The Enigma Chronicles: Echoes

by Rocketlord6485

An origin story that explores Metsuma Rocket's rise to power and the secrets that surround his life. Set within the Giovanni Chronicles continuity, this dark and elaborate tale of a young sociopath trying to juggle two very different worlds is full of mystery and intrigue. Rated M for language, violence, mild drug abuse, and some sexual situations. [CURRENTLY ON HIATUS]

21. Blink Once

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The Enigma Chronicles – Echoes

Chapter 21: Blink Once

"Oh, honey, isn't this just the most adorable little town?", Maria gushed up ahead, leaving me to trawl the luggage around while she took in all of Alamos Town's sights and sounds. Her focus gathered at the distant twin spires spangling in the morning light, and she let out a ravished gasp. "Oh, I can't wait to take a tour of the Space-Time Towers!"

I simply nodded and smiled, not that she was paying much mind to me anyway. She was far too rapt in her own little world, eagerly frolicking from one the street to the next. I couldn't very well complain. Aside from lugging around two suitcases, my only job was to feign an equal measure of awe, as if I hadn't visited this city a dozen times before; as if I hadn't spent my entire boyhood living in this hellhole.

"I've never seen houses so antique!", she continued blathering, observing the old world scenery around her. "And just look at that authentic cobblestone!"

"I thought you might like it," I exhaled, rounding the building corner after her. That's when I saw it, at last. The sumptuous bed-and-breakfast stood termless just one block apart from us, and I dropped the suitcases down on the cobblestone in front of me, silently laying eyes upon my childhood home-turned-boarding house.

It barely resembled a manor anymore, the fire having reduced it to something bare bones and indistinguishable. Refurbished from stone, with thatched awnings and crystal clear windows, it was still an impressive two-story complex; but with a more homey, unassuming feel to it. There were no extravagant adornments spotting the exterior, no metal gates enclosing the estate. No fountains or furnishings, no manicured lawns, nothing that indicated luxury of any sort. And I liked it.

Too caught up in just about everything else to even glance at the boarding home, Maria knelt beside me and brushed her fingers against the colorful shales embedded beneath her feet. "If we ever have kids someday, we ought to raise them here," she sighed dreamily, before quickly bouncing back into motion again. "I mean, can you imagine growing up in a town as quaint and suburban as this?"

"Not even if I tried," I quipped quietly to myself. I grabbed the suitcases on either side of my feet and proceeded across the cobble street towards the house, indicating with my chin, "Let's go check in at the counter inside."

…...

The doors opened to the inn's main hall, smoke-stained rafters supporting a high roof, with narrow windows casting strips of light through the air. The hall was full of small square tables, each of them empty, and a narrow hearth ran along the center of the floor. A lone man behind a counter waited at its length, staring us both down with a smile normal people might deem creepy.

"Good day, sir and ma'am," he extended kindly, tilting his hat at us.

"Good day," I returned politely, approaching the counter. "I called earlier this morning about booking your best room?"

He glanced down at what must have been a guest list. "Ah, yes! Mr. Rocket!" His eyes lit up excitedly. "We'll take your luggage up to your room right away!" He snapped his fingers and a zippy pair of Aipom scuttled into the room the very next moment, retrieving out suitcases with their anomalous, three-fingered tails.

They were out of sight and mind the following instant, and the bellboy stepped around the counter to greet us properly. "We're awful grateful you chose to quarter here for your vacation," he thanked through his panting enthusiasm. "To be quite frank, you're the first guests we've had in a long time."

Maria tilted her head curiously to one side. "Oh?", she crooned in that irritating, silky sweet voice of hers. "I'm surprised you don't get more business. It's a lovely inn."

He leaned in and murmured, "Well, a lot of people are still spooked by this place, ever since the fire."

Maria stiffened beside me. "T— The fire?"

He nodded and tilted his head back in some ponderous proviso, "I reckon it was about three decades ago to the month."

I narrowed my eyes in a deeply fixated state. Ever since unraveling my origins, I had never even considered what the town must have thought when the venerated, revered Kyden family so tragically perished in that mysterious fire. The one I had started before chasing after the Maestro on his foolish, short-lived inquisition.

"Before this place was a boarding house," he continued promptly after organizing the events in his mind, "it was home to a wealthy couple and their boy—the Kydens, I believe the family was called. Descendants of the town's original founder. Anyhow, the manor burnt down after a fire broke out, taking the lives of everyone inside."

"That's terrible," Maria gasped, looking to me for sympathy. I nodded my head in agreement, naturally.

"Sure was," he drawled on. "Investigators discovered the remains of two of the three Kydens." He swallowed eerily before uttering, "The boy's remains were never found though."

"How curious," I remarked with intrigue, letting my real self seep through the mask for just one fleeting second. "What do you suppose happened him?"

"Can't say for sure," he said, shaking his head. "Still, awful strange coincidence how the boy vanished right around the time his folks died." His beady eyes tilted upward, "You gotta figure something fishy was going on in this here house."

"I suppose your tenants feel the same," I pretended to infer, despite knowing better. There were no other guests in the house, I could sense it clearly.

"They're afraid of what happened here all those years ago, not to mention what still could happen," he revealed in an exceedingly tight voice. "If that boy's still out there somewhere, he's a man now. And if he decides to pay a visit for old time's sake, Arceus only knows what he's capable of."

"It's an unsettling thought, to be sure," I agreed through a flattered smirk I couldn't help but conjure.

"D— Do you often tell this story to your guests?", Maria mewled at the bellboy in a clearly shaken voice.

"Only the ones who ask," he replied with a shrug, then touched his finger to his lip. "Come to think of it, that's usually everyone."

Maria swallowed, visibly spooked. "I'm starting to see why this place is so empty."

"Maria, we'll be fine," I chuckled innocently, turning to comfort her.

"M-Maybe we should find another inn to stay at," she implored so pathetically, it almost warranted pity. I wasn't going to cater to it though. The longer she stayed in this ghoulish boarding house, the sooner she'd want to return home. And I only needed the day to visit with Darukai anyway. Any more time spent here past that was wasted time.

"Hey, look at me," I cooed, gently pulling her aside for a private, tender moment. "You don't have to be afraid, alright?"

She whimpered skeptically. She tightened her mouth to a thin line, shoulders hunched forward.

"That boy is long gone," I assured her, the flatness of my palms finding her cheeks. I leaned in and gave her a kiss on the bridge of her nose. That almost never failed.

Swayed by the gesture, as expected, she managed a subdued smile. "Okay," she ceded, clinging to my right arm like a petrified little girl. "But in case he's not, I'll be hanging on to your arm the entire vacation for safe measure!"

I affected a laugh, gently prying her off of me. "Don't let some silly story keep you from enjoying yourself," I whispered, brushing my fingers through her hair. "I can always find ways to distract you, if I must."

She blushed bright red, giggling, "I like the way you think."

"Ehem," the counter boy cleared his throat beside us.

Taking the hint, I gave her a second kiss and pointed her towards the stairs. "Go on up to the room and unpack for us."

She tilted her head at me, floored. "Where are YOU going?"

"I saw daycare center across town when we arrived," I bullshitted. "I want to leave Zangoose there since I'll be otherwise occupied these next few days, if you know what I mean." I winked and again she blushed.

"Oh, I like the sound of that." She winked back, then eyed the lone Pokéball through the hem of my jacket. "What about your Gengar?"

Prepared for that question, I duped her yet again, "Oh, I left Gengar back in Kanto to keep an eye on the house for us. After those hooligans shot up our windows, I couldn't take any chances."

"You know, that brilliant brain of yours never ceases to impress." She grinned wildly, indicating the door behind me with a slight tilt of her chin. "Hurry back."

Without needing to be told twice, I rushed out of the inn with an extra spring in my step.

Once outside, I quietly made my way around the side of the house, stepping into a shady spot beneath some apple trees. It was fairly out of sight so I was confident Darkrai would be comfortable enough appear to me.

My faith was rewarded within seconds when the hourglass Pokémon materialized from the shadows, clearly keener than I was to return to the crypts beneath the town.

"Always so eager to begin," I huffed, meeting the dreamweaver's insidious blue eyes. "Well, go ahead. Get on with it."

The Pokémon rushed at me like a blur and my world became black in an instant.

…...

That familiar darkness enveloped me, pressing at me from all sides. I floated weightlessly through the unconscious depths of my mind until finally stalling in some abstract void of nothingness. That was where Darukai shimmered into view, his expression as adamant as always, the folds of his signature black robes lapping all around him like phantom waves.

"I trust my physical body is safe inside the mausoleum?", I inquired straightaway, descending in front of him.

His leering eyes glowed softly in the darkness like lanterns. "Do you think me foolhardy enough to leave your sleeping body out in the streets?", he muttered distantly after nearly a full minute. "Your wife would not appreciate finding you like that, I imagine." He frowned. "Bold of you to bring her along, by the way."

"It's in my best interest, if I'm ever going to inherit Briskomy someday," I reminded him. "I need to keep up appearances."

He gave an expressionless nod. "It sounds as though you finally have your priorities in check."

"Oh, but you haven't even heard the rest yet," I found myself bragging without even fully realizing. "I won Anna back, just as you counseled. Calypso, meanwhile, is but a shell of his former self now that I've repurposed his precious crime syndicate. And as we speak, the Soul Robber case is drawing to an end. All the pieces are finally falling into place."

"What of your apprentice?", he grilled me silently, as if nothing else even remotely mattered.

I heaved in mild frustration, "Can't you just be happy with what I've accomplished so far?"

"I am here to guide you, not laud you," he denounced pointedly.

Having nothing else to stall him with, I conceded in a rattled breath, "I have decided to spare Cayman for the time being."

"The longer you wait, the more powerful he grows," he urged with a wary shake of his head. It seemed like he relished pestering me about this particular subject.

I shook my own head, maintaining in a steely voice, "He's not a threat to me."

"There's that impudence again," he scoffed simply, as if to a child. "Do we have to revisit the first three chasms, Metsuma?"

"I'm not being impudent, I'm being realistic," I said haltingly. "And just because I'm sparing his life does not mean I'm ready to give him a second chance." I grinned. "There's only one way to truly test his allegiance."

"If you say so," he let it go with a mere shrug, though something told me he wouldn't actually let this one get away from him. I had to admire his determination, at least. It was possibly the one family trait we shared in common.

I folded my arms over my chest in a tempestuous manner. "As much as I enjoy our banter, ancestor, I'm really rather eager to pick up where we left off last time."

"As am I," he whispered, gesturing an astral hand to the dark plains stretching for miles in front of us. "Perhaps the wisdom you obtain today will help you to reevaluate your decision regarding Cayman." He smirked ghoulishly, "Of course, that's assuming you are indeed able to conquer the remaining Chasms."

I quirked a brow at him in bemusement, taking offense with the remark. "You still doubt me? Even now?"

He frowned slightly, then urged with another indicative hand gesture, "Less talking, Metsuma; more focusing."

I turned from him in compliance and stared out to the abyss, wondering out loud, "What am I focusing on exactly?"

"Everything," he cooed into my ear, just as the landscape began to morph in front of me. "Everything, and nothing."

…...

Back in Eden's quarters, Eisen lay flat on his back in the bed of the young Fabula, covered head to torso in bandages and gauze. The attack earlier that morning had rendered he and his Breloom paralyzed and hamstrung, yet through the power of the Aura, they were slowly but surely creeping their way to a sure recovery. With any luck, the other bedridden Adepts downstairs would pull through as well.

Eden sank to Eisen's bedside, a pit of guilt pooling in her stomach for her crippled comrade. "I've failed you, Eisen," she whimpered tearfully, clutching the wounded man's limp hand. "I can't even begin to express how sorry I am."

The Aura Adept turned his head with a slight wince, trying his very hardest to muster a smile for her. He didn't want her to apologize; and while he couldn't very well say it, he did his best to sign it with his twitching fingers.

Eden threw a bitter glance over her shoulder, briefly eyeing Gaius hovering behind her as well as the two Golurks posted at the doors. "I should have listened to Sadow," she murmured loud and crossly enough for the entire room to hear. "This place is dangerous."

"This was an isolated incident," Gaius insisted, placing a feathery hand over Eden's tense shoulder. "My people are gentle and harmless."

Eden shook her head dismissively, ignoring his assurances and squeezing Eisen's hand tighter. "As soon as I've rescued Virizion and the others, we leave Unova for good."

Gaius gave a frustrated huff. "Eden, I promise you we will find whoever did this and punish them accordingly. Trust me when I say I feel just as betrayed as you, if not more so."

Rising promptly to her feet, Eden spun to her host with a glare that could melt steel. "Tell me then, Gaius: who in this gentle, harmless community of yours would conspire to steal my Legendary Pokémon?"

"As I said, I will find out who," the posh Pokémopolitan assured, threading his fingers through her satiny red hair. "Until then, remain here and tend to your wounded."

Eden watched him retreat to the door before finally stamping her foot down in outrage. "I will not simply wait around for the truth of this catastrophe to come to light!"

"You will not have to wait long," he promised in a slick voice, blowing her a kiss. "I will return before long."

…...

The cockpit rocked and tottered as the TTD-01 began its ascent from underground. Viper bucked forward in the pilot's seat, flipping the series of switches on the control board in front of him. "We're coming up on the Viridian Forest," he muttered over his shoulder to Simon. "I'll try and surface somewhere remote so we won't be spotted."

The red glow of the chronometer lighted Simon's face as he stepped from the shadows and blurted, "Who's going to spot us in the deepest, densest part of the Viridian Forest anyway?"

"Fair enough," Viper mumbled from his chair, glimpsing over the scanners and giving the brake binders a firm tug. "The trees alone should provide more than enough cover anyway." Viper turned his head askew, passing an indicative nod Simon's way.

The young ranger could barely make out Viper's face through the gnarled shadows hanging over the both of them. Everything was dark, the screen built into the underside of the cockpit hood blacked out from the shortage of power. The cockpit was tight and cramped, uncomfortably like a coffin; it took every ounce of training and control for him not to hyperventilate from claustrophobia.

Viper gave another head gesture, this time more pronounced and less patient. Simon managed to perceive this one, fortunately, and rushed out of the cockpit to collect his gear. He plucked the harness off the metal support beam outside and started towards the ladder, but the vehicle jolted to an abrupt halt around him, throwing his balance. He tumbled and face-planted into the corridor floor, his equipment spilling out on metal grates in front of him.

Viper then stepped calmly into the corridor, looking down in disfavor as the boy clumsily scrambled to pick up his belongings. This was going to be a long day, he foresaw.

Regaining both his bearings and belongings, Simon again moved toward the ladder that led to the tank's external hatch.

"Not so fast," Viper suspended him mid-climb. "I haven't even debriefed you on the mission."

Simon nodded, sliding back down the length of the latter. "Oh, uh, right," he chuckled somewhat tensely, scratching the back of his head. "I guess I'm just a bit anxious to get started."

The commandant snorted once, then proceeded to give the rundown. "The Pokémon we've been tasked with capturing is called Shiftry— "

"Shiftry aren't native to Kanto," Simon heedlessly interjected. "Heck, they're rarely even found in the general wild."

Viper let the interruption pass, instead treating the boy to a glacial look. "Then you understand why we mustn't fail to capture it," he growled, like an ominous warning. "Your future hangs on whether or not you complete this assignment successfully. Remember that."

"Believe me," Simon murmured, nervously wetting his lips, "it's not easy to forget."

Viper stalked past Simon, retrieving his own gear from the hook nearby. He reached inside his satchel and fished out a single Pokéball. "Take this."

"Why?", Simon hesitated, just staring blankly at the object in the older boy's hand.

"Because," Viper explained rigidly, "in case we run into problems, you might need more than one Pokémon handy."

"Oh," the young scout slurred. "Uh, thank you." After another handful of reluctant seconds, he reached out and accepted the gift.

Without any further delay, Viper climbed up the ladder and out the hatch. Simon snapped the loaned Pokéball to his belt and quickly followed his commanding officer up and out of the transport.

…...

The potent smell of wet earth and musty trees filled Simon's senses as he pulled himself out of the hatch. All the rumors and superstitions he'd heard from his fellow scouts raided through his mind. "Take heed when journeying into the Viridian Forest," his brother Barton had recited for him one night. "Danger dwells within. Travelers that wander through it alone, without companions or Pokémon to safeguard them, are never seen or heard from again."

Simon hopped down to the sodden ground below, sharing in Viper's scrutiny of the vast, nebulous forest. The presence of the hanging mist within the trees was nearly palpable, more of a morose fog than a mist. Bug-Type Pokémon chirped and buzzed from branch to branch, and menacing red eyes of Pokémon unknown glared down at them from the thick, rustling canopies above.

Simon stood silently, taking in every detail of his surroundings as the wispy fog curled around them. "We should stick close to each other," he muttered aside to Viper. "It's fairly easy to get lost in a forest this large."

Viper shot him a dirty look. "You think I don't know that?"

The older boy's hostile tone startled Simon. "I— I didn't mean it like that, sir," he attempted desperately to backpedal on his words. "It's just... I'm familiar with the wilderness. I grew up in it, is all."

"You also lived in fear of it your entire life," Viper growled through clenched teeth, then shouldered past him. "I know all about you, so don't think you can fool me."

Simon stared down at his boots in shame, the eerie environment suddenly no longer bothering him.

The pensive silence that carried between them was enough to make Viper' rethink his attitude, and the commandant turned around with a labored huff. "I realize that was uncalled for," he apologized in his most professional tone, prompting Simon to look up. "I just don't like being talked down to. You'd do well to remember that."

"I will," Simon croaked, trying to smile.

"Good." Viper slung his satchel over his shoulder and continued in the intended direction, the mud squishing under his footfalls. "Then let's begin tracking our fugitive Pokémon. Should we wander too far from the drill, we can use my Venonat's radar eye to find our way back."

Simon attached his own gear to his back, then followed after his superior without a peep. The smile rooted to his face was undeniable though. The fact that Viper had the decency to apologize was a good omen, and it gave him hope that they could somehow bury the hatchet. He had managed to befriend Cayman on an expedition not so different from this, after all. Who was to say he couldn't work the same miracle twice?

…...

Cayman, stuck on the cold examination table in scant else but his boxers and undershirt, heaved a chafing sigh and shuddered as the chill of the table tingled his legs. When he arrived in the infirmary on Metsuma's orders, he had expected a quick, routine medical checkup. What he had received instead was a lengthy, disobliging search for some non-existent byproduct of radioactivity.

Nurse Joy pushed through the curtain behind him and slipped a stethoscope on, adjusting it until the ear pieces seemed to fit most comfortably. Noticing, Cayman rolled his eyes and slipped off his top with a boorish grunt. "Seriously, you already took vital signs, ultra sounds, x-rays, and blood tests. How much more of this shtick do I have to suffer through?"

"Chansey's sorting through the test results in the back room", Joy assured him, moving next to the examination table. "Please be patient in the meantime." Joy brought the diaphragm of the stethoscope to his chest, pressing it into place and listening intently. "Breathe in deep, please, and hold."

Following another malcontent grunt, he did as he was told and inhaled accordingly.

"Oh?", she vocalized, taken aback by his uncharacteristic compliance. "I was expecting a bit more lip than that."

He emptied his lungs just enough to answer, "Yeah, well, count yourself lucky Viper's got a massive crush on you or I wouldn't be as soft."

"How considerate of you," she sighed listlessly.

"Although, fair warning," he sucked in another curt breath, "he's not exactly a catch in the romance department."

"Well, you're not much better, especially after what you tried to pull that night you threw your little party." She frowned, indicating his lap with a gentle nod of her eyes.

He fidgeted uncomfortably on the table, plagued with embarrassed laughter. "Er, you're not going to tell him about that, are you?"

She pulled the stethoscope away abruptly and placed her hands on her hips. "About how you stumbled in here against my wishes and tried to make out with me?"

"I was as drunk as a Skuntank," he justified miserably.

"You certainly reeked like one, if nothing else," she quipped under her breath.

He gave a smug snort and rubbed at his shoulder. "Aw, cut me some slack. Besides, that was way before you guys started crushing on each other."

"We are NOT crushing on each other," her tiny voice scolded.

"Alright, alright," he played along, putting his hands up defensively. "But seriously... I'm cool now. My womanizing days are over. Just don't say anything to Viper about that night, will ya? It was a stupid lapse of judgement on my part and I don't want it coming back to haunt me."

She glowered skeptically at him, then resumed the examination with a benign huff. "I won't say anything," she promised as she began listening to his heartbeat again. "But don't even think about trying it again, or I'll knock your teeth out myself."

"Yeah, yeah, don't flatter yourself," he clucked, dwelling on Eden for a flashing second. "I got a girlfriend, for your information."

"Lucky her," she remarked thickly, moving the stethoscope higher. "Breathe out, if you would."

He gave a huff, then a shiver as the cold metal made his skin slowly erupt into goosebumps. It was so bizarre. He'd rarely been touched in a way that didn't equate to some kind of hurt.

She smirked. "Breathe in one more time please."

His face screwed up into a miffed scowl; it seemed like she was enjoying giving HIM commands for a change. Regardless, he conceded and sucked in a fulsome breath.

"And out again," she ordered finally, which he obliged almost immediately. She then removed her earpieces and swapped the stethoscope for a clipboard on the nearby medical tray. "Well, your lungs are clear," she ruled, jotting down the data. "You have a strong, healthy heartbeat. No wheezing or fluids. No abnormalities whatsoever, it seems. Let's hope the same goes for your other tests."

"Then am I free to go?" Cayman heaved tiredly, shifting on the table.

"Go ahead and dress yourself," she approved with a nod, moving back behind the curtain to the back room. "I'll be back in a moment."

Cayman happily hopped off the table, collecting the articles of clothing off the floor.

"Well, shucks, you sure don't look sick to me," a bulbous voice carried through the sterile air.

Cayman looked up to find Culm standing in the doorway of the examination room, and laughed sardonically. "I know that," he growled while pulling on his shirt. "And so does Metsuma. He just needed some bullshit excuse to keep me and Simon apart. He's just waiting for me to blow a fuse, but I won't give him the satisfaction.

The burly miner shook his head, glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one in the hall was eavesdropping. "I reckon he got his fill of that yesterday," he murmured at last.

Cayman nodded absently as he continued dressing. "You mean after he massacred those Machokes at Calypso's warehouse? Yeah, Difo was yapping about it all morning."

Culm's eyes titled downward, the images still fresh in his mind. His voice dropped to his stomach, "I've seen Pokémon die before, but never like that."

"I've killed Pokémon too, Culm," Cayman reminded expressly as he zipped up his pants and tucked in his shirt. "I've even killed people."

Culm gave the boy a dubious look, "But you ain't a bad guy."

Cayman snorted. "I'm a wanted criminal."

"But you ain't a bad guy," the larger man reiterated, more firmly and fiercely this time. "Simon believes that too."

Cayman's expression warmed slightly and a small smile bloomed softly, his thoughts elsewhere for the moment.

That was when Nurse Joy emerged from the back room, her face buried in the open file in her hands. "I've reviewed all the tests," she debriefed. "Overall, everything looks good. From what I can tell, you're in perfect health. I can't imagine why your father would want to have you examined."

"I can think of a few good reasons," Cayman muttered under his breath.

Joy snapped the folder shut and hugged it to her chest. "Regardless, I'll just hold on to these medical records until your father has a chance to look over them." She stepped to the side, allowing Chansey to waddle past her. "I just need one more DNA sample for a followup analysis."

Before Cayman could even ask what that entailed, Chansey jumped up beside him and plucked a strand of hair right out of his head.

"Hey, watch it!", Cayman jumped back like some fragile little kid, carefully pushing his green spiky locks back into place. "You know how much effort goes into managing this green goldmine of mine?"

"Oh, settle down," Joy giggled, collecting the hair sample from Chansey and placing it in a zip-lock bag. "We're finished here anyway. You're free to go."

Once Joy and Chansey retreated behind the curtain again, Cayman bent down to tighten the laces of his boots. Culm seized the opportunity to creep closer, eager to pass on more information about Metsuma's latest activities. "Look, son, uh..." He glanced over his shoulder again for safe measure, then whispered in as silent a tone possible for such a gritty voice, "I feel like I ought a tell you about something I witnessed yesterday when I was with your pap."

"What, about the Machokes?", Cayman huffed in disinterest, still fiddling with his laces.

"Before that, I mean," Culm said throatily. "We stopped in Veilstone, and I saw Metsuma talking with that lady cop who was hunting you a while back ago."

Hearing this, Cayman stopped what he was doing and stood up to meet Culm at eye-level. "Anna? You saw her?"

The larger man nodded. "And she sure as heck saw me. Damnedest thing, though, is she didn't look like she cared much."

Cayman tossed his head to one side, deeply puzzled. None of this clicked. The Anna that had chased him through the Oreburgh mines all those months ago wouldn't just let a handful of criminals slip through her fingers, not unless Metsuma was confiding in her. But that didn't add up either, since Metsuma had always made an effort to keep his criminal life and his cover life as separate as possible.

"O' course, it could be nothin'," Culm considered out loud, hoping to ease Cayman's mind. "Mighty possible I wasn't 'posed to be seen."

"No," Cayman denounced sharply, the truth becoming clearer to him now. "Metsuma wouldn't have risked bringing you along unless Anna already knew something."

Culm hummed in contemplation, folding his gargantuan arms across his chest. "In that case, I reckon she knows a lot o' dirt 'bout him, 'bout us. HOW much she knows, I ain't got a clue."

Cayman quirked a brow up at him. "You didn't overhear anything they were saying?"

"Not a word. Sorry, son."

The youth glared off into space, leaning back into the examination table for a brief moment. "If she knows about who he is and what he's doing, why wouldn't she arrest him?"

"Wish I could tell ya more," Culm exhaled with a shrug of his shoulder.

Cayman nodded, refocusing on his friend. "Thanks for the heads up, Culm." He pushed away from the table and slipped out the door, but even as he started back to his quarters, he couldn't break his thoughts free from this upsetting conundrum concerning Metsuma and Anna. Or what any of it meant for him.

…...

Splotches of reds, blues, and oranges bloomed from the blurry haze that was my mind, and the colors encircling me cohered as my vision lapsed back to normal. Exotic flowers and plant life weaved in an intricate dance every which way, stopping at a bounding main of shimmering blue. I was standing on an island, I realized—or maybe it was a garden. Whatever the case, it was replete with flora and plantae of every kind.

Like a mirage, Darukai rose out of the flowerbed beside me, giving me a start. He spread out his arms in front of him in a manner that struck me as bombastic, but I pretended not to notice and rotated my head. I looked off to my left and spotted Bellossoms and Bellsprouts skipping merrily through an open pasture, then to my right to find a mother Venusaur and its infant Bulbasaurs grazing on the bank of a trickling stream.

Above me, a family of multicolored Butterfree fluttered past, singing a symphony on the gentle sea breeze and leaving behind a sweet aroma in their tracks. I didn't commit to behold them in their full harmony though. The desire to embrace any of this simply wasn't there. There was too much warmth and amenity here for my taste, and I still didn't even know where 'here' was. I felt like it bells in my head would have rung by now if I'd actually been here at some point in my life.

Darukai, however, seemed to have that look of pleasant remembrances I was currently without. I threw him a circumspect look and cleared my throat, "Fond memories?" His expression scrunched in bewilderment, so I rephrased formatively, "Another paradise from your past, I mean?"

"A paradise from yours, perhaps," he remarked cryptically. Flower petals floated up and danced around in the wind, like snowflakes. Hesitantly, he reached forward to catch one in his ghostly hand. "For me, this place is little more than a scar."

I chortled. "It certainly doesn't look like a scar."

"It certainly doesn't," his own cackle drifted on the breeze, his haunted eyes riffing over all the island's Grass and Bug-Type inhabitants. "It's rather bewitching, isn't it? Truly Mother Nature has a way of humbling us all, from the meek and disfigured, to the strong and magnificent. Nature does not discriminate, it only moves that which is in the way, and when it does, it reminds us just what is unfeigned and what is not in this strange world we inhabit."

"The Nature Chasm," I knew right away, catching a flower petal in my own palm.

"Nature is the element of realism—of inner beauty and universal truth." He gestured to the grazing Venusaur, "Grass-type Pokémon, for instance, can be as graceful and pacifistic as they can be lethal and unforgiving. They are nature personified." Lifting his chin imperiously, he eyed me down the bridge of his long nose and explained, "You can't say the same for yourself, can you?"

I couldn't even begin to fathom what he was insinuating, so I treated him to a generic blank stare.

"The truths within ourselves as living beings are circumstantial," he answered my unspoken trouble, saving me the trouble of guessing. "But the truths of the world itself are timeless and foundational, no matter how hard we try and squander them. All life is valuable in some way. That has been an unvarnished truth since the dawn of time. 'Nature adds and subtracts' is but another example."

"I'm aware of all this,"I slighted his fortune cookie nonsense without much thought to it. "If you're going to recite aphorisms, why not recite one I can actually relate to."

To my surprise, he obliged, "The natural order is disorder."

My mouth fell short of words. I stared at him, intently.

He bit his lip against his amusement, shaking his head. "See? Now you're interested. Because that is a truth you value above all else." He crossed his arms together in a bawdy flexure. "But something doesn't quite click, now does it? You claim you want to restore the natural order of things, yet these wishes directly conflict with perhaps your most crucial of personal convictions."

I stared off forcefully at the Bellossoms dancing in the wildflowers, not dignifying his ramblings. He was trying to draw another epiphany out of me, which normally I was accepting of. But my stance on Pokémon and their place in the world wasn't something flexible like the others.

"You consider Pokémon to be inherently inferior to man," he read my thoughts out loud, a job I typically preferred doing myself.

If only to make him quit pestering me, I indulged him, "And am I wrong to presume that?"

"It's not about what is right or what is wrong," he answered without hesitation. "It's simply what is and what isn't. And here is what is: humans and Pokémon came into this world together, as equals. That is a truth you still spurn to this day."

"There's nothing to explain," I clipped harshly, and I could vaguely feel my lips curling into a scowl. "I know for a fact that Pokémon are not our equals."

"The Agrarian Seers might disagree," he quipped humorously under his breath, though deliberately loud enough for me to detect.

I clenched my jaw, "Then it's a good thing they're on the verge of obsolescence."

Darukai frowned, this time out of more personal concern, it seemed. "So tell me, after you've thrown the world back into its original state, what do you intend to do with all those Pokémon you abhor? Enslave them? Put them in chains? Explain to me how that's natural."

"Survival to the fittest," I uttered perforce.

He shook his head from side to side. "You can only recycle that line so many times, Metsuma."

"Drop it," I said, narrowing my eyes. "All that matters is that I know what is fact."

His mouth twitched and his thin brows lifted. "I thought I did too," he muttered gracelessly, that haunted look filling his eyes again. "I was just like you once."

"I doubt that," I laughed mockingly.

"You wondered why this place is a scar to me?" He snorted inelegantly, then his eyelids fluttered and he sank limply to the jeweled grass. "After I began to mutate into that monstrosity you met in the gardens of Alamos Town, my world fell apart around me. Nothing was the same. I was an outcast." He slowly forced his gaze up at me. "I'm sure you can relate."

I opened my mouth to speak, but my eyes seemed to confess instead. The despairing truth was I could relate. I was nothing but a stray after Wade had swept me aside, reduced to a wretch wandering on the outside of civilization with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Had Anna not come to my rescue, I probably would have grown into bitter, rugged felon with a grudge instead of the careful, calculating mastermind I was now.

"That was just the beginning," he continued, and he spoke as though the memories stung on his tongue, yet he was impressively calm as he smoothed his phantasmal hands over the dewy grass. "When the reality that I was slowly morphing into a Pokémon finally sank in, I was enraged. I blamed Pokémon altogether. I forsook my own Gengar and fled to this remote place so the world wouldn't have to look upon my hideousness."

I lifted my head, the lush and botanical island I had just been standing on now a stretch of scorched, lifeless terrain. Tumbleweeds and dust clouds blew where the Pokémon had been frolicking, the remaining flowerbeds charred and wilted between skewers of rock. The landscape was familiarly ugly and crater-ridden, dotted in places with patches of angular vegetation and monoliths of rock contorted by erosion into disturbing shapes. Even the sky—what little of it peaked through the massive arches of rock quarantining the island—had a gaseous, crimson cast to it.

Darukai stood up from the now ravaged soil and his frown grew deeper. "I purged the beautiful island of all its Pokémon inhabitants in a blind fury, along with all other flora and fauna." He dipped his head in some silent depravity. "All that remained afterward was the skeletal spec of land you now call Savile Island."

For the moment all I could do was stare, perplexed. I felt foolish for not having seen it earlier.

He concluded quietly, "I used my powers to veil myself and the island in a dark aura so that no one could ever trace my presence."

"I guess I was the exception," I surmised, rotating on my heel to inspect all of the island.

"Because we share the same Aura," he confirmed with a sharp nod of his head. "You felt drawn here because a part of me still lingers here to this day, sheathing the island like some dark magic."

I allowed a nod, accepting the logic as sound. Perhaps this Chasm wasn't a dud after all.

He glided a fraction closer to me, his eyes unblinking and pooling into mine. "My contempt for Pokémon was born the moment I associated their existence with what was destroying mine," he explained. "I didn't truly hate Pokémon though. I simply hated what I was becoming. I hated Darkrai."

"Understandable," I deemed somewhat absently; I was trying to decide whether or not I was in a similar position.

He seemed to catch on, though, and asked rather plainly, "What is it YOU associate Pokémon with, Metsuma?"

I squared my shoulders, trying to salvage whatever poise I had left. "I don't know, really."

"Yes you do," he retorted, unwilling to compromise; but I had to continuously remind myself that there was no other way to get around this Chasm. He pressed, "Think, Metsuma."

"Clint, I suppose," I blurted out in a breath, straightening my shoulders again. "He was always a fanatic when it came to Pokémon."

He craned his head. "It was around the time he betrayed your trust and made you an outcast did your animosity towards Pokémon truly begin to materialize, correct?"

I forced a swallow through my suddenly dry throat, "Yes."

"But he wasn't the only catalyst, was he?", he asked, furrowing a underwhelmed brow at me.

I shook my head slowly. "No."

"You associate Pokémon with another form of opposition, don't you?", he whispered, attempting to lull me into some reflective narcosis—and it was working. "Don't you, Metsuma?"

The answer was there, on the tip of my tongue, on the ridge of my mind. Like a burning sensation. I squinted my eyes and focused on the tingle in my scalp until it turned into a call, a clarion, a scream. A chorus.

"The Pokémon League," I ground out against gnashed teeth, overcome by the animal inside me.

"You despise how they glorify Pokémon, so consequently you despise Pokémon," he inferred. "But be honest with yourself, Metsuma. The Pokémon aren't really the problem, are they?"

I looked down and dug my foot into the cracked ground, trying to correctly and meaningfully articulate my thoughts. "Man once possessed powers the same as Pokémon do," I began, my voice dripping with venom. "The Maestro made that clear enough to me. The fact that we've fallen beneath them in the power ladder is one thing, but to waste our time holding them up on a pedestal when we could be pushing ourselves to achieve their level of power is just another shackle society has forced upon itself."

"You just said 'equal', Metsuma," he pointed out immediately, watching me in quiet fascination. "Even if it was just for a fleeing second, you just now entertained the notion of humans and Pokémon coinciding as equals."

I choked on a laugh, even after all that seriousness, and admitted huskily, "I did, didn't I."

"Now comes the decisive moment." He threw his arm into the air theatrically, the landscape around him shifting yet again. A flash of white spilled over us, blinding me for all of a second.

When it faded, we were standing on the wet, sodden sands of a scar from my own past. Small waves rolled onto the shore, lapping at my feet. I stumbled back, my thought scattershot and racing, until an agonizing bellow pierced through the hiss of the ocean. The sound was like a hard smack in the face, and I knew right then exactly when this day was.

Begrudgingly, I forced myself to turn my head a fraction and look upon the vast, blubbery mammal writhing on the bank several yards away. I frowned at the spectacle and adjusted my footing a little.

"The reason you let that Wailord perish that day was because of your stubborn, misguided prejudice against Pokémon," Darukai elucidated rather snootily. "As a consequence, Anna got her first glimpse of the real you."

Another smack in the face. Even so, he was right. That one selfish decision did help to inspire a rather messy chain of events.

He gently clapped a hand on my back, nudging me forward. "Had you been more enlightened and seen the truth as clearly as you do right now, you might have demonstrated a little more self-control and saved that Wailord's life. Not because you pitied it or cared for it; but simply because it was the natural course to take in that moment."

I growled at the thought, but didn't contest it. I knew what he was pushing for here and I wasn't going to fight it. I wouldn't make the same mistake twice and let all the progress I'd made go down the gutter. The petty survival of one Pokémon had no bearing whatsoever on my future ambitions. If only I had understood that the first time.

Filling my lungs, I trudged forward through the sand and made my way toward the hallucination. The finned beast tossed and turned in front of me, but I stilled it with a mere touch of my hand. Taking another shuddering breath, I eased the giant fish back into the ocean with a surge of the Aura, the dream realm bolstering me with infinite strength.

Once in the water, Wailord swam off heartily before shimmering away like a mirage. My breath evened out and I felt completely absolved in that moment. The Chasm was sealed.

Darukai appeared right beside me, sharing my view of the glimmering seascape. "Was that really so hard."

In a whist breath, I decided, "Humans and Pokémon cannot coexist as friends, not in the world I'm setting out to create. The very idea is still silly to me." I turned to him, expressionless, then rationalized, "But I recognize that perhaps... they are not our enemies either. They are part of the natural order, just like humans. I see that truth now. I may not like it per se, but it is what it is."

He was about to reply when the distant crackle of thunder shook the coast. My eyes zeroed in on the sound, watching as a cluster of storm clouds converged over a lighthouse further down the shoreline. The same lighthouse where it had all began for me.

"Metsuma," Darukai disrupted my stupor, draping an arm around my shoulder and navigating me toward the landmark. "Let's walk further down shore."

"What about the next the Chasm?", I asked, my voice muffled by the loudening thunder.

He smiled faintly at me. "Where else would we be going?"

…...

Eden marched petulantly up the steps of the Endo palace, Eisen hobbling at her heels. She stopped in front of the main doors—a large, decorated affair, full of unnecessary arches and swirls—then beamed at her bodyguard from over her shoulder, "Eisen, you really should have stayed back and rested."

He shook his head and signed eagerly with his hands. In just a few short hours, he was already moving around again and positively brimming with energy. It was miraculous just how much the Aura could fix.

Dotty descended between them, whimpering nervously.

"Gaius never returned like he said he would," Eden tried explaining to her frightened Butterfree. "It's only fair we pay him a visit instead, no?"

The pink Butterfree shrunk back quietly behind Eisen, and without any further delay, Eden barged straight through the doors of her host's home.

The inside of the manse was every bit as posh and proper as it looked from the outside. Sweeping pillars led into a high-vaulted ceiling, marble black tiles aligning the floors and coloring the walls. It really didn't come as a shock though. At every turn, Pokémopolitan keepsakes sat in cases on jeweled pedestals. It didn't really come as a shock though; a man like Gaius spared no expense.

As they began wandering the empty halls, Eden began calling out for her suitor, "Gaius!"

No answer, besides the echo of her own voice.

"Gaius, are you home?", she hollered a second time, again receiving no response. "Odd," she mumbled aside to Dotty and Eisen, noting a conspicuous lack of security forces. "There don't seem to be any Golurks posted anywhere. And yet... I can't help but feel like we're being watched."

They progressed up a staircase, where a small feast was being served in the luxury dining room beyond the doors at the very top. Gaius's family members sat silently around a large octagonal table dominating the small chamber which, in keeping with the general theme of a Pokémopolitan Palace, boasted yet more mosaic murals and alien artifacts on every wall. A splash of sunlight trickled down from a skylight above, competing with electric lamplights circuiting the dinner table.

Eden froze in the doorway under the collective glares of the esteemed family, feeling like the rudest guest in the world. "I'm truly sorry to disturb you all," she expelled a shaky laugh from her throat, hoisting up her arms in innocence. "I don't usually make a habit of barging into homes unannounced."

They five family members continued to stare vacantly at her, to the point where it bordered on creepy. They looked as though they were wrapped in some kind of trance; and Eisen quickly picked up on this with his acute senses, inching ever closer to Eden's side.

Despite the macabre vibes she was feeling, Eden continued speaking to her audience in a polite, courtly manner, "I don't wish to worry any of you, but... I haven't seen Gaius since sunup this morning and it is urgent that I speak— " Her words seemed to fall on deaf ears, however, and she stopped abruptly. "Can't any of you speak?"

Rather than voice their answer, the five individuals began to shimmer ethereally in their seats, like hallucinations.

"What—" Nearly slipping on the marble tiles beneath her feet, Eden staggered backward into Eisen's arms, stunned to find five Gothielle now seated where Gaius's family members were. "Y—You're all impostors!"

The five humanoid Pokémon stood from the table synchronously, their blue irises sparkling with psychic energy. The chamber doors behind Eden, Eisen, and Dotty suddenly slammed shut without explanation, trapping all of them in one place.

"What have you done with Gaius!", Eden demanded, stamping her heel to the floor.

Not listening, the Gothitelles moved slowly around the table, converging on Eden's position. That was when Eisen sprung into action, blasting open the chamber doors behind him with a hastily prepared Aura Sphere. Dotty reacted as well, stalling the approaching Pokémon with a powdery dust.

Seizing the moment, Eisen grabbed Eden's wrist and hurriedly escorted her out the chamber through their new escape exit.

…...

Once safely outside the manse, Eden sprinted off the estate and into the colony square with Dotty and Eisen tagging close behind. Her thoughts reeled over what she had just encountered, what any of it even meant. Perhaps there was an elaborate conspiracy to supplant the Endo family, or maybe she'd simply walked into some trap to intercept her. Whatever the case, she had to warn someone, anyone.

Her floral dress teared and her glowing hair flailed as she rushed toilsomely into a crowd of civilians. She stopped the nearest passerby, grabbing him by the sleeve in a breathless panic. "Sir, you have to help us!", she half-pleaded, half-panted. "Gaius has gone missing! His manse has been overrun by a group of Gothitelle!"

To her horror, the stranger vanished in front of her eyes, a Gothielle taking his place. Eden choked out a sharp gasp, backing away from the Pokémon until she felt herself bump into another pedestrian behind her. She twirled around one instant to look upon the innocent face of a young woman, which immediately became the glowering face of a Gothitelle the next instant.

Eisen grabbed Eden's arm before she could react, gradually guiding her out of the courtyard as they suddenly found themselves surrounded by the astral adversaries. Gothitelle stood everywhere the looked now.

"No, no," Eden rambled continuously beneath her breath. "This can't be! The Foretellers must be behind this!"

Eisen nodded wordlessly, then hoisted a finger up at the skeletal tower looming over Gaius's manse in the far distance.

"Scry Tower," Eden recognized immediately, swallowing. She looked fleetingly to the Gothitelle garrison moving in on them, then located Eisen's gaze. "I must face them alone! Go back to the loft and bar the doors! Protect the other men and Pokémon as best you can!"

The Aura Adept stiffened, his doubts showing through his eyes.

"Eisen, please, do as I say!", she pleaded with him, cupping his bruised face. "You won't make it through the tower alive, not in your condition! If the Foretellers are trying to send me a message, they won't care to spare you alongside me! You must go back and tend to the others!"

Heeding her words as direct orders this time, Eisen nodded his understanding and hobbled in the designated direction, a sizable party of Gothitelle giving chase to him.

Moving to the forefront, Dotty sprayed the remaining Gothitelle with a heavy dose of Sleep Powder, giving Eden passage through the courtyard.

"Come, Dotty," she beckoned her loyal Butterfree as she raced against time to the Foretellers' tower. "Time to be bold for a change. With any luck, we'll find Sadow too."

…...

Sadow hadn't the slightest idea where he was. His world was black as pitch, and he couldn't identify his surroundings, let alone himself. The last thing he remembered seeing with his own two eyes was the gigantic, wretched face of that hag Shyla Vexx towering over his doll-sized self. He wasn't sure how long ago that was, but everything after was a fog.

Now he was confined—perhaps encased—in some very small space, it seemed. Its mass felt curved under his fingertips, almost spherical, and it occasionally moved and gyrated with his body weight. When he leaned left or right, his tiny prison did the exact same; when he shifted forward or back, it also did the same.

"Well," he huffed, leaning back against the unseeable wall arcing behind him, "Now I know how Pokémon must feel."

…...

The sight of a mere Weedle slinking its way up a tree branch was enough to excite the studious Simon. He fumbled with his bag, pulling out his lantern and notebook, then rushed over to examine the Bug-Type Pokémon on its timbered perch. Even after all his adventures with Cayman, his thirst for knowledge was never totally satisfied.

"Simon," Viper called out to the young explorer, a note of frustration in his barely patient tone. "We didn't come all this way to document Pokémon, we came here to capture one."

"Oh, I know," Simon replied blithely, scribbling into his notebook with one hand and hoisting up the lantern with the other. "It's just I've never explored this part of Kanto before.

Viper gave a belittling snort. "And how exactly is this forest any different from the ones you traveled in Lunan? I would think you'd be sick of these surroundings."

"You'd think, but no," Simon expelled a small chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck. "Ever since I met Cayman, I've grown to love the outdoors."

"Surprising, considering how hard he works at slacking off," Viper sneered.

Finishing his jottings, Simon stowed away the pad and lantern back into his bag and rose back up on his feet. "Being cooped up on that island made me miss the outdoors more than anything, I suppose."

Viper shook his head and huffed out another curse under his breath. "Why even join us then if your newfound love for the wild was so precious to you?"

"Because Cayman's important to me too," Simon huffed as he hefted his bag back onto his shoulder. "He's my friend. And he's been kind of troubled, from what I can tell."

"You think I don't know that?", Viper snapped violently, a fissure of anger straightening his spine and hardening his jaw. "He's MY friend too, you know."

Simon took in Viper's grouchy expression, his grin slowly fading away and eyes shuttering. "I didn't mean to imply—"

"Drop it," the older boy grunted, quickly gathering his calm. Simon's mouth opened to apologize again but Viper continued over him, "Maybe we should just... stay focused and not speak to each other the rest of the mission."

Simon frowned, ready to lower his head in that self-deprecating manner they were both accustomed to now.

But he decided against it.

"If that's really what you want," the younger boy sighed, pompously shouldering past his moody superior. It was time to take a stand, he realized.

Gobsmacked, Viper watched with a silent glare as the suddenly bolder boy just strutted on ahead like the cock of the walk. Despite himself, he couldn't help a smirk from cracking on his hardened cheekbones, if only because he was reminded of Cayman in that moment.

Viper took a step in pursuit of his traveling companion when a Ledian suddenly tumbled out of a tree branch just above Simon's head, fluttering in the air for balance.

"Well, hello," Simon greeted, backing up slowly to give the spotted insect space to move about. "What are you doing all the way out here, Ledian? Shouldn't you be in Johto?"

"Bzzz?" Finding its bearings, the Bug Pokémon looked down at Simon with an impish smile before making an abrupt grab for his backpack.

Out of some unexplained reflex, Simon pulled back just before the Pokémon could nab his bag. "Hey, now, that's not yours to take!", he laughed, tilting his head to one side as he examined the buzzing bandit in front of him. "You know, you kind of remind me of—"

"Simon, quit delaying!", Viper hollered, disrupting his stupor and sending Ledian scurrying for cover. "Why are you even wasting your time with that pest?"

Simon didn't even turn his head to acknowledge the voice behind him. "I thought you said you weren't going to talk to me."

"Don't test me," the older teen threatened, moving beside to Simon to have a look a the Pokémon cowering in the nearby bush. "Leave it be. It probably belongs to another trainer. It's not worth nabbing."

Ignoring Viper's presence, Ledian flew up out of its hiding place and began tugging frantically at Simon's shirt. "Bzz! Bzz! Bzz!"

"Look, this Ledian is more than likely a long way from home," Simon deduced, reaching out and gently petting its wing covers. "Maybe if it helps us find Shiftry, we can help it find its way out of the forest."

Viper blinked dumbly at the pair of them, "You can't be serious."

"Well, I certainly think that's a fair trade off," Simon said with an innocent shrug, looking down at his six-legged comrade. "What about you, Ledian?"

"Bzzz!" The Pokémon lurched back into the air and began feverishly buzzing in circles. "Bzzzz! Bzzz!"

Viper scowled. "If my Venonat cant track Shiftry's whereabouts, there's no way some wild Ledian—"

"Bzzz?", Ledian pleaded, floating in front of Viper with sad, doleful eyes. "Bzzz, bzzz?"

Swatting the creature away from his face, Viper shook his head a little and took a ragged breath, like he was shaking unfair thoughts from his head. "Fine," he decided begrudgingly, marching onward. "It can help us, so long as it doesn't lead us in circles."

"Of course," Simon vouched, smiling modestly to the newest addition to their team. "Ledian, keep your eyes peeled for a Pokémon that looks like a stumpy pine tree with a white mane and a piked nose."

"Bzz?", the Pokémon vocalized with a blank expression.

"Trust me," Viper muttered over his shoulder, "you'll know it when you see it."

Shrugging, Ledian darted up ahead, past Viper and into the next cluster of wilderness waiting for them.

"It's enthusiastic, I'll give it that," Viper remarked to Simon once the younger boy caught up to his side. "I don't see it paying off though."

"Not with that attitude," Simon remarked back with a grin.

Viper lifted his head up again, this time at the sound of thrumming in the sky. It was a faint echo but it was audible.

Simon must have heard it too because his head was inclined as well.

"Helicopters in the distance, probably park rangers," Viper dismissed nonchalantly. "As long as we stick to the denser parts of the forest, I wouldn't worry about them spotting us."

…...

I tentatively straightened, curling and uncurling my fingers at my sides and mentally preparing myself for the next trial. We stood silently in the lantern room at the crest of the lighthouse, raindrops pelting the glass of the storm panes around us. The waves down below crashed violently against the shoreline, the wind howling as the electrical storm rolled over the coast. I remembered this night above all memories, and as the images came flooding back into focus, I had to rest my eyes for a fleeting moment.

"You're not winded already, are you?", Darukai asked in concern, hovering beside me.

"No, it's not that," I said, shaking my head slowly, just listening to the weather outside. "I remember this night, is all."

"Open your eyes," he whispered; his voice was uncharacteristically hoarse, and just this side of audible. I did as instructed anyway, and watched a young man in his late adolescence pass us on by the balcony outside.

That chap was me, I realized after a stuporous delay.

He didn't seem to acknowledge us, unsurprisingly, but stopped clear in front of the window we were currently looking through. He faced towards the ominous horizon, pressing himself against the brittle railing and stretching his arms out to the lightning flashing at irregular intervals above. He had seen nothing but the dark for so long, I recalled. He could not look away.

"I must ask this," Darukai muttered, leaning into me, "but were you really contemplating killing yourself?"

I shook my head jerkily, perhaps indecisively, "I suppose I was just... tempting fate."

My spectral ancestor seemed to pause in his train of thought. "Or you just had a moment of temporary insanity."

"Uh huh," I mocked, poking fun at him. "And I assume Thunder is the element of insanity?"

"Perhaps 'insanity' was a poor word choice, I apologize," he said. "Thunder is the element of disquiet and instability."

I sniffed disreputably, "Thunder is just a sound, last I checked."

His phantom lips curled. "Are we really going to do this now?"

"Fair enough," I sighed. "And what manner of epiphany is going to suddenly strike me this time?"

A lightning bolt answered in his stead, striking near the window beside us and sending my heart into a needless arrhythmia. He smirked, his point apparently proven.

"That wasn't what I meant," I spouted in an exclamation of disgust, my heart still bouncing around in my chest.

"I had no hand in that," he affected innocence. "Electricity is unpredictable, erratic even. Didn't I just finish explaining that?"

I quickly collected my posture, staring at the troubled youth on the other side of the windows. The rain hit the glass harder now and the droplets began to race each other to the bottom; leaving a glistening trail behind. Gnarled streaks of lightnings shot wildly above the seascape, and my deluded, younger self was welcoming it with widespread arms.

"Much like Electric-Type Pokémon, those with Electric Cho'moken behave most eccentrically. Mentally, they're spry and alert; emotionally, they're a bit more high-strung and unstable." He rubbed a hand over his mouth, entrenched in his musings like always. "I suppose that best describes your lovely co-conspirator," he riddled, subtly alluding to Anna. "So feisty yet so, so flawed."

I shrugged noncommittally, attempting to dismiss his claim. "We really don't need to talk about Anna right now."

"You're absolutely right," he said, bobbing his head up and down. "Let's rack our brains together and deliberate YOUR flaws instead."

I ground my teeth together in silent irritation. Like with the rest of the Chasms, he wanted to compartmentalize every little sensation and feeling that occurred to me—to break it down to its most fundamental state and understand each of my own impulses. It was his area of expertise—only this time, he wanted to me to expose all my personal faults to him, my each and every weak point. Where was the tactical genius in this?

"Anna's imperfect qualities show more easily because of her Cho'moken and her general openness about things," he explained after I failed to deliver a verbal response. "But you, Metsuma, are a much harder nut to crack. You're not as open as Anna, clearly. And certainly not as flagrant. But do you really fancy yourself a man of perfection?"

"No, not entirely," I answered with more irritation than I meant to let out.

"Then, tell me, what about yourself do you consider to be your greatest flaw?" His head tilted slightly to one side, his wispy, white hair cascading with the motion. "When are you most vulnerable?"

I lifted my shoulders in an apathetic shrug. "I can't think of any at the moment."

"Oh, Metsuma..." He trailed off disquietingly and drew a shaking breath. "If you can't learn to accept your flaws and work towards correcting them, you won't be able to find the balance within yourself. You will be slave to your foibles forever."

"I'm... I'm not," I struggled to bite into the right words. "I'm at my most vulnerable... when I allow myself to—" I paused.

"Go on."

"When I allow myself to make connections with others," I finished the dreaded thought, conceding to his wishes; as with before, my thirst first knowledge and self-betterment had peaked through my stubborn will. At the same time, however, it felt unburdening to admit to an issue that was so humanlike and anthropoid for someone of my complexion.

Darukai considered this response, not hiding his expression of cogitation before he nodded once. Then I continued in a slow, measured monotone, "Every connection I make ends in lies and disappointment. It's why don't trust people. Because every time I do, it backfires."

"The ability to trust can be damaged," he proverbed. "Give a person plenty of disappointment and hurt and trauma and our capacity to open up our minds and hearts to others becomes weakened and threatened." He eyed me stoically, "Consider the possibility that you're simply not trusting the right people, Metsuma."

I repeated his words in my head, picking them apart for whatever they were worth. Were all my ties to those around me really so erroneous and unfounded? Was I at fault? As I pondered these questions over and over in my mind, a chilled atmosphere took the room, incited by the strong silence that then fell between us. Some deeper knowing was drifting into my mind and edging me on in the somberness of our interaction.

"Twice, you trusted Clint to be a loyal friend; twice, he turned his back on you," he pointed out, not that I needed reminding. "You also trusted Cayman, the poor orphan you took under your wing and raised as your own. And now he's on the brink of turning renegade."

I nodded slowly, reflecting on those names with mild embarrassment, particularly Clint's. Despite having come to terms with how things ended at Sky Pillar, I still mentally cursed myself for ever having believed that Clint was salvageable, that he could have opened his eyes and joined forces with me. What a stupid fantasy that had turned out to be.

"Then there's the Maestro—", Darukai rambled on; now he was just trying to make me feel like the biggest dupe of the century.

I held my hands up, effectively silencing him. "You don't have to remind me, I get the picture."

Darukai gave a soft, wistful laugh in the wake of my statement. "It hurts, I understand better than most," he offered his sympathy. "You should never be quick to trust anyone, true enough, but you shouldn't seal yourself off from the people around you either. There is a level of balance to be achieved here. You have to be willing to pay the price of being responsible, accountable, and true to your word. You must be willing to suffer the consequences, rather than hide and cushion yourself in excuses and explanations. Anna's learning how to do that. Maybe it's time you learned too be forthright about it as well."

I let a faint smile find my mouth, and it affected my voice to curve it slightly as I spoke, "You act like it's the easiest thing in the world, blindly trusting people."

"Don't do it blindly then," he proposed, draping his arms together and leering at me like I was turning down a grand opportunity. "The choice to trust is yours and yours alone, Metsuma. Perhaps this entire journey into the self is no longer essential to you. You may choose not to conquer this Chasm. You may choose instead to build off of your existing strengths and repress your remaining imbalances. After all, to trust a person is to be open to them and receptive. To be honest with them."

I didn't speak for a moment, just shifting my weight on my feet and gazing out the window to the boy standing drenched on the rail of the lighthouse balcony. That there was a boy with no friends, no family, no anything. He had shut off contact with everyone he knew and it had driven him to this miserable, last resort—giving up on life altogether.

Only—I didn't end up like that, as I recalled. Everything ultimately turned around for me because SHE had been there to keep me from making that stupid decision.

"There is one person—", I stuttered, the thunder outside cracking so hard it rumbled my stomach. "There is someone I trust—at least, I think." Darukai, just as surprised with myself as I was, listened eagerly as I carefully elucidated, "She's been right in front of my nose this whole time, but I wasn't able to see it until recently." I gestured just as a second bolt of lightning lit up the windows nearby.

Outside, a blue-haired girl stood where my younger incarnation had been perched, bathed in Aura and absorbing the electricity through her fingertips. It was that selfless act that set everything in motion, I recalled; and Darukai looked at me, finally understanding. "Do you feel as though your link to her will end like all the rest though?"

"Maybe...", I considered for a deep, thoughtful moment whilst beaming at Anna through the window pane; but the sentence was lost with the remainder of my careful nonchalance. "No," I decided in a split-second. "No, I don't believe that."

"She may arrest you yet," he reminded.

"She may," I indulged the possibility with a mere shrug. "But I'm going to trust that she won't. She hasn't hurt me yet."

He made a light incline of his head in agreement, then challenged, "Suppose she does though."

Through the window, Anna helped her best friend safely back to his feet. I watched fondly as she spirited him off the balcony and out of the rain, then regarded my ancestor again. "I trust her with the truth. I trust her with who I am. And if my inability to trust is my greatest flaw, so be it. But I'm not going to repress it. I'll simply choose my confidantes carefully. And with Anna, I think I chose right."

"It's not a matter of right or wrong because the heart doesn't know either," he answered promptly, smiling. "You made a simple observation about yourself and it's brought you enlightenment." He gestured outdoors to where the storm was finally beginning to let up. "The clouds have parted and much was revealed."

"Yes," I replied in haste, and struggled slightly to find my next words, as simple as it should have been. "I just... can't help but feel a little exposed now."

"Then keep your guard up just enough to keep yourself in check," he advised, voice dropping to a cold pitch. "Do not be fickle with your ability to trust Anna or it may doom you yet. Because unlike you, she cannot keep her imbalances in check. She is unstable and unpredictable, like the most violent of thunderstorms, and she will always be a danger to herself and others."

I nodded to appease him, then waited before considering quietly underneath my breath, "That's what makes her more human than I."

…...

Once the sun had burnt off all the fog, Viper couldn't seem to turn his eyes away from the sky, only rarely glancing through the knobby, twisted vast to keep a visual on Simon and Ledian. But even with the fog lifted, the forest's massive trees raised gnarled trunks toward the sky, so big that their massive treetops deprived the wilderness of any sunlight. The trunks and branches, meanwhile, dripped with emerald vines and moss like the tendrils of a Tangela; and the forest laid out a soft carpet of ferns beneath to catch shining droplets of moisture as they fell.

Further up the trail, Simon slowed his pace, waiting up for Viper before he could fall too far behind. The chipper junior ranger spun his body around and ducked beneath a clawing branch to rendezvous with his superior officer, quirking a grin at him, "We need to move a little faster or we'll lose sight of Ledian." He noted the older boy's eyes and how they almost seemed to twitch upward in rapid succession. "Why do you keep staring up at the sky like that?"

"Shiftry like to hide in treetops," Viper responded in a prompt, slightly paranoid manner as he shouldered past the youth. He was kicking broken twigs and scattered rocks as he marched, making a path so he wouldn't forget.

"Ah, of course," Simon cursed his failed memory through clenched teeth. "I knew I read that somewhere a long time ago. How could I have forgotten such crucial knowledge?"

"Considering Shiftry aren't native to Kanto, it probably seemed like useless knowledge," he suggested absently, peering up between the tree canopies again, his face drawn into a pensive look.

Simon didn't seem to notice, zestfully bouncing in step beside Viper. "Oh, not a chance. I retain everything I read. I never forget a thing!" He paused, suddenly embarrassed. "Except, of course, in this particular instance..."

Viper leveled a heavy gaze on Simon, at last; and conjured a thin smirk. "Maybe Cayman's rubbing off on you," he joked in an otherwise rigid voice. He tilted his head back, looking back fondly on memories. "I've known him to be thick-headed at times. I once found him sleeping in an alley right next to the police department that was hunting him."

"No kidding?", Simon chuckled, quirking a brow. "What was his reasoning?"

Viper shook his head, his smile going from bleary to full-blown. "No reasoning, just a lot of cursing."

A fit of laughter broke out between them as they pushed deeper into the grove, and Simon couldn't help but grin from tree to tree, full set of teeth showing, looking like he was very much enjoying poking fun at Cayman's expense.

Viper flushed, eyes quickly falling back down to the grassy underfoot as he sighed, "He's not stupid though, he's just immature." His brows drew together as he mentally dissected his own statement. "Sometimes I wonder why I stake so much in him and his abilities."

"That's simple," Simon huffed as he swatted his way through low hanging branches, setting the path for them. "He's your best friend." He beamed over his shoulder, "And that's exactly why you stuck out your neck for me. Because it wasn't for me, really. It was for Cayman. Right?"

Viper opened his mouth several times and each time closed it, unsuccessful on figuring out how to respond.

"You don't have to say anything," Simon laughed, keeping his eyes ahead, as if to spare Viper the indignity. "Because even if it wasn't for me, I want you to know that I'm still grateful for what you did. I honestly don't know what Metsuma would have done with me if you hadn't persuaded him to give me a second chance." He glanced back at the officer a second time, "Thank you."

Viper didn't acknowledge the gratitude, instead focusing firmly ahead as they came upon a small open space in the dead of the woods, complete with a stream and a branchless tree that stood considerably taller than the others they'd passed by. Ledian sat frozen in the air beneath its obscured canopy, its bug eyes tracing the entire length of the trunk.

"Ledian," Simon called as they joined the Pokémon beneath the tree, trying to pinpoint what had it so entranced.

"Your spotted friend seems a little distracted," Viper pointed out to Simon in a low, suspect voice.

"Well," the junior ranger sweat-dropped, rubbing the back of his nape bashfully. "Maybe Ledian still doesn't understand what kind of Pokémon it's supposed to be looking for."

"Bzz!" Without warning, Ledian slammed its smallish body into the column of the tree, the canopy above rustling violently in response.

An entire nest of Kakuna tumbled down from the tree, hitting the forest floor at Simon and Viper's feet.

"Definitely not that kind!", Viper freaked, taking giant steps backwards as the Kakunas began to emit a white glow.

Frightened, and perhaps a little bit ashamed, Ledian took cover behind the tree. Simon noticed and moved to chase after the cowardly Pokémon, careful not to step on the glowing shells littering the glade.

"Simon, freeze!", Viper ordered, lurching forward to snatch Simon's wrist. He twisted the younger boy around front and center and scoffed through gnarled teeth, "Have you completely lost your—"

"We can't just leave Ledian", Simon urged, gesturing behind the massive trunk.

"There's no time!", Viper negated, his fist clamping down on the younger boy's shoulder harness and tugging forcefully at it.. "We need to find cover before those Kakuna evolve!" He raised his chin southward, "I think I spotted smoke coming from that direction! If we're lucky, there just might be cabin just through that grove of trees—"

CRACK !

Slowly, cautiously, Viper turned his head to discover an angry swarm of Beedrill rising from the discarded vessels on the ground. "Oh, just perfect," he panted sharply, yanking Simon out of the colony's line of sight and breaking into a full-blown sprint toward said cabin. "Come on, we have to amscray before they spot us!"

The Beedrills surged forward, their stingers ready to impale. That was all the encouragement needed for Simon's feet to haul him the hell out of there. He darted ahead of Viper, ducking branches and jumping tree stumps like he was back on his own home turf. Even with hopping mad Beedrills hot on his tail, he knew how to navigate the environment, so as long as he didn't look back.

As they retreated faster through the ever-densening wilderness, Viper felt his muscles tense and tear beneath him, the hurdles of the forest straining the injuries he'd sustained just days earlier. Searing pain clutched at his tibia, the same fragile spot Joy had warned him about refracturing, and he suddenly found himself limping just to stay on his feet.

It was hopeless. Viper's ankle twisted under him soon enough, and he bit back a groan as the shot of pain knocked him off his feet.

"Wha—" Simon dragged his own feet to halt, looking over his shoulder in concern. Spotting the commandant lying helpless and barely conscious on the forest floor, he swiftly backpedaled his steps. Knowing he had to reach his fallen companion before the Beedrill could get to him first, he unclipped a Pokéball from his waist and sent it hurtling through the air.

In a magnificent splash of light, Fearow beamed onto the scene directly between Viper and the approaching Swarm.

"Fearow," Simon cried out, "use Gust Attack to keep those Beedrill at bay!"

With a flap of its hefty wings, the feathered Pokémon pommeled the vengeful hive with a air-shattering gust of wind, effectively breaking their flight.

As the Beedrills crashed down to the dirt, Simon quickly moved in beside Viper. "I've got you," he panted, slipping his arm around the commandant's waist. He next pulled Viper's arm over his shoulder, supporting him as they rose up off the ground together and began their three-legged getaway.

Once they were far enough ahead, Simon used his one free hand to return Fearow back to its Pokéball. It wouldn't be long before the Beedrill pulled themselves out of their disarray and caught up to them, he realized, so he carefully but quickly guided Viper over to the nearest vine tree. Outrunning the hive was out of the question. Their only chance now was to hide and wait.

Viper had all but blacked out now, and Simon huffed and puffed just to keep the other boy hoisted up on his feet. The sound of the angry swarm closing in again pushed him to his pinnacle of strength, however, and he dragged both himself and his superior into a crevice between the tree's two massive, upturned roots, concealing the both of them inside.

Gently, he laid Viper's body on the mound of the tree root, then crouched down as low as he could whilst listening to the angry colony of Beedrill buzz past.

…...

Eden scaled the Foreteller fortress unchallenged from toe to top, the tower's twisting staircase routing her directly to a sealed chamber on the highest floor. Dotty blew down the doors with a mighty Gust Attack and Eden practically threw herself through the doorway, hoping to find her missing companions chained up inside.

Alas, the chamber was empty; it was strikingly dark to boot, though not quite enough for her eyesight to fail her. The walls were blank and bare, but the air was filled with the slight humming of magic, the foul and unnatural taste of ozone stinting at her eyes.

Across the chamber, through the clotting of the shadows, she could barely make out the shape of three spherical objects sitting spaced-apart from each other across a raised, stone console. She approached with caution, Dotty fluttering behind her and whimpering anxiously. Upon closer inspection, the three round artifacts appeared to be forged from some sort of stone, engraved with horizontal markings reminiscent to that of Apricorn shells and the more recently developed Pocket Balls—or Pokéballs, as many outside Tatto called them. And since there were three of these capture devices in total, she considered the possibility that each contained a Sword of Justice.

Without hesitating, she reached for the center sphere, a hopeful gasp of breath filling her lungs.

Before she could make contact with the artifact, however, it cracked apart like an egg shell. Out of its remains stumbled a miniature Sadow, his eyes weighted with sleep and his balance wobbly.

"Sadow!" Eden filled with joy, then just as quickly balked when she realized how tiny her adviser was. "Um," she cleared her throat, holding out a finger to steady her friend, "should I even ask or—?"

"N...no," he slurred drowsily, rubbing at his eyes. "Eden, you... you can't be here—"

She scowled down at him. "Really, Sadow? I just rescued your pint-sized behind and now you want me to leave?"

"N...no, I mean—" He jolted mid—sentence, consciousness suddenly slamming back into the forefront of his brain. His head shot up at his giant savior with ample, alert eyes, "It's a trap, Eden!"

Before she could even acknowledge his warning, the remaining two spheres on either side of her cracked open, twin beams of light flooding the chamber. The room fell dark again after and two Gothitelles rose out of the shadows like angels of death.

The chamber entrance burst open next, a squad of Golurks bunching inside and surrounding the Seers in all of a few short moments. This had all been perfectly planned and coordinated, Eden realized.

With no where to run this time, Eden collected Sadow in her palms and backed herself into the corner of the room, resigned to her surrender. The only thing that stood between her and the enemy was Dotty, but even a high-strung Butterfree wouldn't be enough to clear through two powerful, will-bending Gothitelle and an entire force of armed and accoutered automatons at their beck and call.

"It's hopeless," Sadow concluded, standing high on his toes so he could see past Eden's fingers; indeed, the situation looked grim. "We're outnumbered."

That was when Shyla Vexx herself appeared out of thin air, her olden eyes ablaze with the psychic energy. "Come with us, Lady Eden," she invited warmly, standing calm and proud in front of her Pokémon servants. "We will reunite with your Legendary Pokémon if you do. We have not harmed them, I promise you. We would not dare."

"Restore my friend immediately," Eden demanded harshly, displaying the teensy tiny man in her hands.

"I see nothing wrong with him," Shyla replied with a shrug of her angular shoulders.

"Wha—" Eden's face scrunched in puzzlement, but a loud thud at her feet snatched her attention. She looked down to find Sadow lying on the floor, restored to his normal size but visibly disoriented from whatever spell Shyla had just cast in that half-second it took to blink.

Eden helped her adviser to his feet and glared at the Foreteller in disgust. "Enough of your parlor tricks!", she growled with irritation. "What have you done with the Swords! What have you done with Gaius!"

"You'll find that he's quite alright," a voice answered from behind Shyla.

The voice was soon followed by a face, one that was familiarly handsome, prompting Eden to stammer, "G-Gaius?"

The dashing guild master slipped past the Golurks, finding his place beside Shyla and her Gothielle. He smiled politely at Eden, as if nothing was wrong.

"When I learned you were coming to Unova, I made an arrangement with Gaius," Shyla explained to the Seer duo, folding her hands neatly over her lap in a false show of serenity. "With his help, I was able to procure your Legendary Pokémon for myself."

"That was the other half of the arrangement, yes," Gaius snickered under his breath, lifting a brow up at Shyla in a suggestive manner; she didn't turn her head to acknowledge him though, not even once.

Sadow stomped forward with one foot, glaring daggers at their traitorous host. "I knew you reeked of lies from the moment we met!"

Before Gaius could return the insult in his passive aggressive fashion, Eden stepped forth. Unlike Sadow, her entire expression was one of pain and heartache, not anger. "Why, Gaius?", she mewled softly, tears clogging her voice. "How could you betray my trust like this? You swore you would not repeat the misdeeds of your ancestors, that you would do away with the old customs."

"Customs die slow deaths in Pokémopolis," he echoed eerily, hearkening back to their conversation from the day before. "You really should have accepted my proposal, Eden. Then all this needless contention might have been avoided."

"You would have double-crossed us regardless," Sadow accused heatedly, then turned his gaze to Shyla. "I saw that machine you were building, just before you took me captive!"

"Oh, Sadow," Gaius laughed thinly, head turning from side to side. "Haven't you figured it out yet? You were all captives the moment you stepped through our gates." He shifted his focus to Eden, pitying her with his eyes. "Just like a Seer to be so gullible."

Eden's expression distorted, melting with her heart into despair. There was definitely anger bubbling to the surface, but it wasn't towards Gaius. She was angry at herself for again proving Arlon right. By blindly trusting a cult of fanatics, she had allowed herself to be vulnerable, allowed herself to put everything dear to her at stake simply because she was feeling afraid and weak. Perhaps the Creedo had been in the right. Perhaps she wasn't at all fit to become Tatto's leader.

"And now that you're with us," Shyla broke the tense silence, indicating Eden, "we finally have everything in place to restore the greatest civilization that ever was."

Sadow tilted his head, pulling apart her cryptic words for enlightenment but coming up short. "There's more to all this then," he husked out , eyes narrowing to slits. "Just what are you fanatical lunatics plotting?"

Shyla held out a vein-covered hand, letting it flitter up and down. "All in good time, Sadow."

Gaius slowly moved toward Eden, two of his Golurks coming to his exposed flanks. "You are at our mercy now, Eden," he whispered, cupping her chin. "I didn't want it to come to this, but what choice have you left me?"

"Please, all I want are my Legendary Pokémon," she croaked, her voice an odd mix of emotional yet tired. "They're all I have left now."

"The Seer girl is in the right, Gaius," Shyla agreed in a sympathetic voice, and Sadow watched the old woman's face as she spoke, the way her forehead creased, the way her bloodcurdling lips formed a perfectly straight line between sentences. "She must be reunited with her Pokémon. They thrive at her side."

"Oh, of course, of course," Gaius embraced with a jubilant nod of his head, never leaving Eden's anguished eyes. "But first we require but one more provision." He smiled patiently at the Seer girl and softly wiped a tear away from her cheek with one of the very loose and very long sleeves of his robes. "You can still set this right," he whispered. "Now, the comet shard, if you'd please."

"Don't do it, Eden," Sadow pleaded silently into her ear, and that was really all he COULD do. Any sudden moves on his part and the Golurks surrounding Gaius would send him hurtling through the roof of the tower.

Eden was frozen in front of Gaius, staring blankly at his spread hand, quietly weighing her options.

Gaius's lips set in a straight line, his usual aplomb vanishing. "That comet shard rightfully belongs to us," his voice sharpened impatiently. That mature, gentleman-like facade he'd allowed her to believe was real until now was slipping, and he was finally starting to sound like the spoiled prince he was at heart. "We sent Rasmus to retrieve it for us all those years ago. We didn't wait this long to have some little girl hole it away from us!" He reached his hand out farther. "Do as I ask right this moment—"

"No," Eden refused abruptly, playing her last shred of dignity.

Gaius glared petulantly, his cheeks hot. "Have it your way," he said finally, stepping back beside Shyla and signaling one of his Golurks with a wag of his fingers. "Take it from her."

Following commands, the designated automaton stepped forward, towering over Eden.

Sadow and Dotty quickly moved in beside Eden, ready to protect her if necessary.

Then the Golurk made its move—but not against Eden. It rotated its body around and surprised the five other Golurks with rapid fire Charge Beams, blasting their chest seals and knocking each of them out cold.

The room lit up in sparks and Eden and Sadow shielded their eyes as the malfunctioning Pokémon finished up its attack.

When it was all over, Sadow lowered his arm to discover a smiling Ditto plopped on the floor where the renegade robot had been standing. "I don't believe it," he choked on a bout of relieved laughter. "Proxy, you sneaky genius, you!"

Sadow's loyal, shape-shifting blob leaped up off the floor, clinging itself to its trainer's arm.

"Nicely done, Proxy," Eden praised, coming around Sadow's shoulder to congratulate the Pokémon with a pat on its amorphous back. Her eyes then quickly drifted to the aftermath of the Ditto's perfectly executed deception, observing the paralyzed Golurks lying piled up on the floor.

Gaius and Shyla, however, were nowhere to be found. Not even the Gothitelles were brave enough to stay behind.

"There'll be more waiting for us outside if we don't leave now," Sadow cautioned, glancing over the defeated automatons for himself.

Not hearing him, Eden sneered, "Gaius and Shyla must have fled."

Sadow looked up at the names, then indicated the exit, "Yes, well, I suggest we do the same."

"Right," she concurred with a nod, and briskly started towards the door with Sadow and their two Pokémon in tow.

…...

He was sprawled on the forest floor, his shoulders anchored against the tree root behind him and his knees drawn in. He sat up slowly with a soft groan, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Directly beside him sat Simon, beaming up at him with that blank yet somehow earnest expression he'd become accustomed to.

"The coast is clear," Simon affirmed quietly. He twisted his body, peaking over their hiding spot to survey the forest. He then looked up. Rising above the copse was the unmistakable curling tendrils of chimney smoke. "That smoke must be coming from that cabin you saw," he reasoned as he began climbing to his feet. "We can rest there."

"At ease, soldier," Viper protested groggily, not moving an inch. "Lets just... catch our breaths for a moment."

Simon looked around. They weren't exactly in a clearing, but then, there hadn't been any clearings. There hadn't been any paths either. Just unbridled, stubborn flora and skittering, unseen fauna. Where they sat was as good a spot as any for a short rest.

Without argument, Simon silently plopped back down beside the older boy and began twiddling his thumbs. Viper, meanwhile, forced himself to blink, then shook his head in a futile attempt to clear his hazy thoughts. He realized dimly that this was the closest he'd ever been to Simon, as far as proximity was concerned.

The sounds of the forest played up their uncomfortable silence long enough for Simon to think up something—anything—to say. "Too bad about Ledian," he remarked, clearing his throat in a way that sounded forced and painful. "I was so sure it could help us."

Viper shifted himself more comfortably against the bulk of the tree, stretching his leg out carefully in front of him. "That course is lost, Simon," he grunted with the motion. "We're better off on our own."

Simon just kept his eyes forward and nodded, drawing his knees up under his chin and wrapping his arms around them. From the very corner of his eye, though, could he vaguely espy the officer still struggling to extend his leg, the strain on the tendon as bad as he suspected. Maybe it WAS better that they waited a bit long before pressing on with the mission, he realized.

"That was some quick thinking back there, by the way," Viper applauded offhandedly upon finally finding a comfortable sitting position. "Well done."

Simon perked up at the compliment, especially since Viper was usually in rare supply of those. "Oh, that?", he laughed, trying to brush it off as nothing and play it cool like Cayman would. "Nothing I haven't been confronted with before while living in the mountains." He smiled, muttering under his breath, "Only this time I didn't hesitate like a little coward."

Viper rolled his head in a large circle, cracking the vertebrae in his neck. "And how did a former coward like yourself manage to live off the woods for so long?", he asked nonchalantly.

"Well," Simon began with a mellow shrug, "before Cayman came along, I always just sort of played it safe."

Viper found himself nodding. "Nothing wrong with that. You knew to pick your fights carefully. I think you still do, to some extent." He glanced down at his injured ankle, then pointed up at the bruises healing on his face, "I wish I could say the same for myself."

Simon chuckled. "Yeah, Cayman told me you two got into some kind of scrap. He wouldn't tell me what it was about though."

Viper tried to smile, though it came out more like a wince. "No, he wouldn't, would he?"

Wetting his lips apprehensively, the junior ranger prodded, "Do you mind if I asked what happened?"

Viper concentrated on sorting the events in his mind, purposely stalling. "I... made some comments about you, none of which he particularly cared for," he gave in, finally. "We lost our tempers, and one thing led to another." He frowned and then stated coldly, "He was defending your honor."

The corner of Simon's mouth turned up, almost imperceptible.

Viper lifted a miffed brow, "What's so funny?"

He sighed deeply. "Even when I'm finally tough enough to fight my own battles, he still insists on fighting them for me."

Viper nodded and tilted his head back against the tree bark. "He loves to be in control of things. And that's only because he rarely ever is." He paused and uttered into the silence, "That's going to change though."

Simon, who tried to avoid making assumptions whenever possible, found this concept novel. And it showed clearly on his face.

Viper rolled his head, noticing Simon's less-than-enthusiastic reaction. "You look like you have something you want to say," he accused. "Since you're no longer a coward, don't be afraid to speak your mind."

The other boy nodded. "I can understand why Cayman feels so strongly about deposing Metsuma," he said. "What about you, though? How did you ever wind up on that floating wasteland?"

Viper sniffed, blinking rapidly over a marathon of memories. "My father shipped me off to a reform school, one of those really intensive ones where they chew you up and work you to the bone," he explained, and Simon could hear the strain on his voice. "He thought it would straighten me out, build me into a better man. It payed off in the end, just not for him." He leaned his head back again and smiled longingly towards the canopies above, "I only wish I could have seen his face when he found out I busted out of there."

Simon stared at the side of his superior's rugged, grizzled face as if he could see into his thoughts if he just tried hard enough. He didn't look away, just stayed intensely still, both eager and nervous to learn what came next.

Viper sighed and carried on, "Metsuma took me in when I had nowhere else to go, hid me from the authorities long enough for them to call off the manhunt. By that time though, I had completely forgotten why I was running in the first place, thanks to Metsuma wiping my memories." He looked at Simon, lifting his shoulders with a lethargic exhale, "Thus, Viper was born."

"Wow," Simon cawed throatily with wide eyes. "With a past that checkered, it's no wonder you always have such a stick up your ass."

The older boy shot him a black look.

"Cayman's terminology, not mine," Simon cleared his throat, opting to quickly change the subject. "Anyway, uh, h—how did you manage to jog your memories after all that?"

"Around the time I realized there were memories worth jogging, I guess," he answered flatly, raking his fingers through the dirt next to him. "I saw my father's face on the news some time ago, and that was about the time everything else started bubbling to the surface."

Simon looked at him strangely. "You never told Cayman any of this?"

"Why do you assume that?", Viper questioned, eyes slowly tilting up at his partner.

"He says you never open up about your past, not even about the things you do remember."

Viper laughed—a brief snort of air—and reached to his left to collect his gear into his lap. "Cayman has a big mouth," he muttered as he began digging through his bag.

"He has a big heart," Simon clipped back, as if to correct him.

"Fortunately for me, right?" Viper grumbled sarcastically, his eyes again flashing to his ankle. "Speaking of which..." He continued to rifle through his belongings until, finally, he fished out a lighter and a freshly prepared joint he'd rolled up before the mission.

Simon scooted away shyly, clearing his throat again. "Er... what are you doing?"

"Relieving my pain," Viper muttered inaudibly over the joint in his mouth, lighting the exposed tip without a care in the world.

The slighter boy watched him carefully as he smoked up the substance. "Isn't doing Parasect spores... bad for you?"

"You only live once, Simon," Viper disregarded with a shrug of his shoulders, removing the joint from his lips and holding it to his companion.

"I think I'll pass," Simon declined, staring at the drug with a slight wince. It wasn't so much the Parajuana that was unsettling him as it was Viper's abrupt personality turnover. He never would have suspected the rigid, ruthless commandant to blaze up on occasion. Of course, there was also a time not long ago he never would have thought a wanted killer would turn out to be a decent guy—and later, best friend.

Seeing Simon visibly recoil, Viper smirked and brought the joint back to his mouth. "I can see why Cayman holds you in such high regard."

"I don't understand," Simon wheezed, swatting away the smoke in his eyes.

"He sees a lot of what he wants to be in you," the elder boy embellished, deflated eyes drifting for a moment. "As for me, I see a lot of what I used to be. Before Metsuma, before the reformatory." His gaze slowly ascended, reaching Simon's face with a fierce squint, "You wanted to know how I came to be such a felon, didn't you?"

"Only what you can remember," Simon said stiffly with a single nod, pressure rising in his throat. This was the closest he'd ever bonded with the stringent officer and he wasn't going to let it pass. He wanted to know him better, to understand him. It was the only way they could finally get on the same page and let their absurd contest for Cayman's attention die off.

Viper took a huff of the joint in his fingers, relaxing just enough to open up those wounds in his mind. "I remember a lot more about my past than I care to let on," he recalled, his voice becoming a fumbled rasp. "I remember being just an average kid. Then I remember not liking being average. Then began the stupid tale of the stupid boy with stupid dreams."

Simon's breath lodged in his throat, blocking questions and entreaties alike. He waited and listened.

"You spent your entire life living in fear of your own shadow, right?" Viper wiped his face with his hand, smiling against the back of it. "Well I was the opposite. I wanted to break away from it all. I wanted thrills." Involuntarily laughter gushed from his mouth, "I wanted to feel my heart pounding in my chest every second of every day. I didn't want to be Oliver the upstanding, goody-goody son of the renown police chief. Heck, I didn't want to be anything. I just wanted to BE."

Finding his voice, Simon croaked, "So, what happened?"

"Hmm," Viper said, drawing the word out, fiddling with the joint in his hand and staring at it intensely. "Well, society wouldn't let me BE. And my dad could only look at me in disgrace, like I was a stain on his otherwise shining reputation." He licked his lips and exchanged an emotional glance with Simon, brief as it was. "The PLC were the first ones to lock me away. Idiots. I guess they didn't care much for thrills." He rolled his head away once more, drawling on with a sigh, "And then there was Metsuma, who just took thrills too far. Goddamn psycho. He promised we'd get rid of the PLC, maybe start a new society. I just can't believe I ate up that bullshit."

Simon hummed in agreement, or perhaps dissent. He wasn't quite sure himself. He felt pity for Viper, sure, but the whole story really boiled down to questionable choices. And it made him question some of his own.

"I always thought that if I couldn't live life to the fullest, maybe life wasn't worth living," Viper clarified, perhaps cluing in on Simon's teetering neutrality.

"Or maybe you just don't know your limitations," the younger boy argued, gathering Viper's full attention now.

There was a reaction in the commandant's face, a ghost of shock that flickered through his eyes before he locked it down tight. "Oh, so I'm a failure for not living up to my father's archetype for me?"

"Don't you hear what you're saying, Viper?", Simon challenged incredulously, but with an upbeat, friendly note in his voice. "It sounds to me like you're not actually upset with the Pokémon League, or even society in general. I think that maybe you're upset with your dad because he was blind to the fact that you felt so trapped."

Viper looked down at his lap and frowned, toying with the notion.

"Mine was too, you know," Simon confided as an afterthought, his lips stretching into broad, consoling smile.

A long, slow blink and a slight inclination of the elder teen's head showed his understanding of Simon's point. His eyes were naturally red and puffy, courtesy of the cannabis flowing through his body; but in spite of that, he still seemed to be rooted in serious thought, like he couldn't afford to let this quandary escape him. The spores were certainly trying to repress it, to numb him, but he was fighting nonetheless.

"You probably acted out as a way to challenge him, to get his attention," Simon continued, trying to keep him from nodding off.

Viper raised his head and exhaled, a long lazy breath of smoke. "Lil' good that did," he slurred hazily before discarding the joint altogether. "It doesn't matter anyway. S'all in the past..."

Simon looked at his tipsy companion, just barely tilting his head to make sure he caught Viper's unfocused eyes. "Then what about the future? What does that hold for you, Oliver?"

Viper straightened at the sound of his birth name, then shook his head and answered, "I had no idea... until Cayman came along." He narrowed his eyes, breathing in the fresh air and feeling more alert again. "And Cayman knows just as well as I do what needs to be done." His eyes snapped to Simon's. "We're going to overthrow Metsuma together, he and I. Then we're going to stamp out the Pokemon League next."

Though not entirely convinced, Simon blinked and watched him steadily. "And then what?"

Viper scratched the back of his neck beneath his ponytail, indecisive. "I dunno," he responded after a deep silence, his voice leveling. "Maybe I can finally just BE."

An endearing smile broke out on Simon's lips; and following some short reflection, he said, "Life has a way of throwing the unexpected at us, I've found. Blink once... and everything can change in an instant." He couldn't help but chuckle at himself. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that sometimes fate decides things for us, regardless of what we want or what we think is right."

Viper bit his lip, candidly, with water in his eyes. He harshly sniffed back tears and hardended his jawline.

"Either way," the younger boy spoke so softly, mirth lacing in his voice. "I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for."

Viper patted Simon's arm appreciatively, perhaps because of the spores or perhaps out of the warmth of his own heart. "I do too," he breathed slowly, sluggishly, "And for what it's worth, you're a lot easier to talk to than Cayman." The ghost of a frown flickered across his face, so fast that Simon barely noticed. "You're... a good kid, Simon."

Moved by the sentiment, Simon blushed, his eyes intent on the commandant's pale face. "I just hope we can be friends now."

"I would've liked that," Viper murmured, the words moist on his dry tongue.

Simon looked confused for a moment, but turned his head up to the sky when the distant thrum of propellers rolled over the forest. "It's those helicopters again," he sighed. "I wonder what they're searching for?"

"We should get back to the mission," Viper gritted out, pulling himself up out of the crevice of the tree and carefully standing up on wobbly legs. His high was nearly gone but the sharp pain in his tendon had also tapered off, at least enough so that he could travel again. Retrieving his bag from the dirt, he breathed in the buzzing air, energy crackling inside his lungs. He squared his shoulders and braced his feet.

Simon climbed up beside his wobbly friend, balancing him with his hand. "We don't have to set out just yet, you know. There's still no sign of Shiftry."

"That's alright," Viper shrugged his knapsack off his shoulder and began fishing around for the water canisters, hoping to quench his blazed lungs for the journey ahead. "As long as we stay hydrated, there's still plenty enough time—" He stopped short, looking into the bag with a baffled squint. "Huh. I was... so certain I packed them."

Simon waited for him to finish searching his bag before asking, "What, did you leave our water canteens back in the transport?"

Viper glanced up unhappily from his bag, "Yes. And the food rations too."

Simon stomach growled at the mention of food. "Too bad, because I could go for a bite right about now."

After a fleeting surveillance of the treetops, the older boy let out a shuddering breath and nodded. "It's nothing to worry about," he decided abruptly, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "I'll just head back to the drill and pick up the supplies we left behind."

"In your condition?", Simon uttered, brow arching. "Are you sure?"

Viper smirked devilishly, wiggling his ankle. "If the pain gets severe, I'll just have to medicate myself again."

"Well, what about me?", the junior ranger croaked, eyeing his primitive surroundings. After the Beedrill debacle, the last thing he wanted was to split up.

"Just keep searching for Shiftry,", the elder teen instructed, then pointed to the trail of smoke billowing in the sky, "but stay near the cabin so I can find you."

Simon shifted anxiously for a moment, then forced himself to man up and concede, "Um, alright. Whatever you say, I guess."

"I, uh, won't be long," Viper assured in a cracked voice, turning his body away in some questionable abruptness. He unsnapped a Pokéball from his belt and let it fly.

A burst of light followed and Venonat appeared in a pinch, its antennas batting wildly. "Venoo, Venonat!"

"Venonat," Viper ordered, pointing with his finger forthwith, "lead me back to the drill with your Radar Eye."

Cooperating, the Bug Pokémon scanned the forest with its acute sensors. When it detected something, it started its trail immediately. Viper pursued, expressionless at the mouth and empty in the eyes, his steps oddly rigid. He didn't even dispense with a verbal adieu, much less acknowledge Simon in any way at all. He just seemed to take off.

Simon, nonplussed as ever, simply watched as the pair lumbered off through the dark and dense thicket, the both of them vanishing into the trees without once glancing back at him. He closed his arms over his chest and slouched back against the mighty oak tree, head dipped in contemplation. What else could he do now but wait patiently?

…...

"The sixth nexus you must overcome is one of great tension buried deep inside yourself," Darukai's tenuous voice coaxed through the dense, filmy darkness clogging the abstract passages of my mind and memory. "It cannot stay suppressed. You must tap into it by letting its energy flow fully through your body, mind, and spirit."

It was a fairly broad instruction, but this was my body and I had to demonstrate some measure of control. I began focusing intensely into the empty vacuum before me, more with my mind than my eyes. My body, even in its metaphysical state, numbed. While I couldn't feel my heartbeat in my chest, I could certainly hear it drumming in my ears.

At last, I let my eyes flutter shut to these sensations, the final ingredient needed.

And a name in my mind whispered into my ears. Cayman.

The eerie echo of a young boy's devilish laughter, running for what seemed like forever, played in the back of my consciousness. I remembered a flash of terror, deadening dread, dark desperation, and then a stroke of something akin to a one of those foreign emotions. Sadness, maybe.

Images, vibrant but hazy, routed the swaddling darkness. These served only as distractions in the moment and I felt my focus start to slip, but the child's laughter ringing across this fourth dimension seemed to hold my attention just enough to keep the images stable and present, if not clear. I found myself reminded of a similar situation not long ago, when Darukai barraged me with visions of the future, which had left me reeling.

This time, however, it seemed like I was doing all the heavy lifting.

"Yes," Darukai's voice came in clearer and sharper as the images became more pronounced. "Simply let the energy flow through you. Let it spill forth. Now tap into that power."

Feeling more comfortable with my undefined whereabouts, my focus returned full-force and I fixated on the images long enough for them to wash over me like a tidal wave, bringing into existence solid landscapes and vivid scenery across my field of vision.

A daze of lights danced beneath my half-closed lids next, the sky producing a brilliant golden sun. A slab of earth and rock erected beneath my feet next, raising me up over a small pool of water swiftly stretching into a vast ocean. The moment its gushing blue tendrils finally touched the horizon was the moment this surreal world felt real, genuine—and familiar, most of all.

Sure enough, Cayman himself was present in what struck me as a most familiar scene indeed. He stood at the very edge of the rocky vertex, barefoot and blindfolded, facing the ocean in that deep concentration he only ever achieved while training. Oh, I remembered this day alright. I remembered it with fondness. This was one of the last few good days he gave me before slipping into his spotty pattern of behavior, before everything became strained and needlessly complicated between us.

Where had the time gone, I mused to myself?

Further up the cape brink, Cayman lifted his foot in the air and stamped it back into the ground with staggering force, never flinching out of focus.

The hard soil beneath my feet cracked in response, as though it were about to give way and crumble at any moment. I shuffled back a few paces, knowing I was out of my medium. Solid, rough terrain was Cayman's turf, not to mention his element and his weapon. And I had taught him how to exploit it, much to my shame. If only I'd foreseen just how much of a problem child he'd become.

I backed up too far, evidently, when I felt myself bump into another body. Darukai weaved to my side, revealing himself before I could even spin around to confront him. "Much like the Wind and Nature Chasms, the Earth Chasm cannot be conquered through ordinary means," he came right out with it, not mincing words or spouting metaphorical rubbish. "Rather than seal it, you must sate it."

I turned my head and noticed a twitch in Cayman's feet, unsettling me to the point where I failed to utter a reply to the dreamweaver's directive.

"Earth is the most passive and strong element," Darukai continued droning into my ear, "although it can be destructive if one experiences its wrath."

With an abrupt twist of Cayman's ankle, a pillar of rock sprung forth from the ground in front of me, slamming me in the chest and launching me backward.

Upon landing flat on my back, I didn't feel an ounce of pain, reminding me that this was all figmental. I did, however, feel foolish for not reacting in time to something I should have seen coming a mile away. I remembered sustaining that exact same blow back in real time, the spontaneous force of my protege's Cho'moken, the immense power I had foolishly coaxed out of him.

Darukai leaned over me, tentatively staring down at me in my horizontal state. "Earth Cho'moken certainly pacts a punch," he stated the obvious in an ill attempt at humor, drawing circles in the dirt beside me with the stub of his sandal. "Most people rely on this element and what it produces or stands for, for it is familiar and doesn't change often."

Upon finishing his little speech, he offered his hand to me; but I declined the invitation and promptly pulled myself up off the ravage ground with a subdued groan. I quickly brushed myself down and I gazed across the cape brink again, looking directly towards my star pupil. He untied the blindfold and pivoted, his eyes bearing down on me through fierce slits.

I felt an involuntary shudder run up my spine, a paralyzing sensation. I don't know why I felt so disarmed, but I did.

Creeping up at my shoulder, Darukai whispered through a mouth gone dry, "Earth is seen as the force within us where we build ourselves upon, the invulnerable force within us we can turn to in great misery."

"Like the misery I'm responsible for," I interpreted hoarsely, watching the pain of a thousand misfortunes flicker through Cayman's eyes in that moment. It was a look Anna often wore in recent days, I'd see it every time our paths crossed.

Darukai lifted up an arm, rearranging the landscape with a wiggle of his fingers. The cliff side dissolved into a thousand shards all at once, taking Cayman along with it; and the ocean evaporated with the burning sun, leaving nothing behind but a dried up terrain.

We gently levitated to the ground, just as a large brood of Rhyhorn started to converge onto the newly leveled landscape, which occurred to me must have felt right at home for them. From the rough, barren rough soil to the consummately parched air, this was a paradise for any Rock and Ground-Type Pokémon.

Following at the Rhyhorns' heels arrived a handful of Golems, rolling onto the beautiful wasteland like the world's heaviest tumbleweeds. Geodudes and Gravelers soon joined them, followed immediately by several Donphan and Phanpys. At the same time, several Sandshrew and Diglett popped out from ground intermittently betwixt and between the other grazing Pokémon, only to be occasionally scared off by the much larger Onix gradually coasting their way onto the brittle forefront.

"A most stubborn element, earth represents survival and fortitude," Darukai informed, gesturing to the impressive roster before us with a grandiose sway of his arms. "Ground, Rock, and even Steel-Type Pokémon have a reputation for being the toughest, most resilient creatures in the Pokémon Kingdom."

"That's what makes them so appealing, I suppose," I said sagaciously.

"A tackle attack against an Onix will barely leave a scuff," he cited cleverly, nodding. "Toss a Rhydon into a brick wall and it will shake it off and climb right back up. Encounter an individual with Earth Cho'moken and you'll find that they are strikingly confident in their abilities, as well as fearless and unflinching in the heat of battle."

"Yes," I admitted wearily, hanging my head, before a thought occurred to me. "But what does this have to do with Cayman?"

He pointed, and I let my eyes trace his finger back to the spectacle at hand. Cayman was there now, standing motionless amidst the Pokémon in his entranced state, clad in only his britches and blindfold. He may as well have still been training.

"These types of people and Pokémon are so fearless because they neither know nor care enough to be afraid," the dreamweaver pointed out, smirking lightly. "That is one significant advantage Cayman has over you."

I balked at Darukai, almost gagging on unspoken words. Had I really just heard him correctly?

The corner of his lips curved upward, mildly amused by my reaction; and he explained thereafter, "It is why he continues to defy and challenge you, no matter how many times you try and put him in his place. It is why so many on Savile Island look up to him for inspiration. You can break his body, you can mangle his mind, but you cannot shatter his spirit. He's not easy to intimidate, whereas men like you..." His smile turned ironic, as if laughing about an inside joke. "Well, let's just say you mask yourself well."

I wrinkled my nose distastefully at the term mask, if only because of how he'd said it, like it was a slight. The Maestro had encouraged the idea of camouflage as a means of blending in, yet here my own ancestor was demeaning the tactic as some sort of false front, a coward's way of concealing his fear. And somehow Cayman was the fearless one for perpetually being his shiftless, scatterbrained self?

"You're calling me a coward, is what you're doing," I accused softly, folding my arms as I glared warily up at him in challenge. With each new Chasm, it seemed like he would go to great lengths to put himself at odds with me.

"You're far from a coward, Metsuma," he tried his luck at buttering me up, predictably. "You are quite possibly the most dangerous man of your time. You are a brilliant, manipulative architect."

I briefly rolled my eyes, then heaved, "Listen, I—"

"And yet," he silenced me abruptly, holding his pasty finger to Cayman once more, "you alone are responsible for that boy and all that he is capable of. No matter what you might think of him, he is still your creation, so why are you so afraid to take responsibility for him?"

That damn word again. Afraid. I wanted to shrug it off, and yet I stiffened uncomfortably. My eyes fell on Cayman again, lingering over him like a dark cloud, and I whispered somewhat threateningly, "That isn't what I'm afraid of."

"What, then?", he pried harder, stepping in front of me so that I could only focus on him. "Why keep him around? What is it you're truly afraid of?"

That juvenile giggling stung in my ears again, and I winced. I didn't need to explain myself, as Darukai made a small motion with his fingers, again dabbling with the dreamscape.

In a few short seconds, the wasteland was gone, replaced by a large, unkempt room littered with toys and children at play. This was the orphanage where I first discovered Cayman, it hit me. The once-proud building was deteriorating from the inside out, just as I remembered it from my first and only visit. The mahogany colored wood, a dull, filthy gray, littered the ground beneath it. The rotting paint on the walls peeled in ribbons, producing a crude odor.

Perhaps I had done this place a favor by torching it to the ground.

Then, that wonted giggling crescendoed higher, only this time I was quickly able to pin down the source. I shouldn't have been shocked to find that the laughter belonged to a rambunctious, bedraggled boy of about fourteen—the eldest of all the orphans—kicking around some Pokémon dolls. His puckered features screamed mischief, yet his innocence was still very much there, a sponge waiting to absorb new information. His deep blue eyes brimmed with energy, keen yet unripe, both exploitable qualities.

And it dawned on me all over again why I had handpicked him out of all these young, impressionable candidates.

"I was afraid of leaving nothing behind," I confessed pathetically, reliving that moment, rethinking buried thoughts. "I always believed I could achieve my life's goal of returning the world to its natural state, that was never in question—but my mortality was."

Darukai waited patiently for me to continue, hands folded politely in his lap.

"I wanted a legacy, embodied," I ran with my thoughts, trying to articulate myself. "I wanted someone I could depend on to continue my work after I left this world, someone to keep the world lawless and free."

"And so you adopted Cayman," he finished for me, motioning to the child, "hoping to groom him as your successor."

"Yes," I rasped, staring blankly at the boy whom would one day become a wanted criminal as well as a disloyal disciple.

"And that is why you won't rid of him, even now," Darukai stated, smoothly phrasing it as innocent conjecture.

My mouth worked, but I couldn't make a sound. I suddenly found myself enraptured with Cayman in his adolescent state, wondering to myself where I had gone wrong with him exactly, what I could have done better.

"Metsuma?"

I merely blinked at Darukai's repeated attempts to jostle me, too deep in thought. I moved carefully towards the boy and knelt beside him, unacknowledged. I just needed to look at him this way a little longer, to relive the moment when I felt like I could finally put my greatest fear to rest believing this stray cub could become my legacy.

Time seemed to jump, no doubt by Darukai's hand. Flames engulfed the room, burning through every toy on the ground before spreading from the floor to the walls. As the arson's mastermind, I knew the fire's mission was to leave no trace of Cayman's adoption, to turn everything it touched to ash. And to intertwine our fates forever.

The green-haired orphan finally locked eyes with me, ignorant to the fire. He smiled fondly at me and reached for my hand—his father's hand.

I felt Darukai grip my shoulder, but I remained put on the floor, muttering absently to myself, "He was dependable."

"You're not afraid for him," Darukai whispered, crouching beside me, "you're afraid for yourself."

Slowly, my hand drifted apart from Cayman's, and I turned my head and met the dreamweaver's gaze hesitantly. I wasn't angry with the claim, I was predisposed to hear him out. What more could I do.

"The fact of the matter is Cayman is not dependable," he warned in a sharp, eye-opening tone. He tilted his head to the youth pawing at my hand, "He's not this gullible little orphan boy you spirited away all those years ago. Most importantly, he doesn't look up to you anymore. He despises you. And he'll use your own training against you the first chance he gets."

I spun my gaze back to the orphan, only to find he was his older self again, the way I least fondly remembered him. Once more, he was half-clothed for rigorous training, only his blindfold lay unraveled at his feet this time. He stood over me like an Aggron ready to lunge, fierce-eyed instead of doe-eyed, muscles bulging and fists balled at his sides. This was no longer the meek, miserable orphan looking for someone to idolize. This was the Cayman that couldn't be trusted, that couldn't be salvaged. And he was totally fearless of me.

As if translating my observation, Darukai suggested, "Maybe it's time YOU took a page from HIM."

My gaze snapped back to my ancestor's face, and I could tell from the resigned look he was sending me that this wasn't a bluff.

Nodding his head to reinforce his suggestion, he dropped the pretenses and uttered simply, "Let go of your fear, Metsuma."

I snorted, rising to my feet fluidly and conjuring a faux Aura Spear out of thin air. Clenching the center of the weapon with a firm grip, I twirled it into alignment and plunged it clean through Cayman's chest in one swift, decisive moment.

The light in his eyes extinguished. His body jerked violently against the penetrating blade. I leaned in slowly and growled softly into his ear, "You're not my legacy. You're not my son. You're as expendable as anyone else, starting now." I yanked the spear from his gut and kicked him back into the flames.

Darukai stepped out from behind me, inexpressive to the whole thing; but I knew I had fulfilled his conditions.

I took a protracted breath, discarding the weapon in my hand, just watching Cayman's expired body burn from existence. "I don't need a legacy to prove my worth, to define my existence," I declared in a deadpan voice, turning to face my ancestor. "I can do that in my own lifespan, if I must. What comes after is irrelevant. I am not afraid."

"Oh?", my ancestor hummed in thought, smiling at something behind me.

I half-expected him to be laughing at Cayman's illusory corpse, but when I turned, I saw something fascinating through the flames—a boy that wasn't Cayman at all. He was very much alive, totally untouched by the fire; and a Meowth clung to his shoulder.

A teenager shy of fifteen or sixteen, I noted, his spiny brown hair and profound set of eyes seemed to be his most defining traits. While his face was heavily obscured by the smoldering embers, I recognized this apparition the harder I squinted. Darkrai had appeared to me in this form once before, back in the real world. And it was just as puzzling now to look upon this unknown person as it was then. Who was he? Did he even exist?

"If you're going to pass the torch someday," the dreamweaver touted quietly, "pass it to a more feasible candidate."

Theatrics aside though, I knew logically that if I didn't ask, I'd might not ever know who this young man was. I spun around to voice the nagging question, "Just who is this I'm looking at?"

"That's for you to find out on your own, someday," his airy voice teased, venom tipping the edge of the affected humor. "Or perhaps never. The future is in constant motion, remember?"

Just as with Cayman before them, the nameless boy and his Meowth disappeared into the flames. I opened my mouth to protest, but the walls of the dreamscape cracked like glass around me, colors running thin and loose like an oil painting. The Earth Chasm was sealed, I realized; but I was still left with the face of that mystery boy branded into my brain.

A smile played on my ancestor's phantom white features as I seized him by the shoulders and shook him, famished for a simple answer to a simple question. I didn't want to leave this an unsolved enigma, and I couldn't for the life of me pinpoint why. There was just something in that kid's eyes, a glint of power, of flash of defiance. Something far different from Cayman. And it spoke to me— like looking in a mirror.

Darukai's face began to blur the harder I throttled him. My head reeled dangerously and I swiftly stepped off when I realized I wasn't going to draw anything out of him this way. I would have to play passive and patient, once again.

He soon vanished altogether, melting away with the dreamscape. I simply waited silently for my turn to come next.

…...

After fleeing Scry Tower, Eden and Sadow returned to find that New Pokémopolis had gone totally quiet. The domiciles were empty, the facilities vacated. Not a sound stirred from the streets, the community square, nor the network of bridges webbing overhead. The absence of civilians wasn't so much a surprise though; it was the lack of Gothitelles and Golurks trying to stop them in their tracks that left them puzzled.

"These streets were mobbed with Gothitelles earlier," Eden recalled out loud, her eyes probing around uneasily as she followed Dotty and Sadow through the abandoned city plaza. "Where did they all disappear to?"

Beside her, Sadow shook his head stiffly and kept his eyes focused ahead. "I don't know," he huffed, "but let's not wait around for them to return. Once we regroup with the others, we leave Unova immediately."

He'd spoken too soon, however, as several shadows passed over them. Before either Seer could react to the danger, dozens of Golurks landed across the plaza in a swift instant, surrounding the pair and their Pokémon on the spot.

Eden reached into her sleeve on reflex, clutching the comet shard with a protective grip. She wasn't about to be subdued without a fight.

"We defeated them once," Sadow whispered aside, taking a fighting stance. "We can do it again, if we must."

Taking the initiative, Proxy sprung from Sadow's shoulder and morphed into a Golurk again. It took its stance beside Dotty and raised its bulky, metal arms, preparing to engage.

Eden was about to issue orders when an ominous wind suddenly raked through her dress and hair from behind, penetrating through her skin, to her very marrow. Her teeth began to chatter uncontrollably, and she spun on her heel to discover Shyla Vexx watching the scene from the roof of a domicile, with a column of six other bald, elderly women standing methodically behind her.

With a stroke of Shyla's wrinkled hand, the enemy Golurks halted in their tracks. "These boorish contraptions shan't pester you anymore," she pledged, immobilizing Eden with those glowing, cadaverous eyes that never seemed to blink, "so as long as you cooperate with the us, of course."

Finding her courage, Eden fixed the group of Foretellers with a intrepid scowl. "Never!", she spat. "We're leaving this dreadful place and never coming back!"

"And where will you run to, Lady Eden?", Shyla challenged softly, the others behind her remaining comfortably silent. "You would leave behind your Legendary Pokémon?"

The accusation left Eden shaking her head furiously, her mouth gaping open and close as she desperately searched for a comeback.

The old woman just smiled grimly through her teeth, "Why, without them, I'm afraid you're little more than a helpless Seer with a pretty face."

Eden's mouth dropped fully at this, but at the unspoken counsel of Sadow's fluctuating facial expressions, she remained strong and adamant. "Where are you holding them?", she disregarded the insult, focusing on her missing friends. "I demand that you tell me this instant!"

Shyla pressed her tinged lips into a rigid line. "Come to Twist Mountain, Lady Eden."

The Fabula daughter just blinked at the invitation, puzzled.

Without even supplying an explanation, though, Shyla stated calmly, "We will wait for you there, as will your Legendary Pokémon; but neglect to bring the comet shard and their future won't look so promising, I'm afraid." She then clapped her paper hands together and vanished in the blink of an eye.

The other five Foretellers vanished just moments after Shyla, prompting the Golurks surrounding Eden's group to withdraw from the plaza and return to the skies above.

As the automatons took flight, Eden just stared silently at her feet, breathing hard and angrily.

...

Time slowed as I fell in reverse, burning into hot pain and numbness. Darkness plucked me into oblivion, and I welcomed it as I floated away from the sealed energy nexus. It was time to wake up, I reasoned. Three Chasms in one day was a milestone I'd already set once before, but I had a wife to hurry back to in the real world. She would be wondering where I'd wandered off to before long.

I jettisoned backwards into a void, past dancing colors and a drifting figure smirking secretly at me as I tumbled past. I then finally touching down into a portal of light that eclipsed everything in my sight.

I blinked rapidly, straining my eyes. The only thing perceptible through the flourishing light was Darukai. Still smirking, he hovered above me, his white hair whipping around his face and his weathered robes flapping in some burnished, abstract wind.

"You have done remarkably thus far," he applauded softly, folding his hands together in a deferential knot. "Only one trial remains."

I heaved an exasperated sigh. "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to save the Seventh Chasm for another time." I gnawed on my lips absently for a second, dwelling. "Today's training has given me a lot to stew over."

"Wise decision," he approved with a slight bow of his head. "The seventh chasm is the most grueling of them all. It transcends everything you think you know about yourself and the world at large, and will thusly require all your focus and intuition."

"Then I have a lot to prepare for," I acknowledged, knowing what loose ends needed to be tied up before then.

He leaned back, reclining on thin air, "What will you do regarding Cayman?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose, sighing. "I already went to the trouble of sparing his life," I reminded, part of me regretting that decision after the epiphany I'd just had. "Viper was right about one thing though: Cayman is a powerful asset. But that's all he is to me now. His next misstep will be his last. No more chances."

"And what of the chances YOU'RE taking?", he assumed his best reprimanding voice, although there was bit of a tremor in it that wasn't there before. "Can you carry on with your work unburdened without truly knowing where his loyalties lie?"

"There's only one way to truly gauge his loyalty," I compromised, grinning wolfishly. "We're just moments away, now that I think about it."

He didn't press me for details, instead offering simply, "Shall I return you to your wife then?"

"Please," I consented coolly with a slow nod of my head. I was actually rather eager to get back and catch the show, assuming it hadn't already started without me.

Not muttering a word, Darukai slipped down from his invisible perch and thrust his hand toward me, an unseen pressure discharging with the motion. The force knocked me clean off feet and I found myself tumbling through another tear in the dreamscape.

The fall lasted only a short second. Heart fluttering violently, I fell back into my body with a gasp, my eyes shooting open with a dizzying start.

…...

Simon kicked off the colossal oak tree when the hiss of metal tore through the otherwise silent atmosphere. A tremor shook the forest floor beneath his feet, though it was more than just a feeling, it was a distinct rumble alike that of a motor or a turbine. "Hmm," he warbled anxiously, the noise becoming distant and muffled. "That sounded a lot like the TTD-01."

His suspicions proved unmistakable when the faint but definite odor of engine oil wafted on a passing breeze. Now that he thought about it, Viper should have made contact a while ago. He toyed with the logical notion that the commandant had succumbed to his injuries again, and that perhaps he was going to return by drill rather than on foot. But if that were indeed the case, why had those vibrations in the ground suddenly gone mum?

Then—frantic rustling in the leaves overhead.

Simon's head whipped around, searching the trees. He heard branches snap behind him and he kicked off the ground with an impressive spinning jump, coming face to face with his long-sought-after target. With a body resembling a depilated shrub, it camouflaged flawlessly into the forest. In fact, its opaque yellow eyes seemed to be suspended in mid-air by themselves.

"Shiftry", he identified in a sharp gasp, very slowly reaching for his belt. "Now I have you."

Watching Simon's hand carefully, the Hoenn Region Pokémon didn't move an inch out of place, only its shaggy white mane bouncing in the breeze.

Simon didn't break eye contact, though his hand continued its undetected journey along his belt. Of course, when he realized he was grasping at nothing but thin air, he couldn't help but glance down reflexively. He cursed under a harsh breath when he found no empty Pokéballs dangling at his belt. Viper had to have taken them with him by mistake, he realized.

By the time he looked back up, however, Shiftry was already in full sprint.

"Hey, wait," Simon called out to the Pokémon, charging after it in a desperate frenzy. "Don't run off!"

Shiftry didn't even glance back, fleeing from one branch to another in rapid succession. For whatever reason, it was retreating in the same direction the cabin smoke was coming from. Perhaps the Pokémon wasn't wild, Simon considered briefly at he kept on sprinting. Maybe it belonged to the cabin's proprietor as a lookout or something. Had Viper gotten his Intel wrong?

He didn't finish the thought. A tree branch whipped past his face, obscuring his view for a scant second, enough to send him crashing to the mud.

As if to add insult to injury, Ledian popped out from behind the faulted tree, circling Simon's body and buzzing in laughter.

Emitting a muffled groan into the grimy earth, Simon pushed himself to his feet and brushed down his dirt-caked lap. He glanced around, sighing when he failed to find any trace of Shiftry. He then faced the familiar face fluttering in front of him. "Good to see you're alright," he mumbled, ignoring its gloating at his expense. "Say, you didn't happen to see Viper coming back this way, did you?"

Perhaps not quite understanding at first, the Bug Pokémon just tilted its pear-shaped head to one side; then finally shook its head from side to side.

Simon touched his lip in thought. "That's odd. Did you maybe spot a giant metal tank?"

Again, the Pokémon shook its head in what must have been negation.

"H—He's probably just moving the drill to a more secure location, is all," Simon reasoned out loud, his pragmatism undercut by a nervous waver in his voice. "In the meantime, I should really focus on catching up to Shiftry." He turned his head up to the black stain in the sky. "If I keep following that smoke, I should be able to—"

Before he could take a step forward, however, Ledian rammed into his stomach in what he could only interpret as distress. It pushed into him with all its might, forcing him backwards.

He could hardly keep from barking out in laughter, "Ledian, what's gotten into you?"

The Pokémon stopped pushing against him and buzzed past his head, wagging all four of its arms towards the dense coppice Viper had left through.

Simon looked in the indicated direction and immediately waved in dismissal. "Shiftry didn't go in that direction, Ledian!", he sighed, turning forward again, "It fled towards the cabin, now let's go—"

Again, the frightful Ledian wouldn't let up, circling behind Simon and tugging at his backpack with all its force.

"Ledian, let go!", Simon huffed in frustration, trying to shake the Pokémon off of his gear. "I mean it! Let go back there or—!"

His mouth clamped shut as another tremor rattled the forest, scaring off Ledian as well as countless other Pokémon hiding in the trees. At first, he thought it was Viper, finally making his long-awaited return behind the reigns of the TTD-01. He half-expected the tank to burst out of the ground at any moment, its turbines roaring and its alloy plates glistering like diamond.

Then the tremor became a tenor—a grinding stutter from above instead of below.

Simon swallowed, listening prudently. Only the spinning blades of helicopters could produce such a continuous drone, he thought to himself. He'd heard them earlier too—circling in the far distance—and payed little mind. They posed no threat, he remembered Viper reassuring him; that it was just ranger patrol making their rounds as usual.

He shivered briefly as a breeze cut across his path, though it was no ordinary breeze by nature. It picked up into a heavy gust as the hum of the approaching helicopter rotors went from comfortably distant to appallingly proximate in just a few short moments. He rotated halfway as the forest vibrated around him, his mouth falling open, "What in the—"

Sharp, revolving blades hacked clean through the canopies above him, and a wild fear suddenly flared within Simon as severed branches fell like hail from the sky. His feet hit the soft earth in a thud that sunk his boots in the mud and sent bits of foliage flying as he bounded forward in a frenzy, chasing the trail of smoke in the sky and desperately hoping it would usher him someplace safe.

Fresh air hit him like a whip as he burst out of the treeline, revealing a small, cozy log cabin in a bright, sunny clearing just several yards in front of him. Viper had been right after all.

Another heavy gust kicked up behind him as his aeronautical pursuers flew onto the scene, their mangled, moving shadows cast clearly against the blinding sunlight. Simon craned his head up, squinting at the blue-and-white choppers mobilizing in the sky and congregating directly over his position like a flock of vengeful Spearow.

Police sirens and barking Growlithes rang hand-in-hand in the distance, steadily drawing closer. He was paralyzed where he stood though, unable to drag his focus away from the swarming aircrafts. Another helicopter emerged before he could even finishing counting the ones already circling, this one with a large man standing in the open cabin door holding what was shaped like a video camera.

His throat tightened, his heartbeat elevating in panic. The adrenaline alone pulled him out of his numbness and he swiftly reached for Fearow's Pokéball at his belt as a precaution—only to find it wasn't there. His hand trembled over the empty clip for a long, despairing moment. Too terrified in that moment to question its whereabouts, he instead unclasped the Pokéball Viper had loaned him at the start of the mission. He clicked the device's center button repeatedly, but it didn't respond.

"Come on," he exhaled sharply, throttling the Pokéball as all kinds of fear cracked through his voice. "Come on, just please open—"

The police sirens grew louder, closer, causing him to start. In his distracted state, the defected Pokéball slipped out of his trembling grip. There was no time to retrieve it though. The helicopters were coasting lower and he had to make a run the cabin up ahead.

Wiping off the cold sweat dripping down his face, he took off towards the tiny cottage in a desperate bid against time.

It was short-lived. Not even a five seconds into his panting sprint did his foot catch a jutting rock in the ground and he slammed face-first into the marshy grass.

…...

Anna steered the patrol car on a bumpy course, dodging one tree after another. The rest of the task force was already spread out further up ahead, so it was a race against the news vans now to catch up with the aerial units.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Special Agent Peer pulled his radio from the dashboard of the patrol car and it came to life with a crackle.

"Our aerial units have a visual on the suspect, sir," a male voice registered on the other end, muffled by the constant drone of a helicopter. "He's lying injured in a clearing just outside a log cabin."

"Is it Landon?" He waited patiently for a response.

"Can't quite make out his face from this high up," the pilot answered loudly, "but he meets the description from what I can tell: green hair, tan skin, athletic build. It's got to be him!"

"Create a perimeter around the area, but do not engage," Peer instructed calmly into the transmitter. "Don't let those pesky news choppers obstruct your visual on him either. We're closing in on your position. Whatever you do, do not let him out of your sight."

Anna swallowed thickly, the excitement in Peer's voice causing her heart to flutter in her chest—but not in a good way. She herself was dreading what was to come, if only because she had know idea what that was. Metsuma hadn't filled her in on all the gaps, yet she was expected to just play along with whatever this scheme was he'd cooked up.

Setting down the radio, Peer turned an ambiguous smile over to Anna. "Looks like that anonymous tipster wasn't kidding around," he concluded, stroking his jutted chin.

"Yeah," Anna replied hoarsely, keeping her deadpan eyes just above the steering wheel, "looks like it."

…...

Culm found Cayman sitting cross-legged on his bunk, deep in focus and fiddling with what looked like a piece of tin. It was flat, shiny, and mangled into a shape almost resembling a bird—a Fearow, perhaps. Granted, the beak was a little crooked and the wings weren't quite symmetrical to each other, but it was definitely a winged Pokémon of some sort. And it was impressive work for Cayman, whom was by no stretch a craftsman.

Culm cleared his throat to make his presence known. "What you got there, son?"

Cayman looked up and shrugged. "Simon never got his final merit badge as a scout so I figured I'd make him one myself, give it to him when he gets back."

Culm shot him an amused look. "Ain't that just precious."

"Aw, shut up," Cayman waved off the remark, laughing. "He's a good kid. He's earned it."

Culm opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off as a several bodies raced through the hall behind him.

Setting down his handmade badge, Cayman slowly rose from his bunk. "What's that all about?"

"Only one way to find out, I reckon," Culm grumbled, turning and stretching out a hand to catch one of the incoming officers.

A young, skinny soldier halted against the coal miner's large palm, glancing up at the grizzled face in a dizzy spell.

"Hold up!", Culm rumbled down at the younger, smaller man, steadying him with his mighty grip. "What's going on?"

The freckled teenager glanced around Culm, pointing at Cayman through the door. "You're on TV, man!"

Cayman's optics widened, his lip twitching dangerously as he sifted his mind for some kind of explanation. "Bullshit," he expelled shakily.

Culm released the soldier and swiftly blocked the door, dreading his friend might fly off the handles. "Cayman, maybe you ought a—"

It was no use. Cayman simply shouldered past the larger man and hurried after the other soldiers and recruits eagerly piling down the hall.

…...

He was ultimately led inside the war room where everyone on the island stood cramped together throughout the confined space, each of them facing the box television set suspended in the corner of the room. Cayman squeezed and shoved his way to the front of the noisy gathering and came to discover that a breaking news broadcast was the source of all the excitement.

Live camera footage overlooking a cabin played, while the text overlying the bottom of the screen read, "BREAKING NEWS: SOUL ROBBER DISCOVERED IN VIRIDIAN FOREST!"

Cayman felt his lip curl. He didn't want to know what that text meant. He couldn't.

Then the camera angle widened to reveal a fuzzy shot someone—a young man, by the looks—faltering in the mud several yards away from the cabin.

"No," Cayman exhaled deeply, his cold hands shaking at his sides. He didn't want to believe his eyes, his thoughts. It couldn't be Simon, it just couldn't.

But he knew better. And for the first time truly, he was afraid.

Everyone else must have known too, because the room suddenly fell hauntingly quiet. No one could do anything now but watch the screen and hope for nothing short of a miracle.

Culm clambered his way up behind Cayman, reaching out a hand in comfort.

The reality of the situation sank in, at last; and Cayman's composure snapped. "No, no, no," he began babbling at the screen, twisting around to Culm a second later, "they gotta know he's not me!"

The coal miner swallowed, unsure of what else to say but, "just take it easy, son."

But Cayman wouldn't calm down. "Where the fuck is Viper!", he shouted mindlessly at the television, breathing rapidly and verging on hysteria as he watched his friend struggle hundreds of miles away. "I—I gotta go help him!"

"Y'all won't make it in time," Culm croaked out in warning.

The boy's blue eyes began to glaze over as though he was in a trance. "I... I can't just stand here and watch him be—!"

Then the room filled with gasps.

…...

Officers and their canine Pokémon emerged from all over the dense forest, sprinting towards Simon. His fingers sunk into the cold, slimy mud as he pushed himself to his feet. He gritted his teeth as he spurred his busted knees into action, pure fear pushing him into running though all his being telling him there was no hope of escape.

Overhead, helicopters continued circling like vultures, police sirens wailing from every corner of the forest, and barking Growlithes hot on his heels. He didn't dare glance up or back at any of his pursuers, but tears stung at the edge off his eyes as the panic began to set in. He didn't know what was happening, he couldn't even begin to guess; but he was terrified to the bone. Viper had vanished, his Pokémon was missing, and, worst of all, he didn't have his best friend beside him this time to bail him out of danger this time. He was completely alone.

Hobbling up the porch of the cabin, he raised a hand and pounded on the wooden door, splatters of blood staining the wood where his hands made contact. "Help!" he shrieked against the door frame, his voice hoarse and foreign in his own ears. The pummeling of his fists against the door grew more intense as a sick feeling of despondency twisted in his belly. "Someone, please! I don't know what—"

For no apparent reason, the door creaked open of its own accord, revealing a dark and shoddy interior beyond. Simon didn't ask questions, just frantically charged inside and slammed the door shut behind him. The absence of a lock didn't bode well for him though.

…...

Ledian nervously watched the commotion unfold from the trees, eyeing the cabin in particular after spotting Simon disappear inside. The Pokémon stood at the edge of the branch, spread its wings, and prepared to soar in and help Simon before the police could engage.

Unexpectedly, Shiftry dropped down from the canopy above Ledian, catching it off-guard. With a feral laugh, it morphed into a Gengar with eyes like amber, then blasted the unsuspecting Ledian with a Shadow Ball before to the face.

As the Ladybug Pokémon took a painful tumble, its original course towards the log cabin was promptly assumed by Metsuma's ghostly disciple. It cackled quietly to itself as it tore through the sky, for luring Simon to the cabin under the guise of a wayward Hoenn Region wonder had only been half the battle.

On the ground, Ledian floundered. With few options left, it corralled the last of its energy and reverted back to its own original form before quickly teleporting off the scene.

…...

A frantic radio broadcast played across the otherwise quiet guest room. Maria was puttering in circles at the foot of the bed, listening intently to what just had to be my latest play in the Soul Robber epic. Although the news coverage had come sooner than expected, at least I could finally bid farewell to this part of my life—and so could the rest of the world just now tuning in.

Feigning ignorance, I hung up my jacket next to the door and made myself known in a soft, poignant voice, "Is everything alright, Maria?"

"Sweetie, come listen!", she chuffed breathlessly, pulling me across the room and cranking up the dial on the radio. "I— I think they finally found that awful Pokémon murderer that Anna's been after!" She sat me down on the bed, to which I just offered a rattled look, pretending not to have a clue as to what I was supposed to be listening to.

The clutched and broken voice of a news correspondent surfaced from the static, "—reporting here in the Viridian Forest where murderous fugitive Lance Kace, better known as the infamous Soul Robber, has apparently holed himself up in a remote cabin just several yards north from where we're currently stationed!"

"Oh, goodness!", Maria gasped next to me, clapping her mouth in despair. "I hope they're taking precautions!"

"Law enforcement officials have swarmed the area and reportedly have the cabin surrounded," the woman's voice alerted breathlessly, "but the suspect has yet to reveal himself!"

Maria let out a whimper and glommed herself to my arm, "Do you think Anna knows what she's doing?"

I returned the embrace, setting my chin comfortably on the crown of her head and sneaking a small smile to myself. "Oh, I wouldn't worry," I whispered, stroking her hair and feeling enormous satisfaction at her question. "I'm sure it'll become clear to her soon enough."

…...

Simon quickly shuttered the window curtains all throughout the one-room cabin space and sank back into a dusty corner, dreading the moment the police officers out front busted through the front door. He could hear their footfalls, their murmurings, the click of their weapons and the hum of their squad cars. The helicopter units hemming in over the cabin buzzed like the hive of Beedrill he'd smacked around earlier, and part of him wished it was the Beedrill. At least then he'd have a fighting chance.

His head throbbed and he had the unmistakable earthy taste of metal from the dried blood on his lip. Things were looking bleaker and bleaker. He let out a silent sob, unable to fight it back any longer, and buried his face into his knees. The terrifying noises outside escalated and he pushed his hands over his ears so hard that they began to ache and his arms began to tremble with the effort.

Then a mysterious glow lit up in the middle of the cabin.

Simon sniffled and peaked over his knees. He let out a curdled gasp at the sight of Mew, critically injured and dragging itself across the wooden floor. It could barely lift a paw, let alone levitate.

"Mew, you're hurt!" Simon scrambled across the floor without delay, scooping up his old friend and securing the Pokémon in his arms. "What... what happened to you?"

Before Mew could vocalize a response, a ghoulish cackle poured into the air over them, "Gengaaaaaaah!"

Simon's head snapped up just as a Gengar materialized from thin air, hovering ominously over him. He wrenched to his feet in alarm, but the Ghost Pokémon merely broke into another stint of laughter and indicated the floor with its menacing, yellow eyes. It then barreled backward, dissolving into the door without a trace.

Delicately placing Mew back down on the floor, Simon slowly approached the door, inspecting it. He clasped on to the handle and pulled. It wouldn't budge.

After several more attempts, he stumbled back breathlessly and stared in puzzlement. Something was sealing the door shut, some supernatural force. Gengar was the only plausible culprit, he concluded. But was the Ghost Pokémon trying to keep the police locked out? Or was it trying to keep him penned in?

"Meeiu," Mew uttered weakly from the floor, rolling on its side but pointing at the windows with its long, ropy tail.

Simon took the hint and hustled to the indicated shuttered window, the floors creaking under his weight. Careful not to show his face, he quite simply reached under the curtains and pulled up on the bottom rail of the pane.

It was no use. Just like the front door, it was sealed tight. And it became startlingly clearly to him that he was indeed trapped inside the cabin. He toyed with the possibility that this was just Gengar's idea of a good laugh. He'd read enough about Ghost Pokémon to know they were pranksters by nature, especially in the wild. Maybe that was the case here.

Then his memory kicked in and he remembered to when Gengar was marking the floorboard with its eyes, as if to insinuate something. He looked down at the floor and a faint ticking sound carried to his ears, barely audible over the sirens outside the house competing for dominance.

He hunched down and began shuffling on his knees, following the sound to a loose floorboard not far from where Mew was sprawled out. He delicately pried up the loose panel and the ticking amplified into a static hiss. The crawlspace from which the noise was flowing from was dark as pitch. He lowered his head through the hole, squinting fiercely.

Rearing its head, Mew squealed softly, "Meiuu...",

Simon didn't seem to acknowledge the Pokémon though, instead fishing out his miniature flashlight from the utility pack on his belt.

As soon as he shined the light directly into the crawlspace, though, he just as quickly dropped it with a clutched intake of air. He couldn't believe his eyes. Black market explosives lined the entire circumstance of the cabin's understructure, each with a countdown timer. In the center of the crawlspace was a large pileup of dormant Voltorb and Electrode, condemned to self-destruct the moment the other charges hit zero. The chain reaction would undoubtedly blow the cabin sky high, him along with it.

He threw himself from the crawlspace as bile crept up his throat. Suddenly the ruckus outside no longer mattered and a far greater dread enveloped him, the kind reserved for those who were certain they were going to die. It squeezed at his throat, suffocating him, making it impossible to scream or speak. It suddenly dawned on him that this wasn't just some ghoulish prank like he'd hoped. It was something evil, intentional, and strategically planned right down to the last detail.

…...

The war room went tenser as the cabin displayed on television was suddenly canvassed by police, Simon stowed away inside, hiding himself from the cameras. This only served to further upset Cayman, whom needed some kind of visual on his friend, some reassurance that he was safe for the moment. He couldn't keep tabs on him through the Aura alone.

"Ah, shit, no", Cayman groaned and pressed the back of his hand against his mouth, trying to stifle the uncontrolled sobs coming out of his mouth. "Why the fuck is he holing himself up in there? All he has to do is walk out and they'll see he's not me!" He ran his hand through his hair warily and turned to Culm again with eyes wide and unfocused, panting through clenched teeth, "Something's wrong, I can feel it!"

"Son, ya have to calm down," Culm urged, grabbing Cayman by the shoulders. He'd never seen him so emotionally shaken, rocked to the core. It was heart-wrenching.

"No, no, man," Cayman bit out in refusal, tearing his gaze back to the TV set and balling his perspiring fists tighter and tighter at his sides. "There's something else happening here, man! Something messed up! He's in trouble!"

…...

The patrol car swerved to a halt in front the canvassed cabin and Anna and Peer sprung from their vehicle. The other officers stood huddled along the police tape girdling the crime scene, their heads pressed together in tense deliberation. Detective Jordie was the first to spot his superiors approach, and saluted on sight. The other cops immediately broke formation and mimicked the show of respect.

Peer calmly and collectedly moved past his subordinates and stared intensely at the cabin for a long, drawn-out moment. He then motioned to Officer Jenny, specifically the bullhorn she held grasped in her hands; following his implied instruction, Jenny hurried to the stoic agent and placed the police siren in his open palm.

Anna remained firmly rooted in place behind Peer, using what little time she had to subtly take in her surroundings with only her eyes and figure out what her role in Metsuma's scheme actually entailed, what she was expected to do.

Only when a purple blur swished past her periphery did she slowly incline her head and put two and two together. Those unmistakable ember eyes shined fiercely through the treeline several yards adjacent to her, confirming everything she'd come to suspect: Metsuma was indeed the architect here. And it stood to reason that Gengar was here to ensure the plan's fruition.

No one else appeared to notice the Ghost Pokémon hiding in the trees, however. Not even Peer, whom remained fixated on the cabin as he raised the megaphone to his lips and declared in a level, professional tone, "We have you surrounded, Landon Kace!"

Anna closed her eyes while everyone was distracted by Peer's booming voice and used the Aura to reach out to the cabin. The signature she detected inside though was not Cayman's, not even close. It was someone else entirely.

"You have nowhere to flee this time," Peer spoke more firmly over the bullhorn. "Come out peacefully with your hands in the air!"

No reaction came from cabin, only the smoke billowing from the chimney. Anna noticed Detective Jordie moving to Peer's flank and quickly raced ahead to beat him to the chase.

"Let's just barge in there and grab the kid!", Jordie muttered into Peer's ear, biting his lip in frustration.

Poking her head between the two men, Anna cut in swiftly, "He could be armed to the teeth, for all we know. Remember, this is the same kid we saw riding a Rayquaza bareback. He's dangerous."

Peer lowered the bullhorn and gave a measured nod. "True," he paused, turning to glance at Anna through his glass lens. "And the fact that he hasn't come out and surrendered to us yet might suggest he has the entire cabin accoutered."

"Exactly," Anna blurted before Jordie could protest, her voice somewhat fissured. She knew this was all an elaborate fake out, but had to go along pretending otherwise for Metsuma's sake.

Jordie gazed back at the cabin impatiently and asked with a shrug, "Well, what do we do then?"

The question evoked a stunted chuckle from Peer. "He has nowhere else to run, Detective. And he certainly can't wait us out forever. As far as I'm concerned, he's already within our custody."

…...

Inside the cabin, poor Simon pounded desperately against the locked door with both fists, screaming to the top of his lungs, "Help! I've been set up! Please, help me!"

The sirens and helicopters seemed to stifle his cries, though, and the booming voice outside repeated, "Step out of the cabin with your hands in the air!"

"I swear, I'm not the Soul Robber!", he wept, falling helplessly to his bruised knees. The ticking beneath the floorboards quickened, as if counting down his final breaths, and he resorted to clawing at the door. "Oh God, help me, please!", his voice went rampant with terror. "I don't have much longer! I'm running out of time!"

"The chase is over, Landon!", the policeman's amplified voice again echoed over the cabin, oblivious to his pleas. "I advise you to lay down your weapons, come out quietly and surrender!"

"T—They can't hear me," he croaked, lip quivering. The beat of his heart was so loud, it fell perfectly into place with the ticking of the bombs until that was all he could hear anymore.

Tick, thump, tick, thump, tick.

Numb, cold, he fluttered back on his knees until he was flat on the floor. He craned his head up against the clicking floorboards to meet the ailing eyes of the Pokémon lying symmetrical above him.

Tick, Tick, Tick

Mew blinked at him, almost apologetically, too prostrate to emit even the tiniest sound.

"Mew," he whimpered with what little voice managed to crack through his clutched throat, "I know you were the Ledian trying to steer me away from the danger. And I should have listened to you. I'm so sorry." Tears burned down his cheeks, his words muffled and disjointed. "Please, isn't there something you can do? Anything at all, please!"

TICK, TICK, TICK

There was a pause. Then the Pokémon stirred at the tail, its eyes fluttering open and shut in attempted focus. Its small body assumed a faint, teetering glow.

Simon opened his mouth, lingering on a word, before relief aligned his lips and eyes and he sniffled through a flickering smile, "Mew, wait. There's something else I want you to—"

DING!

The sentence failed to materialize as heat blasted beneath him and his visual on Mew burned away in an instant.

…...

"Landon," Peer again spoke into the bullhorn, "make this easy on yourself—!"

The entire cabin suddenly exploded in a flash of roiling fire, smoke and shattering wood and glass, sending everyone screaming and scurrying for cover.

"Get down!", Peer shouted, tossing the megaphone and tackling Anna to the ground as the noxious heat blast rippled through the air like a supernova. Debris pelted his backside as he securely covered her body with his own, waiting out the inferno.

…...

"Oh, Legendaries, I can't even describe what I just saw!", the correspondent's voice shrieked across the radio frequency, the suspense slaying me. "The cabin just exploded! I repeat, the cabin just exploded with the Soul Robber still inside!"

That was it— the eye-witness validation I'd been waiting for.

The abrupt report in the broadcast caused Maria to jump with a start beside me, and she wrapped herself tighter around my arm like a petrified Aipom.

As for myself, I felt an intense rush of power and rapture course through my veins, yet my mouth twitched incessantly as I tried to keep from smiling in front of her.

…...

A cabin blown to smithereens, its remains showering the forest in smoldering chunks. The images on the television should have burned clean through his brain, but Cayman could only focus on a flicker in the Aura, a light going out. He tried holding on to it, but it rippled like thread, dissolving until there was nothing left to hold on to. And he was alone.

Despite the amassed faces silently watching him, he was truly alone.

That's when it registered, when it truly sank in, and sharp, unseen needles dug into every inch of his body. His chest clenched with cold fury, his throat so constricted he felt he would choke.

"Son, I—", Culm's voice caught in his own raspy throat, and he curled a roughened hand around the young man's shoulder, steadying him.

Cayman was deadened to it though, not even flinching. He felt emptiness all in an instant, a complete vacuum of emotion. His pulse throbbed in his ears, deafening everything from the coal miner's tender voice to the chilling broadcast playing over and over on the television. He was numb, expressionless. He couldn't feel anything, not his fingers, not his lungs, nor his feet which slowly began carrying him out of the war room of their own accord.

The quiet, watching bodies across the room cleared the doors all at once, allowing their hapless, unfeeling comrade to take his leave and retreat to his quarters without a word.

…...

The fire fighting squad and their Water Pokémon needed little more than hour to contain and extinguish the flames. After that, the forest had a strange and eerie quiet about it. The police choppers were grounded and the distress sirens suspended. Officer Jenny and her Growlithe were the first to enter the cabin wreckage, securing the premises for a team of investigators to come in and collect for prints.

Standing a comfortable distance away from the crime scene, Anna watched with a bitter taste on her tongue as search parties sifted in and out of the smoking, dilapidated structure. The charred remains of explosives seemed to be the popular find, thankfully. She wasn't much looking forward to whatever else still laid buried beneath all that debris. In fact, she was dreading the moment they'd wheel out the body of the Landon Kace impostor, not because she feared they'd somehow see through Metsuma's deception. It was because she knew she wouldn't be able stomach gazing upon the remains of an innocent life she'd consciously allowed to perish.

"We found a body!", Jordie's voice alarmed through the heavy smoke. "Sarge, you're gonna want to see this!"

A knot squeezed in in the pit of her stomach, but she repressed the sensation and carried herself to the site of the wreckage with an expressionless, professional demeanor. Her eyes followed a forensic team carrying something out of the smoke on a stretcher. A thin white sheet concealed it from the naked eye, but she knew damn well what was underneath—just not who, per se.

Jordie emerged behind them, peeling off his nitrile gloves. He'd just finished examining the carcass for himself, it seemed.

Before Anna could muster the courage to go over and lift the sheet, the air hummed around her. She pushed her blue hair out of her eyes as a helicopter conjured gusts of wind around her, whipping up the residue around the cabin. She inclined her head and backed up several steps as the aircraft landed in front of her, its sleek cabin door bearing the International Police emblem in shining bronze.

The rotors fell silent and a large, balding man in a brown overcoat emerged. He climbed down from his craft and stepped around the debris covering the terrain as he inspected the crime scene.

"Who's this now?", Anna wondered quietly to herself.

"That would be my superior," Peer hummed, brushing past her shoulder to salute the newcomer. "Deputy Director Oakley."

The rotund, middle-aged gentlemen smiled at the agent from underneath his great, big mustache. "Special Agent Peer", he acknowledged with a terse voice and a curt nod. "I came as soon as I heard." He stuck his hands in his coat pockets and scanned around briefly with his eyes. "Well? Do we have a body?"

Peer nodded and pointed to the stretcher being carried away. "The body was burned to a crisp, almost unrecognizable. Gaping areas of putrefied tissue. Extensive fourth degree burns—"

"And one big ass explosion," Jordie cut in candidly, popping up behind Oakley.

Peer cleared his throat and motioned a hand in introduction. "Ehem, this is Detective Jordie, a key member of my task force. You'll find that his keen forensic intellect may encourage you to overlook his... coarse vocabulary."

Oakley turned patiently to Jordie. "What else can you tell us?"

"The linear lines around his eyes were unburned," the detective reported. "He was squinting so he was most likely alive when the explosion went off."

The director nodded. "What else?"

Jordie huffed. "Well, teeth were still intact, as well as a couple strands of hair. DNA and dental records should give us a positive ID. Let's just hope they're a match."

"The body is Landon's then?", Anna croaked, glaring anxiously at Jordie.

"Teenager, spiky hair, about the right length of torso, well muscled." Jordie nodded. "Yup, I'd say it's definitely him."

"What about all those bomb fragments we recovered," the voice belonging to Officer Jenny inquired.

Anna turned her head and acknowledged the policewoman and her Growlithe climbing out from the wreckage to join the briefing. "Landon must have killed himself to avoid capture."

Jenny frowned. "But people usually survive Pokémon-based attacks just fine, don't they?"

"The cabin was rigged with all kinds of explosives, not just Voltorbs and Electrodes," Anna pointed out staunchly, knowing very well she couldn't leave any unanswered questions. "I guess Landon wanted his last kill to be something special. If you're gonna leave this world, might as well go out with bang, right?"

"It would appear so, wouldn't it?", Peer hummed, neither an acknowledgment nor a denial of the assertion. His focus was lost somewhere in his thoughts.

"What about that Pokéball he dropped earlier?" Oakley snapped for Peer's attention. "Did you manage to get it functioning again?

"Yes, sir," he found his rectitude again. "We bagged it into evidence. It was a Charizard."

"Landon competed in the Regional Championships with a Charizard a few years back," Jordie tossed out as a useful afterthought.

Hearing this, Oakley smiled. "It's all coming together. This is good news, gentlemen."

"And ladies," Jenny cleared her throat on her and Anna's behalf.

"Right," Oakley sniffed at her in a purposeful monotone, quickly reeling his focus back to Peer. "Anyway, once we have that DNA match, we can finally close the books on this case once and for all." He reached out his hand and forced a firm, congratulatory handshake out of Peer. "Well done, Special Agent. I must confess, I was beginning to doubt we'd ever catch the Soul Robber. But you've proven me wrong."

Peer smiled back and glanced at Anna. "Well, I couldn't have done it without the help of my task force, particularly Sergeant Lafluer."

"Is that right?" Oakley stroked the length of his mustache and eyed Anna up and down. "Well, good work should be rewarded then. I'll speak with your lieutenant."

With nothing more to add, he retreated back to his chopper. Jenny and Jordie seemed to take this as a dismissal and promptly returned to the remaining scraps of the cabin.

Once Oakley was airborne, Anna leaned into Peer and whispered, "What did he mean by that?"

"Time will tell," Peer teased.

An uncomfortable pause ensued and Anna scrambled to say something. "Look," she began shakily, looking down at her feet. "I wanted to thank you for what you did earlier, sheltering me from the explosion."

He smiled dryly at her, though his eyes didn't change or flicker. "It was simply the gentlemen thing to do."

She nodded, blushing. "So," she huffed, glancing over the scorched rubble in front of them. "It's over then? Everything?"

Sharing her view of the crime scene, he twiddled with his monocle for a moment. "The evidence is compelling," he confessed slowly, reluctantly. "Overwhelming, actually."

"I guess we got our man," she decided for the both of them, hoping he'd relinquish.

There was another pause—until he finally permitted a nod of his head and concurred, "Justice has been served."

…...

Apparently my handiwork in the Viridian Forest wasn't the only plan that had gone off without a hitch. That bone-chilling broadcast still had Maria in a sweat, and she wanted nothing more than to leave Alamos Town and return to the comfort of our mansion. There, she would be surrounded by servants at every turn, and I could continue to sell my performance as the dotting, loving husband tasked with protecting her from the evil of the world.

"We'll have to congratulate Anna when we head back to Kanto tomorrow," Maria suggested as she plopped her suitcase on the edge of the bed and began packing rigorously. "I imagine she'll be stuck at that crime scene for awhile. Don't you think so?"

While I was certain she was trying to steer my focus away from her packing, I didn't defer. "You don't want to stay the whole weekend?", I asked innocently, leaning in behind her.

She sighed and looked up at me. "All this excitement has got me kind of shaken up, to be perfectly honest. And that story the bellhop told us is still creeping around the back of my head." She smiled that dimpled smile of hers, trying to sink those nonexistent hooks in me. "You don't mind, do you, honey?"

As with always, I pretended to be swept up in her charm. "Not at all," I said, kneeling down to assist her. "I'm just relieved the Soul Robber has finally been brought to justice."

"I'm sure Anna is too," she huffed as she handed me an article of clothing to fold. "After Clint, this must have been a huge weight off her shoulders. She can finally take a breather. She has nowhere to go but up now."

I fell quiet and my hands stopped folding, not that she noticed. I just had to think about what had just been said and hope that it rang true. As much as I wanted to believe Anna could adjust to her newfound knowledge about me and make the best of these circumstances, everything Darukai had shown me earlier pointed to the opposite. Anna wasn't like me. Darukai said it best—she was an emotional basket case. If I couldn't keep her centered, how long before she finally unraveled?

TO BE CONTINUED . . . . .

NEXT CHAPTER: While Cayman reels over the loss of his friend, Metsuma moves forward with his next project—taking over Briskomy. Meanwhile, Anna is celebrated for her work on the Soul Robber Case despite Peer holding on to his personal convictions. And in Unova, Eden confronts the Foretellers at Twist Mountain.