Dwayne/Prologue

When Dwayne was six years old, he was playing with the Pokémon living in Professor Oak's Laboratory while being watched by his father's Azumarill. While playing with a group of Oddish, Dwayne suddenly hears a voice calling and takes off running to find out what it is, with Azumarill rapidly behind him. Soon enough, Dwayne finds a Ralts laying next to a lake. When Azumarill arrives, Dwayne shares his belief that Ralts fell into the lake and got sick.

Azumarill then runs off to get Edge, who quickly arrives minutes later. Edge hands some soup for it to try. At first, Ralts won't eat the soup, but then Dwayne tells Ralts to go ahead, so Ralts manages to eat it and enjoys it. Dwayne lays her back down and thinks she must be feeling better, but Edge, however, thinks otherwise. He explains that she is definitely running a fever, and it was pretty high, so it would be best for them to get Ralts to a Pokémon Center right away, and since Pallet Town didn't have a Pokémon Center, they needed to head to Viridian City immediately. Dwayne offers Ralts a lift, then declares that he is going to take full responsibility for Ralts on the trip.

While passing through Route 1, Edge and Dwayne's path gets blocked by a trio of Pokémon poachers, who demand them to hand Ralts over to him. Ralts weakly cries out, and Dwayne realizes that Ralts's sickness was probably caused whilst she was escaping from the poachers, which the poachers smugly confirm, and state that Ralts wasn't going anywhere. Edge brings out his Azumarill to battle the poachers, who bring out a Zubat, Raticate, and Spearow. Zubat attacks with Gust, knocking Edge, Dwayne, Azumarill, and Ralts off their feet. Raticate then attacks with Super Fang. Dwayne takes cover behind a tree, promising to keep Ralts safe. Edge has Azumarill use Bubble Beam, which strikes Raticate and sends it flying back. However, Spearow swoops in with Aerial Ace, which Azumarill counters with Hydro Pump, which pushes Spearow back.

Dwayne then notices that Ralts is getting worse, and alerts his father, causing Edge to assume she must be suffering from something worse than a cold. Edge tells Dwayne to make a run for the Pokémon Center while he still can. When Dwayne is nervous about going alone, Edge reminds him that he is the one who wanted to be responsible for Ralts. After further encouragement from his father, Dwayne goes for it while Edge prevents the poachers from focusing on his son. After Azumarill crashes from Raticate's Hyper Fang, Edge summons his Pikachu, who uses Surf to engulf all three Pokémon at once, and then runs off after Dwayne. Unfortunately, one of the poachers had summoned a Vaporeon, whose Water Absorb Ability had absorbed all of Pikachu's Surf within it. Zubat then uses Haze, blinding Edge and his Pokémon, and allowing the poachers to escape and find Dwayne.

Stopping for a moment, Dwayne finds out that Ralts's fever is getting worse, and he needs to come up with something fast. He then finds a bundle of Berries that his mother would always give him whenever he was sick, and tries to convince Ralts to eat some of them. Unfortunately, Ralts is too sick to eat, and Dwayne starts to worry that Ralts is giving up. He then begins to emotionally break down, wondering why he wanted to be the big hero, and he becomes scared that all he did in the end was let Ralts down. Suddenly, an Ice Beam blows past him, and Dwayne looks up to see Azumarill holding some of the Berries, which she froze solid. Dwayne, getting an idea, wraps the Berries in a rag, and uses it as a cold compress for Ralts. This cools Ralts down, and Dwayne once again tries to convince her to eat. Fortunately, she manages to take a bite this time.

Moments later, the poachers finds Dwayne and Azumarill, and they order Dwayne to hand over Ralts, but he refuses. Suddenly, a Gardevoir and Kirlia arrive and put the poachers to sleep with Hypnosis. Dwayne realizes the two Psychic-types were looking for Ralts, but he is forced to try to explain to them that Ralts is in bad shape and needs help. Kirlia is put off by this, but Azumarill refuses to let it get closer. They get into an argument, which results in the angry Kirlia firing a Thunder Wave}} attack. However, Ralts stops this by using Safeguard, although it leaves the Ralts even weaker than before. Kirlia tries to approach them, but Gardevoir stops it. They decide that if Ralts is willing to trust Dwayne that far, then so can they. As they teleport away, Dwayne quickly gets going again.

Dwayne finally manages to make it to the Pokémon Center in Viridian City, and Ralts is put in the intensive care unit. Edge then shows up, upon which Dwayne runs crying into his father's arms. Edge calmly comforts him, saying he really came through. After Officer Jenny arrives and arrests the sleeping poachers, Dwayne and Edge sit at the waiting room for results. A few hours later, Nurse Joy comes out, announcing that Ralts is fully healed. Dwayne quickly runs in to see her, and they are overjoyed to see each other. It turns out that Dwayne had gotten Ralts to the Pokémon Center just in time; had he been an hour late, Ralts might not have survived. Edge praises his son for stepping up when he needed to. However, Dwayne realizes that since Ralts is feeling better, it was time for her to go back where she belongs. He heads outside and starts calling for Gardevoir and Kirlia. Gardevoir and Kirlia then appear to Dwayne, who prepares to hand Ralts over to them. Ralts, however, doesn't want to leave Dwayne, and it is obvious that Dwayne is equally hesitant to let Ralts go.

Gardevoir uses Psychic Terrain, and they are engulfed by a purple dome of energy. Then, Dwayne hears voices, and realize they're coming from Gardevoir and Kirlia, who are speaking telepathically with him, with Psychic Terrain enhancing this ability, and Gardevoir explains that Ralts seemed far happier with him than she ever was with them. Then, Ralts herself starts speaking telepathically with Dwayne, telling him that she loves him and doesn't want to leave his side, and hugs him, and Dwayne returns the gesture, and asks Gardevoir's permission to keep Ralts.

Gardevoir smiles and says that Ralts's happiness was the most important thing, and says that itself and Kirlia would miss Ralts, but they knew that Dwayne would keep Ralts safe with him, and agree to let Ralts stay with Dwayne. Ralts becomes overjoyed and profusely thanks her siblings for letting her stay with Dwayne, waves her family goodbye as Gardevoir and Kirlia teleport away. As the Psychic Terrain dissipates, Dwayne hugs Ralts once again, telling her that they'll stay together forever, and Ralts hugs Dwayne in return, happy to remain by his side, as Dwayne, Ralts, and Edge begin making their return to Pallet Town.