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"I wish!" Rocky said. "We should have brought Incineroar with us to do commentary! That would have made everything cooler." He was thoughtfully quiet for a moment. "Maybe he was there after Pop brought all of Cibus in, doing his announcer thing, and we just didn't see him." "Oh, yeah, I go to...

Rocky's eyes brightened when Luz came over to their table. "See?" "Wait," Nate said, but Rocky was already off and running. "Sure! There's plenty of room," he said. "It's been a long time, Luz. What have you been doing? I know Brisa's been fighting a lot in the colosseum. Marshtomp's been to...

Nate had honestly had enough of the X-eye Cauldron for a while, but it was Rocky's turn to pick their lunch spot, and he'd been insistent. "You always want to go to Pasta Plaza, but they don't have funny mushroom burgers." And a mushroom burger was the only thing the guy would hear of today, so...

The shadow mudkip froze when Shadow bent down to peer after him, but the mightyena was only trying to say goodbye. He watched, a bit wistfully, as Shadow headed back to his table. He didn't really understand why the mightyena insisted that he was a nice shadow or that he didn't deserve it when...

Good Christ. More and more alarming. Nate rubbed at his gills. Jesus. What the fuck did you even say? Rocky didn't have a problem with that. "Oh, that would be cool! I'd love to meet him," the infernape chirped. "Well, as long as he is a bit different. Your brother sounds... not very nice."

Nate winced, and Rocky's ears drooped a bit. "Oh," he said. "You're right. That probably wouldn't be a good idea. Who is your familiar, though? I don't think I've ever met them." That was true. Keeping to himself... Well, that at least sounded like it was easier to handle than a lot of the ones...

The shadow mudkip looked like it was about to say something, but instead he simply looked down at the floor. "Okay. Well, I guess I should be going back. Nate probably will want to leave pretty soon." He turned to creep away under the booth, but then paused and looked over his shoulder...

"Oh, Chip already aimed it at the moon. It made the legends really mad. So we couldn't do that again. Or maybe we could threaten to do it again? Hold the moon hostage?" Were they still talking about things they were going to lie about having done, or things they actually wanted to do? "You...

"Oh, well, that's not good," Rocky said, ears drooping slightly. "I don't want people to be sad. Hmm. When you say 'effervescent,' do you mean like silly? I could get a cape." Rocky mimed sweeping a cape around to hide himself in. "Maybe build a space laser? Hmm, Chip has a space laser... maybe...

"Only if he sees me." The shadow mudkip's smile had turned melancholy, but it remained. He wiped another oozing tear away from his eye. "Don't worry. I'm good at making sure people don't notice me."

The shadow mudkip sighed and looked away wistfully. "Nobody can hear me. Except Nate, and he doesn't listen." He blinked away his tears and smiled faintly. "I'm glad you can hear me, though. And I am... glad I said that, too. It felt nice. I'm glad we got to talk, before we both have to go away."

"I don't know." The shadow mudkip tried to shrink away again, but there truly was nowhere for him to go. "I don't know if I know how to help anybody. How have you been good... for Dave?"

"But I have!" the shadow mudkip insisted. "I did everything wrong. I always have. Everything bad." He looked sadly down at the floor, eyes dim. "I shouldn't even be here. None of us shadows should... right? We only got here because the people we belong to got hurt."

"I know the feeling, yeah," Nate said. And now he was feeling like he just wanted to sit and stare at the ocean for a while. At least they'd picked a good backdrop for this conversation. "Oh, that could be a good idea," Rocky said thoughtfully. "Maybe I could be somebody who seems evil, but...

The shadow mudkip hunched over, trying to become even smaller than he already was. "I've been here a while. Ever since we fought on the moon. I'm hiding because if Nate sees me, he'll hurt me."

"No, huh?" Nate said. That sure was a fucking depressing thought. But... he thought he knew what the skarmory meant. "That how it's always been for you? Good or bad not mattering?" "Ooh, that is more exciting!" Rocky had found something infinitely more fun to pay attention to. "That's a good...

The shadow mudkip blinked up at Shadow, faintly confused. "That doesn't sound right, what you said about hurting people. You have lots of friends." Shadow's question, though, was even more puzzling. "I don't really know where I was. Inside Nate, I guess. Where do you go when Dave can't see you?"

The shadow mudkip flinched himself when Shadow pulled his paw away. "Sorry," he squeaked. "It's nice that you want to help. But I don't think anybody can. And maybe I don't seem so bad now, but remember, I hurt a lot of people back when we fought the Shadow Machine. Or *you*, that one night. I...

Letting someone else do the thinking, huh? He could kind of understand that, given what it sounded like Seyka wasn't saying. "Yeah, I know what you mean," Nate said. "Doesn't sound like good times, though. The whole sacrifice thing. Must have been nice, coming here and getting a break. Who...

"Oh," the shadow mudkip said, the yellow light in his eyes flickering. "I guess if it helps for him to think you're somebody else... But that doesn't make sense. He actually has a nice shadow, he should be glad--" The mightyena was reaching for him. The shadow mudkip jerked sideways, one hand...