Present…

"How is the levee holding up?" Amara asked, her face wrinkled with concern. Ravin's expression didn't look good. He fiddled with the standard-issue Ranger radio strapped to his waist.

"Came close at high tide yesterday. You can't hold back the sea, Amara."

"And what about the Last Resort?"

Ravin sighed. "You know I can't talk about the Last Resort."

Amara turned away, frustrated. "The seas are driving the regions apart. Don't let them destroy us, too."

But as the months dragged on, it became clear the Rangers were fighting an indomitable wave of advancing destruction, a danger so stealthy that years had passed, years of imperceptibly slow erosion and culmination of power in the dark underbelly of the city.

It wasn't until the first floods, the first waves lapping at buildings which had stood resolute for centuries, that people were forced to stop and look around – at themselves, at their lives, and values, and choices.

And Amara guessed. She tore herself apart in the lonely hours of the night, weaving alternate realities in her head, worlds after every Last Resort her mind would alight on. She could no longer concentrate on the mundane everyday cuts and scrapes at the Pokemon Centre when she knew the very ground beneath her was shifting.

And Ravin was never home anymore.

Amara would sing to the stars in the night, willing the seas to rest and bring her lover back to her.

"I can no longer bear it," Amara said one night to her pokemon companion. "The last update from Ravin shows him far out in Maskara Channel. Will you come along and keep me safe, Masking?"

Disguising herself as a Ranger, Amara hired a small boat the next day, and her imposing Empirilla struck confidence into the hearts of those who saw her off.

The seas were choppy, and the small motored dinghy struggled to power through. But at long last on the horizon rose the cluster of islands where she knew she would find him. Neither ninja nor pirate had accosted her on the long journey – she knew it was fate that she should reach him.

Her voice rang clear in the cold night air as she sang to him…

But the water had begun to boil, first a slight bubbling, now a ferocious seething of the waves as something from deep below tossed the ocean into tumultuous disarray.

A mere hundred feet from the shore, Amara was locked terrified to the wheel of her boat as the huge writhing form of the sea monster Baitatao rose from the churning water. It let out a deathly roar which seemed to rend the very fabric of space.

"What are you doing?!" a voice from the shore bellowed towards her. "Get back to the beach, now! That's an order, Ranger!"

Amara's usually might voice had deserted her.

"Ravin…" she whispered, as the mighty legendary threw itself towards her.

"Tell you Empirilla, use Protect!" Ravin roared, reaching into his bag for a pokeball.

Protect, the regulation fourth move of all Ranger companions.

As Ravin's Yatagaryu uncoiled its powerful body and storm clouds rolled in overhead, Amara folded to the floor of her boat and huddled against her Masking, the newly fallen cold ran biting through her thin jacket.

The ocean beast Baitatao raised its giant head from the sea one final time, poised in sweeping, terrifying glory above the stricken boat.

"Yatagaryu, use Thunder!" Ravin ordered, and the dragon screeched, the clouds responded in unison with a deafening crack of colliding air masses and a brilliant flash of electricity exploded from the centre of the storm, forcing a hundred thousand volts into the body of the ocean beast.

The water surface around it started to boil afresh as power ran through its skin, and the boat was consumed in the ensuing cauldron, sucked into a vortex which gained horrifying speed as the howling beast sank back down into its watery domain.

Ravin was already in the water as the vortex died down, but it was too late… there was no sign of the boat, or the Ranger and her pokemon.

Ravin shook his head, dripping in the rain storm, crouched on hands and knees on the beach. "I'm sorry!" he called. "I'm sorry, friend!"

He was answered by only the thunder.

Project Last Resort was abandoned the very next day. Ravin and his team held a short service on the beach in Maskara Channel, and returned defeated to Venesi City.

But as they drew closer to the town, Ravin's eyes grew wide. The huge curving levee which sheltered the city from powerful easterly tides… sat high and dry on an ancient coastline long since submerged. The saltwater canals which had threatened to swallow streets and houses had shrunk back to their historical levels, tamed into submission.

"It worked," Ravin said incredulously, hardly daring to believe it himself. "We did it!" Disbelieving, joyful laughter rose up amongst the Rangers, and they hugged each other in relief and gratitude.

Ravin rushed home immediately. "Amara darling!" he called as he ran in through the door. "Amara, the water is gone!"

But alas, on the mantelpiece, a handwritten note… "I have gone to find my love. Don't wait for me. – Amara"

Shaking with disbelief and worry, Ravin ran to the dockside. The boat hire clerk sat smoking on the wooden pier. "You have tamed the beast, Ravin," he said in greeting with a crinkled smile.

"Have you seen Amara? She said she was coming to find me," Ravin babbled, consumed with anxiety.

The old man shook his head sadly. "No, Ravin. She wasn't here." And after a period of silence, "But she must have made it. It's said Baitatao will only appear to the one acting out of great unconditional love for another. It's drawn to this emotion it cannot feel."

Tears ran down Ravin's face.

"Did a female ranger with an Empirilla pass by yesterday?"

The old man's face lit up. "Why, yes… You don't mean to tell me…" He trailed off in horror.

Ravin turned to face the sea. "My love… Though the city has been saved, I can feel no happiness. I pray the fishes treat you with the affection you deserve, more than I ever could provide to you."

Ravin sang to the ocean, and in the gentle lapping of the waves, Amara sang back.