One more downtrodden trudge back home, just like all the rest. The same trees lining the same pathway, the same birds making the same chirps in the same sky, as the same two friends had once again made the same preparations for the same journey to the same lake for the same activity...
...with the same outcome.
"Listen, you don't need to feel bad about it," Skye reassured her companion, trying to soothe the all too familiar feeling of frustrated dejection. "We'll see if there's any more techniques you could try, then we can head back another time."
Roisin stopped for a second, heaving a sigh. She had heard this so many times before. "Skye, it's not that I don't appreciate you trying to help me find a handle on this whole 'energy' thing," she tried to explain, "I just don't have a clue what it is I'm actually supposed to be looking for. I mean, how do I know it's the right feeling, and not just that the wind's picked up?"
Skye couldn't help a sympathetic pang of sorrow welling up within her chest. She had tried so many times to help Roisin unlock the potential she knew she had, but for whatever reason, it just didn't seem to be working. "Well, you've already evolved twice," the Lanturn noted, "do you remember the feeling while you were going through it?"
"Not really," the Staraptor replied with a shake of her head. "All I remember is feeling like death and having to stay in bed for about three days afterwards."
Skye nodded sagely. Willing oneself into evolution took a serious toll on not only the body, but also the mind, and preparing both for the surge of energy required was a vital part of the process, requiring around a week on average. If done right, one would emerge from the other side no worse than if they had missed a couple of hours of sleep. However, as headstrong as Roisin was, and always had been, back then she simply hadn't been ready.
"It's the same kind of energy you drew on back then," she elaborated, hoping to find some kind of connection, no matter how distant. "It's what you use to make your attacks in a battle. It's all around us, and you can tap into it anywhere, but it's incredibly strong at Lake Verity." Skye gave a longing look back in the direction they had come. "I thought that might help."
Roisin glanced back the same way, still with a faint hope she might one day learn what Skye had tried all this time to teach her. "Maybe it does, but I..."
The Lanturn turned back to her friend, as she stared off at the shimmering lake in the far distance.
"...I can't feel what you feel." Roisin said. "It's just a bunch of water to me."
Skye could only stand and watch for a moment as the Staraptor resumed the long trek back home, that pang of sorrow overwhelming every other emotion. It almost felt like watching a ghost finally departing from the land of the living. She brought a hand to the Shell Bell tied around her neck and took a deep breath to steady her thoughts, before shadowing Roisin back along the pathway once more.
"I just want you to know," she added, "no matter what happens, or how long this all takes, I'll do everything that I can to help you."
Roisin took a look back at the Lanturn following her, still with one hand around that shell necklace she wore. Skye had been the spiritual one for as long as the big bird had known her, right back to when they had first met as a Staravia and a Chinchou. All the meditation, the incense, even the dream catcher. It might have been nonsense to her, but she still knew how much it all meant to Skye. And despite how differently they had turned out, somehow they had still managed to stick together through it all.
"...thanks, Skye." Roisin gave as best a smile as she could muster, and the pair continued down their winding and well-walked path. "I dunno, maybe I just need to-"
-whoosh-
The two spun around in unison at the sudden noise, eyes trained on the treeline as the last vague suggestions of a silhouette flashed beneath the canopy. "Did you see something?" asked the Lanturn.
The Staraptor moved forward a little, to get a closer look. "I dunno, it sounded like-GAH!"
Without warning, Roisin was sent flying for several yards, as a blue and orange blur crashed headlong into her at a blistering velocity. Skye leapt back in surprise, watching the figures tumbling across the ground, finally coming to a rest quite some way away, Roisin laying face-down in the dirt, and the new arrival forcibly pinning her in place.
"Don't move!" they yelled, grabbing Roisin's arm and wrenching it behind her back.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" she cried in response, as her other arm was twisted around to join the first.
"W-Wait, stop!" Skye called out, rushing over toward them. "Officer Barkley, what are you doing?"
The Arcanine pulled out a set of handcuffs, and quickly set about securing both of Roisin's arms at the wrist. "There's been a spate of thefts all across Sinnoh for months now," they stated, "and this time we got a witness description from an aide at the professor's lab, and evidence of a Flying-group Pokémon breaking in!"
"I...that...we..." Skye stammered, struggling to take in everything that Barkley had just dropped on the duo. "B-B-But she's innocent! We were both at the lake, she's been with me all day!"
"Well then, we can find that out for sure once we get back into town," Officer Barkley told them, hoisting the restrained Roisin back to her feet. "And since you're offering up an alibi for her," they added, jabbing a finger toward Skye, "you can come along too."
Roisin grimaced at the feeling of the dependably solid handcuffs pushing against her spine as she was marched along in front of what was now a trio. "Agh! What's she got to do with this?" she snapped, jerking her head in the Lanturn's direction.
Skye, meanwhile was having trouble trying not to panic at the sight of her friend being dragged off in police custody, pleading with the officer. "Why do you need to arrest her?" she implored, gesturing to the Staraptor. "She's not done anything!"
"What's going on?" growled Roisin.
"What's going on?" begged Skye.
Officer Barkley said nothing.
Though the two of them had a feeling they would find out soon enough.
