goes over to Liza, gently tilting her chin up so she can face her, like a mother making sure her daughter is looking up so she'll pay attention. "You have talent. Don't waste it. It's the saddest thing in life."

Meanwhile Tate avoids talking about his sister entirely. Allegedly his face contorts into a snarl when challengers ask about her, even if it's with good intentions but it's hard to tell, and then stomps those trainers into the ground.

It's the first time Tate actually battles by himself, and he's too much for trainers to handle. Folks are saying that Tate's adrenaline is spiked due to Liza's breakdown that Tate is performing so well. Liza knows better. She's almost positive that with the exception of Wallace, Tate is the strongest gym leader in the Hoenn region. It's not bias either, because Liza is once again fully aware that she's there to balance the battles out. Now that Liza isn't there, Tate is given full permission to decimate those trainers.

To call those battles would be an insult to all battles in history. It is a one-sided massacre from Tate's end. He's experimenting with multiple battling styles and all of them seem to be in almost deadly working order. Some of it is merciful. Most of it is cruel. He goes above and beyond when challenged, and not a single challenger walks out with a badge.

But Liza wonders if he's okay. Tate's very analytical, almost a control freak, and she knows that he'll be borderline obsessive over these battles on his own.

Liza is watching her brother on television with Sabrina. She turns to the older psychic. "He's so successful."

"Don't sell yourself short," Sabrina tells her. "You've sparred with several of my psychics here and won. Not many people can do that. You're so, so, successful too. You and your brother. Despite being twins, treated as one entity at first, have managed to show some differences. You're the most popular influencer in Hoenn. Tate's a popular trainer."

"Did you think we could be that great?"

"Yes," Sabrina instantly says. "Lucian and I knew that. We didn't know how successful you would be, however, and so young."

"Oh."

There's silence for about a minute.

"Lucian and I were very jealous of you and Tate," Sabrina admits after the silence. Liza turns to look at her again, almost appalled. "We saw that you two were happy then. When we first met. You both had a stable, loving background that Lucian and I lacked growing up."

Liza snorts. "Look how that turned out."

"That doesn't mean we wanted for you to have what you currently have," Sabrina says, sighing. "We wanted none of that for you. It's more like, we wish we had what you two had. In spite of all that, we're very proud of you. You still manage to be so successful, at your ages, with everything that's gone on in your lives. The last thing Lucian and I wanted was for you and Tate to get even a little bit of what I went through, or what Lucian went through. You were supposed to be the next generation of psychics that didn't go through that hardship, but old indoctrinations die hard. We were both scared at the idea of losing you two, when Will became an elite."

"There's going to be another war, isn't there?" Liza asks.

Sabrina looks heartbroken. "Probably."

Tate doesn't know how he got here.

He's in a fetal position in the corner of the gym way past midnight. He hasn't responded to anyone after defeating so many challengers. Not a single person managed to best him. Steven tries to reach him, but to no avail. Tate's eyes are closed and mutters something about a supernova. It's all he can talk about, really. When he does talk. It's the battle of supernovas. Reaching for the stars. He's going to reach for the stars, he's sure of it. He's relaxed, in an eerie sort of way, but he can't break through. He can't get out of his head. He keeps replaying the battles over and over in his mind. What he can do, what he should do, and how things could've gone differently?

...He really misses his sister.

"Tate."

It's not his sister. Tate doesn't open his eyes.

"It's like a supernova, Lucian," Tate goes on. He is keenly aware that Lucian is slowly moving toward him. "We start with a buildup, drawing our opponents in, luring them with feints and distractions – let them think they are secure. Then it's like a star reaching its critical point. We unleash our full potential in coordinating attacks in an explosive burst of energy. Like a supernova. Reaching for the stars."

"Look at how brilliant you are. You've achieved a perfect analogy for your strategies in battle all on your own. And you've won every single battle with it."

Tate's slowly opens his eyes to see Lucian sitting across from him. Lucian's eyes are shining with something like pride and concern. "You're going to ruin your suit."

This makes Lucian laugh a bit. "Maybe so. It's fine."

"It's Liza's design, isn't it?"

"Well, you know that Sabrina and I were the first to support her clothing line."

"Steven sent you here," Tate says knowingly, changing the subject. "He sent you here because I wouldn't talk to anyone. My brain just shut down. It just feels like everything is wrong, even after I won everything."

Lucian doesn't deny it. Instead, he asks seriously, "What's going on in that head of yours?"

"I keep playing it in my head. The battles. Over and over. Is it okay?"

"It's more than okay. I've watched the videos. It's brilliant. The better question is, are you okay?"

Tate uncurls himself. He rests his head on Lucian's shoulder. "...Kind of. Now I am." Lucian puts his hand on his head. A common way for the older psychic to show affection for those he cares about. Tate doesn't know how long they sit there for and falls asleep in this position.

When Iris goes on a late night comedy show and condemns the system, it's the final straw for all five regions. Trainers taking on the LNS in cities decide to attack the cities and its gym leaders head on, and Liza and Tate are no exception. Liza returns to Mossdeep in record time, and Tate is there right by her side.

Liza and Tate fight courageously as they hear Sabrina and Lucian's voices in their heads on what to do. The Mossdeep twins never do any less. Tate's battling strategies save the entire city, and because of his idea to Steven to station Kirlia that can teleport and use heal pulse in every route and city, is a reason the Hoenn death rate is among the lowest. Liza's fashion design has been a secret, but she has been working on getting her specific clothing line to protect psychics from dark type moves, after what happened with Will and Karen. Liza doesn't know in the moment if it works, but later on she learns it's the reason Will Callavon is still alive.

It's safe to say that Liza and Tate have become the equivalent of teen geniuses. And they did all that while chaos was erupting all around their lives. While they were high. Or drunk. Or having family problems. All the adolescent bullshit that seems like child's play in comparison to what is going on now.

But when it comes time to kill in self defense, Liza hesitates. Tate does not.

It's ugly. It's hideous. It almost sends Liza into a wave of hysteria and tries to keep herself from throwing up when Tate does. She lashes out at her brother afterwards, and May Wilmarth shows up to help clean Mossdeep city and stops the twins from fighting. They get into contact with their mother who's okay, their father as well. It seems like the five regions are going to officially declare war even after so many deaths are involved, until a breaking news report reveals that Agatha Bychkov of the Indigo elite four has passed.

Liza and Tate don't know much about Agatha. They know that Sabrina deeply cared for her, though she wouldn't admit it, and that Bertha considered Agatha a friend which in turn deeply affected Lucian. It effects the Sinnoh elite four as a whole, truly, because Bertha isn't that much younger than Agatha and they're afraid she'll be next. The idea of Bertha dying sends Lucian into a panic, Liza and Tate know that, another thing Lucian tries to hide from the twins.

Before the service, Lisia and Chaz tries to get into touch with them again. For the first time, Liza and Tate can't stand the two. They want nothing to do with them, that two silly coordinators that claim that the politics of the world have nothing to do with them when it has everything to do with them. Something Tate is sure to tell them. It doesn't matter that Lisia and Chaz had technically helped push Liza and Tate to success.

They also pushed them to the brink. Before Lisia and Chaz came into their lives, they hadn't a clue that their adderall could be used as a way to get high, that you can get high off of a computer duster, that marijuana can be ingested as well as smoked, that some cigarette brands had different flavors than others, that acid and mushrooms were different and they lasted around twelve hours. While Liza and Tate knew that they had personal responsibility, Lisia and Chaz's unhealthy lifestyles rubbed off on them.

They're done. They've made that clear to the coordinators.

Agatha's death affects everyone. The woman had started this chain reaction which lead into the trainers that they have today. She was the reason that Bertha became an elite, which inspired Cynthia, which inspired Lucian, which inspired Liza and Tate. They can go on and on about how Agatha's hire had been the reason for so many more hires, and they do, at the woman's funeral - where league members from Kanto through Unova show up at the service. They called her the woman that started it all.

Liza and Tate know that it's a mix of good and bad things. Mostly in-between. But no one can deny that the woman achieved greatness.

They vote to officially put an end to the LNS. Something that's well-received. There's no official war, they've lost too many people already. Too much death for a lifetime. The league members open their eyes and see what war would be like, and they don't want it. It's only fitting that it ends with Agatha's death. Thank you Iris Orochi.

But that does not mean Liza and Tate are done with the league for good. Sabrina's retiring, having her student Kerry take over the gym while she goes off to Unova to become a film actress after a bet with Lucian. Lucian claims that the woman isn't good as pretending as he is, and she decides to prove him wrong. She will prove him wrong. As for Lucian, he stays as an elite after everything, but the Sinnoh league is closing down for the time-being. Unsurprising, since Sinnoh suffered the most throughout these tragedies.

The future seems uncertain. But not as bleak.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

Unova's in a bit of a pickle with Team Plasma running around, something about what happened in the five regions being the main cause of all these problems they're having and they need to separate Pokemon and trainers entirely. But the difference is, the Unova region has the backing of the other regions in case things go wrong. But the Unova region doesn't need them. Something the league says respectively, and there's no animosity whatsoever. The Unova gym leaders band together and things are okay. It happens one more time, two years later, and the same thing happens. Things are okay.

What Liza is really known for is becoming one of the top five most powerful psychics all over the world. She gives lectures to the students in Hoenn's psychic institute in her free time. She's also the most popular trendsetter that rivals even Candice Cornwall from the Sinnoh region. Liza's fashion is frequently seen in all the galas, charity auctions, anyone who's anyone is wearing Liza's expensive but remarkable pieces. Pop stars, actors, league members, you name a public figure, they have at least one piece from Liza's clothing line. Sabrina frequently wears Liza's works to promote it at carpet events over the movie premieres. The former Saffron gym leader has proved Lucian wrong and has become one of the most promising actresses in their time. Speaking of Sabrina, Liza currently has a meeting with the gym leader turned actress.

"The film industry wants to create a biopic about my life, and are consulting me to get all the details right, naturally," Sabrina informs the young psychic.

Liza's eyes widen. "Really? Wow! That's incredible."

"I'm not going to do that."

"What? Why not? You're a legend in psychic circles, it's about time your life gets depicted in the way that you want it. What's stopping you?" Liza pauses. "Wait a minute, don't tell me it's going to be a musical. You know, I can tell you firsthand that Drake and Brawly experienced that, and they hated it so-"

"No, it's not because it's a musical. I already told them seventy times that that's not going to happen."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Because of the leading actress that plays a younger me," Sabrina says. "I don't want someone who's an actress to play a younger version of myself. I want it to be real. Raw. Someone who's faced struggle as I have, someone who understands. I have only one person in mind that can take on such a role."

"Who?"

Sabrina simply looks at Liza and Liza suddenly understands where she's getting at.

"Me? But I'm not an actress."

"That's the point. They asked me who I want to play a younger version of myself. And I said unless it's Liza Arwin, then we're not doing the movie."

"But what if I'm awful?"

"I'll be coaching you from the sidelines the entire time. And you're going to be showing off your psychic powers. I can't think of any psychic that even comescloseat your age that has such abilities. Granted, they wanted to hire a non-psychic actress at first and would add special effects, but I definitely won't allow that."

Liza considers this.

"You'll be coaching me the entire time," Liza repeats. "I kind of thought you already were."

Sabrina smiles. "Exactly. This time, in acting."

"So if I say yes," Liza goes on, "Then you'll do the movie."

"Absolutely."

That's all Liza needs to say yes. That's when Tate fully has control of the gym once more. Liza worries she'll be awful. Sabrina reassures her the entire time that she's doing an incredible job, the directors are saying the same, and that she should really consider a career in acting. Liza suspects they're just being nice.

That is until the biopic is released. It's the highest grossing film of the past five years. Liza wins an award for best actress in a leading role.

As Liza makes her speech, she thanks the directors and producers. She thanks her parents even if they aren't as involved in her life anymore because she wants to bury the hatchet with them. She thanks Lucian and Sabrina for helping her and her brother Tate when they were at their lowest. She thanks Tate as well for being the best brother anyone could ever have. Everyone at the Hoenn league. There's tears in her eyes as she thanks Sabrina a second time for this opportunity to take this historical role.

The idea that Liza Arwin once had a public meltdown is no longer in anyone's minds for good.

This is her comeback.

This is her moment.

She goes back to Mossdeep, back to the gym, but staying in Unova really does seem like something she wants to do. To maybe follow in Sabrina's footsteps, in a way, as if paying homage to her in a biopic wasn't enough. One of her gym trainers seems to be shaping up to be a worthy successor, and Sabrina says that she can get anyone in the business to hire her for more movies and TV shows. Sabrina also says that they can work in the same film production company, if she wants to.

Liza wants to experience more things outside of battling, because why not. Her interest is in fashion first and foremost, and she would love to design clothes for movie and TV show sets. She's not much of an actress despite getting an award for it, this is a one off thing that she did only for Sabrina, but maybe staying in the entertainment industry in Liza's own, unique way would help. Sabrina tells her that they'll find an opening for her to showcase her designs for actors.

Dreams can come true.

When Liza had left to shoot the movie with Sabrina, the Hoenn league could fully observe how Tate operated as a solo gym leader to make sure that one time wasn't just sheer luck. It's a good evaluation, a good test for him, to see if his talents could maybe go beyond that of a gym leader.

He's too powerful. While he is aware of the badge limit for certain trainers and what Pokemon to use, there are certain strategies that suggest that even he's too far advanced. He's outgrown the post, at his age, and it couldn't be clearer. Most of the gym leaders in Hoenn don't hold back at all during the trainer's eighth badge, but it's so obvious that Tate is one of the few trainers thathas towhen facing those kinds of challengers. Really, they should've known when Tate had lost to Wallace, however he had knocked out four of his Pokemon out of six. Something that had shaken up the water-type specialist. The constant battling with May and sometimes Lucian seems to really have paid off.

Steven Stone requests a private meeting with Tate. They chat over pastries and coffee. Steven says something about Drake retiring in a few years, give or take. Tate remarks that he's surprised he's not retiring now, like allegedly a lot of league members are. Steven replies that Drake wants to give it another year, have Glacia move up to take the head of the elite four position, have Phoebe move up, and Sidney, and a first slot would be vacant for someone to fill in.

Tate hears Lucian's voice in his head.There's an opening. Take advantage of it. Use words to your advantage. Manipulate, if you have to.

He does.

"Hire me when that time comes," Tate orders Steven. The steel-type specialist blinks. "Tell Drake that I want that spot. I want the first slot in Hoenn's elite four and eventually I'll work my way up as head of the elite four. There hasn't been a psychic elite in Hoenn's elite four. So you look racist. Hire me in the future."

Needlessly to say, Tate didn't have to add those last few sentences. He didn't know that Steven was planning on offering him a position anyway.

So when the time comes that Drake is retiring, Tate has the nerve to be surprised when he himself is asked if he wants to be a member of Hoenn's elite four when the time comes. The first psychic. His dream. His dream to reach an elite four position just like Lucian Darrow has, his idol, and they're just giving it to him just like that. They're waiting for his answer.

Tate tells them to give him a day to think about it. He flies over to the Sinnoh league and meets with Lucian. He needs guidance. Lucian sits at his desk, staring analytically at Tate across from him, and suddenly Tate feels twelve-years-old again and meeting Lucian for the first time.

"What is it?" Lucian asks.

Tate spits it out. "They... the Hoenn league. They want me to be an elite four. Me."

Silence.

Lucian raises an eyebrow. "And?"

"What do you mean, 'and?' They want me to be an elite four. Glacia, Phoebe, and Sidney will move up, and I take the first slot. Aren't you a little surprised? I have no idea what to tell them, I mean I should do it, but I didn't think they'd actually give me the spot! Well?" Lucian doesn't say anything for several seconds. He clears his throat.

And then Lucian Darrow says, "I've known since you were twelve that you would become an elite four member."

What.

"What?" Tate asks, wide-eyed. "What are you-"

"I mean I didn't think it would happen so soon honestly, but good on you for reaching so high up. Congratulations. Take the position. What's stopping you?"

"How did you know?"

Lucian pushes his glasses up to his nose. "When we battled for the first time. You had thatlookin your eyes. Every elite four member has that look before becoming one. Only an elite or champion can notice it. The itch. The hunger. The obsession with the heat of battle. You lost, but you were giving it your all, and you did exceptionally well."

"Because I always wanted to be like you."

Lucian's eyes flicker with something close to emotion. "You do not want to be like me."

Tate doesn't understand. "You told me once that I was like you."

"The first day we met, when Sabrina and I evaluated you and Liza. I remember it as well as you do," says Lucian. He leans back in his chair. "I knew even then you would become an elite. I looked at you and thought wow, you remind me of a younger version of myself, but now, looking at the man across from me, I realize that I'm incorrect."

Tate frowns.

"You're better."

"What?"

"I mean yes, I'm the better trainer and psychic that comes with age, but you... you might actually have a conscience. And that makes you better."

Tate tilts his head. "Lucian. Please drop the sociopath act. It doesn't really suit you anymore. You looked after Liza and I, and Caitlin. No one who's without a conscience can care like you did, like you and Sabrina did."

Lucian's lips twitch. "I always knew when you and your sister got older you'd finally understand. Not as naive as I thought, when we first met. "

"Do you have any advice on becoming an elite?"

Lucian looks at him seriously. "Eat three meals a day."

Tate furrows his brows. "Huh?"

The older psychic gives him a knowing look. "It's important to remain healthy, and that means eating healthy. It's a far more demanding job than a gym leader, and your mind needs to stay sharp. Your body needs to properly function."

Oh.

He knows.

"So that's why you always ate around me," says Tate. "You... didn't believe me when I said I was forgetting to eat, did you?"

Lucian shakes his head. It looks like it pains him to do so.

"...How did you figure it out?"

"Well, I know what it looks like when someone actually forgets to eat, you can ask Cynthia," answers Lucian. "And it's not as surprising that you've struggled with this. You're, and I mean no disrespect, quite a controlling person. Obviously I can't go out and accuse you of disordered eating, but I at least tried to make sure you were eating around me."

Tate looks down. "Oh."

"And whatever you do, no matter how bad the press is being or the paparazzi are, do not drink heavily your first week. Speaking from experience."

"I don't think it can get worse from that time I drank an Everclear shot."

Lucian stares at the young man in front of him in shock. "Why would you purposely..." He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "That stuff is only good for disinfecting wounds. You might as well drink gasoline straight from a pump."

Tate grins. "Don't give me any ideas."

"Smartass." But Lucian's tone is playful.

"Learned from the best," Tate quips back. He gets up from his seat. "I'm going to tell Steven I say yes to their offer."

"Good."

Tate's eyes are shining with admiration. "It's so crazy to me that I'm actually doing this. I still have so much to learn. From the league. From you."

"We're technically on equal footing now. We have the same job description."

"You're head of the elite four."

"Between you and me, it's not much of a difference."

The idea of Tate being on the same level as his idol is bizarre.

Tate takes up the elite position.

Dreams can come true.

They weren't little kids anymore.

Arguably, they never were. Not really. There was a time, maybe. When their mother and father were still happily married. Their mother was the gym leader before them and their father worked a nice job at the Space Center. Being the curious little psychic children they were, they would sneak out to build sandcastles and try to experiment with their powers despite their lack of training. Those things, yes, made them children. Curious, bright-eyed, filled with hope with no threat of a weather crisis and family issues.

Liza and Tate meet up there. Back where it all started. They're adults now. Actual adults with success in their lives despite the shit thrown their way. Their feet soak in the sand and there isn't a single substance in their bodies. That's behind them now. They have livelihoods and the kind of hope that they hadn't had in years.

"I want a cigarette," Tate declares.

Liza snorts. "Don't be stupid."

"It's the elite four way," shrugs Tate.

"You don't get to do that until you're years into the job," Liza responds. She runs a hand through her hair. "Though I get the feeling. Sort of. Can you believe that Unova's celebrities are lining up to get my designs? There's a waitlist for my latest dress. Talk about the pressure."

"Pressure," Tate echoes. "You'll be fine. You always were."

"Were you, really? Were we?"

It's a good question. Because the truth is, there was a time where they weren't fine. Their adolescence was spent doing things that were downright stupid. Fun in the moment, yes, but at what cost? At least they're being careful now. There's still parties, but they weren't partying as nearly hard as they used to. They're smarter than that now.

"You won't believe what I've heard," sighs Tate, opting to change topic. "Turns out May is going to have another go at becoming champion. She's going to challenge us soon."

Liza raises a brow. "And? What are you concerned about?"

"I've always lost against her. Let's be honest, I'm going to lose again. That's not the issue. The issue is that I'm so used to Steven being my boss. I'm still getting used to my elite four position. With May coming in as champion, which we all knew was going to happen eventually, it changes things. I have to redo everything. Lucian told me my first year as an elite is the hardest. He's definitely not wrong about that, but putting May in the league before I reach that milestone?"

"May would be a good boss," Liza tells him. "She's a good trainer. We've listened to her in the past before, you know."

Tate snorts. "That was when we worked together to stop the LNS. If we're working for the same league and running the country, I feel as though it's different. I'm the one that should have some leeway over her, but that's not going to be the case and I hate it."

At last, a significant difference between Tate and Lucian. Lucian has no issue whatsoever being a yes man to Cynthia, doing whatever she told him to do before she could finish the order, but Tate isn't like that. Despite Tate's obvious attraction to May that has yet to bloom into something else, he has too much pride, and jealously brimmed beneath the surface. If May were to become champion when Tate's not even halfway through his full year, it would crush his ego.

"Get over it," Liza tells him seriously. Tate looks at her, appalled. "I mean it. She's better than you. Has Sabrina ever complained that Lucian is a better trainer than her? And has Lucian ever complained that Cynthia was better than him? No. What did Lucian do for Cynthia? He was her right arm. You have more experience working in the league, but you cannot take away the fact that she's a better trainer. You were always better than me, and I never bitched about it."

"You didn't care," Tate points out.

"Maybe," she replies at length. "But you have an advantage over her. You can help her without being egotistical about it, I beg of you."

It's up to Tate to follow his sister's advice. But Tate likes to beat to his own drum. It's going to take some getting used to.

"How do you like Unova, and be honest," asks Tate.

"I like it," admits Liza. "Sabrina likes it too. I even get to hangout with Caitlin from time to time."

"Three powerful psychics in one country. How lucky of Unova. Say, you wouldn't say that Caitlin's cracking under the pressure, right? When I have to meet with her because of psychic elite four reasons, she's very reserved, almost short and sullen. Prefers to talk to Lucian the whole time. Avoids Will entirely, if you must know."

"Caitlin's very different from us. She's almost blessedly normal, and for someone that was partially raised by Lucian, that is nothing short of a miracle. Don't give me that look, Tate, it's true. That being said, she does talk about you sometimes."

"Oh? What does she say?"

Liza scoffs. "She says you enjoy fighting too much. And I happen to agree." Tate opens his mouth to object, but Liza won't have it. "If there is a battle that involves a life or death situation, you're the first to volunteer. You're pissed. You're itching for a fight, because deep down, you're jealous of the action May has gotten. If dark-type specialists came out saying they wanted you dead, your eyes would glisten and you'd foam at the mouth at the revelation. You would want them to come get you. You want to fight for your life. And that worries me. You are the embodiment of a psychic soldier. You straight up could've come from the CPC. Sometimes Lucian laments to Caitlin wishing you had been born in Sinnoh, but separating me from you is a no-no."

It's the highest compliment Tate could've gotten. Trust Liza to turn a question that was once directed at her back to Tate's issues. But her point is correct. Even with Liza saying this, Tate's adrenaline spiked in glee. He doesn't want a crisis that affects other people, but himself? Oh, oh it is beautiful. If you told Tate Arwin that he seems like a man of peace now he would be personally offended by that statement. His first few months as an elite were so unhinged that Lucian - Lucian - told him to calm down.

Tate smirks. "I'm still alive, aren't I?"

"Tate."

"It's not like your job," says Tate. "You like making fancy dresses and suits for people of high social standing. You like that pressure better than life or death. Always have."

"One bad review on my works, then it's over," sighs Liza.

"And upset a lethal psychic? They would never."

Here, Liza smirks. "I do enjoy sparring. Sabrina lets me spar her, but she obviously holds back. She always tells me I'm getting better. Caitlin's been trying to get me on board with helping the psychic school in Unova. She may have been comfortable defecting, but I'm not sure I'm ready to make that call."

"Times are different now, nobody gives a shit about that anymore."

Liza shrugs. "I'm proud of my Hoennian heritage, what can I say? I like visiting the Hoenn Psychic Seminary in my free time. I see what you're doing there. A combination of Saffron's practices and Canalave's is a recipe for disaster, I hope you know."

"It'll produce results," Tate insists, and he is right. He smirks back. "Look at you. Hiding behind the pretty clothes to hide pretty lethal abilities."

It's quiet for a moment.

"We're successful now," Liza breathes out in relief. "I mean we were before, as gym leaders, and even when we became teens. But unlike before, I don't... feel like I'm suffocating. I don't feel like I need to go out and do all the stuff I was doing before with Lisia and Chaz. I'm... okay with how our parents are leading different lives now."

"And so are we," Tate concludes.

Dreams can come true. For twins from Mossdeep City. Lucian and Sabrina had pushed for them to be duo gym leaders, and what better way to repay them than to exceed their expectations? The two older esteemed psychics failed to mention the recognition and fame that would come out of this. And yes. It's true. There was recognition and fame that came with it; good, bad, for better and for worse. Their expectations had been exceeded, but not to the level that they expected. Neither did Liza and Tate for that matter.

They're here now. Breathing. Ready to move forward with the next chapter in their lives. They're going to be apart of the legends, and nothing is going to stop them. Because nothing can stop Liza and Tate, the dynamic twins that can do anything they put their minds to. Together, or apart. It is arguable that being gym leaders had earned them the ability to work independently, and being independent is a way of healing. Neither twin is ready to live without the other, but with their careers and reputations, they have to try.

If there came a time where there was no longer peace in the world, they would unite again.

And work together.

As one.

They've done it before, after all.

Their adolescence shaped them, and will continue to for the rest of their lives.