Writing Mysteries of the Forgotten Island (Version Zero) (Complete)

Hey guys! I got some chapter update news but who cares about that I GOT ART LOL

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...

Volcarona-Scarlet.

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LOL

Shout outs to @OzoneFruit for making my dreams come true. I may have him draw up some more stuff but this had to be first.

Chapter 5 should be done "soon." For those of you who tuned in to my last update, I said that chapter 5 was about 2700 words. As of right now I'm probably like 90% finished with the non-battle parts of the chapter, and now it's sitting at about 11,600. I've only recently started blocking out the battle, and I can't start writing it until I finish that, so that's why it will be done "soon." Rest assured, though, that much progress has been made on it and I hope you all like it (and Volcarona-Scarlet).
 
Hey guys! I got some chapter update news but who cares about that I GOT ART LOL

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...

Volcarona-Scarlet.

LOL

Shout outs to @OzoneFruit for making my dreams come true. I may have him draw up some more stuff but this had to be first.

Yaaaaaaaaay! Thanks PMJ, this was fun to do! Coincidentally, this was also the first art request I've gotten from someone, like, ever, so this was exciting! (People want me to make stuff for them aaaaaaaAAAA ;-;)
 
Told you guys I wouldn't let this story die. Ain't none of you were around for 27772. That story took six years to finish but I finished it. I don't care how long this story takes me. It's gonna get finished.

So, it's been a while. If you need a refresher, I suggest going back to the first couple pages and becoming reacquainted with the characters, then read the chapter highlights, then skim over them to get a general idea of what's going on.

Chapter 5 highlights:

- short background info on Rose and why she is the way she is
- Frisk makes kool-aid
- Scarlet gets relationship advice; hilarity ensues ALL THE WAY TO FLAVORTOWN
- some minor drama involving the Jewels
- Frisk and Scarlet have their match
- it's friggin' dope

This is the longest chapter I have ever written for this story. It features the leftovers from chapter four as well as everything I'd wanted to get through for this chapter. The next chapter is Lenny vs. Windra, which is going to be a nightmare for me if Windra gets rolled to win. Expect a lot of creative license usage if that happens, lol. Please enjoy this beast of a chapter, and as always, leave your sweet, sweet likes and feedback (but especially feedback).

Word count: 17,157

Chapter 5: Feelings for the Eighth

"That was some battle, huh?"

Rose stretched her arms, fanning her legs out under the covers of her bed. She shivered a little, her bare torso having been exposed to the air for the better part of an hour, but she made no effort to cover herself. It was a relief to not have to worry about being seen, to not have to wonder what others might think of her... choices.

She herself hadn't planned on things turning out this way - then again, who would? - but, looking back on it, she wouldn't have changed anything.

It started out innocently enough. A pet here, a hug there, or sharing food from her plate at dinner. As time passed, she grew closer to all her Pokemon, but she had felt a special connection to Lucario and Gardevoir most of all. Looking back, Rose realized how lucky she'd been, having two emotionally dependent Pokemon near her all the time. It would excuse some of the behavior - holding hands, leaving them out of their Poke Balls, sitting a little closer to them than was necessary - but some of the things she did would have made anyone ask questions.

At first, Rose thought nothing of the things she did. Having grown up in a somewhat conservative household, the very idea of being attracted to your Pokemon... like that... was foreign to her. It wasn't to say that Rose thought of her Pokemon as simply pets or as somehow beneath her. A part of her still treated them as such - she was comfortable enough with Lucario to bathe in front of him, for example - but for the most part, she saw them for what they were; longtime partners and faithful friends whom she trusted with her life. They just happened to not be human. Did she care for them? Of course, but that was the extent of their relationship; at least, the extent to which Rose was willing to admit... until about four months ago.

She'd been sent alone to Mt. Silver to investigate reports that Team Rocket had been sighted there. It should have been a simple recon mission; ascend the mountain, gauge Rocket's presence, if any, and report her findings. What had happened instead had nearly killed her. She was close to the summit when she came across nearly a hundred Rockets. Panicking, she fled into a nearby cave, where she took a nasty tumble down a small cliff, breaking her leg in the process. She could do nothing but wait as the Rockets descended on her, taking her Pokemon and holding her prisoner at their summit base.

The Rocket medics fixed her leg up as best they could with the supplies they had, but they hadn't had much. Whether this was because they were unprepared for any major injuries or because this was the extent of their medical prowess, Rose didn't know nor care. With no way to defend herself, no way to call for help, and no scheduled return time for her mission, Rose knew that she was in serious trouble.

It had taken Lucario and Gardevoir two days to break out of the confinement area they'd been held in.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. Lucario had been ready to rip the Rockets' throats out almost immediately, but Gardevoir's insistence that they do things the "right" way - as well as being able to magically restrain Lucario - meant that he had no choice but to play by her rules. After two days, however, Lucario had convinced Gardevoir that they needed to act, for Rose's sake. Gardevoir relented only if he promised to keep the throat-ripping to a minimum (that is to say, none at all), and since she was still the strongest, she got to make the rules.

The two Pokemon found Rose sitting in a cell, guarded by a young man and his Golbat. She was slumped in the corner, fatigue and the cold starting to negatively affect her health. Furious, Lucario didn't even give the boy a chance to defend himself; he defeated the Pokemon with a single punch, then growled audibly at the young man, displaying several sharp teeth and flaring his aura visibly around him. That was all the poor grunt needed to see, and the young man fled the scene as fast as his legs would carry him. Lucario grabbed the lock on the cell door, focused some energy into his palm, and struck it with his other hand; the lock crumpled as if it were paper. He ripped the door open and kneeled down, effortlessly scooping his trainer into his muscled arms. Rose flung her arms around him, crying tears of joy that her Pokemon were not only safe, but had come to rescue her. Before even thinking about what she was doing, she pulled his face to hers and kissed him.

She had kissed them, both of them, before, but never like this. This was... different. This was a kiss born of desperation, a feeling that she might never see her loved ones again, that she had a very real chance of dying and her Pokemon - her saviors - had risked danger to get to her safely and bring her home.

As soon as her higher brain functions came back to her, she pulled back, struck dumb at what she'd done. She made to stammer out an apology, but it never surfaced.

What exactly was she apologizing for? Having feelings for him? He and Gardevoir saved her life. They'd been there for her throughout the majority of her career as a Ranger. She trusted them both completely. Was it really that surprising? If they'd been human, she wouldn't have doubted her feelings for a second. They're Pokemon. So what? They were sentient and powerful creatures who were more than capable of making... those kind of decisions. If they didn't want her advances, they were more than capable of saying so.

The more she thought of it, the sillier the beliefs she'd held since she was little started to feel.

She gauged Lucario's reaction. He froze in place, unsure of what to make of the situation. Rose looked in his eyes and saw no maliciousness in them. Did that mean he didn't mind it? He hadn't exactly given any indication he liked it... but he hadn't pushed her away, either. He could see the confusion on Rose's face, and the question on her lips. He nodded, smiling, and Rose crushed her lips to his once again. This was a kiss born of trust and camaraderie and, yes, Rose realized, love - but that was all for later. Now, all she wanted was to feel the lips of her strong man on hers.

Gardevoir picked her jaw up from the floor and gently reminded them that they needed to leave, placing a hand on Rose's shoulder. Rose turned to her, pulled her close, and kissed her. It was markedly different from kissing Lucario, Rose thought. Her lips were smaller, and more similar to a human's, which made things easier. She opened her eyes as Gardevoir reluctantly broke the kiss, a pretty blush coming across her face. With another reminder that they really needed to leave, they fought their way down Mt. Silver, passing Rose between them when one needed to rest.

When they'd made it back to base and made their report, the Ranger Union dispatched a larger team to Mt. Silver, but by then the Rockets had cleared out of the mountain completely. Officially, the mission was a failure, but Rose considered it very much a success; she'd come to terms with feelings she didn't even realize she'd been suppressing, and a whole world of possibilities opened up for her.

And later that night, the three of them explored some of those possibilities.

It had taken her weeks to work up the courage to tell her parents, and even then she'd had a few drinks beforehand. It was a huge risk; if they disapproved and informed her bosses, she'd be stripped of her Pokemon, her title, her job, and who knew what else. To her horror, they indeed did disapprove of her choice. Rose's face sobered a bit as she recalled the most intense fight she had ever had with her parents, a two-hour clash that almost saw her severing ties with them and going into hiding. In the end, Rose was unable to change their opinions, but they begrudgingly accepted her decision; their desire to see their daughter safe was more important than who she was in a relationship with.

Rose was currently sharing a bed with those two Pokemon. To her right sat Gardevoir, legs under the blanket, cuddled up close to her trainer. To her left, Lucario was lying on top of the blankets, his fur doing an ample enough job of keeping him warm. He rested on an elbow, facing the two females as they held each other. Rose sighed contentedly, idly stroking Gardevoir's smooth skin as Gardevoir rested her head in Rose's lap.

It hadn't been how she planned on spending her afternoon, but she wouldn't complain.

(Yes, I liked it!) Gardevoir mentioned, giving Rose a little squeeze. (But I liked this more.)

(It's just as well. Popcorn's gone,) Lucario said, his ears drooping for just a moment before perking back to attention. He pulled the covers down a bit and lightly traced a circle in Rose's upper thigh with a claw. (I'm still hungry, though. Got anything else I could eat?)

"Down, boy," Rose gently scolded, pushing Lucario's hand away. When he moved his hand to her breast, she said it again, moving his hand away more purposefully. "I mean it, dinner's soon. I can't go smelling like... well, you."

Unlike most of the other contestants, who'd watched the battle in the cafeteria, Rose had chosen to retreat to her room, explaining she would be more comfortable there. In truth, she hadn't planned on using the battle for anything more than background noise in case someone happened to come near her room; she'd need something to help drown out the noises she'd planned on making, after all.

As soon as the lock clicked behind her, she was naked, her lust-filled mind occupied with only one thing. She released both Lucario and Gardevoir from their Poke Balls and all but shoved them onto the bed, pouncing on Lucario and burying herself in his fur. Suddenly, she remembered the TV and turned it on just as Eldan's Inferno attack exploded; it gave her just enough pause to briefly pay attention. Forty-five minutes later, there they were, laying in bed, having watched the entire battle and, much to Lucario's dismay, done absolutely nothing naughty.

(Aww, come on,) Lucario whined. (You were totally into it before you turned that dumb TV on.) He looked to his fellow Pokemon for support. (You wanted it too! Back me up here?)

(I most certainly will not,) Gardevoir said solemnly, embracing her trainer and pulling her towards her as if to protect her. (Honestly, you're worse than I was when we first mated, and coming from a species that thrives on emotional connections and bonding, that's saying a lot. I won't say I didn't want it, but at least I have some semblance of self-control.)

Rose extracted herself from Gardevoir and snuggled up to Lucario. She ran a hand over his chest and stomach, enjoying the slightly ticklish feeling of his soft fur against her body. "I was awful. I'm sorry for getting your hopes up. Both of you," she added, turning her head to Gardevoir.

(Don't worry about me. I'm a big girl,) Gardevoir replied.

(Speaking of big girls, what do you think of that other Gardevoir?) Lucario asked, desperately trying to ignore the sparks of arousal that Rose was stirring in him.

"Well, she's obviously strong, right? She took Dragonite's Hyper Beam from point blank range and lived. And the way she - well, all Eldan's Pokemon, really - was able to use her attacks in such unique ways was pretty cool, too."

(I would have loved to have fought against her,) Gardevoir said, the smallest hint of disappointment in her voice. (It's a shame Eldan lost.)

Lucario sat up in bed, crossing his legs in front of him, and gesturing openly with a paw. (Uh, so? Rose's next fight isn't until next week.) He turned to face his trainer. (Why don't you just ask him for a battle? Now that he's out of the tournament, he's got a ton of time to kill.)

"That's a good point," Rose said, considering it. "I'll approach him about it at some point - not right now. His Pokemon aren't in any shape to be fighting right now, anyway." She stretched again, her pillow having gotten up from the bed, and rolled off after him. She sighed dramatically. "Do I have to wear pants to dinner?"

* * * * * * * *

Scarlet sat alone at a table in the cafeteria, resting her head in one of her arms. If anyone had been around to see her, she would have looked quite bored. In truth, she was deep in a conversation with herself.

Is it red? Ugh, that'd be so cliche, wouldn't it? She rolled her eyes and sighed. Well, I guess I shouldn't talk...

After having spoken with Kiria the day before, Scarlet had spent most of the next day trying to think of things to talk about with Rose that didn't involve the way she looked.

If not red, then what? ...I hope it's not yellow. No, wait, brown. Ewwwww. She wrinkled her nose at the thought of Rose's wardrobe being mostly brown. No, there's no way. Black, perhaps? She was wearing all black when I first met her, wasn't she? No, wait, her shorts were... brown. Oh dear.

Suddenly thirsty, Scarlet made her way to the water fountain and began to drink, still thinking about the important issue of Rose's favorite color.

What if she doesn't have a favorite color? She paused as she realized she hadn't thought of that possibility. Well, it's not like it's that big a deal anyway, right?

Earlier, she'd went over the questions she'd planned on asking - which is to say, the ones that Kiria had suggested, since Scarlet couldn't think of any on her own. Eventually, her mind started to wander, and before she knew it, she was arguing with herself about what Rose's favorite color may or may not be.

This is ridiculous. I'm thinking way too hard about this. I'll just find her at dinner, chat with her, and everything is gonna be fine. Just as long as Windra and Kiria keep their mouths shut, I'll be -

Her thoughts were interrupted by the doors to the cafeteria opening. Jethro smiled to her and waved, and walked over to where she was standing. "Evenin', Scarlet," he said, his voice easy on her troubled ears. "Whatcha doin' here by yourself?"

"Hey, Jethro," Scarlet said, walking past him, back to her table. "Not much. Just thinking. Trying to clear my head."

"Not sure how to tell Rose how you feel?" he asked with a smile.

Scarlet ejected herself from her chair and spun on him so quickly that Jethro flinched, thinking she might actually hit him. "Who the fu - " She caught herself, lowered her voice. "Who told you? It was Windra, wasn't it? Ugh, I'm going to kill her - "

"Now calm down, Scarlet, it wasn't her. I mean, it sorta was, but she ain't done it on purpose. When she was hollerin' about you having a crush on Rose, I heard it from my room, that's all." Jethro saw the look on her face - a quickly reddening mix of equal parts anger, panic, and sadness - and continued in his slow drawl. "Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me. I take it I was right?"

At this, Scarlet simply sighed, defeated. "Yes," she mumbled, taking a seat. Scarlet scanned the room, making sure no one else was around to hear them before speaking again. "I still might kill her."

"Please don't," he said simply, and sat with her. He studied Scarlet as she fidgeted lightly in her chair, neither of them knowing what to say to the other. Jethro had wanted to reassure her somehow, as it was clear she was troubled by the subject, but it wasn't like he was a wellspring of knowledge when it came to this sort of thing.

"Do you think she likes me?" Scarlet asked, prompting a brief look of surprise from the older man. He hadn't planned on her being so... direct, he supposed.

"Couldn't rightly say," came Jethro's reply. "I don't wanna go puttin' any ideas in your head. Why don't you just ask her yourself? She seems like a real nice gal. Probably give it to you straight if you were honest with her."

Scarlet chuckled. "I hope she gives it to me gay instead," she said with a wink, poking Jethro in the side with her elbow. He furrowed his brows at her, apparently upset, and Scarlet drew her arm back and frowned. "Sorry. It wasn't funny. I just thought, y'know, cause I'm... and you said she'd... never mind," she finished, sinking back into her chair.

After a few moments of painful silence, Jethro let out a single, loud laugh. "Ha! Oh, okay, I get it!" He grinned, and Scarlet smiled with him, thankful that her joke hadn't fallen as flat as she thought it had. "Sorry, Scarlet. Sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake. You think you're pretty clever, huh?"

"Oh, no, I'm not that great," Scarlet said, trying hard to hide herself in her short bob of black hair. Then, after a moment: "What should I do?"

Jethro thought this over, hmming out loud as though Scarlet needed an audible cue that he was still breathing. He wanted to give her some good advice, but he didn't exactly feel qualified for the part. Figuring he had to say something, he decided to keep it as simple as possible. "Tell her the truth." He saw Scarlet's expression falter a bit, and he smiled warmly at her. "Sorry if that ain't what you wanna hear, but that's what I'd do." Jethro took one of Scarlet's hands in his own, and gestured grandly with the other. "March right up to her and say, 'Rose, I think you're the prettiest gal in all of Kanto! Will you be my one and only?'"

"There's no way I could do that," Scarlet replied. "I don't even know if she likes girls."

"So ask - "

"I'm not going to ask her that!" she yelled, yanking her hand away. "Geez, have you even heard of a personal question?"

"Yeah," Jethro said with a sigh, drawing his hand back to him. "Yeah, I have. And that's exactly why I say you should just quit with all the sidesteppin' and tell her how you feel."

"You make it sound so easy," Scarlet said, slumping back into her chair.

"Ain't it?" Jethro countered. "Put yourself in her shoes. If she was sittin' in her room frettin' and worryin' about liking you, wouldn't you want her to come tell you how it is instead of not sayin' nothin'?"

Scarlet nearly sprung out of her chair. "Of course I - oh. Ohhhhh. I get what you're saying. But what if she's straight?"

"Then that's the way of it. I understand being afraid, but take it from me - finding out the truth sooner rather than later can save you a whole lot of heartbreak later on. Love made a fool out of me once, and I'd hate for it to do the same to you."

Understanding what this implied, Scarlet paused, unbelieving. "Wait, huh? You've been in love before?"

"Hey, come on, what's that supposed to mean? Yeah, I was in love. I ain't about to sit here and jaw your ear off with the whole story, so you're getting the short version. There was a girl and - "

"What was her name?"

"Kiiri. So Kiiri, she - "

"Kiria?!" Scarlet jumped from her chair, slamming her hands on the table, her desire to be discreet blown away like dust at this juicy piece of information. "You mean, you and Kiria - "

"No! Not Kiri-a, Ki-i-ri. Totally different."

"Oh, come on, you expect me to believe you didn't make that up just now?"

"You wanna hear this story or not?" Jethro asked with only the barest hint of annoyance in his voice.

Scarlet snickered. "Yeah. Sorry, Jee-e-thro."

"Real funny. So basically, Kiiri and I were together for only a few months. I thought we were exclusive. Turns out we weren't. I had my doubts but I was too afraid to ask her. Didn't wanna ruin it even though I suspected she'd been foolin' around. Finally confronted her, she admitted it, we went our separate ways, the end."

"That was not nearly as interesting as I'd hoped it would be," Scarlet said, making no attempt at disguising her disappointment.

"Maybe if you'd actually try listenin' to me instead of just hearin' me, you'd understand I told you a mouthful," Jethro said, getting up to leave.

"Wait!" she protested, desperate for him to stay. She paused for a few moments longer, eyes closed tightly in thought, her brain trying hard to piece together whatever lesson Jethro had apparently crumbled in front of her. "Okay, okay. So you had a girlfriend. And she cheated on you, but she didn't think you were dating, so she didn't cheat on you, but you thought she did, and so you broke up."

She opened her eyes, hoping to see approval on Jethro's face, but he just sighed and shook his head. "You didn't listen to a word I said."

This time, Scarlet did spring out of her chair, slamming her hands on the table in annoyance. "Well maybe if you'd stop being so vague, I'd understand you better! You literally just told me to be straightforward with Rose, so why can't you do the same with me?"

"I was," Jethro seethed in a low voice, rising from his seat to meet Scarlet's gaze. She had never seen Jethro annoyed, let alone angry; combined with the fact that he stood nearly a foot over her, Scarlet suddenly felt very small, and very uncomfortable. "I could tell you the whole story, but it wouldn't tell you anything more than what I just said. Just details that don't mean anything. Ain't no point in havin' me spoon-feed you all the answers. If you can't figure out something as easy as this, then you're not ready for a relationship - plain and simple. Now how's that for vague?"

Just then, the doors to the kitchen burst open. Tsomu pushed a cart, heavy with trays of food, into the dining room. Following close behind him was Bae, carrying a rack of condiments. "Hey guys! You're early. I haven't even set up yet!" Jethro and Scarlet watched Tsomu in silence as he unloaded the cart onto a table near the wall, then briskly pushed it back towards the kitchen. "The food's basically done, though, so feel free to stick around." He glanced at a nearby clock. "The others should be arriving any minute now. Actually kinda surprised that Kyro isn't here yet; he's usually the first one here. Eh, no matter, I'm sure he'll be along shortly. You're welcome to help yourselves!"

With that, Tsomu disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Scarlet and Jethro alone again.

* * * * * * * *

Dinner was, by all accounts, a lively affair. No one's Pokemon had died, or come close to it, and seeing Eldan and Nye on good terms with one another had kept everyone in a good mood. The two most recent battlers shared a table with Ruby, Quayle, and Jethro, while Rose, Windra, Esmeralda, and Scarlet sat at another. Even Alex, for the first time since the event began, willingly joined the group, chatting with Thresher, Taikyu, and Frisk as they ate.

A few tables away from the group, Safiri sat alone, nibbling absentmindedly at a lackluster salad as she pored over some paperwork. She wondered how long it had been since she'd actually eaten. Two weeks, easily, she guessed. While she and her sisters both experienced hunger - that was something Diamant Industries hadn't quite worked the kinks out of yet - they did benefit from superior DNA that allowed them to subsist for weeks at a time without food. The only reason that Safiri sat with anything in front of her at all is because Esmeralda reminded her that she needed to be seen eating something or people might start to wonder. Conceding the point, but not wanting to waste valuable work time, Safiri tossed together a "salad" which amounted to little more than greens and sat down at a distant table to get to work.

She sighed, looking down into the bland, leafy contents of her bowl. It wasn't that she hated eating. She simply would rather be working. She looked over to her sisters. Esmeralda was listening intently to Rose talk about something Safiri couldn't make out. Whatever it was, Rose made a huge gesture with her arms, and everyone at the table started laughing. A few of the others, including Ruby, turned to see what was so funny, but quickly went back to their own conversations when it became clear that they'd missed the joke, or punch line, or whatever it was. Ruby noticed Safiri looking in her direction, so she waved; Safiri waved back, then went back to her -

She's coming over here, Safiri realized, noticing the redhead in her peripheral vision. Safiri quickly jammed a large forkful of greens in her mouth, ignoring the awful taste, and pretended to be very interested in some charts and graphs she had in front of her.

Noticing this, Ruby chuckled to herself and pulled up a chair next to her sister. "Real convincing. You almost had me fooled," she said, playfully jabbing Safiri with a fist. Acknowledging Ruby with a roll of her eyes, Safiri swallowed her food, then continued staring at her papers. "Do you not want to talk?" Ruby asked. When there was no response, Ruby changed the subject. "Esmy said she made you eat something."

"Esmeralda did not make me do anything, Ruby," Safiri replied, hoping she sounded uninterested. For effect, she rifled through the handful of papers she had in her hand, then picked up a nearby one and started reading it. "I was hungry, so I decided to eat."

"Yeah. Looks scrumptious," Ruby deadpanned, staring pointedly at the halfhearted attempt at a meal. "She's just looking out for you, in her own way."

"Did you tell her? About what I told you earlier?"

"I told her the business end of it. I left out the whole 'S7' thing. You know how she gets."

Safiri nodded. "Thank you for your discretion. I'll be meeting with him again tonight. I'll fill you two in together tomorrow morning."

* * * * * * * *

Some time later, after everyone else had retired to their rooms and settled in for bed, Frisk was busy, preparing for her guest's arrival. She opened up two packs of flavored powder and poured them into a large pitcher of cold water, then used a long wooden spoon to stir the liquid, dissolving the powder and turning the liquid a vibrant green. She then took a large bag of sugar and nearly started pouring it in before she paused.

"He doesn't like sweet drinks," she said with a frown. "But you have to put sugar in it, right?"

Duh. Unless you like drinking green-colored water, was Chara's reply.

Frisk thought back to the Salveyo tea that Taikyu made her and shuddered. The memory of the terrible dark green tea put a bad taste in her mouth, and she poured a fair amount of sugar into the pitcher before dissolving it using the spoon. She scooped a small amount out with the spoon and tested its sweetness. She winced, but said, "That's perfect! What do you think?"

This wasn't lost on Chara, who told her what she'd already been thinking. It needs more, he complained. It's gross the way it is now. You like it like this?

"Well, no, not really, but I'm not making it for us, I'm making it for him," she explained. "I don't have any of that tea stuff, and I don't wanna give him just water, so I figured I'd do this." She paused, looking at the pitcher of green drink. It was an awfully large pitcher, and it wasn't like he was going to drink all of it, right? He'd probably just have a cup and then leave. "Maybe a little more couldn't hurt..." She picked up the bag of sugar, then remembered what Taikyu had said about drinking drinks the way they were intended to be drunk, and decided against it.

She put the bag down and felt a surge of energy enter her hand as Chara tried to wrest control of it from her. Oh, come on! He's an old man, it's not like he's gonna die or anything! Frisk wasn't sure how it was so difficult to keep him at bay - maybe it was because he was pouring most of his energy into a single appendage rather than her entire body - but she managed to hold him back. Look, why don't you just pour some in a glass for him now, then put some more sugar into the pitcher? That way he can have his shitty water and we can have something that actually tastes good.

Frisk considered that. "That's... that's actually a good idea, Chara. Why didn't you just say that in the first place?"

Why didn't you just trust me, Frisk? You ever think of that? Of course you didn't, because you hate me.

"No I don't!" Frisk screamed, immediately chastising herself for not controlling her volume at the late hour. "I don't hate you," she all but mumbled, embarrassed by her outburst. Chara understood her perfectly, of course, but didn't reply. She took a decent-sized glass from a cupboard and poured her guest's drink in silence.

Before Frisk could say anything else, there was a gentle knock at her bedroom door. Relieved she didn't have to wait any more, Frisk bounded over to the door and quietly pulled it open. The tall form of Taikyu stood before her; in one of his hands, he carried a book. He smiled warmly at the young girl. "Hello, Frisk. Hello, Chara," he said with a wink. "May I come in?"

"Yes, please do," Frisk said, opening the door fully and stepping out of the way, allowing Taikyu to enter her room. Frisk quietly closed the door behind him, the lock clicking loudly in her ears. Her eyes shot to the clock, and she wondered how many people's sleep she disturbed with her shouting. Putting it out of her mind, she started reciting the lines she'd rehearsed. "Thank you for coming to visit me so late, Taikyu. Would you like something to drink?"

Taikyu noticed how Frisk had subtly angled herself so that the pitcher and glass were in his view - as if she would have obstructed his vision otherwise. Realizing that she was doing the same for him as he did for her, he smiled warmly and nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. I've got a lot to say, and I'm sure I'll need the refreshment."

Frisk's eyes lit up as she turned to the counter, took the cup, and presented it to him. "Um, it's not tea. I hope that's okay. I didn't put a lot of sugar in it because I know you don't like adding things to your drink unnecessarily and I hope you like it cause I'll feel like a total jerk if you don't and - "

Taikyu silenced her with a raise of his hand. "You're rambling, my dear. Don't apologize," he added when Frisk started to do just that. "It's perfectly understandable. You're nervous, and not entirely about what I have to say about your brother, I imagine. Why don't we sit down?"

"Y-yes, of course," Frisk stammered, suddenly put on the back foot by Taikyu's completely accurate description of the situation. Setting the cup down, she pulled out a chair from the work desk and offered it to him, which he took, and sat in. Frisk climbed onto the bed and turned to face him before remembering Taikyu's drink. Catching herself just before she blurted out an apology, she retrieved the glass and delivered it to Taikyu. "Here you are. Please enjoy."

"Thank you. I'm sure I will," Taikyu replied, looking into the green liquid. He took a cursory sniff of the solution, and while he wasn't completely sure what it was, he had a fairly good hunch, especially given his host's age. "Is this... kool-aid?"

"Yeah," Frisk said, feeling her face grow red in embarrassment. "I wanted to make you something, and I didn't know what else to make, and I was worried that you didn't like sweet drinks and - "

"Frisk," Taikyu gently interrupted her. Realizing she'd been rambling again, Frisk muttered an apology and sat on the bed. "It's quite all right. I haven't had it in years. I hardly remember the taste." He took a sip of the drink, swishing it around as if he were tasting a fine wine, then swallowed. Frisk stared at him with eyes wide in anticipation. Taikyu sipped again, swallowing the liquid normally this time, then gave a decisive nod. "It could use a bit more sugar."

I told you! Frisk heard immediately, Chara's sudden and loud outburst causing Frisk to physically flinch. I told you it needed more, but nooooooo, Frisk is way too smart for dumb ol' Chara.

Frisk visibly shook her head. "Come on, Chara, that's not it at all, you know I l-"

Don't say it. Don't you dare say it. Don't even think it. I'm sick of you treating me like garbage. Frisk could feel the tears starting to well up in her eyes, but she willed herself not to cry. This only seemed to anger Chara, who continued his internal rebuke. Aw, what's the matter? Is wittle Frisk gonna cwy again? Well boo-freakin'-hoo, Sis. Maybe if you wouldn't always act as if I were dirt, then you wouldn't feel like this.

"Stop it," Frisk said, ignoring Taikyu flipping through the pages of his tome.

Make me. Frisk suddenly felt herself lose control of her legs as they walked towards the kitchen against her will. She struggled to maintain control, but Chara's energy was overwhelming her. She tried focusing on pushing him out of her mind, taking comfort in the familiar energy, but it only seemed to anger Chara even more. That's right, Frisk, just push me away, just like you always do. Maybe you need to be taught a lesson?

Frisk watched in horror as she opened a drawer and took a knife from inside it. Seeing the blade shine in the low light of the room caused Frisk's survival instincts to go into overdrive. "Chara, stop!" she bawled as the last threads of control quickly unraveled. "What are you doing, put that down!"

Make me. Frisk brought the blade to her wrist as Taikyu leaped to his feet to intervene, but Frisk swiftly pointed the blade towards him before he could get close. "I wouldn't get any closer if I were you," she said, her tear-streaked face belying the hate that was simmering beneath the surface. "Not unless you want me to test my theory on poor Frisk here."

Taikyu complied immediately, slowly returning to his chair. "What theory is that?" he asked carefully, not wanting to upset the boy. Pranking Frisk was one thing, but her life was in danger here, and he didn't want to do or say anything that might push Chara over the edge.

Frisk sat on the bed again, once again pressing the blade of the knife against her wrist. "I want to be free, old man. Do you have any idea what it's like to live your days as a voice in someone's head?" She paused a moment as she considered. "Eh, of course you don't, who am I kidding?"

"You are right," Taikyu conceded. "I have experienced much in my seventy years on this planet, but that... is not one of them. I have to admit, I am a little jealous."

"Ha!" Frisk barked. "Jealous? Of me? You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what it's like to suddenly lose all your senses and then have them rationed out to you like you're some kind of prisoner. To see, to hear, to feel...!" Frisk pushed the blade down and dragged it in a short line across Frisk's arm, causing a thin streak of blood to appear on the surface. Frisk growled in contentment, licking her self-inflicted wound, relishing in a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. "Mmmmm, yes, to taste! Feelings, old man! Do you get it now? I'm trapped in this little girl's body, forced to bend to her will, not allowed to so much as feel the sun on my face unless Queen Frisk says so."

"I won't presume to understand what you're going through, Chara," Taikyu said cautiously, going back to flipping through his book. "But I think I can help you. That's why I've come to talk with Frisk tonight."

"I'm listening."

Taikyu gulped. Chara was still in control here, and taking it from him was going to be a gamble. If Chara got angry enough to turn the knife on Frisk, there would be no way Taikyu could react fast enough to stop him - but he had to at least try. "First I want you to please bandage Frisk up. You've made your point to me."

Frisk scoffed. "Too bad Frisk doesn't see things that quickly." She hopped off the bed and made her way to the kitchen sink.

Taikyu nodded. "There are two sides to every story; even one as tragic as yours. She seems to genuinely care for your plight and heartbroken that you would believe otherwise."

"Yeah, that's a laugh," Frisk said, cleaning the blood from the site of the wound. She went to the first aid kit, took out a length of gauze, and began wrapping it around her arm. "That's the guilt talking."

Taikyu decided not to press the issue further. Though he'd won a small victory in getting Chara to clean his sister up, he still hadn't put down the knife, and there was plenty more he could do with it. He needed to maintain his calm here. "Thank you for taking care of the wound. Now, if you'll join me on the bed, I'll share my plan with you."

"Heh. Is that what you call it?" Frisk snickered. When Taikyu didn't laugh, Frisk rolled her eyes and did as he asked. "Geez, you're no fun at all. If I'd said that to Frisk, she would have gotten all red and yelled at me for being 'totally inappropriate' or whatever."

"Well, when you've lived as long as I have, seen what I've seen, heard what I've heard... not much gets to me anymore. But rest assured, your joke was not lost on me. Ah, here we are," Taikyu said, carefully showing Frisk a page from his book. On it was a hand-drawn picture of several people surrounding one, with a crudely drawn ghost above them. "Look at this. You heard me tell Frisk that I was a sage from Ecruteak?"

"Something like that, yeah, I wasn't really paying attention."

"This is an illustration of my clan's first exorcism, dating back before even my grandfather was born. At the suggestion of my brothers, I have been poring over this book all day in an attempt to find any information that could help you."

Frisk was unimpressed. "So you think that you're gonna wave your hands and say abracadabra and that's gonna get me outta here?"

Taikyu sighed. "Put very simply, yes. Your soul will be at peace, and Frisk won't have to share a body with you anymore."

"Whoa, don't sound too sad, now," Frisk said, gesturing with the knife. "You might actually make me think you give a damn."

"Well, I do," Taikyu admitted. "As I said, I don't know what it's like to be in your situation. I'm envious because I must be on the short list of people who know of you. How many pranks have you pulled that Frisk was blamed for? Quite a lot, I'm sure."

"Heh, yeah," Frisk said, smiling as if thinking of a precious memory. "Fun times."

"I imagine the scientific community would very much love to study you and your sister. It's that selfish part of me that does not want to try exorcising her. To my knowledge, there has been no recorded incident of humans being possessed by other humans, just Pokemon. And you aren't simply a vengeful spirit looking to cause mischief or harm, either. The both of you are completely sentient, capable of living together harmoniously... so to speak. I am, to put it bluntly, quite fascinated by it all. If I knew of any way to separate the two of you without sending you to the afterlife, I would definitely prefer to pursue that avenue. To simply send your soul to the other side seems like such a waste of knowledge."

Frisk shot Taikyu a look. "And yet here you are, ready to do just that, without asking what I think about that plan."

Taikyu opened his mouth to counter, but had to concede the point. "Fair enough, young man. I apologize. This is your life we're dealing with, after all. What do you think of that plan?"

Frisk took a few moments, contemplating. She yawned, then looked at her reflection in the knife's blade and sighed. "She wasn't always this insufferable, you know."

Taikyu wasn't sure how to react to that. While he didn't know exactly what the preferred answer was, he wished Chara would at least let go of the knife. Figuring it better to say something and acknowledge him, he answered, "Oh?"

"Things were better back then. When I was alive, I mean. She didn't act like this. When I was alive, and she told me she loved me, I believed it. Now she just says it because she thinks that's what I want to hear." Taikyu noticed Frisk tighten her grip on the knife on that last statement, and he started to think of what he could do if Chara decided to try exorcising himself and taking Frisk with him. Frisk sighed deeply, shaking her head. "You know she hasn't let me out once since we joined bodies? If I want to come out, I have to take control from her. And she hates me because of it." Frisk stood from the bed, went to the sink, and casually tossed the knife into it. Then she yawned again, stretching her limbs as far as they would go, so far it nearly hurt. "It's been a long time since anyone asked me how I felt about anything, old man. I'm sick of - "

Frisk clutched her stomach and groaned as if she were in pain. Taikyu moved to assist her, but she held him at bay with a hand. "Just a minute..." She closed her eyes tight and focused for a moment. "Okay. Sorry. She wants out."

Taikyu raised any eyebrow. "Out? You mean Frisk?"

"Yeah. I can take control of her, but it takes a lot outta me. Eventually her soul, or spirit, or whatever, gets strong enough to force me back in. It's kinda like what I do, but in reverse."

"Like reverse? So she can hear us?"

"Dunno," Frisk answered. "I've never bothered asking her. I mean, probably? I guess just ask her once she's back."

"I will," Taikyu said, more excitedly than was probably necessary.

"Yeah. Anyway, as I was saying, I'm sick of fighting. I loved Frisk, back when I was alive, but now I'm just a burden to her. I'm in a good mood, so if you wanna try your plan on me, then go ahead and do it." She winced. "You better hurry though, I don't know how much longer I can hold her back. She's trying really hard to escape."

"As you wish," Taikyu said, standing in front of the young girl. He extended one arm, placing his palm on Frisk's forehead. "Ut inimicos sanctae circulae humiliare digneris," he began reciting from the open book. Immediately, he could feel Frisk getting warmer.

Apparently, Frisk noticed it too. "Hey, old man, what gives?"

Taikyu did not stop reciting the incantation; he could not, if he wanted any hope of success. "Te rogamus, audi nos! Terribilis Deus Sanctuario suo, Cernunnos ipse truderit virtutem plebi Suae..."

Frisk was visibly shaking now, her air of coolness completely gone. "Come on, I'm serious, what's going on?!"

Taikyu could feel beads of sweat starting to form. He did not know what was going to happen to Chara, or even to Frisk. He scolded himself for not researching this more before trying it on a child. He vowed he would never forgive himself if any harm came to her. But he didn't stop the incantation. "Aradia ipse fortitudinem plebi Suae. Benedictus Deus, Gloria Patri, Benedictus Dea, Matri gloria!"

On the final word, Frisk collapsed to the floor, shrieking bloody murder, her hands gripping the sides of her head, her body convulsing and kicking for what seemed like an eternity before she finally stopped, sprawling limply on the floor. Taikyu brought her to a sitting position against the bed, her head unresponsive and lolling back and forth in front of her. "Frisk?" he asked, holding her head up straight. "Are you all right?" He pried open an eye and...

"Hey, you ruined the surprise," she said.

"What? But you... what was all that just now?"

Frisk stood up and straightened her nightgown. "Fun! Sorry to pull one over on you, old man, but I wanted to at least have a little fun before I gave Ultra Queen Bitch her body back. See ya!"

"Wait, hold on, I - " Taikyu stopped mid-sentence as he saw Frisk's pupils fade to black again. "You're back. What was it like? Did you hear everything Chara and I talked about? Is he still in there?"

Frisk barely opened her mouth to speak before a frantic pounding was heard at the door. "Frisk, honey? It's Rose. I heard screaming. Is everything okay?"

"Uh, yeah, I uh," Frisk looked to Taikyu for help. He was mouthing something, but she couldn't figure it out. "I heard a man scream...? Oh! Bad dream! I had a bad dream! Sorry to wake you, Rose. I'll be okay now. Thank you for checking on me."

"That's okay, sweetie. Any time you need me, I'm right next door, okay? Goodnight."

Frisk breathed a sigh of relief as she heard Rose's door open and close again. "That was close." She climbed in her bed and tucked herself under the covers. "I'm sorry, Taikyu, I'm really tired. Can we talk about this tomorrow?"

Taikyu smiled, slowly getting to his feet. "Of course, young one. I have learned much, but not about the subject I had intended on learning about."

Frisk shot him a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

The old man sat briefly on the edge of her bed. "We'll talk about it tomorrow. For now, get some rest. Good luck in your match. Stay determined, okay?"

A sunny smile beamed across Frisk's face. "Yes sir!"

* * * * * * * * *

The next morning, Scarlet was laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to figure out how to best tell Rose how she felt. A part of her brain told her, repeatedly, to simply do as Jethro suggested and tell her directly. She couldn't deny that it wasn't the simplest method, but another part of her argued that wondering forever might be preferable to being rejected, and surely laughed at, to her face. After all, this was Rose we were talking about here: young, pretty, a competent businesswoman, and an amazing trainer. Surely she had someone back home rooting for her, right?

You'd know if you'd just ask her...

Scarlet rolled her eyes at her brain's attempts to make her see the simple truth of the matter. Why couldn't that part of her understand what the other part was thinking? They were part of the same brain, for crying out loud!

She sighed. She tried to think of something, anything, any ghost of a clue that would tell her that Rose wanted to be more than friends. She'd praised Scarlet the day they met. Rank 4 after just a year wasn't really that special, surely she was flirting...? She sighed again at how lame that sounded, pushed it away, and continued to think. The room visit the first night? Maybe. Scarlet had had Julia out, brushed, and presentable the moment Rose walked in. Scarlet had expected the visit to be cold and clinical, with just the facts involved with Julia's capture. The meeting would be ten, fifteen minutes, tops.

Two hours later, they were still talking. Rose had spent fifteen minutes gushing over Julia, and demanded to know all the details, but very few of them were related to the actual capture. She'd been more interested in what Julia liked to eat (Mago Berries), if it liked being given a feminine name (it did), if Scarlet had ever transformed it (she hadn't)... minor things like that.

Eventually, the topic of conversation shifted to Ranger life, places they'd been, people they'd met, and things they'd still like to do. Rose told her the story of the time she'd nearly died before being saved by Lucario and Gardevoir, although she left out what the three of them did after they'd gotten home. Scarlet had felt slightly embarrassed, not having an interesting story to tell back, but Rose insisted she just talk about whatever was on her mind, whether it was related to being a Ranger or not.

She couldn't really think of anything interesting to tell her, so she talked about playing at Snowpoint Temple as a kid, and occasionally hearing strange noises coming from inside of it. That, Scarlet remembered, had piqued Rose's interest, as she'd also heard legends of some Pokemon sleeping inside. Scarlet told her that the door to the temple had been sealed for well over a hundred years, and that if there really was a Pokemon sleeping deep in the temple, perhaps it would be best left alone.

As they talked, Scarlet wondered why Rose hadn't gotten bored or tired. A glance at the clock had shown Scarlet that she and Rose had been talking for nearly three hours. It wasn't until Scarlet let a mighty yawn slip out that Rose finally went to excuse herself.

"Thank you for sharing your stories with me," she'd said, standing to go.

"You're welcome, Rose," Scarlet said with a smile. "I'm sorry for keeping you so late."

"No, not at all," she replied warmly, briefly taking one of Rose's hands in hers. "I enjoyed myself a lot. I hope you did, too." She leaned down to pet Julia one last time. "And I definitely enjoyed meeting this adorable little cutie! I'll be cheering for you in your match!"

Shaymin smiled and nodded, and Rose stood again, this time taking Scarlet in a big hug. "Maybe we can do this again soon?" she asked mid-embrace.

Scarlet had been so busy melting from the contact that she barely registered what Rose had said. "What?"

Rose extracted herself from the younger girl, but didn't break contact. "I said, maybe we can do this again soon?"

Scarlet couldn't pull her gaze away from those amazing green eyes, but luckily she didn't have to. "Yeah. Anytime. Just let me know..."

"All right," she said softly, removing herself from Scarlet's arms and heading to the door. "Goodnight, Julia. Night, Scarlet."

"Goodnight, Rose," Scarlet replied, giving her a little wave.

And then she was gone.

In her bed, Scarlet replayed those last moments again over and over again in her head. Was there something, anything there, that she -

Suddenly, a thought struck her like a bolt of lightning, causing her to shoot upright in bed.

"Holy shit," she said aloud. "No way, it can't be..."

Kiria's words played out in her head.

Learn what makes her tick. What makes her happy, what makes her sad, her birthday, her most cherished memory... little things like that. And if it turns out that she doesn't want a relationship with you, you'll at least have made an amazing friend.

"Holy shit," she said again, as realization struck her. "She was doing it to me!" Rose had spent the better part of three hours talking to her about stuff, things so mundane that Scarlet hadn't even considered that there had been a reason for her to do so, but...

But wait, that nagging first part of her brain thought. She might have just been trying to be a good guest. Just because she struck up a conversation doesn't mean she wants to sleep with you.

"Yeah, it doesn't mean she doesn't, either," she argued aloud. This had been the first bit of "evidence" she'd come up with in the past two days, and she was desperate to cling to it, but her brain didn't seem to want to let her even have that. The more she thought about it, the more she started to doubt herself.

Someone as successful as her surely would have said something to you if she wanted to date you, right?

"Yeah," Scarlet said as she fell onto her back again, sounding much less confident than she did sixty seconds prior. Damn brain. All that hope, and now she was right back to where she started. She sighed again, looking off to the side. She noticed the spot where she'd stood in Windra's bedroom when Windra nearly kissed her, and she briefly wondered why Rose couldn't be more like Windra. Now there was a girl who wasn't afraid to take what she wanted.

If she hadn't been attracted to Windra before a couple days ago, she was now. Windra was so much more direct than Rose was, so much more... open about things like this. Scarlet's hands drifted to her stomach as her memories brought her inside Windra's bedroom. Scarlet closed her eyes as her mind took her back to that moment, with Windra pressing her up against the wall, her lips a hair's width away. Scarlet could feel Windra's warm breath on her face as she imagined those piercing green eyes gazing into hers. In Scarlet's mind's eye, Windra pushed forward, claiming Scarlet's lips and pushing her even further into the wall. Scarlet's breath hitched as she imagined Windra nipping at her neck. Her hands became Windra's as her fantasy continued. She gasped as she remembered Kiria had been there, watching, and was surprised to learn that her mind did not remove her from the scenario.

"Oh god," she breathed as she threw the covers off her, imagining Windra all but pushing her onto her bed. In her head, Windra continued ravaging her as Kiria sat quietly and watched, and Scarlet found herself desperately wishing Kiria would be more than an observer. In a flash, her mind granted her wish, and then everything was bliss.

An hour and a half later, after she was clean and dressed, Scarlet was sated but no closer to finding an answer to her dilemma. Introducing Windra to the equation had proven hot at first, but only served to complicate matters, as Scarlet was left wondering what a relationship with her would be like. On the one hand, Windra had made it very clear how she felt about Scarlet. There would be no need for guessing; she'd just have to say the word and Windra would be on her in an instant. On the other hand, before that day in her bedroom, she'd never had a meaningful conversation with Windra, and it was only because she'd accidentally let her secret slip. At least Rose acted like she was interested in Scarlet as a person and not just a piece of meat... but Scarlet couldn't say with certainty that she would say no if Windra offered. Besides, it wasn't like Windra was incapable of having feelings for her, right? Those kinds of things took time.

Come on, get real, her brain chimed in. You're gonna drop a chance to be with Rose just for a chance at Windra?

Why not? Scarlet argued back. Rose might not even be into me that way.

What if you're wrong? What if she does like you and finds out you're fooling around with Windra? Think she'll ever want you then?

Then I'll stop.

Nice plan! How do you suppose Rose will react upon hearing that you dropped Windra like a bad habit, just to be with her? You really think she's gonna want someone who treats her as their Plan B in case Plan W doesn't work out?


This was hard for Scarlet to refute. She couldn't be with Windra, she realized. Not if she wanted Rose to treat her with any sort of respect. She decided to take a play out of her Trainers' School days and write her crush(es) a note. Her brain admonished her for doing such a thing after literally just thinking about Rose respecting her, but she had no intent on bringing this subject up to either of them. If Rose wanted something more, Scarlet would give her the chance to do just that. As for Windra, she'd let her down gently and tell her that the flirting between them needed to end. Short, sweet, and to the point, and that would be the end of it. She sat at her desk, tore out two pieces of paper from her Ranger-issue notepad, and heard her stomach make the loudest growl it had ever made. "Okay, okay, I heard you, just give me a minute," she said, rubbing her stomach, and started writing.

On the note to Rose, she wrote:

I'm yours. If you want me, come to me tonight in my room and we'll make magical things happen. If not, I'd still like to be your friend. - Scarlet

On the note to Windra, she wrote:

I like you, but the flirting between us has to stop. My heart belongs to another, and I can't risk losing her. Please understand. - Scarlet

Once she was satisfied with each message, she folded them up, stuck them in her pocket, and left to go soothe her savage beast.

When she reached the cafeteria, most of the competitors had already arrived for breakfast. Rose was notably absent, as were Safiri, Ruby, and Esmeralda. She saw Jethro eating at a table by himself, next to Alex, who was also eating by himself. Scarlet quickly got her food and sat next to Jethro before the others showed up and tried ruining her shot at having a somewhat private conversation.

"Hey," she said quietly, slinking into a chair next to Jethro.

"Mornin, Scarlet," Jethro drawled in his normal voice. "You think about what I said last night?"

Scarlet went wide-eyed, unable to believe what she'd heard. Did he even know what discretion was? Did he have any idea how that sounded to anyone else? She glanced behind Jethro and, for a brief moment, made eye contact with Alex before he averted his gaze. "It's not what it sounds like, so don't get any ideas."

Alex, playing off being busted as nonchalantly as he could, rolled his eyes. "I have no interest in your conversation. Please leave me be."

With pleasure, you jerk, Scarlet thought as she turned back towards Jethro. "I did," she replied to him, in the same lowered tone of voice. "I wrote each of them a note. You wanna read 'em?"

"Uh, sure - oops, sure," he corrected himself, speaking more quietly after another glare from Scarlet. She handed the notes over and he read each of them in turn. "Well, I reckon it'll do, but I still think you should - "

"I know, I know, but..." Scarlet looked around again after hearing the cafeteria door open, but it was only Cody. "I just can't shake the feeling that she was just being nice to me all those times."

"All what times?"

Remembering she hadn't filled Jethro in on her revelation, she decided to talk to him about it over breakfast. Time went on as the two talked in hushed tones, leaving the rest of the group to wonder what exactly was going on between those two.

When she'd finished telling everything there was to tell, Jethro nodded knowingly. "Okay, all that's real interestin'." He paused for effect. "Know what I think you should do?"

Now it was Scarlet's turn to roll her eyes. "Yes. Yes, I do. But this is the safest thing for me."

"How you gonna give 'em the note if you don't want to talk to 'em personally?" Jethro inquired.

"I was gonna use some gum and kinda tape them to their room doors. ...What? Don't look at me like that." She looked at the clock on the wall and was shocked to see that it was nearly time for her match. Sure enough, Ruby's voice was heard over the loudspeaker, requesting that both her and Frisk report to their respective waiting areas. She quickly pulled a piece of gum from her pocket and frantically started chewing. "Time to go! Wish me luck!... for... y'know, for both."

Jethro smiled. "Good luck. For both. But I hardly think you'll need it."

After Frisk and Scarlet had left, most everyone tuned into the large cafeteria television to watch the battle. Alex, seemingly uninterested in the fight, politely excused himself from the room.

This is most interesting, the young man thought as he exited the cafeteria. She shouldn't have spoken so freely... and just as she said, there's the note, he said, spotting the note affixed to the door by a hastily torn wad of gum. I wonder what would happen if I switched them? That would be good for a laugh. He glanced back towards the cafeteria, noticing that everyone was fixated on the TV. With a deep breath, he snatched the note from Windra's door, being careful not to touch the gum. He then traveled the hall, trying to find the other note. Of course it's all the way at the end, he thought as he tore down the original note and replaced it with Windra's. Walking as quickly as he could, he placed Rose's note on Windra's door, then retired to his room without anyone being the wiser.

* * * * * * * * *

A short time before the first battle of the day was to begin, the Jewels of Tajna held council in Safiri's office. It was a bit on the small side, but it served its purpose. The eldest of the three Jewels sat behind her desk, going through her notes for the meeting. Ruby and Esmeralda were seated side by side in front of her.

"This is your office?" Esmeralda said, taking in the small space. "It's kind of..." She trailed off as she noticed Safiri was looking at her. "Quaint?" she offered with an uneasy smile.

Ruby patted her on the back and laughed. "You're nicer than me, I'll tell you that. This office su-"

"This office suits our needs just fine," Safiri interrupted, looking at each of her sisters in turn. "Remember we are simply renting this space; there's no need for extravagant decor. Thank you both for coming," she continued, preventing Ruby from interjecting. "The purpose of this meeting is to brief the two of you on the status of Version Zero, and our instructions from here on out." Esmeralda opened her mouth to speak, but opted to raise her hand instead. "Please let me get through this first. I'll take questions after."

"Oh. S-sorry," Esmeralda squeaked, timidly pulling her hand down.

"Thank you. First, the status update. Mr. Diamant has reported that he is pleased with the progress of the tournament so far. DNA gathering has been quite successful as well; we now have data on all sixteen subjects. I briefly spoke with Helmi, who reports that preliminary compatibility testing is already underway. If everything goes well, we should have results in a couple days.

"Mr. Diamant would like each of us to make a better effort to build a rapport with the subjects," Safiri continued. "He believes that by learning more about them, we can edit the DNA accordingly. Our goal is the perfect trainer; it won't do to have... undesirable traits."

"So Quayle's out," Ruby joked.

"No. Mr. Diamant made it clear that all subjects are to be considered for testing... even him. My next meeting with him is in two days' time. I've been ordered to provide a status update on our end, and Helmi should have more information for us as well. As always, this information is highly confidential; under no circumstances are any of us to allow Indigo Plateau staff and especially the subjects to become privy to it." She looked to the green-haired beauty to her left. "Now, Esmeralda, your question?"

Esmeralda hesitated for a bit, uncrossing and crossing her legs. "It's not important."

"Very well," Safiri said, rising from her chair. "If there's nothing else, then - "

"Oh come on, you're just gonna let this go?" Ruby asked incredulously, standing and gesturing towards Esmeralda. "Look, Sis, I get you're upset about what Diamant said, but don't you think you're being just a little harsh here? She's obviously got something on her mind, why don't you - "

"What?" Esmeralda said, wide-eyed, looking first at Ruby, then at Safiri. "What did he say?" Esmeralda rose to her feet at well and moved closer to Safiri, who was staring daggers at Ruby. "Safiri, talk to me!" She looked at Ruby, who crossed her arms in a shrug. "Ruby! Safiri! What are you two hiding?"

"Nothing," Safiri said pointedly, still not breaking eye contact with Ruby. "It's been dealt with."

"What has been dealt with?!" Esmeralda shouted, tears forming in her eyes. "Why won't you tell me?!"

"Okay, I'm not dealing with this," Ruby said, raising her hands in defeat. "I'm not going to listen to her cry."

She turned to Esmeralda. Safiri slammed her hands on the desk in one last attempt at silencing her sister. "Ruby!"

"Diamant called her by her designator number."

The room fell silent at this revelation. Esmeralda brought her hands to her face, shaking her head in disbelief as a few tears escaped. Ruby said and did nothing, and simply waited. Safiri glared death at Ruby, but also said nothing. Esmeralda wiped her eyes and was the first to break the quiet. "Safiri, I... I had no idea." She went around the desk and wrapped her big sister in a hug, one that Safiri did not reciprocate because she was still scowling at Ruby.

"Don't look at me like that," Ruby said, finally having had enough of Safiri's glare. "She deserves to know. Not like you were ever going to tell her anyway," she added.

"Oh? I distinctly remember you telling me yesterday that you deliberately left out that part when you told Esmeralda about my first meeting with Mr. Diamant," Safiri shot back. "What was it you said? Oh yes. 'You know how she gets.'"

When Ruby saw the look of hurt come across Esmeralda's face, she immediately went on the defensive. "Yeah, I did, so what? Maybe I wanted all of us to be here so we can talk about it, because it's obviously bothering you. I can tell, she can tell, and if you would take one second to pull the stick out of that amazing ass of yours, you'd - "

"Girls, please!" Esmeralda pleaded, the tears threatening to come forth once again. "Please, let's not fight!"

"I've heard enough of this," Safiri said, extracting herself from Esmeralda and heading towards the door. "We have a job to do."

"Where do you think you're going?" Ruby asked, stepping in front of Safiri's path. "Didn't you hear Esmeralda? We're not supposed to fight!"

"I'm not fighting," Safiri said plainly, deftly maneuvering her way around Ruby. "I'm leaving."

"If you walk out that door, I'll blow this whole operation!"

That managed to stop Safiri, who slowly turned toward her youngest sister, stunned at what she heard. Ruby, equally stunned to hear such an outburst from Esmeralda, didn't say a word. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me," Esmeralda huffed, breathing heavily. "If you leave, I'll tell them everything. And you can't stop me. I'm the pretty ref with the big tits that everyone loves," she said, smiling sarcastically at her sister. "I'm front and center with a really loud microphone, and if you shut it off I can still tell Frisk and Scarlet."

"Come on, Esmeralda, take it easy," Ruby said. "No one's going anywhere, okay?"

"You shut up!" Esmeralda shouted, shocking Ruby into silence. "I'm tired of you two treating me like I'm a child! Yes, I get emotional sometimes, but you both know very well why that is! I don't fault Mr. Diamant for making me this way, or for making you two the way you are." She closed her eyes as she took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "Safiri. Talk to us. We love you. There's no reason you need to shoulder your burdens alone." She walked over to Safiri and took Safiri's hands in her own. "Ruby and I both know how much you value your relationship with Mr. Diamant, and how badly you need to feel useful to him. She and I feel the same way. But here, in this office, with just us girls..." She reached behind Safiri's head and carefully removed the tie in Safiri's hair, fluffing it out so it fell to its full length, ending a few inches above the small of her back. "Don't be Safiri, the stern businesswoman with the nice ass. Be Safiri, our big sister with the nice ass," she finished, flashing a much more genuine smile.

Safiri smiled back at her sister, causing Esmeralda's grin to return full force. She pulled Esmeralda into a hug, and gestured for Ruby to join them. "You're right. I've been terrible, haven't I?"

"Well, now that you mention it..." Ruby began before Esmeralda pinched her. "Hey, I was kidding!"

"Shush. Sister moment. Just hug."

"All right, all right..."

And so they hugged. Safiri looked at her watch and cursed internally. She hadn't planned on staying this long. "Okay. Sister time is over," she said, gently pushing her sisters off of her. "We're behind schedule. I know you want us to sit down and have a heart to heart, but there's no time now. I'll make time for the both of you after this afternoon's match, after dinner. Is that okay?"

"Yes, of course!" Esmeralda exclaimed, clasping her hands together in delight. "Is it okay with you, Ruby?"

Ruby shrugged. "Yeah, it's cool with me." She turned to Safiri. "Sorry we put you a little behind schedule. Want me to page Frisk and Scarlet?"

"Yes please," Safiri said, already two steps out the door.

* * * * * * * *

"Ladies and gentlemen: welcome, welcome, welcome to Indigo Plateau! I'm Ruby Erthgrand, you're you, and this is day three of our tournament of champions!"

Frisk stood in front of the door leading to her platform, listening to Ruby hype the crowd. She swallowed nervously, taking in the sheer volume of people who had come to watch her fight. "It's a lot different seeing it in person," she said.

It's no different than the last tournament we were in. Geez, quit worrying, Chara shot back.

Frisk frowned. "Yeah, I guess you're right..."

"Approaching the east platform is a young lady hailing from all the way in Sinnoh! As a Ranger, she's traveled far and wide, and manage to snag the top spot in the Goldenrod City qualifying tournament! Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Scarlet Jung!"

Scarlet ran out to her platform, waving her hands excitedly. It was clear that she was having fun with it all, and Frisk wondered how Scarlet could appear so calm about this. Wasn't she nervous?

"And coming to the west platform is one of our youngest competitors! She may be young, but she's got skills! Whenever the chips are down, the sheer power of her determination always sees her through! Will it save her from defeat today? You're about to find out, but first, make some noise for Frisk Achra!"

Frisk headed outside into the bright morning sun, to deafening cheers. Frisk remembered being told that the flags which bore her face and name were light green, and it calmed her a little knowing that thousands of people had enough faith in her to win. That calm was quickly replaced by more nervousness, as she realized that those thousands of people were cheering for her to win.

She didn't have any time to worry, as Ruby was quick to give the people what they wanted. "Let's see what this battlefield is... it's the normal field! Nothing here but two Pokemon and their trainers! And now, here to get us started is the beautiful Esmeralda Rayvenflight!"

The cheering swelled as the field and Esmeralda came into view. She glanced at each young lady to make sure they were ready, and with a wave of her hands, the battle was on. "Trainers, release your Pokemon!"

"Chi-Chi, report in!"

"Arise, Mettaton!"

Scarlet's Pachirisu was facing off against Frisk's Magearna, and Scarlet was quick to make the first move. "Chi-Chi, use Nuzzle!"

Frisk was quick with her own command. "Shift Gear! Don't let her touch you!" Magearna responded immediately, spinning the gear on its head as it closed itself into a ball, using the energy to roll around and dodge Pachirisu as she made a leaping tackle. "All right, Mettaton! That's the way!" Frisk cheered.

Chara, as usual, was determined to give his opinion. Press the advantage! Attack her!

Be quiet!

Scarlet was unfazed by the miss. "So, you're trying to outspeed us, huh? That's fine. We just won't aim! Chi-Chi!" she called to her Pokemon. "Discharge!"

Magearna emerged from its ball mode as Pachirisu pulled her whole body in tight as she built up electricity in her body. Magearna looked to Frisk for a command as Pachirisu loosed the power, shocking the entire area. With nowhere to hide, Magearna was struck by the attack, causing it to twitch fiercely as the electricity messed with its body's circuitry.

You see that! That's because you didn't act! Now do something!

"Mettaton, return!"

Not that! Damn it, Frisk, you can't show everyone mercy! Do you want to lose?

Frisk shook her head, which, fortunately for her, did not look out of place in her current situation. Did you see how badly Mettaton was hurt by that attack? I'm not going to leave him out there to die!

You didn't have to! She was wide open!

"I've got this," Frisk said confidently, taking another Poke Ball from her belt. If she wants to use electricity, then I've got just the thing. "Arise, Sans!"

Frisk's Alolan Marowak emerged in a flash. The largely Kantonian crowd, noticing the exotic variant, cheered harder as Ruby filled in those folks listening to the battle via radio. Marowak expertly swung its bone like a baton before lighting the ends in a green, ethereal fire, and prepared to fight. Scarlet seemed to pause briefly before giving her command, as if she was reconsidering her plan of attack. Just as Frisk moved to take advantage of this, Scarlet decided on her command. "Chi-Chi, toss out a Thunder Wave!" Pachirisu nodded, its body briefly glowing blue before thin lines of electricity snaked their way across the battlefield. Upon striking Marowak, they dissipated harmlessly into the air. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

Frisk grinned, glad that everything had gone according to plan. "Yep! Sans's Lightning Rod Ability is great! Use Flare Blitz!" She quickly covered her mouth with both hands as she realized what had happened. What did you do that for?!

Because you wouldn't! You don't just sit there and gloat if your opponent is sitting there being dumb, you attack!

Marowak, having heard Frisk's command, obeyed. He cloaked his body in flames and made a dash for his opponent, but the nimble Pachirisu was able to dodge it easily. Frisk pointed at Marowak, wishing Chara had a physical form so he could see the look of disbelief on her face. There! That's why I didn't just attack her, Chara! You can't win every fight by just hitting them until they're dead! You need strategy. You need a plan. You need to stop butting in and let me do this my way!

She bit her tongue immediately as her brain mentally voiced that thought. As Scarlet recalled her Pokemon, Frisk could feel her hands involuntarily bunching into fists. Fine. I forgot Queen Frisk doesn't need me. I hope you lose.

Frisk felt Chara's presence slowly fade into her mind. She still felt him in there - he never disappeared completely, not really - but she wasn't sure how she should feel about it in this moment. On the one hand, him voluntarily "leaving" allowed her to focus on the battle, but on the other hand, he was mad at her... again. Frisk sighed. Would explaining things even help? It definitely couldn't hurt, she reasoned. That's not what I meant! I do need you, Chara, I'm just -

"Hana, report in!" Scarlet's Roserade came into play, and this gave Frisk pause. Why would Scarlet bring in a Pokemon with such a poor matchup against Marowak? Did she not know what type he was? Or maybe she didn't have... her monologue was interrupted by Scarlet's next order. "Use Rain Dance!"

Yep, she knew.

As the rain clouds began to form and start their downpour, Frisk tried to rethink her strategy. She'd planned on burning Pachirisu as it attempted to paralyze Marowak, but with the rain, that would be impossible now, not to mention Marowak's Fire-type attacks would be severely weakened by the rain. She knew Roserade was not a Water-type and, as far as Frisk knew, Roserade couldn't learn any damaging Water-type attacks. Scarlet couldn't have set up the rain simply for the reduced Fire damage, could she? Frisk conceded that Scarlet very well may have. And why not? It was a smart move. Fortunately, Marowak was not only limited to Fire-type moves, and she decided to show Chara that she was perfectly capable of handling this battle. "Sans, use Shadow Bone!"

Gripping one end of his bone tightly, Marowak ran in, bone raised high, but before he could get anywhere near Roserade, Scarlet issued another quick command. "Grab the bone, but don't get burned by the flames!" Roserade pointed an arm towards Marowak and fired a vine out, quick as lightning; it wrapped several times around the bone, giving her a solid hold and preventing Marowak from swinging it. He struggled hard to break Roserade's grip and smash her head in with the bone, but Scarlet wasn't about to give him the chance to. "Now use Weather Ball!" Scarlet took a bit of enjoyment as she watched Frisk's expression change from confidence to confusion to horror in the span of a few seconds. Roserade formed a white ball of energy in front of her, which the rain rapidly changed into water, causing it to nearly double in size, and fired it straight into Marowak's face. Marowak was blown away by the attack, releasing his grip on his bone and crashing into the wall. "Great! Now get in there and finish him!" Scarlet ordered. Still holding Marowak's bone, Roserade extended her vine to where Marowak had fallen and was currently struggling to get to his feet, raised the bone high, and bashed him soundly over the head with it. That was all Marowak could take, and he was knocked unconscious by the blow.

"Marowak is unable to battle! Roserade is the winner!" Esmeralda announced, trying hard not to snicker at the thought of Marowak being defeated by his own weapon. Weather Ball had done the majority of the work, she conceded... but still. It was pretty funny.

Frisk recalled her Pokemon, feeling lower than dirt. Damn it. I didn't know Roserade could learn that, and now Sans is out without doing anything! Guess that means Toriel's out, too. Hopefully Mettaton can take her out...

As Magearna joined the fray once again, Scarlet noticed the look on Frisk's face. She looked... distracted, like her heart wasn't in it. She wanted to win (and perhaps impress a certain senior Ranger), but she couldn't help but feel like Frisk wasn't trying her best. It left a bad taste in her mouth, but she was here to win. "Grass Whistle, Hana!"

The status attack perked Frisk right up. She knew exactly how to handle this. "Crafty Shield!" Is that the best she can do against Mettaton?

No, it's not, and if you don't start doing something soon, you're going to lose.

What are you talking about? Mettaton isn't weak to Water. What's she going to do?

Magearna extended a pink-tinted aura from its body, preventing the notes of Roserade's song from reaching its ears. As the aura was doing its job, Scarlet once again took advantage of Frisk's inactivity. "Use Sunny Day!"

Told you.

Frisk's eyes went wide. "Both of them?!" Roserade threw her hands to the sky, clearing it instantly and intensifying the sunlight shining down onto the arena.

You know what's coming, right? Get Magearna out of there!

Realization hit Frisk like a ton of bricks. Oh, right, the Weather Ball! "Mettaton, return!" She had another realization as she switched Poke Balls. And this weather is perfect! Thanks, Scarlet! "Arise, Toriel!"

Frisk's Rapidash emerged with a whinny, her mane burning proudly in the bright sun. Scarlet felt sorry for Frisk, especially because she was fairly certain she was going to win now; with limited switches allowed, and Hana's ability to change the weather however she pleased, Frisk's Pokemon wouldn't be able to handle repeated Weather Balls. "Use Rain Dance!"

The rain clouds snuffed out the bright sunlight once again, and as the rain fell, Frisk almost wanted to cry. What could she do against this? Maybe Mettaton could -

DON'T SWITCH, ATTACK HER! Chara screamed into her mind. Come on, Sis, what's wrong with you?! You know that if you switch Pokemon, she's just going to change the weather again. You've been sitting there and waiting for her to attack when you could be telling your Pokemon to attack! Geez, do I have to do everything for you?!

Scarlet saw Frisk staring into space, but she resolved to not let it get to her. She'd ask Frisk about it later, but right now she had a match to win. "Weather Ball!"

Panicking, Frisk blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. If Toriel was hit by that attack, it was all over. "Agility! Then Megahorn!"

What are you doing, Chara?!

Proving my point, that's what! Now you watch.

Rapidash ran towards Roserade as she charged the ball of water, feeling everything slow down around her as the speed boost went into effect. As she fired, Rapidash was easily able to see it coming; she leaped to the side, dodging the water ball effortlessly, lowered her head, and rammed her horn hard into Roserade, carrying her into the wall. Roserade cried out in pain as she was pierced by the powerful attack; thinking quickly, she shot a vine around Rapidash's legs, tied the end off, and pulled, trying to hog tie her, but she lacked the strength needed to tip Rapidash over.

Scarlet was proud of her Pokemon's quick thinking. It gave her an idea, but she'd need to distract Rapidash. "That's good, keep at it! Weather Ball again!" The sight of the attack forming so close to her spooked Rapidash, causing her to scramble backwards. "Now pull!" Roserade reeled in her vine, managing to snag one of Rapidash's back legs. "Great! Now don't let her escape!"

As the Weather Ball grew larger, Frisk formulated a plan. She didn't have time to figure out the details, but she knew she was quickly running out of time to act. "Run, Toriel! Run as fast as you can!"

Rapidash did as she was told; she turned tail and burst into a full gallop, hoping that Frisk knew what she was talking about. As she could hear Frisk's (and the crowd's) cheers, it seemed that she did; though Roserade had succeeded in binding one of Rapidash's legs, Roserade was too light to physically stop Rapidash from running away. As it was, Roserade (having dropped the Weather Ball attack) was being dragged around the arena like a rag doll, bouncing and smacking into the walls and floor. The sight of it gave Frisk another idea. "Bounce, Toriel!"

Rapidash screeched to a halt, then quickly leaped high into the sky. Roserade flew underneath Rapidash and was suddenly jerked backwards by her own vine, right underneath Rapidash. She came down hard, crushing Roserade underfoot, snapping her arm like a twig. Both Frisk and Scarlet cringed as they heard the bone break, and Scarlet didn't waste any time in bringing her Pokemon back.

Esmeralda stepped onto the field. "Scarlet, do you want to take Roserade out of the battle for good?"

Scarlet shook her head. "No, ma'am. That was a bad break, but you know I've got it covered."

The referee nodded. "Understood. But know that if your third Pokemon faints under normal circumstances, I'll have no choice but to call the match in Frisk's favor."

That made Frisk perk up. It was two to one now! If she could just get past her last Pokemon...

Scarlet took her final Pokemon in hand. "Yes, ma'am. I don't plan on losing. Chi-Chi, report in!"

Frisk's mood soured a bit at that. Oh yeah, I forgot about Chi-Chi. Damn. Okay, so it's still two on two. At least she doesn't have a type advantage on me.

Pachirisu was on the field once again, and she seemed to favor this Pokemon over her last one. This one looked like she could keep up.

Scarlet, however, was not going to give Rapidash a chance to do that. "Discharge, Chi-Chi! And put some oomph into it, that Rapidash is super fast!"

No you don't, Frisk thought. "Agility! Then Megahorn!"

No, no, no! Wrong move, Sis! Chara groused. You don't need to waste time trying to dodge an attack that doesn't have a target!

Rapidash sprinted again towards Pachirisu, the same way she did against Roserade. Pachirisu loosed the electricity from its body as Rapidash jumped out of the way, but it was a futile gesture, as the electricity spread all over the battlefield. Rapidash fell to the ground as the shocks coursed through her. Pachirisu took this opportunity to fire off another Discharge, and this one had the desired effect of paralyzing Frisk's Pokemon.

"Come on, Toriel, you can do it!" Frisk cheered, though she wasn't entirely certain she believed it. "Flame Charge!"

Rapidash slowly got to her feet and, after cloaking herself in flame, started running after Pachirisu. Pachirisu grinned and ran away, and the chase was on. Pachirisu bobbed and darted around the field, making it harder and harder for Rapidash to land a hit. Pachirisu dodged a bit too recklessly and was singed a bit by Rapidash's fire, but the slowly ending rain provided a bit of relief. If Rapidash kept this up long enough, she would eventually catch Pachirisu, and that would be bad news. Pachirisu wondered what was taking so long. It didn't usually take this long for her opponents to - ah, there it was. Rapidash suddenly seized up, canceling her attack and sending her tumbling to the ground. Pachirisu turned to Scarlet for approval, and Scarlet gave it. "Yep! Use Thunder!"

Pachirisu raised its tiny paws to the sky as dark clouds rolled over the arena. They rumbled and churned as Rapidash struggled to get to her feet. Surprisingly, she did, and she started another Flame Charge attack, unbidden. Almost immediately, her body seized up again, planting her to the spot, and that was all the time Pachirisu needed. With a cry, Pachirisu brought its hands down, and with them came a wickedly large bolt that boomed loud enough that Esmeralda thought she'd go deaf from the blast. Rapidash was put out of commission instantly and, after the flash that accompanied it had faded and Esmeralda could see clearly again, she made Pachirisu's win official. "Rapidash is no longer able to battle! Pachirisu is the winner!"

The crowd cheered as Frisk reluctantly recalled her fire horse. She could hear Scarlet showering Pachirisu with praises, and it was all she could to not burst into tears.

What's your deal now? Chara asked, already knowing the answer.

I'm going to lose, she admitted. We've been through this before. Mettaton can't beat Chi-Chi. She's too fast. Maybe I should just quit. Frisk was expecting Chara to mock her at this, so when he was silent, it slightly confused her. It wasn't like him to pass up a chance to be mean to her. Chara?

I'll make you a deal.

Huh? A deal?

Yes. I'll make you a deal. Give me control of you for the rest of this battle and I'll win it for you. If I win, then you have to let me out more often.

That doesn't sound like any sort of deal! Frisk objected. That just sounds like an excuse for you to take my body for a joyride and embarrass me in front of everyone!

Well, Sis, if you ask me, you've already done a great job of embarrassing yourself. What are you so afraid of?

A voice was heard from the outside. "Frisk, send out your Pokemon or you will forfeit the match!"

"Ahh! Sorry, sorry! Just one moment!" she apologized. You really think you can do it?

If Chara could have, he would have shrugged. Who knows. But you're up shit creek right now so you might as well give me a shot. You got nothing to lose.

Frisk considered this, and realized that he had a point. All right.

Fine, I hope you - wait, what?

Go ahead. I'll let you finish this battle. It's not going to last much longer anyway, and... I've got to start proving to you that I mean the things I say. You'd better hurry, though. Esmeralda's getting impatient. Just remember that attacking isn't always the smartest option.

Chara wasted no time in sliding into Frisk's consciousness, and he was shocked as to how easy it was; it was as effortless as breathing. This was entirely new to him, and he took a moment to take it in. There was no force trying to shove him away. He didn't feel drained of energy after brute-forcing his way to the surface.

"Frisk has forfeited the match! That means advancing to the next round is S - "

"Hold your horses, lady!" Frisk yelled, grabbing her last Pokemon. "God damn, you're impatient." She turned to Scarlet. "All right, Toots, you've been in the lead long enough. It's time for me to end this battle."

Scarlet was puzzled. Had Frisk gone mad? Toots? What in the world? Whatever it was, she'd ask about it later; right now, Scarlet was just happy to see that Frisk had found her determination and will to win, wherever it had been hiding. Maybe this battle will be a little interesting after all. "Is that so? Because I recall a very different outcome the last time our Pokemon faced each other."

Frisk smirked at this. "Yeah, well, you might say I've got a new outlook on things. Now, arise, Magearna!"

Magearna came out for the last time, and Frisk's order was given before it hit the ground. "Shift Gear!"

Magearna chirped and obeyed, spinning its gear and entering ball form. Scarlet shook her head, disappointed. "I thought you would have learned by now, Frisk. That's not going to work. Chi-Chi, use Discharge!"

"Don't let it happen, Magearna! Crash into Pachirisu!" Magearna shot off like a rocket, making a beeline for Pachirisu and smashing into her at incredible speed. Pachirisu tumbled backwards several paces, and Frisk applied more pressure. "Blast her into rubble! Fleur Cannon!" Magearna exited its ball mode and jumped into the sky, aiming its hand towards the dazed Pachirisu. To Scarlet's horror, Magearna's hand opened into a six-pronged cannon, which fired a massive bright pink beam into her Pokemon. Pachirisu's squeals of pain were quickly silenced as its energy was depleted; Magearna landed on its feet and did nothing, conserving its energy.

Esmeralda raised a hand towards Magearna, making the defeat official. "Pachirisu is unable to battle! Magearna is the winner!"

The crowd, glad to finally see a good battle unfolding, showed its appreciation by yelling, whistling, and cheering harder than they ever had. Ruby was practically screaming into the microphone at what she'd just seen, and Scarlet was dumbfounded that such a giant attack had come from such a little creature.

Well, Chi-Chi summoned that huge thunderbolt, but still... geez, that was crazy!

As she recalled her Pokemon, she tried making small talk with her opponent. "Fleur Cannon? I've never heard of it. What's it do?"

"Beats you, that's what," Frisk said simply. "Now come on. My sister wasted enough time talking. It's time to fight."

Scarlet readied what was effectively her last Pokemon. "That it is. I hope you won't think poorly of me once I win. Because I literally can't lose, Frisk. With this Pokemon, I - "

"Put up or shut up, Toots, time's a-wastin'."

Scarlet's jaw dropped slightly at Frisk's behavior. It was much different than before, she reasoned. It reminded her of Windra taking charge of her, and... how old was Frisk?

She violently shook her head back and forth, driving the impure thoughts from her head. God, what is wrong with me? It's bad enough I want to jump both Rose and Windra. "All right, Frisk, you got it. Julia, report in!"

Scarlet's Shaymin hit the field, causing all sorts of reactions from the crowd. Surprisingly to Scarlet, Frisk didn't freak out about how cute it was, the way Scarlet figured she would. So she'd have to jump right into battle before Frisk got any ideas. Shaymin didn't have any attacks that were super effective on Magearna... but it had one that would eventually get the job done. "Seed Flare, Julia!"

Shaymin briefly pulled in some of the negative energy that had been permeating the field over the course of the battle and then, before Frisk could react, unloaded it in a massive wave that knocked Magearna to the ground. It struggled to bring itself to its feet, so Frisk took advantage of Magearna already being on the ground.

"Roll in that bitch's face and use Fleur Cannon, Magearna!"

"Seed Flare, one more time! Everything's going according to plan!"

Magearna curled into a ball and made its way across the field as Shaymin quickly gathered more energy. Magearna unrolled itself, cannon transformed and prepped, and fired as Shaymin did the same. Their attacks did not collide, as both combatants had expected, but simply passed through each other; Shaymin's Seed Flare sent Magearna flying backwards several feet, although this time it was able to land on its feet. Scarlet was pleased to see that the Fleur Cannon had been thrown off course when Magearna was sent through the air, and was even more pleased to see that Shaymin had been able to survive the portion of the attack that did hit it. While Scarlet had never seen Magearna before now and wasn't completely sure what type of attack Fleur Cannon was, she initially guessed that the reason the first beam was so powerful was because it was the type of attack that would get progressively weaker over time; after seeing a much smaller, but still fearsome, version of the attack, Scarlet was convinced that she'd been right.

Scarlet looked to Magearna, who was looking noticeably tired. Good. The Seed Flares did their job. Now to get Hana back on her feet and -

"Fleur Cannon again! Finish her off!" Frisk ordered.

Scarlet couldn't help but smile. This was too perfect. "Take as much as you can, then Healing Wish!"

Shaymin nodded, bracing itself for the incoming attack. Its body glowed white as Magerna's Fleur Cannon, a mere shadow of what it once was, fired. Shaymin yelped as the beam made contact. If the attack hadn't been as weak as it was, Shaymin would have been knocked out within moments; however, Shaymin had just enough energy to finish the attack, exploding its body into an enormous shower of blue, sparkling lights.

Having to work quickly, Scarlet quickly put her plan to win into action. "Return, Julia! Hana, report in!"

"No! I defeated you!"

Hana, broken and bruised, collapsed onto the field as the sparkling lights found their way to her busted body. Immediately, they were absorbed into her body, mending her broken arm like it was nothing, filling her full of energy as if she'd just come from the Pokemon Center. After a brief inspection of her arm and a nod to Scarlet that she was okay, Scarlet put the final phases of her plan into action. "It's over, Frisk. I'm sorry for whatever was giving you so much trouble earlier in the fight, and you made a good effort, but Magearna is far too weak to do any meaningful damage to Hana now that she's been completely cured."

"You're right," Frisk said, a cocky grin coming across her face. "It is over."

Scarlet sighed. She couldn't really blame Frisk for trying; hell, she herself wouldn't have given up until Esmeralda said it was over. There as nothing to do but end the battle at this point. "Use Sunny Day!"

Frisk grinned. That was the opening she'd been looking for. "Magearna, Heart Swap!"

Scarlet could be forgiven for not knowing that this ancient Pokemon possessed some of the same power as the mythical Pokemon of her home country. There was no way for her to know. With no choice but to complete the weather-summoning attack, Magearna's ears glowed pink as a similarly colored orb surrounded its body. Another one shot forward at a speed too fast for Roserade to track, striking her but doing no damage. As the sun shone brightly for the second time, the two orbs were switched between Magearna and Roserade. When Scarlet saw Roserade drop to a knee, breathing far more heavily than she should, she knew that she was in big trouble.

"I told you this battle was over," Frisk said, virtually reading Scarlet's mind. "If you want me to end your suffering now, just say the word, but if I was in your shoes, I wouldn't want to go down without so much as a parting shot. Your call, really, but the battle will end the same way."

Damn, Scarlet thought. Where was this Frisk at the start of our battle? She's right though, we're not going to just curl up and die like Tsomu did! "Rangers never give up, no matter how tough the odds! You think you're the only one determined to win? You've clearly never seen a Pokemon Ranger in action!" She turned to her Pokemon. "Hana, Weather Ball! The biggest you can do! This battle is riding on you!"

Nodding, Roserade poured as much energy as it could into the ball. The heat transformed the little white ball into a huge one, and Scarlet looked on with cautious optimism. She didn't know if it was going to do the job, but there was only one way to find out! "Fire, Hana!"

"Take the attack, then finish the battle with Fleur Cannon!"

Roserade tossed the huge burning ball straight at Magearna, who made no effort to move other than to prepare its hand cannon. The attack was a direct hit, exploding in a ball of sparks and flame, but Magearna was not even phased by the move. Magearna fired the enormous beam, once again restored to its full power, and obliterated Roserade in a single attack. There were no broken bones or anything of the sort, but it was lights out for Roserade, and for Scarlet.

Esmeralda, impressed by the comeback, made it official. "Roserade is unable to battle! The winner is Magearna, which means the match goes to Frisk Achra!"

"What an upset, ladies and gentlemen!" Ruby wailed into her microphone. "That just goes to show you that with a little determination, you can do anything! Frisk comes back from certain doom to defeat Scarlet in one of the closest battles I think we've seen this week! If you're just tuning in, we're here live..."

There. I told you I'd win, Chara said. When she didn't reply back, he tried again. Helloooo, Earth to Frisk, are you in there? I won your battle for you.

When Frisk still didn't answer, Chara decided to dig through Frisk's consciousness to find her, and it wasn't until he failed to find her that he realized that something was very, very wrong. Scarlet had approached the platform by now, and extended her hand. "I gotta say, Frisk, I'm not sure why you didn't just go all out on me in the first place, but hey, I learned a valuable lesson in our battle." She cleared her throat, intent on reciting said lesson. "I learned that - "

"Not now. Something's wrong," Frisk said, and all but ran back into the building.

Frisk ran into the cafeteria to applause and cheers, but she didn't care about any of that. Spotting Taikyu sitting at a table with Thresher and Lenny, she all but pulled Taikyu out of his chair. "Hey. Old man. Come on, let's go. We need to talk."

Noticing her irises were red, Taikyu nodded, slowly getting up from his seat. "Yes, of course, Frisk. Congratulations on your victory!"

"Yeah, sure, whatever, come on."

The two of them left a befuddled Thresher and Lenny behind. As soon as they were out of the cafeteria, Taikyu dispensed with the act. Even he could tell something was up. "What's wrong, Chara? Why are you here and not Frisk?"

"I don't know," she said, in a voice far shakier than she would have liked. "Frisk is gone, old man."

Taikyu furrowed his brow. "Gone? What do you mean, gone?"

Frisk stuck her hands in her pockets and shrugged, completely clueless as to how to fix the situation. "I mean she's gone. I can't sense her at all. It's as if she was never there."
 
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"No! Not Kiri-a, Ki-i-ri. Totally different."

"Oh, come on, you expect me to believe you didn't make that up just now?"

"You wanna hear this story or not?" Jethro asked with only the barest hint of annoyance in his voice.

Scarlet snickered. "Yeah. Sorry, Jee-e-thro."

This was a perfect exchange. The entire bit with Jethro was rather interesting.

Ut inimicos sanctae circulae humiliare digneris
Te rogamus, audi nos! Terribilis Deus Sanctuario suo, Cernunnos ipse truderit virtutem plebi Suae...
Aradia ipse fortitudinem plebi Suae. Benedictus Deus, Gloria Patri, Benedictus Dea, Matri gloria!
Was this an actual exorcism text? I translated it from Latin, and it seems like one.

I wonder what would happen if I switched them?
Little prick.

Pachirisu raised its tiny paws to the sky
This is utterly adorable.

"I mean she's gone. I can't sense her at all. It's as if she was never there."
*Scooby Doo voice* Ruh roh :T

I'm excited to see Jethro's fight. It'll be the highlight of 2019

Also, this entry brings the current Page Total to 154, using Times New Roman size 12, with 16.5 for the titles. Total word count: 74174.
 
Was this an actual exorcism text? I translated it from Latin, and it seems like one.

It was part of one. The whole text was ridiculously long, so I stole the last bit of it.
 
It was part of one. The whole text was ridiculously long, so I stole the last bit of it.
I thought it sounded familiar. Excellent touch. (And yes, I have in fact read parts of exorcism texts. I was that kid in high school.)
 
@OzoneFruit does it again:

From left to right, Safiri, Ruby, Esmeralda.
kA6Npkn.png

Update on chapter six: Writing hasn't actually started on it, but I do have an outline of where I want the chapter to go. The battle's winner has been rolled and blocking completed, so there's that. Before the actual chapter, though, I'm planning on a second interlude that serves to bring a little more focus to the non-romance aspect of the story, since it was so prevalent in chapter five. Like I said, there really is no Plan (TM) for the overall story, but I do want to make this fic seem like it's more than just Mysteries of the Forgotten Island: Epic Shipping Extravaganza. (I blame Reshiwott.)

No ETA on interlude two as of yet, but feel free to sing @OzoneFruit's praises in the meantime.
 
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Very nice art! :D I can't help but imagine Safiri, Ruby, and Esmeralda in my head as they appeared in my own story, so this helps me keep them straight. :p (Safiri is very close to my own, Ruby somewhat, and Esmeralda super different.)
 
Hey, guys! Long time no see.

The past few months have been fairly busy for me, what with doing shows and working constantly. I don't have anything else for you to read right now. I've been so busy with real life stuff and running the PB tournaments that I haven't had a lot of time to write, and when I do find time, I haven't been inspired.

I'm hoping that's all going to change, because I'm in line to host the next mafia game on PokeBeach, and I'm using MotFI as flavor! This has made me dive into the story again, rereading stuff I've written and the notes I've taken. The game itself takes place in the near future (no story or plot spoilers), but a couple things are hinted at. Doing that has sort of inspired me to at least put in work on Interlude 2. It's sitting at about 1600 words right now, and I'd say it's half done. I say half because I planned on using Interlude 2 for two specific topics and I've fulfilled one of them. That does not mean that the second thing will also take 1600 words. It could be more, or less. I won't know until I write it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I won't let this story die. It might hibernate a bit, but this story will see completion (unless I die). I really want to finish The Rematch someday (PS, go read it) but this story takes priority. I apologize for basically going dark these past few months and then posting just to say "lol wait more" but I figured that it's high time I updated.

More as it develops.
 
Interlude 2 highlights:

- The plot wheels start turning
- Quayle visits a young lady after hours and stuff happens
- it's friggin' dope

After stalling for months, I finished this in like three days. lolololololol

Anyway, enjoy. I'm gonna see if I can crank out some stuff for chapter six.

Word count: 3835

Interlude 2: Meredith

World domination had never been so close.

The plan itself was years in the making. Simply gathering enough information to find Dialga and Palkia had taken the better part of a year, never mind how much money and time Cyrus had spent in developing the two Red Chains. He'd looked over their schematics, ran the numbers himself plenty of times. Simulations showed a 97% success rate, but he still had his doubts. These weren't run-of-the-mill Pokemon they were dealing with. One wrong calculation could have meant their lives.

In the end, he'd trusted the word of his chief scientist. He was young and cocky, with a kind of bravado that pissed Cyrus off more than it didn't. He would have had the young man quickly eliminated, but as loathe as Cyrus was to admit it, it had been a good choice to keep him around. He was annoying, true, but there was no denying the young man was almost impossibly brilliant - in addition to leading the Red Chain project, he'd spearheaded a number of other projects that had ended up saving the company millions. So when he told Cyrus that the chains were ready, Cyrus decided to put his faith in the young man.

Despite that, when the day came to field test the chains, Cyrus made sure to watch the event from the safety of their base in Eterna City. He'd made sure to send his chief scientist, of course. The way Cyrus saw it, if the chain didn't work, being torn limb from limb by Dialga would be punishment enough.

Cyrus sipped at his coffee, making a face at the taste. Sighing, he wheeled his leather chair back from his desk a few feet to a mini-fridge and opened it. From it, he took a small, nondescript bottle, opened it, and poured a splash of the white liquid inside into his coffee. Though Cyrus had buried his desires for most of life's pleasures, the taste of creamer in his coffee was something that his body did not want to let go.

After taking another sip of the now sweetened coffee, Cyrus resumed reading his morning reports. He found it hard to concentrate, however, and found his mind wandering back to that fateful day, when his new world was supposed to be born. Both Palkia and Dialga were under Team Galactic's control. Both Red Chains were functioning at optimal levels. All that was needed was to bring them to Spear Pillar and force them to bend time and space itself to his will... and then he ruined everything. Stabbed in the back by his own chief scientist, the bastard had tried taking the legendary Pokemon for himself and nearly ended up getting the entire research and development team killed in the process.

The two gods went berserk, cleaving and burning anything they set their eyes on. One commander tried subduing them by force - a foolish and fatal mistake on his part. Neither he nor his Pokemon were shown any mercy. The Eterna City base was destroyed; years of planning were undone in mere minutes. Cyrus fumed at the massive losses, but he took a small bit of comfort in the knowledge that his thieving, conniving, rat bastard chief scientist had died a painful, agonizing death at the hands of the legendary Pokemon.

Two years passed. Despite huge casualties to his pride, his wallet, and his organization as a whole, Cyrus didn't give up on his dream to remake the universe as he saw fit. A new team developed another Red Chain prototype, which was put into testing almost immediately. Using some of the latent energy left from Palkia's and Dialga's attacks, the chains were tweaked to act as a magnet for the two legendary Pokemon, with the idea being that Palkia's energy would attract Dialga, and vice versa. This significantly cut down on the time required to locate each legendary Pokemon; the group was able to encounter Palkia after only thirteen months.

Cyrus personally attended and participated in this battle, understanding the danger but not wanting to leave anything to chance or treachery. As he watched his Pokemon risk their lives, he enlarged a Poke Ball in his hand, his thumb running over the silver 'M' engraved into it. He had hoped that the Red Chain would be sufficient to bring Palkia under his control, but if it didn't... well, he supposed he'd have to do things the old-fashioned way.

In the end, Cyrus ended up using that ball, after all of his subordinates and half of his own team had been killed by the rampaging deity. The Master Ball violently shook, exploding with power as Palkia tried to break out, but in its weakened state it could not bypass the locking mechanism and the ball eventually came to rest on the ground.

One down, he thought, picking up the ball. It was warm to the touch and Cyrus could feel the immeasurable power pulsing within it.

The Red Chain used in Palkia's capture was enhanced using more of the Pokemon's energy, hoping to entice Dialga to appear, but it never did. Fact was, Dialga seemed to have vanished from the region completely, and no one in Team Galactic could understand why... until a few days ago.

Cyrus sat in his office, reading another report on Dialga's possible whereabouts, when a Galactic officer burst into his office. "Sir!" he said, saluting, but panting heavily. It was obvious he'd run here from wherever he was from.

Cyrus didn't look up from his paper. "There had better be a good reason for you to barge in here unannounced, Lieutenant," he said in a casual tone of voice that told the young man it was anything but. He took a drink of his coffee, waiting for a reply. Receiving none, he glanced up, making eye contact with the lieutenant and startling him out of his shock. "Well?"

"Sir! Very sorry, sir, but this is something you're going to want to see. Commander Umbriel is alive."

The Galactic leader didn't say anything at first. That was a name he had never expected, nor wanted, to hear again. Surely he was mistaken? "What did you say?" he asked in a low voice.

The lieutenant recoiled, knowing he'd struck a nerve, but there was no going back now. "There's a big tournament being held in Kanto right now, it's being broadcast all over the world. Commander Umbriel is in it... fighting... right now. Sir." Cyrus again said nothing, not breaking eye contact with his lieutenant. "Ch-change to KTV and see for yourself, sir. There's no mistaking him, or his Mega Absol, but he's got a strange Pokemon that--"

"Enough," Cyrus interrupted, grabbing the remote control and doing as his lieutenant suggested. There was no way that good-for-nothing piece of shit was alive. It just wasn't possible, there's no way he could have survived--

Cyrus gripped his mug tighter as his vision was suddenly filled with the image of his chief scientist, on live television, commanding a Pokemon that Cyrus didn't recognize. He barely registered what was happening in the battle as his mind raced. So not only did that traitor survive the attack, but he had somehow gained control of a mythical Pokemon! The very idea of it boiled Cyrus's blood. He'd left base immediately and made a personal visit to that girl Gym Leader he'd dated. After exchanging pleasantries, he simply informed her that he was very happy Quayle was alive and he couldn't wait for him to return to Sinnoh. Upon returning to base, he'd immediately began planning how to capture, disarm, and kill the little wretch, but didn't get far; the very next day, he received another interruption.

The same lieutenant burst into Cyrus's office, and didn't even wait before he made his reasons for the intrusion known. "Sir! We've found Dialga!"

That got Cyrus's attention. "Excellent. Where is it? Send a team at once; I'll be following shortly."

"It's in Kanto, sir. Some kid has it and is using it in the big tournament!"

"...What."

"Sir, change to--"

Cyrus held up a hand, stopping the lieutenant cold, and reached for the remote with the other. Sure enough, there on the television was the other half of Cyrus's dream, being misused by a mere child.

"How in the goddamn hell did that kid capture a legendary Pokemon?!" Cyrus fumed. "Damn it. No wonder we couldn't find it."

"Your orders, sir?" the lieutenant said, standing up a little straighter. If Cyrus was mad, he didn't want to be anywhere near him, and was anxious for any reason at all to get out of his sight.

"Call a meeting. Everyone is to attend, from the lowest grunt to to the most senior commander, in the Great Hall at 1300 hours. Anyone not in attendance will answer to me personally. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir!" he said, saluting sharply, thankful that he'd escaped Cyrus's wrath. "May I ask the purpose of the meeting?"

Cyrus briefly considered. "That traitor Umbriel is still alive - I need to remedy that. He has a Pokemon that I am very interested in, and I plan on taking it from his corpse. I also cannot fathom how a child managed to capture Dialga. I will be relieving him of that Pokemon personally."

"Yes, sir! Your dream will soon be realized, for sure! But sir, if I may, how do you plan on doing it? The trainers there are some of the strongest in the world. Security is bound to be very tight."

"War, lieutenant. All-out war. We will need time to prepare, but we are launching a full-scale attack on Indigo Plateau."

* * * * * * * * *

Night had fallen on Indigo Plateau, and all of the competitors had retired to their rooms for the night... except for one. After being instructed by Nye to apologize to Rose, Quayle had spent the better part of the next day trying to find a way to approach her. He didn't want to do it in the open, especially since he currently was on more than a few bad sides. Two days ago, he wouldn't have given this a second thought, but... well, things were different now, weren't they?

Quayle adjusted his frames as he stood outside Rose's room, hand raised to knock. She'd answer, he'd apologize for showing up so late, then ask to come in. He'd show her Shifter, apologize for his actions, and then leave. Simple.

Lowering his hand, he sighed quietly. Maybe he'd just try tomorrow and -

You're stalling, he reminded himself. Just get it over with.

Taking a deep breath, Quayle steeled himself, raised his hand once again, and nearly jumped out of his skin from hearing a nearby door open. He was busted, there was no two ways around it. What were they going to think of him creeping around at this hour? Quayle scrambled to come up with a decent-sounding excuse as Taikyu emerged from his room, a large book in hand. "Oh. Good evening, Quayle," he said quietly, smiling. "Out for a late-night stroll?"

"Jesus, Taikyu, you scared the shit out of me," Quayle replied, his hand on his chest.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting to see you here, honestly. I'm off to see Frisk."

This gave Quayle pause. "Now? Why?"

"She invited me," he explained. "She had tea with me yesterday. I imagine she's returning the favor. She's been quite troubled lately." He furrowed his brow at that, holding his book a little closer. Was this really going to work? The technique was far older than even he was, and - "Ah, forgive me. I was lost in thought."

"That's twice you've apologized in two minutes," Quayle noted. "Is it really that easy?"

"What do you mean?" Taikyu asked. When Quayle said nothing, but glanced towards Rose's door, Taikyu followed his eyes and, after a moment, nodded knowingly. "I understand. You want to apologize to her."

"Yes. But I don't know what to say," Quayle admitted.

"The truth," Taikyu said simply, placing a hand on the young man's shoulder. "If you're sincere, the words will come. Apologizing is swallowing your pride and admitting you were wrong - not an easy task for someone like you, I imagine. But," he continued, making his way past Quayle towards Frisk's bedroom. "I think you need to trust more in yourself. A new look is a great way to remind yourself, and others, of the changes you want to make in your life. Good luck." With that, he softly knocked on Frisk's door. Quayle watched Frisk let him in, and then he was alone again.

Quayle looked up at Rose's door. It couldn't be that easy, could it? Would the words really come? He decided to take a chance on what Taikyu said, raised his hand, and knocked three times. A sharp gasp was heard from behind the door, but no other sound was heard other than that. He knocked two more times, and thought he could hear someone scrambling out of bed.

"Who iiiiiis iiiiit?" a light voice sang from behind the door.

"Uh, it's--"

"Just a minute!" Quayle stood and waited, fear setting in as he realized there was no escaping this time. Eventually, he could hear locks being undone, and the door opened to reveal Rose in a tank top and flannel shorts. "Quayle?" she asked, squinting, her eyes not adjusted to the light. "What do you want?"

As she rubbed her eyes, Quayle noticed that her hair was messed up, and she wasn't wearing makeup. Based on her attire, she clearly was in bed, and he'd interrupted her. "Did I wake you up? Sorry, I'll come back tomorrow," he blurted out, turning to leave.

"It's fine, I wasn't sleeping," she said, only sounding slightly annoyed. "Is something wrong?"

This was it, Quayle thought. Time to put up or shut up. "I want to apologize. For what I did. May I... come in?" he asked, smiling hesitantly.

"Uh..." she trailed off. "Sure. Just, uh..." She glanced behind her. "Yeah, I guess. Hurry up. Close the door behind you," she said, leaving Quayle at the entrance to her room. He quickly entered, closing the door as she asked. Meanwhile, Rose turned a lamp on and sprayed something all over the room, filling the air with a pleasant scent. Satisfied, she let out a breath, then sat on her bed, crossing her legs.

"What were you doing?" Quayle asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Rose replied, not at all panicking.

"It was pitch dark in here. You're dressed for bed, but you said you weren't sleeping. I was just curious what you were doing," he explained, pulling up a chair.

"I wasn't sleeping, but I was in bed."

"I heard a gasp."

If the light had been better, Quayle might have seen the color draining from Rose's face. "You startled me," she said, proud of herself that that technically was not a lie. "Anyway, enough about me. So you came to apologize, huh? Did Nye put you up to this?"

Quayle looked down, contemplating. "Yes. One of the conditions of the deal we made was that I was required to apologize to you. I agreed, and so... here I am."

"Okay," Rose said. "All right, I'm waiting."

"R-right," Quayle said, scrambling to his feet. Planting them together, he bowed low. "I, Quayle Vincent Meredith Valentine, do officially and humbly apologize for my actions during our battle. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive my transgression."

Rose burst into laughter at this, stifling herself so she wouldn't wake up the people on either side of her. "Are you serious right now? Come on, get real!"

Quayle stood up, completely confused. He thought she'd either accept him or send him on his way, not laugh at him. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"Your apology," she giggled, wiping a tear from her eye. "How much did you rehearse that before you recited it to me?"

"I didn't rehearse anything," Quayle said, feeling the briefest flash of anger. "You think I'm joking?"

"I think you're so worried about me accepting your apology that you're trying harder than you need to," Rose explained. "If you want to apologize, that's great. I don't know if I would have bothered me at this time of night, but I guess I can understand your situation. Still, though... the whole bowing thing, 'I do humbly apologize' stuff... do yourself a favor and don't do that. That's weird. Just be normal about it, like you did before."

"Huh? What do you mean, before? Before what?"

"When you first got here, you apologized for waking me up, remember?"

The look on Quayle's face shifted from confusion to surprise as he realized that she was right. He did say that. I guess Taikyu was right...

"See? If you want to apologize, just do it. There's no need for... all that," she said, gesturing at Quayle. "It makes you sound insincere, if you ask me." She looked at the clock. "It is getting pretty late, and I would like to get to sleep soon, so if you'd like to try apologizing like a normal person, I'm willing to give you another chance."

She smiled at him, and Quayle found himself touched by her words. He didn't deserve this kindness from her. "Rose, I'm sorry," he said, sitting in the chair. "I won't make excuses to you. Nye didn't stand for it, and you wouldn't, either - not that you should. The fact is, I knowingly commanded my Pokemon to bring your Pokemon to the brink of death in order to win a battle." He paused, remembering Rose's frantic screaming, worried about whether her Gardevoir was going to choke to death or drown first, and all the crying both she and Gardevoir did after the match was finally over. "The old me didn't give it a second thought. I'm ashamed that it took this much for me to realize how drunk on power I'd become. I lost my fiancee and nearly lost my best friend... my only friend," he quietly amended, looking away.

Rose got up from the bed and shocked Quayle by sitting in his lap and hugging him. "Now that is a real apology," she said. "Heartfelt and sincere. I'm not going to say that I forgive you just yet, but I accept your apology."

Quayle sat stock still, completely taken aback by Rose's actions. He gulped, managing a nod. "Th-thank you."

Seeing that he was clearly uncomfortable, Rose got back to her feet and sat on the bed again. "You're welcome. Is there anything else?"

"Actually, yes. Could I ask a favor?" he said after a moment. "I would like to apologize to Gardevoir directly. Would you let her out so I can?"

"Sure, I--" Suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream was heard coming from next door. "What the hell?!"

Unsure of whether or not he should give away that Taikyu was also over there, Quayle simply said, "What?"

Rose was on her feet and already heading for the door. "You didn't hear that?! Frisk just screamed! I'm going to check on her."

"She's fine, probably just had a nightmare or something," Quayle reasoned.

"You could be right, but I'm still going to check. Wait here," she instructed, and left. She was back a minute later. "Guess you were right. Just a bad dream," she said, closing the door again. She took a Poke Ball from her desk. "I appreciate you wanting to do this, but I should warn you, she's not as forgiving as me."

Quayle nodded solemnly. "I understand."

Gardevoir entered the room, and she looked at Quayle with undisguised disgust. (What is he doing here?)

(He came to apologize,) Rose explained. (Hear him out, okay?)

Gardevoir rolled her eyes. (Fine. But after that, he leaves, and we pick up where we left off.)

(You don't need to tell me twice, love,) Rose said, grabbing Gardevoir's hand, an act that did not appear strange to Quayle. "She's not strong enough to open telepathic links with other people yet, but she can understand you. If she has anything to say, I'll relay it."

Quayle nodded, understanding. He felt a small bit of pride that he hadn't felt the need to gloat about his own Psychic-type Pokemon being strong enough to do that, and he smiled a bit before his expression turned serious. He rose from the chair to meet the Pokemon's gaze. "Gardevoir, I would like to apologize to you. I commanded Shifter to do terrible things, things that I'm ashamed of."

Gardevoir huffed. (No he isn't. He's only ashamed because everyone hates him now.)

After Rose translated, Quayle nodded. "That's not surprising that you feel that way. I'm not asking you to forgive me, Gardevoir. Instead, I'll simply ask you, and you, Rose, the same thing I asked of Nye. Wait to reserve judgment until the tournament is over. I am serious about having changed. Even if you don't accept my apology, I am making it nonetheless."

(Apology not accepted. I can see into your heart, human. You'll go back to your old ways the second it's convenient.)

"That's not true. You don't know how much I lost as a result of my actions. But as I said, you don't have to accept my apologies. I'll let my actions back up my words. Nye put her trust in me, and I would rather die than betray that trust again."

(She's a fool, and you're a spineless coward with no sense of honor.) She crossed her arms, glaring as hard as she could at him.

Quayle only shrugged. "I won't deny it. I was horrible to you. But I've said my piece, and that's all I can do. I do hope I can earn your forgiveness someday. Both of you," he added, looking at Rose as he headed for the door. "I'll be taking my leave now. Thank you both for your time. Goodnight."

He slipped silently out of the room, leaving the two females alone. After a few moments: "Is he gone?"

Gardevoir, still visibly upset, took a moment to check. "Yes," she said with a sigh. "Frisk and Cody are both asleep, so we should be fine."

Rose brought her Pokemon in for a hug. "I'm sorry if seeing him upset you. But he seemed sincere about wanting to apologize. You don't think he's serious?"

"I... I don't know. I don't trust him, that's certain. Anyone in his position would do the same thing." A pause. "And, if I'm being honest, I'm still a little upset that he interrupted us. I may or may not have been extra harsh to him because of it."

Rose smiled slyly, releasing her Pokemon and laying back on her bed. "Oh yes, that's right," she said, stripping off the clothes she'd thrown on to answer the door. "What exactly was it he interrupted?"

Gardevoir grinned, surprising Rose as she teleported on top of her, and gave Rose her answer.
 
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Excellent! Nice to see some other perspectives, and also some of the deeper plot.

Also, it is now 164 pages long, including page breaks, and has 78026 words. That's quite the length.
 
This is exactly the sort of stuff that reminds me why I'm writing a comic.
Absolutely love the character focussed story, with a bit of plot in there for good measure.
 
Always glad to see people who aren't the ones with characters in the story leave sweet, sweet feedback. Glad you enjoyed it, hope you stick around.
 
I loved this interlude chapter. It made my day to see the little update notification.
I really enjoyed reading about Cyrus and his ties to Umbriel - it's nice to hear how Dialga came to be in the tournament. Little backstory sections like that are awesome.~
Here's hoping Windra wins in the next chapter! *fingers crossed*
Haha who am I kidding she's a Bug-Type user going up against a Fire-Type user lol rest in pieces
 
Windra is a big part of chapter six, and not just because of her battle, so I hope you like it :)
 
Windra is a big part of chapter six, and not just because of her battle, so I hope you like it :)
This gives me an ominous feeling...
Oh man, this is the result of that guy switching the notes, isn't it? I hope they get punched for that
 
If you think about it, Windra wouldn't punch him if she learned that he did it... But yes, that's part of it :)
 
If you think about it, Windra wouldn't punch him if she learned that he did it... But yes, that's part of it :)
oo man I am scared of this conflict. time to mentally prepare

So, I went back and re-read the entire story...I have a few more thoughts.

and Chroma Corporation--what would later become Diamant Industries--carried the program on in secret, making improvements.
A DNA-splicing company named...Chroma, you say? Achroma, perhaps?
dun dun dun

Windra screamed again, struggling to break free from Volcarona-Scarlet.
THAT'S WHERE THE ART CAME FROM! How did I not remember this

At least Chomper could hold his own, as long as Lenny wasn't packing a Camerupt or something. Now that would be awful.
Windra I have some bad news
 
I've been putting this off for a long time. Lenny vs Windra is the one battle I was not looking forward to writing. If Lenny won, I'd have to find some way to make a completely one-sided fight interesting; if Windra won, I'd have to jump through so many hoops to make the battle believable that I put it off for as long as I possibly could before I decided I need to just suck it up and get through this awful battle so I could move on with the story.

With that said, I think that the battle turned out... pretty well, all things considered. It definitely could have gone worse.

Chapter 6 highlights:

- Chara freaks out
- Kyro gets some advice
- the notes are found - decisions are made
- Quayle and Eldan have a disagreement
- the Jewels have a heart to heart
- first full exhibition match of the story (that isn't just a one-turn ass-reaming) takes place
- Lenny and Windra have their match
- it's friggin dope

This chapter currenly holds the record for longest chapter, beating out chapter 5 by just over 1000 words. Next up is Jethro vs Kyro, which I know Firo has been dying to read and I've been dying to write. I haven't rolled the winner yet, but I imagine I'll try and get things started sometime within the next few days. As you can see from the highlights, lots of stuff goes on in this chapter. It's a beast, but every word is worth it, I promise.

Word count: 18,208

Chapter 6: Risk Versus Reward


"Okay, explain it to me again," Taikyu said, grabbing a notebook and pencil. Taikyu had taken the young girl into his room for some privacy, and he wanted to make sure to take notes so he could relay them to his brothers. "You took control, and then what happened?"

Frisk sighed, slightly annoyed at having to explain herself again. "I told you, old man, I won the fight. After that I tried telling Frisk that I won, but she wasn't there."

Taikyu nodded, writing down the words as she spoke. "You said it was as if she was never there. That isn't normal for when you take over?"

"No, it's not," Frisk replied, pacing. "Whenever I hijack her body, she's always struggling against me, trying to shove me back in. Always. Even at my strongest, I can always feel her nagging me."

"Did you feel her during the battle?" Taikyu asked.

Frisk paused, trying to think back. "I don't know. I wasn't really paying attention to her. She'd messed up the battle pretty bad. Once I came out, winning was the only thing on my mind."

Taikyu nodded again, frantically trying to keep up with Frisk as she talked. He looked at his notes, idly chewing on the end of his pencil as he considered them. "Was there anything else strange that you noticed?"

"No, not really... no, wait, yeah! When she let me take over. That was weird."

Taikyu leaned forward, his interest piqued once again. "What happened?"

"So you know how I told you that Frisk never lets me out, right?" At Taikyu's nod of confirmation, she continued. "I've always had to force myself in. But during the battle, when she let me take control, I didn't have to try at all. It was weird."

"That could be a factor," Taikyu said, adding this revelation to his notes. "Anything else?"

"No, that's it. I'm kinda freaking out, old man. What am I supposed to do? I'm not Frisk and I sure as shit can't act like her."

"You look like her. That's good enough for now. Do you two share memories?"

"Only since we joined. It's like Frisk is a car. When I died, I became a passenger in the Friskmobile. Everything she sees, everything she does, I experience it, too. The only difference is that since she's behind the wheel, she controls what we do, where we go, everything."

"That's what I figured," Taikyu said as he set the notebook on his desk. He rubbed his eyes, stifling a yawn. "I'm going to explain this to my brothers in Johto. They've all experienced a fascination with you, you know. I have no doubt that they'll be able to provide some fresh insight into your situation. In the meantime, Chara, just enjoy yourself, but do this old man a favor and please don't overdo it."

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean you look and sound exactly like Frisk. Whatever you do, people are going to assume it's her. All I'm asking is that you dial back your usual behavior, at least until we have this sorted out and we find out exactly what happened to her. That means no cursing and no pranks."

"No fun is more like it," Frisk whined, crossing her arms in complaint. "What am I supposed to do instead?"

"Be a normal child," Taikyu offered. "You said that Frisk doesn't let you feel the sun. There's some time until dinner. Why don't you step outside and do that? Nothing like fresh air to calm one's nerves."

Frisk rocked on her heels. "Yeah, maybe. Hey, old man. Would you... join me? Outside. I mean, I'm totally capable of going myself, but, uh... you're so old and all, I figure you could use the fresh air, too. And it's not because I'm lonely without Frisk or anything, so don't get any ideas."

Taikyu smiled warmly at the troubled lad. Figuring that this was the closest he'd ever get to Chara admitting he was worried, he nodded. "It would be my pleasure, Chara. Shall we go?"

The two competitors left Taikyu's room and headed upstairs to the main entrance to Indigo Plateau, which was still bustling with people trying to leave. Immediately, several eyes were on Taikyu, his massive height and dark complexion providing a stark contrast to the majority of the spectators present. One person noticed Frisk with him, and shouted, "Congratulations, Frisk!" This in turn caused others to spot Frisk and cheer, offering up their own congratulations. Within minutes, Frisk and Taikyu were swarmed by fans and received a barrage of questions and comments that was impossible for either of them to keep up with. Most wanted autographs or pictures, but there were some oddities, too, like the person who wanted to buy a lock of Frisk's hair.

"Please, everyone, give her some room," Taikyu pleaded, but the request fell on deaf ears as the fans continued to harass them. One of them rushed in with a phone, intent on taking a photo with Frisk whether she liked it or not. He tripped over his own feet and crashed into Taikyu, sending the two of them tumbling to the ground.

"Old man!" Frisk yelled, staring in horror as the would-be photographer landed squarely on top of Taikyu. "Bastard, get off him! I'll kill you, you son of a bitch!" Frisk was on the man in moments, desperately trying to push him off, but she was far too weak to do so herself.

Fortunately for Frisk, she didn't have to; the man scrambled to his feet, spouting out a hundred apologies. "I'm so sorry, Taikyu! I just wanted a picture and--" The rest of that sentence would never come; the man was reduced to a silent, quivering mess as Frisk brought back a leg and kicked him in the groin as hard as she could.

"You dumb ass! That's for Taikyu!" Frisk knelt down to Taikyu, who still hadn't gotten up. "Old man, are you okay? You need some help?" She looked up to the crowd. Some had dispersed, some had gone to the photographer's assistance, and some had their phones out, recording the entire thing. "You idiots! He needs help! Someone get a doctor or something!"

Frisk could hear some people shouting for a medic, but most people simply stayed put with their phones out. She turned her attention back to Taikyu, who had managed to pull himself to a sitting position. "Old man! You all right?"

"I believe so, Chara. Thank you for asking. I'd still like to see a doctor, just in case." Taikyu coughed, and Frisk was filled with equal parts relief and rage because the stupid medic should have been here by now. What the hell was going on?

Almost on cue, the medic did arrive; along with them were two security guards, their Pokemon - a Mienshao for one and a Weavile for the other - and Safiri. Most people put their phones down and backed away, giving the group a wide berth, but a few brave souls kept the cameras rolling in secret.

"What is going on here?" Safiri inquired, making her way to the front of the crowd. Spotting Frisk and Taikyu, her look changed from confusion to alarm. Reaching down, she yanked Frisk to her feet and pulled her aside. "What are you two doing up here? Didn't Ruby tell you that competitors aren't--"

"Who cares?! Taikyu needs help!" Frisk pointed to Taikyu, who the medic went to attend to. Frisk glared daggers at Safiri. "And what kind of stupid-ass rule is that anyway? You've got us all trapped like rats down there. We can't even go outside?!"

This can't be happening, Safiri thought as she picked up on some of the murmurs of the crowd. When word of this incident got out, it would surely reflect poorly on Diamant Industries. She knew at least one person in the crowd had to have been recording, so she'd have to do her best to do damage control and de-escalate the situation. "You are allowed to go outside, Miss Achra, but you and Mr. Taikyu are celebrities here. We limit the places you can go for your own safety, and--"

"We have Pokemon, genius! They protect us! Gah, how stupid are you?!"

Safiri stared into the little girl's eyes, irises flaring bright red, and was struck speechless at the sight. What in the world? Is she... no, that can't be. "Miss Achra, everyone has Pokemon. But your safety is of the utmost importance to us. That's why the rules are in place."

"She is right," Taikyu said, putting an arm on Frisk's shoulder.

Frisk whirled around to come face to face with Taikyu's chest. "Old man! Holy shit, you're tall." She backed away a little so she could look him in the eyes. "Are you okay?"

Taikyu smiled, gesturing to the doctor. "According to this nice young lady, I'll be fine. Just had a bad tumble, that's all. I'm sorry I made you worry."

"I'm glad to hear it," Safiri said, making another note on her clipboard. "You'll both need to follow me to my office to file an incident report. Not negotiable," she added when Frisk objected. The three of them headed off to do that and, with the show over, the crowd finally started to disperse, leaving the medic to handle the guy Frisk kicked.

* * * * * * * * *

After the battle between Frisk and Scarlet, most of the competitors left to do their own thing while Tsomu and the chefs were preparing lunch. Rose, Kiria, and Windra all consoled Scarlet after she returned, despite her insistence that she didn't need to be consoled and wasn't all that upset about the loss. Eldan, Nye, Quayle, and Cody sat at another table, naturally chatting about the battle, and Frisk's miraculous comeback. Lenny and Thresher sat at a table closer to the exit, wondering more about why Frisk suddenly grabbed Taikyu and left.

With his battle quickly approaching, Jethro decided to get in some last-minute training in, and started to leave before Kyro sprung from his chair and stopped him. "Mr. Jethro?" he asked, pulling on the older man's shirt.

Jethro turned to face the young man. "Huh? Oh, hey, Kyro. You lookin' forward to our match tomorrow?"

Kyro nodded, but it wasn't nearly as enthusiastically as Jethro figured it would have been. "Yep. Where are you going?"

"Do some training," he said simply. "I figure I got a little time before lunch, and I need to make sure my team is the best they can be so they don't get their butts handed to 'em by your Archeops."

"I was hoping you'd say that!" Kyro exclaimed, the spark bright in his eyes again. "I was thinking the same thing. Would you practice with me, please?"

An uneasy look crept across Jethro's face. "Eh, sorry, kid, not this time. This is somethin' we gotta do by ourselves. I'm sure one of these other guys would be willing to help," he offered with a smile, gesturing towards Lenny and Thresher. "Catch you later." With a wave, he turned and left, leaving a dejected Kyro behind.

He sat at the table with the two men, looking more troubled than either would have expected after being turned down.

"You all right, son?" Lenny asked, figuring Kyro was waiting for someone to ask.

"I think this is the first time I've seen ye frown since we got here, lad," Thresher noted. "Are ye that saddened by him not sparrin' with ye?"

Kyro shook his head, his icy blue bangs dancing around his eyes. "No, Mr. Thresher, I'm not sad, I'm nervous."

"Aye, and it's a perfectly normal reaction, I think! I was nervous before my battle." He turned to Lenny. "Ye nervous at all 'bout your match?"

"Hell yes," he answered simply, and it was the truth.

Kyro tilted his head slightly, confused by Lenny's answer. "You don't look nervous, Mr. Lenny."

"Well, that's probably because my match isn't until later, but it's also because I need to be strong for my Pokemon."

Kyro nodded, considering this, but then added: "I don't really understand."

"I think what he means," interjected Thresher, "is that ye can't let yer nerves get the best of ye. Yer Pokemon are countin' on ye to lead them into battle. If ye look unsure, yer gonna make yer Pokemon unsure, too. Do I have it about right, Lenny?"

Lenny grunted an affirmative, nodding. Kyro did the same, mimicking him. "I don't want my Pokemon to feel nervous, but... Mr. Jethro's Pokemon are so sure of themselves that they don't even need to wait for him to tell them what to do...they just do it. Is his bond with his Pokemon that much stronger than mine? I was hoping I could practice with him some more, and maybe learn how he does it." He looked to Thresher. "You won your match against Mr. Taikyu. Did you ever stop being nervous during your fight?"

Thresher thought for a moment. The truth was, no, he didn't stop being nervous. Watching Taikyu's Necrozma rip off its own arm as if it were nothing, using Ferrothorn's Stealth Rock against him as it nearly took him out in one hit, seeing Taikyu's Drampa actually leap off the ground and fly, wondering if Corsola would be able to survive an attack that at any other time would have turned her into a streak on the pavement - Taikyu had had him on the edge for the entire battle. The question, then, was simple. What to tell Kyro? On the one hand, he could lie. He could make something up and he doubted either person at the table would doubt him; even if Lenny suspected something, Thresher didn't think he'd call him out on it in front of Kyro. Telling Kyro the truth might be the honest thing to do, but it probably wouldn't make him feel any better. Might make him feel more nervous, he thought.

In the end, Thresher decided on the truth. The fact of the matter was, the boy was coming to him for advice, and his father would roll in his grave if he knew he'd deliberately misled a child, no matter the reason. "No, lad, I didn't," he finally answered. "Taikyu is an incredibly strong trainer, and he did a great job of keeping me on my toes. I was constantly wondering if I was gonna make it. But," he said, pointing a finger at Kyro to draw him out after he'd begun slumping in his chair, "Not once did I let my Pokemon see my fear. I believed in them, and they went above and beyond for me - all of them. And it brought me a hard-earned victory that I'm thankful I won't have to repeat."

"Only gonna get harder from here on out," Lenny stated.

"Ah, come now, no need to give the poor guy anything else to worry about," Thresher said with a laugh, putting a hand on Kyro's shoulder. "Listen, lad. Feelin' nervous is completely natural. Yer still a boy and yev got a lot of growin' up ta do, so don't think of yerself as any less a trainer than any of us. As I told Taikyu before our battle, we're all champions. Me, Lenny, that horse's arse Alex," he said, gesturing discreetly towards him, causing Kyro to smile, "and you, my friend. Think of how hard ye had ta work ta get to this point. Twasn't just luck got ye this far - it's believin' in yer Pokemon's strength, believin' in 'em when things seem like they're at their absolute worst, that gives them the push they need to turn things around. I haven't heard much about you, boy, but what I have learned? I'd be nervous fightin' against ye."

Kyro went wide-eyed at this. "Really? What for? I'm just a kid!"

"Aye, that's exactly it!" Thresher laughed again, causing Kyro to stare dumbly at the two men. He glanced over at Lenny for assistance, but Lenny simply shrugged. "Think about it. How old are ye, ten? Eleven?"

Feeling slightly embarrassed, Kyro shook his head. "I just turned nine last month."

Now it was Thresher's turn to go wide-eyed. "Christ above, you just turned nine? That means that you... you won the... qualifying tournament..."

"At eight years old," Lenny finished, duly impressed. "Pretty remarkable, kid."

"I don't get it," Kyro said, confused again. "You just said that we all did it. What's so great about that?"

"Lad, when I was nine years old, I could barely clean my own fish, let alone win a tournament of over a thousand people. Look around, boy. I'm nearly three times your age, and Lenny's like three times my age."

"Hey, what? Now hold on," Lenny interrupted him.

Thresher paid him no mind. "Some of the ladies are closer to yer age, but they're still a lot older than you. I wouldn't be surprised if ye were the youngest person to ever set foot here, Kyro. We all are champions, true, but no one became one as fast as you did. To have that much talent at yer age is unbelievable, ta say the least, and ye know what? I bet Jethro knows that, too. Ye ask me, I think he's more nervous than you are."

"Because I beat him the other day? That was just practice," Kyro countered.

"Aye, it was, but it wasn't just practice. It was a way for him to see what ye were capable of, and ye floored both him and his Pokemon, if his account of it is true. Ye took a Pokemon that rightfully should have lost and mopped him up with it. That would make anyone nervous. And he's the one that's gotta fight against ye. I don't envy him at all."

Kyro simply stared, shocked by this revelation. "Wow, Mr. Thresher. I never thought of it like that."

"I'm glad I could help ye, lad," Thresher said, rising from the table. "Now, don't go restin' on your laurels. If you wanna get some practice in today, I'd be happy to go a round with ye after we watch ol' Lenny here lose to a wee lass," he said, playfully elbowing Lenny in the shoulder. "Whadaya say ta that?"

Kyro exploded out of his seat, his mood improved and his usual infectious smile back full force. "You bet! That sounds great! Thanks, Mr. Thresher! And good luck with your match today, Mr. Lenny!"

"Thanks, kid," Lenny said as Kyro ran out of the cafeteria.

A few tables down, the four ladies had moved on in their conversations to more pleasant topics than Scarlet's narrow defeat. Not feeling particularly hungry, Rose excused herself from the table, intent on taking a nap before dinner. To Windra's and Kiria's surprise, Scarlet seemed more than happy to see her go; the two shared a questioning look, but didn't say anything.

Unbeknownst to any of the other ladies at the table, Rose was a little hurt at Scarlet's behavior. She wasn't expecting Scarlet to invite herself into her room, of course, but at least she could have acted like she wanted her to stay. She thought about this as she left, not noticing the note hastily fastened to Windra's door.

It was clear to Rose that the junior Ranger had a crush on her. She'd known since the very first day - Scarlet had done a very poor job of hiding her feelings. She smiled to herself as she recalled the way Scarlet tripped over herself trying to save face. And yet, Rose thought, this also was not new to her. There were many Rangers who came before Scarlet who'd learned the things she'd done and reacted much the same way Scarlet did: lots and lots of flattery. Rose didn't think she was exceptionally pretty, but that didn't stop everyone else from telling her what they thought of her. Every time they saw her, it was variations of the same old compliments telling her how pretty and talented she was.

And here, Rose thought, smiling again, Scarlet was different. She was starstruck the same as everyone else was when they first met Rose, but she hadn't acted weird about it since the first meeting in the cafeteria. Scarlet treated her like a friend instead of a celebrity, and it was something Rose greatly appreciated. When she met Scarlet's Shaymin on the first night, she ended up staying far longer than she had planned. While it had been fascinating, from a purely scientific standpoint, to meet a Shaymin in the flesh, Rose had found it more fascinating that Scarlet never once put her on a pedestal. It wasn't Ranger Bersalk, Rank 10, and Ranger Jung, Rank 4; just two girls enjoying each other's company, shooting the breeze and discussing their dreams.

She wasn't surprised when Lucario suggested she might feel something for Scarlet, but she still kept silent about the subject. Truthfully, she was afraid of making things awkward with the younger Ranger; it was entirely possible that the reason that Scarlet hadn't continued gushing over her is because she wasn't attracted to her in that way. Rose wouldn't forgive herself if she ruined a perfectly good friendship over something as silly as feelings.

Still, thinking of Scarlet made her smile, and by the time she reached her door, she was positively beaming. She noticed the paper stuck to her door, and carefully peeled it off. "Um, gross," she said aloud as she noticed the material with which it was stuck, but her smile didn't start to fade until she read the words on the paper.

"No way," she croaked, her voice barely above a whisper. She couldn't believe what she was reading. How could she have read Scarlet so terribly? Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed Lenny coming out of the cafeteria, so she quickly swiped her way into her room and locked the door. Desperate for someone to talk to, she took a ball from her belt and let its occupant out. "Lucario," she cried, throwing her arms around him. "I was right, Lucario."

(About what?) came the confused Pokemon's reply. Rose handed Lucario the paper and threw herself face down on the bed, screaming her frustration into her pillow. Lucario looked the paper over, then growled. (This is what has you upset?)

"Yes!" Rose shrieked into the bed.

(Then I hate this thing! But, er... you know I can't read it, right?) Rose inhaled, then let out a long breath. She turned over, facing the ceiling, and dictated the note to him. (Oh. I'm, uh... sorry.)

"I blew it, Lucario," she said, shaking her head. "I pushed her too far, and now she's mad at me. What do I do now?"

(Nothing, babe. You can do better than that bitch anyway.)

Rose shot up instantly, leaping to her feet. "Scarlet is not a bitch! How could you say such a thing?!"

Lucario held up his paws in concession. (Whoa, okay, sorry! I just thought it was what you wanted to hear! I'm no good at this sort of thing, okay?)

Rose sighed, sitting on the edge of her bed. "No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you. I just... gosh, Lucario, maybe you were right. I mean, look at me. I yelled at you, and I feel like I could cry at any minute. I shouldn't be feeling this way for a girl I met only three days ago."

Lucario stared dumbly at her, completely unaware of what the right thing to say was. (Why?) he finally asked.

"Because it's not normal! She just wanted to be my friend, Lucario, and I got so caught up in how special I felt around her that I forced her in a corner. She couldn't even tell me this in person! That's how uncomfortable she is around me now. No wonder she wanted me to leave the cafeteria," she finished, and wiped away a treasonous tear that had formed in the side of her eye. "I'm ashamed of myself. How can I ever make it up to her?"

Lucario started a reply, but reconsidered. Eventually, he simply shrugged. (Babe, I have no idea.) When her face fell even further at this candid admission, he switched tactics. (Okay, okay, um... all right, say you did something and made me mad at you. How would you make it up to me?)

Rose chuckled. "I'd cook you up your favorite treats, for starters. Then I'd give you a nice hot bath, and use that scented shampoo you like that makes your fur super soft. Then after we were done I'd push you onto my bed and -"

(Okay, maybe that wasn't the best example,) Lucario conceded. (But do continue. What would you do next?) he said, grinning lasciviously.

"Down, boy," Rose scolded him. "I know you meant well." She sighed forlornly. "I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

(Come on, don't say that,) Lucario stated, taking a seat next to her on the bed. For a few moments, the two said nothing, and this bothered Lucario immensely. He hated seeing his master and friend so down. (Why don't you fight for her?) he finally offered.

"That wouldn't be right," Rose said simply. "She said in her note that her heart belongs to another. I wouldn't want to come between them."

(Does she make you happy?)

"Yes," came Rose's immediate response. "She does. I like being near her. I want to get to know her better. We had such a great time Monday night."

(Then fight for her!) Lucario yelled through their bond, rising to his feet. (That's what I'd do. If I were in your shoes, I would fight and fight and keep fighting as long as I had breath in my body. I'd march right over there and tell her how I felt, and I wouldn't leave until I'd said everything I wanted to say.) Rose was shocked at this sudden outburst, unsure of what to say to that, and he continued. (sI want you to be happy. With a human,) he amended when Rose looked hurt at his implication. (You know Gardevoir and I both love you very much, but you need human companionship. We both want to see you happy.)

"I am happy!" she yelled back at him, meeting his gaze. "You two mean the world to me. If Scarlet doesn't want to be with me, that's fine, I don't care! I don't need her, just like I don't need you telling me to abandon you two just because of what you are!"

(Rose, you--)

"Let me finish!" she cut him off sharply, tears coming to the surface. "I won't stand here and let you suggest that you're somehow beneath me because you're a Pokemon. You're loyal, and caring, and courageous, and I wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for you. I don't care what anyone else says! I'm not going to let anyone else tell me how I feel! I love you, Lucario, do you understand that? Both of you! I--"

Lucario swiftly closed the distance between them and covered Rose's mouth with a paw. (Rose, stop yelling! Someone might hear you!)

Rose's eyes went wide with terror as she realized he was right. She dashed to the door and flung it open, only to find an empty hallway, but she still felt nervous. True, no one was there, but if either Frisk or Cody were in their rooms... there's no way they wouldn't have heard her outburst. She quietly closed herself in her room again, her mind racing as she imagined worse and worse scenarios of being found out.

Fate had been kind to Rose in this instance. At the time of her damning declaration, no one had been around to hear it, but she would be foolish to think that fate would show her kindness every time.

Her good fortune would not last forever.

(You have to be more careful, babe,) Lucario said, gently wiping Rose's tears away. (I don't have to tell you what will happen if you get caught.)

"I know," Rose said, her voice barely above a whisper. Clearing her throat, she said, "I'll tell everyone someday. But it'll be on my terms."

(What if it isn't?) he asked, gesturing to either side of the wall.

"Then I'll fight," she answered, taking his paws into her hands. "No one will ever keep you two from me. They'll have to kill me first." She sighed. "I like Scarlet. She's nice, a really talented Ranger, and she doesn't act like I'm some sort of goddess all the time. Do I have feelings for her?" She shrugged. "Don't know. I was looking forward to maybe exploring that path, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. We just met at the wrong time in our lives, that's all," she finished, forcing a smile onto her face.

(At least tell her how you feel,) Lucario pleaded. (Just like you did with us, remember?)

Rose nodded, recalling the memory. "You were both really surprised."

(And grateful,) he added. (We could tell you were fighting with your feelings, so when you finally came clean to us, it was such a relief. Your demeanor changed. It was like a weight had been lifted from your shoulders, and we both noticed it.)

"Yeah, but this isn't exactly the same. Scarlet's human. I wasn't raised to question being attracted to humans." She considered Lucario's suggestion. "Maybe I'll tell her someday, but now isn't a good time. It's clear she's trying to distance herself from me, and I don't want to upset her any further. I want to show her that I'm mature enough to handle rejection, and respect what her heart feels." As if in agreement, her stomach growled audibly. "I guess all those emotions made me hungry after all... I'm going to get some lunch. Do you want me to bring you something?"

Lucario smiled, extracting himself from his master. (Nah, I'm good. Thanks, babe.)

* * * * * * * * *

Lunch was cheerful, mostly. Taikyu recounted his adventures with Frisk, and was touched by the amount of concern the other competitors had for him when they learned what had happened. Chara, still unsure how to handle Frisk's body when he wasn't trying to embarrass her, stayed mostly silent. Rose rejoined the women from earlier, and was surprised to see that Nye had joined them; she was not surprised when she learned that Windra had all but dragged her to the table.

Eldan, Quayle, and Cody took this opportunity to chat about the table full of women. "So," Eldan began, "who's the cutest, boys? My pick is Nye, obviously."

"Didn't Nye say you weren't allowed to talk about stuff like this?" Quayle asked, not looking up from his food.

"There's nothing inappropriate about it," Eldan insisted. "I just want to know who you guys like, that's all."

"Still, should we really be having this conversation?" Cody asked in a hushed tone, leaning forward and glancing around as if they were doing something illicit. "What if they hear us?"

"I don't think that's going to be a problem," Eldan said as loud cackles of laughter were heard from the table. "They're not paying any attention to us, Lenny's got the TV going over there, we'll be fine. So, who's your pick?"

Cody retreated into his seat. "Um... well, I mean, Windra seems nice. She's been all over, yeah? I've only traveled through Alola. Well, the tournament I won was in Kalos, but I didn't get out much. Anyway, I'd love to hear stories about the places she's been. I bet she's met all sorts of interesting people."

Eldan raised an eyebrow. "Really? Eh, I guess. Definitely not my cup of tea, but to each his own. What about you, Broody McDarko?" he asked, turning to Quayle. "You gonna pick Nye too?"

Quayle continued to eat, ignoring Eldan's obvious attempt at getting under his skin. "Yes. Nye and I go way back."

"Really?" Cody jumped in. "I didn't know you guys knew each other."

Quayle nodded. "Yeah. We actually grew up in the same town, before it was destroyed. I don't know what she did after that, but we ended up meeting again years later, and we've been close friends ever since then."

"Do either of you know what 'cute' means?" Eldan asked, bored with their answers. "I'm asking you which one you find most attractive, not who you want to go on adventures with or whatever."

"What's wrong with that?" Quayle asked, a hint of anger in his voice. "Is the only thing you like about Nye the way she looks?"

Eldan opened his mouth to reply, but stopped short. His last statement wasn't even supposed to be bait, but it appeared that he'd struck a nerve with it all the same. The desire to bait Quayle further was strong, but with Cody watching, and with Nye herself a stone's throw away, Eldan decided to bite his tongue and instead answer honestly. "No. But of course, it's a part of it. I'm a man of style, boys. I like to keep up with the latest trends, know who's popular to wear and who's not. I like my women to be as stylish and beautiful as me, and Nye fits that. The two of us are more alike than she's willing to admit, you know."

"That's the most long-winded 'yes' answer I've ever heard," Quayle retorted. "Just save your breath next time."

"I don't expect someone like you to understand," Eldan shot back.

Quayle put his fork down, glaring death at the Team Flare member. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Eldan said nonchalantly. "Just that you still look like a monkey dressed you, that's all."

"Hey, that's enough," Cody said, holding a hand between them. "We're all friends here, yeah?"

"Definitely not," Quayle spat, getting up from his chair. "I could never be friends with someone who can't see Nye for who she is and not what she wears."

Unintimidated, Eldan rose to meet his gaze, disgust dripping from every syllable of his reply. "And I could never be friends with His Royal Highness Edge Nightdoom, someone who stoops to despicable levels just to win a Pokemon battle, and look horrendous while doing it."

"I apologized for that!" Quayle yelled, slamming his hands on the table and gathering the attention of most of the other competitors.

Noticing exactly who was arguing, Nye got up from the table and threw herself between the two men before the conflict escalated further. "Stop it! What is going on?!"

"Nothing," both guys said simultaneously.

"Don't give me that! Listen to yourselves! If you insist on acting like children, I will treat you like children!"

"Everyone, please stop yelling," Alex quietly said into his plate, but no one paid any attention to him.

Since Nye was already facing Quayle, she started with him. "You need to control your temper. Don't let him trick you into getting angry. He purposefully says things like that so you get upset. That's what he wants. Understood?"

Quayle did not take his eyes off of Eldan, but he nodded. "Understood."

That wasn't good enough for Nye, who grabbed him by the chin and forced him to meet her gaze. "Make eye contact when a lady addresses you! Am I understood?"

"Yes!" Quayle batted Nye's hand away, holding his jaw as he looked her in the eye - apparently she'd grabbed him too forcefully. "I understand."

"And you," Nye continued, spinning around to face a snickering Eldan, "Quit harassing my friends!" She emphasized each word by poking him hard in the chest. "Who I choose to associate with is none of your business, Eldan. If you want any sort of relationship with me, you will treat my friends with respect. Quayle isn't perfect, but he's trying. Give him another chance, like I gave you one! Don't make me regret that decision!"

The entire cafeteria was quiet after this remark, the program on the television the only thing preventing silence from reigning supreme. Satisfied by shaming Eldan into blessed silence, she went back to her table and plopped into her chair. "I swear, those two will be the death of me," she lamented just as Jethro re-entered the cafeteria.

"Jethro! Where have you been?" Tsomu yelled, desperate for things to get back to normal. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

Confused, Jethro glanced at the clock. "Uh... twelve?"

"Exactly! Lunch was ready half an hour ago! Now eat up, it's almost gone!" Tsomu dragged a still-confused Jethro over to the tables of food, and conversation slowly started picking up again. Quayle and Eldan said nothing to each other, leaving an uncomfortable Cody to eat in silence. Eventually, Lenny and Windra were summoned to do battle and, with everyone wishing them luck, they left.

* * * * * * * * *

"Good afternoon, everyone! My name is Ruby Erthgrand, but you all knew that already! Say, everyone, I've got a burning question I need to ash you all. Are you all ready to see some action?! I lava good match and I'm just as anxious as you, so let's not waste any more time, shall we? Approaching the east platform is a man who didn't want me to make a big deal out of his introduction, but I'm doing it anyway! He's old, but he's hot, and what he lacks in youth he makes up in raw firepower! Will his opponent be able to take the heat, or will her light be extinguished? I want every single one of you to show some spicy Kanto love for your Slateport City champion, the man, the myth, the legend, the one, the only, Lennyyyyyyyyyyy Beckett!"

As Lenny took his position, the crowd gave Ruby what she asked for. He did his part and waved, acknowledging them but doing little else. He had a feeling Ruby was going to ignore his request for a simple introduction, but he didn't think she'd lay it on so thick. No matter, he thought, his hand already on his first Poke Ball. Sorry, kid, but this battle's mine.

"That's what I like to hear! Let's keep that applause going for his opponent, a well-traveled lass who makes her home in Unova! She's managed to visit every continent, likes bugs, and hates Quayle!"

From off stage, Windra giggled. She was hoping Ruby would say that on air.

"She's a simple girl with a simple mission: become grand champion! Let's see if she can make it happen today! Give it up for your Anistar City champion, Windra Wallace!"

Windra opened the door leading outside, and it made her realize how long it had been since she'd set foot outdoors. The crowd's cheers were secondary to her as she closed her eyes and spread her arms wide, feeling the warm summer breeze rush around her. The crowd, perceiving her movement as an acknowledgement of them, continued to show their support. Windra approached the platform, eyeing Lenny from across the field. She knew she was going to have to work for it, but she believed in her team, and herself. This one's for you, Mom.

Once both players were in place, it was time to spin the wheel. Both players looked intently as the field was chosen, and once it was, Windra's heart sank. "It's the fire field! Surely not the battlefield Windra was hoping for. How will she handle this setback? We're about to find out!"

Esmeralda stepped forward as Ruby introduced her, and after she confirmed each contestant was ready, she said the magic words. "Trainers, release your Pokemon!"

"Chomper, go get 'em!"

"Go, Ninetales!"

Both Pokemon hit the field and, for a moment, most of the crowd was wondering if Lenny's Ninetales was gifted with its Hidden Ability, the way Eldan's was, and there were a few sounds of disappointment made when they learned that she was not. That didn't bother Lenny in the slightest, though he could admit that automatic sunny weather would save him time in battle.

Windra's mind went into Fire-type mode - basically, how she altered her game plan when up against Fire-type Pokemon. She knew Lenny used some Fire-type Pokemon, but wasn't sure which, and it didn't occur to her until just now that perhaps asking him about his team might have actually yielded results. Would Lenny have been as forthcoming as Cody was?

Too late now, she thought. She chose to lead with Chomper for a few reasons, not the least of which was that her usual go-to, Tyeaf, would be virtually useless unless she managed to get a lucky Spore off. Her plan was simple: weaken his Pokemon with Chomper so that Tyeaf could put them to sleep and finish them off, using Archeidon as an anchor in case things got messy. Chomper was nothing if not quick, and Lenny's Ninetales looked a little chubby around the midsection, so Windra liked the position she was in.

Now she just had to keep it. "Chomper, use Thunder!"

"And right off the bat, Windra's ordered her Chomper to use Thunder!" Ruby's shocked voice rang through the stadium, to swells of cheers. "Looks like she's planning on ending this quickly, folks!"

"Ah, you're a girl after my own heart," Lenny said, smiling. "Ninetales, use Sunny Day! If you have time to dodge afterwards, do it, but get that sun shining first!"

Ninetales looked to the sky and howled, the sun-shaped rock strung around her neck glowing bright as she did so. As the clouds over the arena parted, allowing the hot afternoon sun to shine unobstructed on the battlefield, Chomper raised his paws and tail skyward, the bright sun cutting through his storm clouds, making aiming difficult. When he believed he had his bearings, he fired, dropping an enormous bolt onto Ninetales, who made absolutely no attempt to dodge it. The attack struck her dead on, and she collapsed to the ground. Gritting her teeth, Ninetales struggled to get back to her feet, in far more pain than she thought she would have been in. It wasn't like she expected it to tickle, but she felt like she'd been hit with two attacks at once. With a silent apology to her master, she fell down again, unable to do anything more.

Esmeralda made Chomper's win official, and Ruby went nuts. "And Ninetales goes down in a single hit! Ladies and gentlemen, this match hasn't been going on for more than a minute and Lenny has already lost his first Pokemon! Is Windra on her way to breaking the speed queen's record? We could be seeing history in the making, folks!"

Windra was overjoyed. That was some attack! She hadn't expected it to hit once Lenny started messing with the weather, but not only did Chomper hit Ninetales dead on, he took her out in one attack! "Hell yeah! Great job, Chomper! Two more of those and we'll be on our way to the next round!"

She was brought back down to earth by Lenny, who recalled his Pokemon and didn't appear worried in the slightest. "Don't get cocky, kid. I'm just getting started. Ninetales's job was to set up the weather, and she did that. I wasn't planning on losing her after one attack, but it makes no difference. If she wouldn't have fainted, I would have just switched her out. Your Chomper won't be able to handle what's coming next." And then he said the two words that she had hoped she would never hear come from her opponent's mouth. "Go, Camerupt!"

Camerupt emerged onto the field to cheers, and Windra stared into the eyes of her worst nightmare. Of course he has a Camerupt, she realized, again, far too late. He's from a town next to a volcano and a crapload of Fire Pokemon. Why am I surprised? With this, all of Windra's carefully laid plans went right out the window. Chomper was completely useless here, and Tyeaf wouldn't stand a chance. It was Archeidon or bust. She recalled Chomper to his Poke Ball, switching Archeidon in, and Lenny didn't waste any time in going on the offensive. "Eruption, Camerupt!"

"Kai, Silver Wind!" Windra ordered. "Don't let him use that attack!"

Camerupt braced himself, smoke pouring uncontrollably from the volcanoes on his back, gearing up as Archeidon flew forward, approaching just as Camerupt finished preparing. With a roar, an enormous stream of lava exploded from within him, raining fire and earth in a wide circle all around him and covering nearly half the arena.

"Quiver Dance, get out of there!" came Windra's next command, but it was a little too late. As the lava and rocks fell, Archeidon was struck by the attack, taking moderate damage, but he was still alive. "Now use Giga Drain!"

Lenny nodded. Everything was still going according to plan. "Eruption again, Camerupt, keep it going! Get that whole arena nice and hot!"

Camerupt slowly plodded forward as another massive blast exploded upwards and outwards, making it harder and harder for Archeidon to find safety. His wings glowing bright green, Archeidon swooped in and fired a similarly colored beam at Camerupt. It struck him dead on, starting to sap his strength. Camerupt whipped his head around, catching Archeidon off guard and forcing him to retreat, right into another falling rock, sending him crashing into the center platform.

"Destroy that platform with Earthquake, Camerupt! Don't give her Pokemon anywhere to rest!"

With a monstrous grunt, Camerupt reared back, stepped forward a few paces, and brought down all of his weight in a mighty crash that demolished a large part of the center platform, sending Archeidon scrambling out of the way. The shift in the ground caused all of the geysers to erupt at once, sending massive amounts of steam into the sky, creating a dense mist inside the arena.

Windra cursed under her breath at this latest development. Thanks to the fog, she could barely see a few feet inside the arena. Both Archeidon and Camerupt were nowhere to be found, though she thought she could faintly make out the outline of Archeidon's six wings flapping gently nearby. What could she do? She could try a sneak attack. That might work; Camerupt was enormous and slow-moving, an easy target. But the offset of being so big and heavy, Windra remembered, was intense strength. She couldn't see it, but she knew the entire floor was virtually covered in lava and rocks. She remembered Camerupt swinging his massive head, just barely missing Archeidon, and didn't want to think about the damage that would have been done if he'd connected the hit.

Suddenly, Windra had an interesting thought. If her young eyes couldn't see in this fog, she doubted Lenny would fare much better. This put her in a pretty good situation, she reasoned; Archeidon could simply boost up until he was too powerful for Lenny's dumb Fire-types to handle, and then that would be that!

Finally, moments before Esmeralda warned them both for inactivity, she gave her command. "Quiver Dance again, Kai! Stay low and stay hidden!"

"Wait for it, Camerupt! When you see an opening, blast the damn thing with Stone Edge!"

Camerupt looked around, trying to spot his opponent, but couldn't find him. He could hear the flaps and movements of Archeidon's wings as he danced around the arena, but the fog was still too thick for him to do anything. Finally, a gust from Archeidon blew enough of the fog away for Camerupt to catch a glimpse of Archeidon's wings, and he began charging his attack. Several of the rocks on the ground started glowing white. With a focused grunt, he exploded one, sending shards of hot rock all over the area. Archeidon shrieked and shot straight up into the sky; following the sound of his voice, Camerupt drew in more of the glowing stones and fired them skyward, exploding each in turn. The sound of rock pelting flesh was heard, as was the sound of Archeidon's pained cry as he was knocked out cold by the attack. He fell to the earth, crashing hard, and Esmeralda could only hope no permanent damage was done. "Volcarona is unable to battle. The winner is Camerupt!"

The crowd erupted into cheers once more - as Ruby went on to say, this was turning out to be quite a battle after all. Windra grit her teeth, digging her hands into the side of her podium. This was bad. No, she amended, it wasn't just bad, it was really goddamn colossally bad. She couldn't do anything but stew as she listened to her dreams, her prayers, her hopes of winning this match go down with Archeidon. As she recalled her Pokemon, she considered just giving up right there. She could see that the fog was disappearing, but her odds of winning were vanishing right along with it.

What am I thinking? she thought. Who am I, Tsomu? I'm not giving up! Giving up is for chumps, and I'm no chump! With artificially renewed confidence, she sent out the only other Pokemon she had that might do something. "Tyeaf, go get 'em!"

Tyeaf hadn't been on the ground for more than ten seconds before she started wailing in pain. With her extreme vulnerability to fire, even standing on the now-superheated ground became a tough and painful task. Her eyes scanned the arena, looking for somewhere she could scurry to catch a reprieve from the heat, but could find nothing except the remains of the center platform. Quickly, she made a beeline for it, but Lenny was ready. "Fire Blast!" he commanded. With a breath, Camerupt blew out a long, five-pronged stream of fire, setting Tyeaf ablaze, knocking her out immediately, and melting the remains of the center platform.

"Paras is unable to battle! The winner is Camerupt!"

"Oh come on! What the fu- how did- are you kidding me right now?!" Windra sputtered, quickly losing control. It was over. It was all over, there were no two ways about it. Lenny and his stupid sun (why was it still sunny, that should have ended ages ago) and his stupid Fire-types and his stupid goddamn cheating-ass Camerupt had robbed her of her chances at winning the prize money. All her friends, all her family, everyone she cared about... she knew that they were all watching, watching her get smoked on live television, and there was nothing she could do but send her Pokemon to certain doom. And it wasn't like it was her fault! It was Lenny's fault for raising such a dumb freaking Pokemon. Fire/Ground-types, she decided, should be outlawed. Packed up and shipped to the goddamn moon, every single one of them.

She hated how she felt right now. She could feel tears threatening to spill, and if she didn't send out her Pokemon, she was going to lose it right there. "Chomper, go get 'em!"

No sooner did Chomper materialize did Lenny give his order. "Earthquake! Finish this battle, Camerupt!"

I CAN'T LET THIS HAPPEN! Windra thought in a panic, eyes wide and fresh with tears, her face a look of pure fear as she realized she was moments away from being eliminated. I'M NOT GOING DOWN LIKE THIS! "Chomper, Agility! When he raises his legs, use Slam to knock him on his back!"

Chomper nodded hesitantly, watching Camerupt raise his legs for one final attack. He zipped forward, gaining speed, watching Camerupt try to follow his movements. He zoomed around the battlefield, deftly dodging pools of lava and rocks. Finally, when Camerupt was at the apex of his ascent, Chomper charged, leaping and smashing head first into Camerupt's soft belly.

"YES!" Windra shouted, but her excitement was short lived. To her horror, despite making Camerupt grunt in pain, Chomper was nowhere near powerful enough to topple a Pokemon several dozen times his own weight. As it was, Chomper could only roll out from underneath Camerupt to avoid getting killed by his giant hooves. Camerupt came down with a mighty crash, cracking open the ground and exploding the rocks still were lying about. There was absolutely no way for Chomper to evade such an attack, and he tumbled ungracefully backwards, defeated.

"Pikachu is unable to battle! The winner is Camerupt, and advancing to the quarterfinals is Lenny Beckett!"

And just like that, Windra was out of the tournament. The crowd was on its feet, cheering both players for a well-fought battle. Ruby commended Windra for not giving up in the face of near insurmountable odds, but Windra didn't hear any of it. It was all just noise, nothing registering but her own voice in her head:

It's over. Just like that. You lost. What are you going to do now?

She wordlessly recalled Chomper, turned around, and marched straight back into the building, not bothering to shake Lenny's hand.

I can't believe I lost that badly! she fumed, all but stomping down the stairs leading to the VIP area. Truth be told, she didn't mind so much that she lost, more than how she lost. She was so happy at the start of the battle, the way Chomper had knocked out Ninetales in one hit. Recalling that memory made her smile, but that moment of happiness was short-lived as she thought of the rest of that disastrous battle.

She tried not to think about how her parents would react to seeing her lose. She winced as she remembered telling them that she'd won the preliminary tournament, and that she'd accepted Diamant Industries's invitation to compete for the grand prize. She was so confident... she'd wanted nothing more than to make them happy, to make it so they'd never have to worry about money ever again. She sighed as she clamped down on that dream, which was well and truly dead at this point. The only thing that could make this worse is if I'd lost on my actual birthday, she mused.

She walked into the hallway and towards her room, with no desire to share that particular piece of information. She didn't want people making a big deal about it, especially since it had been on her birthday two years prior that she'd gone back to see Damien, only to find a vacant house and no trace of the man she had fallen for. She hadn't been able to shake the feeling of having been abandoned since then, and so she made it a point to act as though her birthday was just another day. Windra took a small bit of comfort in knowing that none of the other competitors had any idea her birthday was only two days away. She knew Safiri knew, or at least had the information, as date of birth was required as part of each competitor's registration; but Safiri didn't seem like the type of person who would make a big deal about birthdays anyway, so Windra was fairly safe Safiri would keep her big mouth shut about it.

Finally approaching the door, she regarded the note that was stuck to it. Curious, she peeled the note off, making a face in disgust and confusion at the gum, and read it. Her jaw fell straight to the ground and she wiped her eyes, making absolutely sure the words on the paper were the same words she'd just said in her head. She read it over and over again, her sour mood vanishing as she realized that yes, this was real, and no, she wasn't dreaming.

"YES!" she shouted, pumping a fist in the air. "Oh my god, hell yeah!" Windra looked almost manic in her glee, her mind racing with possibilities. "I don't know what changed your mind, Scarlet, but I'm not complaining!" She read the note again, grinning ear to ear. It looked too good to be true, but there it was, plain as day in front of her. "This is gonna be so sweet!" Putting the note in her pocket, she raced to get her Pokemon healed. Night could not come fast enough for her.

On her way into the Pokemon Center, she ran into Esmeralda and Lenny, chatting as the attendant took Lenny's Pokemon.

"Oh, hey, Windra!" Esmeralda bounded over to greet her. "I'm sorry about your match. We were just talking about it, Lenny and I."

At the mention of his name, he stepped forward, sized Windra up. She wasn't glaring hot death at him anymore, but he could tell she was still upset. "You did the best you could, kid. Luck just wasn't on your side."

Five minutes earlier, Windra would have told Lenny where he could stick his luck, but the news she'd just received improved her mood so much that she simply shrugged. "At least you admit you were lucky," she said, walking past the both of them and handing the attendant her Pokemon.

"Ruby and I both agreed that this battle was about as one-sided as it could get," Esmeralda explained, taking one of Windra's hands in both of hers. "As soon as we saw the matchup, we knew it was going to be a rough one for you. Battling on the fire field was just... what did Ruby call it?... Salt in the wound," she finished.

"Yeah, you're not wrong about that," Windra mused. "I'm just mad that I didn't get much of a chance to show my stuff, you know? I'm not so bad a trainer that I end up losing to any random idiot with a Camerupt. No offense," she added, looking at Lenny, who simply shrugged it off.

"None taken. And it's funny you should mention showing your stuff, cause Esmeralda here had an idea she thought you might be interested in."

"Yeah! I wanna have a battle with you!" Esmeralda squealed.

Windra raised an eyebrow, confused. "Wait, huh? A battle? You mean, you and me?" At Esmeralda's enthusiastic nod, Windra continued, "You're a trainer?"

Esmeralda grinned wider at Windra's surprise. "Mm-hmm! Well, we aren't trainers professionally, but we do have Pokemon. All three of us do! You've seen Safiri's Glaceon, right? It's really strong, probably stronger than any Pokemon the rest of you guys have!"

"I could beat her," Lenny said confidently. "She wouldn't be a match for Camerupt."

"I don't knowww," Esmeralda sang. "I've never beaten her, and I'm pretty good, if I do say so myself. Ruby's never beaten her, either, and most of her Pokemon have a type advantage against Glaceon."

"What other Pokemon does she have?" Lenny inquired.

"Now what fun would that be if I gave everything away?" Esmeralda said, winking at the older man. Turning back to Windra, her face sobered a bit, and she said, "I hated seeing you like that out there. I thought that I would ask you for a battle so you would have a fairer fight, and you can show everyone what you can really do. Your matchup against me isn't nearly as one-sided, so it should be a good fight. What do you say?" She gripped Windra's hand tighter, brought it to her chest and held it there. "I want to see you smile again."

Heh, she has big boobs. Way bigger than Scarlet, whose world I am finally gonna rock tonight! That thought made Windra smile, and Esmeralda smiled back, happily bouncing in place. "You know what? Sure, why not. You might say I'm in a better mood than I was ten minutes ago. My Pokemon are all beat up, though, thanks to someone," she said, glaring at Lenny, "So it'll have to wait. When did you wanna do it?"

"Tonight, before dinner. I have a meeting with Safiri and Ruby after that, and your Pokemon should be ready to go in a couple hours or so. That should give us plenty of time to have a good battle and work up an appetite for dinner. What do you say?"

Windra considered this and, finding it acceptable, nodded. "Sounds good. Meet you in the practice arena at 5:00?"

Esmeralda confirmed with a nod, bringing the slender girl in for a hug. "Great! I can't wait. I've got to go take care of some things for tomorrow's matches, but I'll see you later! Bye, Lenny!"

Lenny nodded at her, and she left, leaving the two former opponents alone with the attendant. For effect, Windra rolled her eyes, walking past him and out the door. She didn't get more than a few paces away when Lenny came out behind her. "You gonna stay mad the whole time we're here?"

"Maybe I will," she called back, not looking. In truth, finding the note from Scarlet had put her in such a good mood that she'd decided, most uncharacteristically, to absolve Lenny for his most mortal sin... but she wasn't about to let him know that.

Lenny just chuckled to himself. "Suit yourself, kid," he said, watching Windra disappear into her room.

* * * * * * * *

Some time later, Windra took her freshly healed Pokemon and made her way to the training center, where she was surprised to see everyone waiting for her.

"You invited everyone?" she asked Esmeralda, who'd greeted her at the door.

"Yeah," she said, smiling, taking Windra by the hand and leading her towards the battlefield proper. "I thought you could use your own cheering section, so I asked if they would be willing to sit and watch. And everyone agreed!"

"Everyone?" Windra asked, skeptical. She looked over to the seating area and did a head count - sure enough, everyone was there, even Lenny, who waved at her as he caught her eye. Windra was surprised to see that Ruby and Safiri were also in attendance. Ruby sat and chatted with Kiria, though she got up from her seat once she saw Windra walk in; Safiri, who had been seated next to Ruby, was busy scribbling something on a clipboard. She glanced up, spotting Windra, who waved, and she hesitantly waved back.

Ruby met the two of them in the center of the arena. "So you're really gonna battle Esmy?" Ruby asked, her hands on her hips. "It's not gonna be easy. You up for the challenge?"

"I'm here, aren't I?" Windra shot back, mimicking Ruby and putting her hands on her hips.

"So you are," Ruby replied, nodding. "All right, the rules are the same as in the tournament. Since Esmy has six Pokemon to your three, and she already knows your Pokemon, you'll get to help determine what three she uses." She took out a piece of paper that was torn on one end - likely ripped from Safiri's papers, Windra guessed - and handed it to Windra. She also handed her a pen. "Cross a name off the list. Then, Esmy will pick one to use. You'll repeat that three times and that will determine her team."

She looked at the list of Esmeralda's Pokemon. There was one that caught her eye as particularly dangerous to her team. She went to immediately cross it out, but reconsidered. This was supposed to be a chance for her to prove herself, right? What was the point of the battle if she just eliminated all the Pokemon that were strong against hers? Deciding to leave it in, she chose instead to cross out a Pokemon she thought wouldn't give her a challenge. It was weak against two of her Pokemon, and even though it was immune to Tyeaf's Spore, it was still weak to her attacks, and that would be too easy.

She then handed the pen and paper to Esmeralda, who considered the Pokemon Windra eliminated. "Not who I thought you'd pick first," she noted, circling a name and returning the paper to Windra.

"I know. I'm a real glutton for punishment," she said, noting that Esmeralda had circled the Pokemon Windra considered eliminating. She carefully studied the remaining Pokemon and decided on a Pokemon she wasn't too familiar with. She'd been to Alola only once, but had spent almost no time studying the local Pokemon variants. As it was, she knew nothing about it, and didn't want her first encounter with it to be here and embarrass herself further by not having a clue how to fight it.

Esmeralda immediately circled another name, and Windra raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You sure about that one?"

"Oh yes. It's my favorite Pokemon. Their little hats are so cute!"

Windra wasn't sure that she would call the apex predator of the desert cute. She'd heard horror stories about how they would follow weary travelers, then kill and eat them once they finally collapsed due to exhaustion. But hey, she reasoned, it was horrifyingly weak to two of her Pokemon, and she wasn't going to complain about that.

The last two names on the list were both problematic for her, but she decided to eliminate what she considered the greater of two evils. Birds were annoying, and she hated them almost as much as she hated Fire-types. If she was going to fight a Psychic Pokemon either way, she'd much rather fight one that wasn't also a stupid bird.

Ruby looked over the list. "All right, Esmy, that's your team. Think you can do it?"

"If Windra is as strong as I think she is, I think I've got my work cut out for me," Esmeralda admitted. She handed Ruby the Poke Balls of the three Pokemon she wasn't using, then wished Windra luck and took her place on one side of the battlefield.

Ruby took the Poke Balls and handed them to Safiri. "Here, hold onto these, will you?"

"I can't be babysitting, Ruby, I need to watch this battle. Mr. Diamant will definitely want to hear about this, especially if Esmeralda loses."

Ruby shot her a questioning look. "You don't really think Esmy's going to lose, do you?"

"No, absolutely not," Safiri answered confidently. She leaned closer to her sister, whispered in her ear, "Her battle intelligence is top of the line, and her Pokemon are on the same level as ours. Miss Wallace doesn't stand a chance."

Ruby shrugged. "I wouldn't be so sure... Esmy wouldn't challenge Windra to a fight just to crush her. Maybe she sees something in her that we don't?"

"Exactly, which is why I need to pay attention to this battle. Now, if you please..." she trailed off, shooing Ruby away with a hand.

Rolling her eyes, Ruby pocketed the three Poke Balls and went to the center of the arena, where she called everyone to attention. "All right, everyone, sorry to keep you waiting! We're about to start an exhibition match between Windra Wallace and Esmeralda Rayvenflight, following tournament rules. Three against three, with three switches allowed in the match. First one to lose all their Pokemon loses. Are there any questions from either player?"

Windra locked eyes with her opponent, shaking her head no. She wasn't quite sure what she was getting herself into, but there was no going back now. She saw a look of fierce determination she hadn't seen in Esmeralda before, and it was a little jarring to see the normally bubbly Esmeralda so focused. Did she look like that when she was officiating, she wondered? She hadn't paid any attention to her during her fight against Lenny--

She pushed that thought out of her head. Can't get distracted, she thought as she readied her first Pokemon. Esmeralda did the same. Ruby turned to the small crowd, who'd been mostly silent up until now, and frowned. "Let's hear some noise back there! You guys are about to see one hell of a battle, so why don't you guys start sounding like it?!" In response, the others cheered and yelled their support for Windra, and Ruby smiled. "That's more like it!" She turned back to the two battlers. "Now begin!"

"Tyeaf, go get 'em!"

"Come, Tyranitar!" Esmeralda yelled in a voice that Windra didn't recognize. It sounded like her, but it sounded so unlike her that she had a hard time matching the voice to the face.

So she's bringing the big guns out right away, Windra noted as their respective Pokemon hit the field, Tyranitar's Sand Stream ability summoning up a massive sandstorm that would have had the spectators shielding their eyes if not for the low-level shields that automatically surrounded the arena. They were of good quality, but they likely wouldn't hold up in any battle worthy of the main stage, which was another reason why Safiri was questioning Esmeralda's decision to fight here.

Windra noticed that Esmeralda's general stance had changed in the last few minutes, as well. Before the battle, she was giddy and excited, seemingly unable to sit still for more than a few moments, but now she appeared almost robotic, standing with her feet squarely planted shoulder width apart. One hand rested on her hip, and she watched Windra intently, seemingly waiting for Windra to make the first move.

So she did. "Spore, Tyeaf! Gotta knock that bad boy down to size!"

"Blow it back!" Esmeralda ordered, her eyes cool and her face unemotive. Tyranitar roared in reply, and when Tyeaf shot out a massive cloud of sleeping spores towards Tyranitar, he simply changed the direction of the sandstorm and blew the entire attack back onto Tyeaf. It didn't have any effect, but it gave Esmeralda an opening for her next move. "Now, Stealth Rock!"

Tyranitar stretched out his arms wide, summoning several large stone pillars from the ground, floating a few of them further in mid air. Remembering how both Taikyu and Thresher creatively used the levitating stones to attack, the others were excited to see if either player would do something similar.

Windra was already starting to feel nervous, but she did her best not to let it show on her face. Stealth Rock was absolutely devastating to her team; Archeidon was going to take massive damage from it. Tyeaf was already out, so she'd be spared, but she didn't like the idea of her ace Pokemon taking huge damage just from switching in. With no way to remove it from the field, she had no choice but to fight it out, and she kicked herself for not eliminating this threat immediately.

"Smack Down, Tyranitar! Squash that bug!"

Tyranitar summoned a boulder about twice the size of Tyeaf and hurled it straight towards her; she instinctively hid behind one of the stone pillars and used her claws to climb to the top of it, only to see Tyranitar throw another large rock at her. She leaped out of the way just in time and skidded on the ground, spinning around in time for Windra to give another command. "X-Scissor!"

With Tyeaf so close, there wasn't time for him to summon another rock, and he raised his arms up to block the incoming attack. Tyeaf slashed him twice, hard, the energy from the attack the only reason it was able to scratch Tyranitar's plated hide in the first place. Tyranitar roared in pain as Tyeaf skittered behind a rock, prepping to launch a counterattack, but Esmeralda was ready for her. "Dark Pulse!"

"You got him on the run, buddy! Stay low and attack with Fury Cutter!"

Tyeaf shot out from behind her cover and darted forward, ignoring the slight sting in her eyes from the sandstorm. She was definitely making up for this afternoon's embarrassing loss. If she could take down at least one of Esmeralda's Pokemon, she'd feel a little better about herself.

Regrettably, it was not to be. As Tyeaf raised a claw, a huge wave of dark energy exploded from Tyranitar's body in all directions. The wave passed through the stones, but it didn't pass through Tyeaf, who was blown away by the move. She crashed into a levitating stone and slumped over, defeated.

Ruby made the win official, grinning as she did so. It was rare that she got a chance to officiate a match; since Esmeralda's creation, there hadn't been a need for Ruby to do it, and a part of her missed being front and center to hotly contested battles. But she knew her true calling was in the announcer's booth, using words to paint pictures in the minds of those who were unable to see such battles for themselves.

While the others cheered the two battlers on, Safiri was watching intently, taking notes on things that seemed interesting to her. For example, why was Esmeralda acting and speaking that way? The earlier Sapphire models had been programmed with a 'battle mode' that shifted most of their intelligence to Pokemon battling, allowing them to give orders with ruthless efficiency. The problem, though, was that the biots didn't look natural. Like Esmeralda, they didn't move and rarely spoke, only to give or alter commands depending on the circumstances of the battle. Safiri knew for a fact that Esmeralda's programming was leagues more advanced than that of S2 or S3... so what was the point of drudging up some old, defunct code?

She also questioned just how much damage Tyeaf was able to do to Esmeralda's Tyranitar. If the power level between them was as huge as she thought it was, then such a powerful hit could not possibly have done the damage it did... but it was hard to refute seeing it happen with her own eyes.

"You did good, Tyeaf," Windra said, recalling her fallen Pokemon. "At least you got a good hit in. Now rest while your brothers handle things." She looked over to Windra, who still had not moved a muscle since the battle started. "You ready to see something really awesome?" Windra asked, her voice cool and confident. "I couldn't use it against Lenny, which is probably for the best. I would have sliced his entire team down with it."

Esmeralda nodded slowly, curious. "I'm intrigued. Show me, Windra!"

"You got it. Chomper, go get 'em!"

Chomper came out and was immediately blasted by the Stealth Rock that Tyranitar had laid. He winced in pain as the sharpened stones dug into him, but he was fine. After voicing this to Windra, she put her plan into action just as the sandstorm died down. "Perfect! All right, Chomper, Thunder Sword! Show Esmeralda how strong we really are!"

"Stand by, Tyranitar," Esmeralda ordered. "I want to see this."

Tyranitar grunted an affirmative as Chomper raised his paws as high as his tiny arms would allow, summoning dark clouds over the battlefield. When they were in place, Chomper crouched low on all fours, sticking his tail high in the air. After cloaking his tail in metal, he checked his positioning again. It had to hit just right... finally, he was ready, and he called down a large thunderbolt that struck his tail, causing a brief flash. When the light faded, Chomper's tail was glowing yellow, extended nearly three feet by a silver blade-like beam. Chomper swung his tail around a few times to test if the technique would hold, and it did. The other competitors marveled at the sight of it; Eldan in particular was highly impressed by the combination and wondered if any of his Pokemon could pull off something similar.

"Are you impressed?" Windra asked Esmeralda. "You should be. I don't get to use this technique a lot. It's really slow to get going and it requires some pretty precise aim on his part. But when it works," she said, grinning wider, "then watch out!"

"Oh, we will. Stone Edge!"

Tyranitar held out a hand, levitating one of the nearby rocks and focusing energy into it. Chomper didn't give him a chance to get further than that; he dashed towards Tyranitar with his tail held high, turned around, and delivered a single decisive swipe with the beam across his chest. Tyranitar immediately dropped the rock and fell to his knees, taken by surprise. He clutched the spot where Chomper had hit him as he looked at Esmeralda with real pain in his eyes, questioning how that attack could have hurt him so badly. Unfortunately for him, Chomper didn't give him a chance to get further than that, either; with another swing of his tail, Tyranitar was blown onto his back, and he ceased movement a short time later.

Esmeralda's look was one of calm concern, but her mental processes were going into overdrive trying to find data on this attack. Finding none, she smiled, the first emotion she'd shown since the battle started. "Tell me, Windra," she said as she recalled her Pokemon, "What sort of attack is that? I don't think I've ever seen it before."

"It's a mixture of Thunder and Iron Tail," Windra explained. "I don't know the magic behind it, but I think it infuses..."

Ah, so that's why it was so strong, Esmeralda deduced, ignoring the rest of Windra's explanation. It's both Electric- and Steel-type at once. No wonder Tyranitar was so badly damaged by it.

"...and so I decided to call it Thunder Sword. Pretty slick, huh?" Windra finished.

"Yes, dear. And now that I know the limitations of your attack, I've figured out how to defeat it. Come, Reuniclus!"

Reuniclus entered the fray, shifting his body parts inside his gelatinous body. He made a gurgling, hungry sound, and he was ready to do battle.

While she didn't know too much about Reuniclus, she did know that at Electric moves and Steel moves both worked perfectly fine on it. "Slice him down, Chomper!"

A grin slowly crept over Esmeralda's face. Just a few moments more...

Chomper dashed towards Reuniclus, sword tail ready to strike. He spun around with a slice, and panicked when Reuniclus simply shifted his body, causing the beam to miss all of his vital organs and simply pass harmlessly through him. Not expecting the attack to miss, it threw Chomper off balance, causing him to tumble to the ground. Scrambling to his feet, he tried again, but this time Reuniclus braced himself, causing Chomper's tail to get stuck inside Reuniclus's body.

"Agility, Chomper, get out of there!"

"Snatch it!" Esmeralda countered.

Chomper started to run, straining himself against Reuniclus's hold. Suddenly, Reuniclus's eyes flashed purple, causing Chomper to inexplicably cease his attack. Reforming an arm, Reuniclus dragged a flailing Chomper around the arena at high speed until finally releasing him, sending him sailing through the air and crashing into the wall. In pain, but still in the fight, Chomper got to his feet, awaiting his orders.

"Use Thunderbolt!" she commanded, and Chomper brought down his attack with expert precision, but Reuniclus's stolen speed allowed him to dodge it easily. As she tried formulating a plan, Windra grumbled under her breath, glad that there were no microphones around to pick it up. There was one thing she could try. It was a long shot, and if Esmeralda didn't go for it, she'd be back to square one, but she saw Reuniclus form a giant fist and make a rush towards Chomper, and she decided to go for it. "Use Agility to dodge that punch!"

Esmeralda immediately went for Windra's bait, much to Windra's surprise. "Snatch it again!"

Again, Chomper's attack was mysteriously halted, but Windra was planning on this. "Use Electro Ball!"

Chomper summoned a large ball of electricity and whipped it at Reuniclus using his tail; Reuniclus made to dodge it but found that the ball was homing in on his position. Panicking, Reuniclus turned tail and ran, hoping to outrun the attack, but the faster he moved, the faster the energy ball tracked him, and he was finally hit, knocking him off balance. He took a moment to get his bearings, and this gave Windra another idea. "Electro Ball again!"

A second attack was launched. Realizing she wouldn't be able to evade it, Esmeralda set out to mitigate the damage and then start healing. "Light Screen!"

Windra's mouth fell open slightly at the opening Esmeralda had left her. "That's even better! Volt Tackle, hurry!"

Chomper zoomed towards Reuniclus just as the Electro Ball made contact. While Reuniclus was recovering from the hit, Chomper leaped up and crashed into his soft body before he could rearrange himself, scoring a powerful hit and knocking the Pokemon out cold.

"Reuniclus is unable to battle," Ruby declared. "Chomper is the winner!"

The others cheered at the win, but Windra was understandably worried. Technically it was two against one, but one look at Chomper would tell you he didn't have much left in him. He was covered in scratches and bruises, his breathing terribly labored from his most recent attack. Esmeralda's third Pokemon wouldn't have much trouble taking the win. And while she knew Archeidon had a massive advantage against it, Archeidon was about to get annihilated by Stealth Rock. She sighed as Esmeralda recalled Reuniclus. She'd already done far better than she did against Lenny, so she didn't think she would be all that mad if she lost, but she still wanted to win, badly.

"Come, Cacturne!" Esmeralda shouted, sending her final Pokemon into the battle. "Pin Missile!"

"Agility, then Iron Tail, Chomper!"

Esmeralda's Cacturne pointed her arms towards Chomper and fired off a seemingly endless stream of needles, which Chomper was barely able to avoid thanks to the Agility. He leaped high, tail cloaked in metal and ready to strike, when Esmeralda changed tactics. "Spiky Shield!"

Bringing her arms close to her body, Cacturne's protective shield was up moments before Chomper landed; the outside of the shield then burst forth with dozens of large spikes, eliminating what little remained of Chomper's will to fight.

"Pikachu is no longer able to battle! The winner is Cacturne!"

Windra sighed. Well, this was it. Time to face the music. "Archeidon, go get 'em! Also I'm sorry for this!"

Windra's Archeidon materialized in the battle, and the rocks went to work. The closest ones to him glowed white, shooting rocky shrapnel into him. Archeidon screeched as the stones battered him, knocking him to the ground and cleaving a good chunk of his energy away. Esmeralda felt sorry for the Pokemon, but she was not about to give a Pokemon with such a large advantage against hers any reprieve. "Cotton Spore, Cacturne!" Cacturne opened her mouth wide, firing a seemingly endless stream of fluffy white cotton balls, with most of them covering Archeidon, impairing his movement and making it difficult to fly up. "Sandstorm!" she commanded, and Cacturne raised her arms up, summoning another vicious sandstorm while Archeidon was still reeling from the Stealth Rock damage.

Windra didn't like the idea of the sandstorm coming back, but at least she knew how to get rid of the cotton, the same method she used whenever a Pokemon was dumb enough to try and bind or otherwise restrain her Volcarona. "Fiery Dance, Kai!"

Immediately, Archeidon was engulfed in flames, burning the cotton into nothing and freeing up his wings. He surged towards Cacturne, who dodged the attack with a series of flips and slides.

"Silver Wind! End this fight, Kai!"

"I won't allow it! Sucker Punch!"

As Archeidon prepared his attack, Cacturne dashed at an alarming speed towards him; without stopping, she sprang up onto one of the grounded Stealth Rock pillars and did a soaring leap off of it, a needle-tipped arm raised high, cloaked in dark energy. She brought it down hard on Archeidon, forcing him to stop the attack just moments before he fired, but Cacturne was burned by the contact. Archeidon plummeted to the ground, the sandstorm quickly draining what little remained of his life. "Roost, Kai! Hurry up before it's too late!" Archeidon managed to alight himself on a fallen pillar, a soft white aura glowing around him. Cacturne, in pain from the burn, tried shooting a Pin Missile to stop the attack, but the damage it did was negligible, nowhere near enough to counteract the healing Archeidon was doing. "All right, Silver Wind, one more time!"

"Sucker Punch again!" Esmeralda commanded, and Cacturne quickly started running again; however, the pain from the burn was wracking her body, and it affected her running speed; as such, Archeidon finished the attack just as Cacturned jumped to strike, sending a massive wave of powdery scales in her direction. Even with the sandstorm boosting her ability to evade, the attack was far too large and powerful to avoid, and Cacturne was blown back into a pillar, obviously and decisively defeated.

"It's over! Cacturne can no longer do battle," Ruby said, amazement in her voice. She looked to Safiri in the stands, who was frantically scribbling notes. "The winner is Windra!"

"Awesome!" Windra exclaimed, pumping a fist. "Woooooo! Great job, Archeidon!"

She brought her Pokemon back into her Poke Ball as Esmeralda did the same, and Windra was confused by the look on Esmeralda's face. She seemed like her normal, cheerful self, further evidenced by the way she practically skipped over to Windra, hugging her tight before she could object. "You did it! I'm so happy for you! I knew you could do it."

"Yeah, we are pretty awesome, aren't we?" Windra bragged.

"I gotta say, Windra, I'm really impressed," Ruby admitted, returning Esmeralda's remaining Poke Balls to her. "Esmeralda is a lot stronger than she looks. Safiri and I didn't think you were going to win."

"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, Ruby," Windra deadpanned, rolling her eyes. "At least I won something around here... but man, I'm hungry. Yo Tsomu!" she called into the stands. "When's dinner?"

"Should be ready any minute now!" he called back. He would have loved to help, but the other chefs had no problems with letting him take a day off from helping to watch the battle.

"That's what I wanna hear!" Windra said, extracting herself from Esmeralda, barely noticing that she was still holding onto her. The other competitors must have had a similar idea, because they all filed out of the training hall, leaving the three Jewels of Tajna alone.

"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself," Safiri said, reading over her notes, a detailed account of the battle with some of her own thoughts. "I just don't get it, Esmeralda. How could you lose? None of their Pokemon should be anywhere near ours in terms of strength. That Volcarona has a power level of seventy, seventy-five maximum."

"Eighty-three, actually. I scanned it during our battle," Esmeralda said casually. "Pikachu is level seventy-two, and Paras is level sixty-eight."

Safiri's eyes widened in disbelief. "Sixty-eight! How in the world did a Pokemon like that land such a hit on a Pokemon almost a hundred and forty levels above it?"

"Because I let her win."

The eldest Jewel wrinkled her face in confusion, not having any idea what to make of Esmeralda's confession. "Wh-what? I don't understand, you let her win?"

"Yeah," she answered simply, sitting down and stretching her arms and legs. "Before the battle, I explained the situation to my Pokemon, and they all agreed to help me make it convincing. I also used inferior battle intelligence, just to make things even easier."

"But why?" Safiri asked, incredulous. "What could you possibly gain from throwing a match?"

"I don't gain anything from it," Esmeralda said, smiling. "But Windra does. We all knew Lenny was going to thrash her, even though his Pokemon are all lower in level than hers are. I just wanted to make her feel a little better about herself, that's all."

"She won't feel better when she finds out you let her win," Ruby noted.

Esmeralda crossed her legs. "Do you two plan on telling her?" When neither woman said anything, she continued. "Then she won't find out. You both heard the way she talked about herself. She has bad self-esteem issues. From what, I don't know, but what I do know is that I will do anything I can to see her smile."

"You like her," Safiri deduced. At Esmeralda's soft nod of admission, Safiri just shook her head in disbelief. "I knew it. Esmeralda, that's dangerous and you know it. I know I said Mr. Diamant's order was for us to build rapports with the subjects, but this is ridiculous!"

"I know, Safiri," Esmeralda quietly said. "I'm not going to say anything, I promise. And please don't tell Mr. Diamant."

"I have to tell him!" Safiri shouted, rising to her feet. "If he found out I kept something like this from him, he'd..." she trailed off as she imagined all manner of terrible scenarios.

"Now hold on, just a minute," Ruby said, taking one of Safiri's hands in hers. "There's no reason why he has to know. Esmy hasn't done anything wrong... yet," she added, glancing over at her little sister. "Besides, it's not like you haven't had lovers in the past."

"They weren't our test subjects, Ruby!" Safiri yelled, a bit too loudly. She looked to the door, seeing if anyone had happened to overhear. Finding no one, she continued. "That isn't the same and you very well know it. Mr. Diamant knew about both of them, in any case."

"You were in a relationship before?" Esmeralda asked, curious.

"It was before you were born," Safiri said. Saying they were 'born' was technically not accurate, as none of them were birthed naturally, but despite that, Diamant had still insisted on them referring to their creation date as their birthday. After all, he'd said, it was the day they came into this world, and if that wasn't the same as a birthday, then he didn't know what was.

"Something else you kept from me," the green-haired jewel muttered, but the superior hearing of her sisters heard her loud and clear anyway.

"Excellent segue, Esmy," Ruby said, sitting between her sisters and leaning back against the bleachers. "Long as we're here, we might as well have that meeting you promised, right, Safiri?"

Safiri looked at her watch. She had planned on using dinner to finalize some more details for next week's matches, but as long as they were here... she sighed, hating to waste the time, but she did say she'd talk to them, and it would make more sense to do it while they were all already there. Still, she had hoped to do it in her office; at least there, she'd be behind a desk, and not feel so terribly vulnerable. "I suppose we could, yes." Neither of her sisters said anything after this, and it took Safiri a moment to realize that they were waiting on her. "So, as you both know by now, two days ago, I was making my report to Mr. Diamant. I made a joke in poor taste, and he referred to me as S7, my designator number."

"What did you say?" Esmeralda asked, her voice full of concern.

Safiri opened her mouth, a dismissal on her lips, but she remembered that the entire reason she'd agreed to this meeting was to get her to stop doing things like that. "He complimented me, and asked what he would do without me. I said he could just make more." Ruby winced at that; Esmeralda merely looked saddened. "Don't look at me like that. I know it was a dumb thing to say, all right? I let my guard down. He gave me permission to speak freely, so I did."

"Freely doesn't mean break his cardinal rule, Safiri," Ruby admonished.

"I don't need you to tell me that!" she snapped back. "In all my time with Mr. Diamant, the only time he ever called me S7 was when we first met." She smiled as she recalled the memory. "He said, 'From this day forth, you will no longer be referred to, by me or anyone else, as S7. Your new name is Safiri May Kiter. You may not be completely human, but you're more than just a machine, and I won't tolerate anyone treating you as one,'" she finished.

"You have a middle name?" Esmeralda asked, envious. "I don't think I have one."

"Actually, yes, you do," Safiri corrected. "Ruby does, too, although your situation is a little different, Esmeralda. You have a designator number, but it's not like mine. Your designator number is actually your name. Mr. Diamant wanted us to feel as human as possible, so when designing you, he named the project after what he'd planned on naming you, just to get everyone used to calling you by your name."

"Project Ariel," Ruby said, remembering. "I got to pick your name," she said with a grin.

"Yes. And that was going to be your name, right up until about a month before you were to be born," Safiri continued. "Mr. Diamant realized his company needed a new image, and a new face to go with that image. So you were redesigned from the ground up to be more appealing to the average layman. It set us behind schedule a month or two, but Mr. Diamant insisted it would be worth it in the long run. Mr. Diamant also felt that you needed a different name, one that sounded a little more... mysterious. And since he felt bad about effectively terminating the life of a biot he had spent so much time building, you received that biot's name. Your full name, and your designator number, is Esmeralda Ariel Rayvenflight."

Esmeralda found herself moved to tears by Safiri's words, and she silently wiped them from her eyes. "I had no idea... wow."

"My story isn't nearly as interesting," Ruby chimed in. "There were no drastic redesigns involved with me, and if memory serves, my project was named Ruby as well, right?" She looked to Safiri for confirmation and, after getting it, turned to Esmeralda and offered her hand. "Ruby Kaylin Erthgrand. Nice to meet you."

Esmeralda giggled, shaking her big sister's hand. "Esmeralda Ariel Rayvenflight. The pleasure's all mine!"

"It feels nice, doesn't it?" Safiri asked, not at all sarcastic. "It feels nice to be treated no differently than the humans we masquerade as. He could have called us anything he wanted, made you two R1 and E1 and simply treated us as servants." Her face hardened. "Neither of you had to deal with Ms. Whitemore treating you like a slave."

"She was president before Mr. Diamant took over," Ruby explained to Esmeralda.

"Dawn Whitemore was a cruel and soulless bitch who didn't deserve that title," Safiri spat. "I spent two years with her before she was thrown out. Working under her and working under Mr. Diamant is like night and day. I didn't know any better back then, but I do now. I was essentially her slave, reduced to fulfilling menial tasks for her, not once being thanked or praised for the work I did, work I did without complaint, mind you." She paused, calming herself down before she continued. "Once a new Sapphire model was released, Ms. Whitemore would have the old model kill itself. Unknown to Mr. Diamant and the rest of the benefactors, Ms. Whitemore had suicide switches secretly installed on every model after she was found to have had a hand in murdering S1. Upon Ms. Whitemore activating a trigger, the biot would commit suicide. They didn't have to deal with it anymore and Ms. Whitemore would be absolved of any wrongdoing, killing two birds with one stone."

Esmeralda took this information in, horrified by the things Safiri was telling her. Suddenly, a terrible thought entered her head, and she jumped to her feet, unwilling to believe the logical answer her brain told her. "Wait, Safiri... you said that she installed suicide switches on every model." Tears threatened to spill over, but she had to know for sure. "Does that mean that..."

"Yes," Safiri confirmed, causing Esmeralda to burst into tears. "I have one, too. When Mr. Diamant took over, one of the first things that he did was order my suicide switch to be removed, but it ended up not being possible because the switch was not an actual switch but something that was hard-wired into our code. But please don't worry about it," she said, hugging Esmeralda as she bawled. "Mr. Diamant has my trigger under lock and key back at the main office, with a fingerprint scan required to unlock it. As for you two, the suicide code was erased once it was found, so neither of you two have it. Okay?"

For a time, none of the women said anything as Safiri continued to hold her sister. When Esmeralda finally stopped crying, they sat down again, but Esmeralda continued keeping her arm around Safiri. "So you thought that Mr. Diamant might kill you over the comment you made?" Esmeralda asked.

"No, nothing so drastic," Safiri clarified. "But Mr. Diamant means a great deal to me. He opened my eyes to a way of life I never would have known existed, had he not taken over. I made a promise to myself that I would do everything in my power to pay his kindness back in full, no matter what. I even offered to bear his child."

Ruby's eyes widened at that. "Safiri! You can't be serious!"

Safiri straightened in her seat, folding her hands across her lap. "I was very serious. I believed that with my superior DNA, I would bear him a fine child. I didn't offer for romantic reasons, Ruby, but you know he has no children of his own." When this seemed to quiet Ruby down, she continued. "He was not comfortable with the idea. He said he viewed me as a daughter, and it would not be appropriate. I told him I didn't understand and didn't care, but he was firm. He also cited the lack of information on our ability to bear children, since we were not designed with that aspect in mind. He didn't want to put either my life or the life of the child in danger. Compared to normal humans, our genes are excellent. We should be compatible, but he forbade me from researching it any further. I told him I would always be open if he changed his mind; he said he wouldn't, but he appreciated my loyalty nonetheless.

"I promised myself that I wouldn't do anything to endanger my relationship with him. He's so different from Ms. Whitemore... when we get to talking, it's hard for me to remember that he is my boss, and not just a dear friend." A pause as she breathed deeply, trying to rein in tears that were making their way to the surface. "I hurt him. Breaking his cardinal rule was a slap in the face to everything he's ever done for me, and it pains me to no end knowing how much I hurt him."

Ruby sat on the other side of her older sister and hugged her as Esmeralda did the same. "He apologized, didn't he?"

Safiri nodded. "Yes, of course. He said he was out of line. I believe he was sincere in his apology."

A squeeze from the red-haired beauty by her side. "Then leave it at that. He knows what you had to endure under Ms. Whitemore, and he knows how hard you work for him. And based on what you've said, he also knows how much you regret saying what you did, so there's no sense in beating yourself up any more over it. You forgive him, he forgives you - life goes on. Right?"

"Right!" Esmeralda cheered, wrapping her other arm around Ruby and squeezing them both tight. "You said yourself, Mr. Diamant loves you like his own daughter. He just wants us all to feel human, even though we're not."

"I know. It's just..." Safiri sighed, trying to think of the right words. "I feel guilty. It was such a boneheaded thing to say... The second I said it, I knew I'd messed up. I just can't get over how reckless it was."

"You wouldn't be you if you could," Ruby reminded her. "The fact that you feel those emotions at all just drives home the point that at the end of the day, we're mostly human. Do you feel better now, having talked about it with us?"

Safiri considered. She wasn't surprised to learn that yes, she did feel a little better. It didn't take the sting of disappointing her boss away, but having her sisters around, sisters who at least understood and could relate to her viewpoint, dulled the pain a little. She smiled, wrapping an arm around each sister and hugging her in turn. "Yeah. I'm sorry for making you guys fuss over me." She looked at the notes she'd taken of Esmeralda's battle. "I guess none of this means anything anymore, huh?"

"Eh, I guess not. I'm sorry for not telling you girls about it," Esmeralda apologized. "I just wanted to do something for Windra, on my own, you know?"

"Just be careful," Ruby warned. "Don't jeopardize the project for your feelings."

"I won't," Esmeralda said solemnly, putting a hand over her heart. "She doesn't feel anything for me, anyway."

As she said that, the doors to the training area opened. Kyro bounded in, excited to get some more practice in, followed by Thresher, who noticed the three sisters holding council. "Sorry, are we interrupting?" he called, causing Kyro to stop in his tracks and notice them. "Just lookin' to keep a promise I made to the lad, but we can come back another time if you need the space."

"Not at all, Mr. Fessco, we were just leaving," Safiri replied warmly as she made her way to the floor, recognizing her opportunity to escape sister time. "Please, enjoy yourselves." Straightening her skirt and jacket, she briskly walked away before Ruby or Esmeralda could find a reason to object.

"You two gonna have a battle?" Ruby asked, excitement in her voice. "Want me to officiate?"

"I don't mind," Thresher shrugged, looking to his opponent. "Whadaya say, Kyro? Shall we make it real official like?"

"That would be awesome!" Kyro exclaimed, running up to Ruby and shaking her hand. "Thank you, Miss Ruby!"

He ran to his spot on the other side of the battlefield, a seemingly bottomless well of energy, and Ruby couldn't help but admire that about him. Were all kids as energetic as he was? Thresher took his place nearby, and Ruby looked him over. Catching his eye, he smiled at her, as if noticing she was staring but not caring that she did. He took a few moments to do some stretches, and Ruby watched as his toned muscles flexed with each movement. She made a note to contact Thresher after the tournament was over. If he didn't have someone at home waiting for him...

"Enjoying yourself?" a voice asked. Ruby turned to see Esmeralda, arms crossed, eyebrow raised, with a knowing look on her face.

"Yep," Ruby said with a wink, causing Esmeralda to roll her eyes. "Don't worry about me."

"Sure, sure," Esmeralda said dismissively. "Have fun, you three. I think I'm going to turn in for the night."

After she left, Ruby turned to the two battlers. "Tournament rules okay?" she asked, turning to each man in turn. After both agreed, she raised a hand towards each of them. "Then begin!"

* * * * * * * *

After another tasty dinner, Scarlet had retired early to her room. She quickly checked to make sure that yes, both of her notes were received, and prepared herself for what she hoped was going to be a magical night. As she sat soaking in the bathtub, she wondered if Rose was even going to show up. In hindsight, leaving a note that essentially amounted to a proposition for sex was a horrible idea, especially since she'd made no attempt at hiding the contents of said note. The fact that she hadn't had time was of little consolation to her; she could only hope that Rose had received it quickly, and anyone else who happened to pass by just minded their own business.

Scarlet reached for some shampoo and realized, with little surprise, that she hadn't planned on what to do if Rose did show up. What if she showed up, but just wanted to be friends? What if she showed up and didn't want to be friends, that she'd somehow been offended by her request and now hated her? She stopped mid-scrub, shaking those bad thoughts out of her head. She decided that, just for tonight, she'd only think positively.

After she'd finished, she browsed her wardrobe, thinking of what to wear. Thinking positively, she decided that less was more, and slipped her favorite nightgown over her head. It was the same color as her name, and it fit her nicely. She looked herself over in the mirror, adjusted herself and made sure everything was just so. She barely started brushing her still-damp hair when a knock was heard at her door.

This is it, she thought, her pulse quickening. Are you ready?

Scarlet put her brush down, went over to the door, grabbed the handle. She inhaled deeply, letting it out slowly as she pulled it open. In front of her was Windra, in a tank top and pajama pants, and she looked... determined, Scarlet decided. "Oh, hey, Windra. What's up?"

Windra shocked her by pushing her way into her room, forcing Scarlet to step backwards, and closing the door behind her. "Hey," was all she said, backing Scarlet towards the wall. Scarlet was stunned into silence, not knowing what was happening, but a part of her wasn't complaining about the intrusion either. Scarlet gasped as Windra grabbed her by the hips, pulling her forward and crushing their lips together.

"Mmmmhm???" came Scarlet's confused reply as Windra continued kissing her hard and fast, moving her hands to Scarlet's rear. She squeezed, causing Scarlet to gasp in response, and Windra used this opportunity to force her tongue into the younger girl's mouth.

Wait a second, Scarlet wanted to say, but the words never made it out. Windra let out a moan as Scarlet put her hands on Windra's hips, intent on pushing her away, but to Scarlet's surprise, it didn't happen. Finally, Windra broke the kiss, moving instead to Scarlet's neck, nipping at the clean skin there.

Her mouth free at last, Scarlet started her objection. "Windra wait what are you - ah!" Scarlet gasped as Windra sucked on her skin. "Don't do that, you're going to - oh, yes, that's much better," she finished after Windra started making long strokes there with her tongue. "But wait, what are you doing here?"

"Taking what's mine," Windra answered, giving Scarlet's rear a squeeze and pulling her in to emphasize this. "You don't have to say anything... unless you're screaming my name, that is."

And god, how she wanted to. Scarlet could feel herself getting more aroused with every passing moment, and she wanted nothing more than for Windra to march her over to that bed and force her to submit, but her brain gave her pause. Instead, she continued kissing Windra, as she argued with herself, conveniently ignoring that Windra was getting much bolder with her hands and was slowly pulling Scarlet away from the wall.

This isn't Rose.

No kidding.

Didn't you just decide that you were not going to get involved with Windra? What happened to your note? What if Rose shows up?

Maybe Windra decided she likes me after all. And if Rose really was coming, she would have been here already, right?

Her brain had barely registered Windra gently pushing Scarlet onto her bed. This is wrong. This should be Rose, not her. Are you prepared to live with this?

This question gave Scarlet just enough pause to stop Windra, who'd just tossed her shirt across the room and was working on removing Scarlet's gown. "Wait. Windra, wait," she said more sternly when Windra didn't. "This is all so fast, and-"

"And you've been hot for me ever since that day in my room," Windra finished for her, straddling her the way Windra imagined Scarlet had during her visit. She noticed that the gown was the same color, but she filed that information away for later. As turned on as she was, she didn't want to waste any more time. There was far too much talking already and not enough them being naked. Hoping that would be the end of Scarlet's objection, she again started to remove Scarlet's gown. "Don't worry. I'll be as gentle - or as rough - as you want me to be," she whispered hungrily into Scarlet's ear, licking at her earlobe. She ground herself on Scarlet, causing the girl beneath her to moan loudly into her hands. Windra chuckled as she did it again, grabbing Scarlet's hands and pinning them above her head, forcing a panting Scarlet to pinch herself to stop herself from making the same noise again. "Let's make magic, Scarlet."

And with that, the candle that was Scarlet's resistance was finally snuffed out. Whatever Windra's feelings for Scarlet were, whatever Scarlet's feelings for Rose were, they could certainly wait until morning. Scarlet broke free from Windra's grip and sat up long enough to toss her nightgown to the floor at the side of her bed. "Abracadabra," she said to a grinning Windra, pulling her back down onto the bed.
 
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Actually, I lied. Next up is Interlude 3, which focuses on Frisk and Chara, and their relationship with one another. It also will answer the question, "Where'd Frisk go?" Chronologically, it takes place immediately after chapter 6, which is why I'm writing it before chapter 7.
 
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