>>53749605Ninetails dies, but before Maxie can gloat about it Aqua shows up and shit goes down. Local gym leader shows up with her firetypes (as the volcano is apparently exploding) and manages to extract Zinna, Brendan, and Lee (who goes into a coma due to loss/the telepathy connection being cut off). Aqua and Magma both end up wiping each other out on the volcano, which could/could not explode due to... I dunno some stray attacks or whatever. Brendan gets put in time out since he actually joined magma and his dad is pissed, only his influance saves him from prison. License is suspended until further notice and his pokemon are confiscated. Zinna is fucked up by the loss, and Lee's own loss. She leaves to travel parts unknown in an effort to grow stronger as both a trainer and person.
Lee is of course a mopey sad sack about the death of the fox, but lets face it as a character he's not exactly stable and happy as it is and Fugg seems to like angst. With the game plot effectivly fucked with the death of the evil team leaders, he meanders around in a bit of a daze for a month or so with Flannery sort of watching over him. The old war vet also tries to help, having experienced loss before. Lee's other pokemon stick by him despite the stagnation, for their own reasons. The shinx is instrumental in giving Lee something else to focus on, and he finds comfort in research.
Finally Flannery and Birch are sick of him being a little bitch and send him to another region on a research mission, get him away from Hoenn for a while. Birch sends Marshstomp along with him, since Brendan is mega grounded, and the pokemon feels slightly responsible for ninetails death and wishes to atone somewhat.
In the region and away from the drama (palada, Aloha, whatever floats your boat) Lee eventually rediscovers the spark of joy being around pokemon and resolves himself to honour ninetails memory by getting stronger and completing a gym circuit.