Dreams and the weeks after the fire

Vali held the incubator holding her new egg as Zaria, Lance, and Steven peered at it curiously. Zaria commented, "I can't believe you got an egg on top of the TM vouchers we're getting as a reward for helping with the fire."

"Not that you could really refuse," Steven commented looking away from the egg.

Vali yawned softly, "Yeah, but I think that's enough bizarre shit for one day. I'm going to bed."

"I'll wake you up for dinner," Steven offered earning a sleepy smile before Vali headed to the stairs.

Zaria shook her head as Vali disappeared from view, "I did not expect her to curse so much."

"I think it only happens when she's tried," Steven couldn't remember her ever cursing so much.

Lance snorted, "You're lucky then. Some of the girls I've met since starting my journey can curse worse than sailors including my own cousin."

Steven glanced at the red haired dragon tamer before deciding not to ask. Instead, he said, "I'm going to go check on my pokemon and call home. My father is probably worried about me if he's heard the news. I might as well call Vali's family as well."

"Hey, Steven before you do that," Lance said causing Steven to turn to the other teen, "Why did you decide to travel with her? No offense to Vali, but I would have thought you'd go it alone if only to get finished with the badge run quicker,"

Steven shrugged as he put his hands into his pockets, "You can't exactly say no to a request from Professor Oak. Once I met her, I decided that I couldn't have let her travel alone even if I'd been able to say no," A light smile crossed his lips, "She didn't deserve to miss out on her journey just because I didn't want to travel with someone."

Steven had more reasons than that, but they weren't something he'd say out loud least of all to Lance. While he didn't have a problem with the red haired teen, he disliked the idea of someone calling Vali theirs even if it was in a joking manner. Shaking his head, he returned to heading towards the front desk. He might as well get a report about Vali's own pokemon especially Balto and Arwen as they'd been in the fire alongside her. He still needed to talk to her about being inside the wild fire and the fact she hadn't slept much while it was going on. He'd barely slept too, but that was more out of worry about Vali. Thinking about her getting hurt in that wild fire just because the Rangers needed Balto's nose, it hadn't been easy to sleep at all.

Panic flooded through her veins as she raced through the forest, the chill of the dementors was too close. They were closing in on Sirius. No, she wouldn't let them take Sirius from her. She couldn't let it happen now that she knew the truth. She wouldn't lose the only adult to ever actually care for her. The small slope leading to the banks of the lake where Sirius lay unmoving on the ground was filled with rocks and bits of tree branches that dug into her skin as she rocketed down the slope. She felt the bite of the thorns and other sharp objects dig into her skin though they were far easier to ignore compared to the chill that was slowly seeping into the air.

Slamming onto the rocky bank, she felt her feet begin to slide underneath her and had to fight to keep her balance. After a brief struggle where she fell into the sharp rocks and added to the cuts already present on her skin, she managed to get herself steady and stumbled over to Sirius. She ignored the rocks digging into her knees when she reached him and began shaking him, "Sirius! Sirius! Wake up!"

Sirius moved a bit only to still as the chill created by the dementors closed in on their position. Grabbing her wand from the holster she'd gotten during the summer, she began attempting to search for a happy memory even as her mother's voice bounced around her head. She felt the chill worsen as it seemed to dig into her skin in an attempt to get at her core. As the dementors began making their appearance, she cast the Patronus charm only to create just a bit of mist that only warded off a single dementor. They began to swarm and she began to hunch over a bit feeling the cold begin to rush through her veins. Tears formed at the edge of her eyes, she was going to lose Sirius to a fate worse than death.

Is this all that a bearer of the eternal flame can do?

The voice seemed to resonate through her causing the undying warmth near her core to began to radiate through her body banishing the cold as determination filled her. No, she wasn't going to lose Sirius until her dying breath. Taking in a deep breath of the chilly air as she prepared the memory of Sirius asking her to come live with him, she called out-

"-Ke Up!" Vali felt a bit confused as the scene around her began to disappear.

"Wake up!" Vali jerked awake at the sound of Steven shouting.

Vali opened her mouth to ask what was going on when she saw the flames slowly coiling through the air. She immediately closed her eyes and concentrating on sending the fire back to her core. When she finally managed to force it back into her core, she opened her eyes, "S-sorry about that."

"What were you dreaming of?" Steven asked with a slight frown, "You've never done something like that when you were sleeping before,"

"I...I think it was a dream of when I brought Sirius and I here," Vali sat up fully before grimacing at the fact she was covered in sweat, "The only thing is I don't remember hearing a voice in my mind before,"

"A voice?" Steven asked her looking even more concerned, "What kind of voice?"

"It was male and kinda like the one-" Vali cut herself off as a bolt of pain ran through her mind.

"The vision," Steven finished earning a nod, "What did it say?"

Vali opened her mouth to answer before shaking her head as the pain intensified, "C-can't."

Steven let out a frustrated sigh, "I really wish you could tell me."

"I'm sorry," Vali felt bad for what she was putting Steven through.

Vali knew that she wasn't the only one to suffer when her visions happened. Steven lost as much sleep as she did due to how worried he was about it. On the one hand, it was nice knowing that he cared about her. On the other hand, she felt like shit for worrying him so much. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Steven offering her a tired smile, "It's not your fault, Vali. We just need to figure out a way for you to tell me without being in pain."

Vali's stomach growled before she could answer causing her to flush a bit, "It's time for dinner, right?" Steven nodded, "Let me go take a quick shower and check on my egg then we can go."

It was interesting to see how the region recovered after environmental disasters. In the case of wild fires, Celadon city and Cerulean worked in tandem to restore the burned earth to life. Of course, they couldn't do much with fall coming, so they merely set things up to ensure that when spring came, the charred area was restored for the most part. For now, the various dead plants and pokemon that had died before the Rangers/ACE trainers could get to them were removed. The charred earth was eaten by a team of ground-types that transformed it into highly nutritious soil. The grass-types planted new trees and shrubs that would lessen the chance of runoff when it rained. New ponds, streams, creeks, and the like were created by the water types once the grass-types finished their jobs. Seeds that would either sprout into new grass, flowers, or bushes were planted once the area was finished being modified.

The wild pokemon were either given the chance to return or be moved to a new location once they were healed. Many of the wild pokemon with eggs decided to move to a diffrent area if only to give their babies a chance at life once winter came. In the case of a few unlucky pokemon that were too damaged by the fire to be released, they were moved to a facility that had been made to help the pokemon recover. The League funded facility was run by a group of Rangers that worked as doctors, nurses, and caretakers of the pokemon that resided in the facility. While they did have the regular Ranger training, they had extra medical training that would allow them to take care of the various pokemon under their care. According to Sirius, they were like Battlefield Healers only with a shit-ton more combat training.

In the case of those attempting the badge run that had scheduled their battles during the wild fire, Lt. Surge had his gym open extra hours to allow them the chance to complete their gym battles. To prevent those that hadn't scheduled their gym battles ahead of time from taking advantage of the extra hours, he had his secretary creating a definite list of all those that had been scheduled during that time. The sheer amount of battles that had been scheduled just showed you how many people didn't want to face the man when the kid gloves came off. As it was, Steven and Vali were very glad that they'd had the foresight to schedule their battles weeks in advance otherwise there was no telling when they'd actually get to battle the man.