"Sorry to keep you waiting." Two cups of tea and a plate of chocolate chip cookies were set on the table. "Drink up. The mist must be cold."
Lance thanked her, and sipped his tea, which warmed him up and ate a cookie, which was really tasty.
"I'm sorry. I was a bit surprised you managed to get in my cave. Usually, only true Dragon masters can see my cave through this mist. However, the mist also contains strong psychic power that compels anybody who can see it to ignore it. And yet, you didn't. I'm impressed."
"Wait a minute, that was psychic power?" Lance asked, surprised. Princess nodded.
"By now, you must have figured out I specialise in Dragon/Psychic Pokémon, and I love them very much. I believe the Psychic power helps me in my Dragon training, hence my Psychic specialisation." She sat across from him. "So, what brings the Leader of the Kanto Elite, and Champion of the Johto Elite to my humble abode?" Princess asked.
"Well, I had an argument with someone and had to calm down." Lance mumbled.
"Really? Tell me about it." Princess coaxed gently.
Lance didn't know why but he started pouring out what happened during the first match to a person he just met, and the part that Pakura called him a useless deadweight because he couldn't help that both opponents were targeting her and how he used Aerial Ace on Munchlax but dodged, hitting Jynx instead, fainting it, which caused her to start calling him useless deadweight. He also added that she couldn't even get his type specialty right, thinking he was a Flying-type specialist.
Princess listened to all these without interrupting, only occasionally sipping her tea or munching a cookie.
"I can see why you are angry about all this." Princess said, once he had finished. "It's natural of course, for a person to be angry when both opponents are targeting one person, which is a coward's way I might add, and the partner isn't helping much. That's how Pakura probably must feel when she fought those girls. The anger accumulated, and your Aerial Ace fainting her Jynx is most likely the last straw."
"I know, I tried to help her, but it all went wrong!" Lance protested.
"I'm not saying what you did is wrong. It's an accident after all." The Princess continued calmly. "I'm just saying, the person can say or do rash things out of anger. Hence, your new nickname. As for your Pokémon, from the rumours I hear, you own more Flying Pokémon than Dragon, hence her 'mistake'." The way she emphasized on the last word, Lance knew that she suspected Pakura made this mistake on purpose.
Lance stayed silent. She had a point there.
"So, what are you going to do about it?" Princess enquired.
"I guess I'm going to try to work with her. There's at least one more match we have to win before we can get to the Top 128. After that I'll avoid her."
"Whatever suits you, I suppose." Princess shrugged. "I can't tell you what to do, I can only advise you.
"Some Princess she turned out to be. How did they differentiate you from her, since both of you are called Princess?" Lance was confused at this.
"Simple. I disappeared, she didn't. So when they call Princess, they are referring to the one that didn't disappear. If they were to address me, they simply say 'The Legendary Dragon Duo', since we both disappeared at the same time, but of course only you know I'm still here."
Lance finished his tea, and took the last cookie. "I see. I better go, there are still a few matches going on and I want to watch it. Can I come again?" Although he spent only a very short time here, he took a quick liking to this place and he still had many things he wanted to ask her.
"If you want to you can, in the condition you keep me a secret." Princess replied dismissively. "I'll teleport you back to the Battle Arena."
"Delphox, use Fire Blast on Leavanny!" Rosaline commanded.
"Bisharp, finish Quilava with Aerial Ace!"
Both the attacks finished the tired opposing Pokémon off.
"Quilava and Leavanny are unable to battle!" Evan declared. "Trainers, please send out your last Pokémon!"
"That was pretty quick. It only took 4 moves each from those two." Jude remarked.
"Togekiss, spotlight!" Dawn sent out Princess Salvia's former Togekiss, while Burgh summoned his Whirlipede.
However, something unexpected happened. The moment Togekiss was sent out, it snatched her Pokeball away from Dawn, and flew away, presumably to Princess Salvia, forcing Burgh to fight himself, since the referee declared Togekiss unwilling to battle. Ash knew that Togekiss most likely found out of the betrayal, and was waiting for the right time to leave Dawn at the most humiliating timing, which succeeded because Dawn was close to tears.
Even Grimsley and Rosaline appeared startled at Togekiss' sudden exit.
Ken announced his shock about the turn in events over the microphone.
"What happened?" Lance entered the VIP Box. He had landed outside the Battle Arena when the Dragon Princess Teleported him out of the forest.
"Woah, where were you?" Bruno asked. He looked considerably calmed down from half an hour earlier. Some of the Elites and Gym Leaders hid their laughter behind their hands as they remembered his new nickname.
"Taking a walk." Scanning the Box, he saw that Pakura isn't there.
"Ok, where is she?" He didn't really want to say her name.
"Like you, Pakura didn't return to the VIP Box after the match." Sidney shrugged. "Who knows where she is now."