Several hours of combing the entirety of the Ranch and the Research Facility for Julia and her team had come up drier than a desert. No trace of the mysterious chest that Michael's Grandfather had left him after his passing and not even a clue as to where Michael might have possibly kept something like that. Julia checked small cavern Michael had built for his more nocturnal Pokémon to rest in, to the burrows his Excadrill and Mufasa would dig and hide special treasures in, beneath all of the nests, home and huts the Pokémon themselves had made and even in the storage basements of the Research Facility. But there was nothing to find there that was of any use to her.
While Amanda continued to transfer all of the data onto hard drives to travel with, Julia and her cousin Piper stopped searching in the Professor and Michael's shared bedroom. Piper put her broken leg up on the bed to rest it, while Julia sprawled herself onto the bed in agony and frustration.
"How have we found nothing, so far?" Julia lamented. "Michael was never this complicated a person in life."
"Do we know if he even still had it after he was banished?" Piper asked her cousin.
"He must have" Julia assured both her cousin and herself. "This wasn't left to Michael by a Kingston he didn't trust. This was James. His Grandfather. The Hero of Arcana! Michael would have made sure it was somewhere safe and out of enemy hands!" She sighed. "At least I hope he would."
Piper stretched back her arms, accidentally hitting a picture frame from Michael's side of the bed. She quickly caught the picture in her fingers before it fell to the ground. As she pulled it over her head to examine it, she gasped. "This is the same picture as the one Michael gave me."
Julia looked over to her cousin. "The one from Titanio Park?"
Piper nodded. "Who took this picture?"
"It had to have been Abuela. She was the one who took us there after Mike won his ninth Gym Badge in Charizark Town." She shuffled her way over to Piper's side and the two looked over the picture. Julia laughed softly. "Look at Chris's bowl cut!"
Piper giggled. "Why did he use to like that look on for his hair?"
"I think his mother always wanted him to cut it like that" Julia shrugged. "Then again, we're not much to write home about either." She pointed towards Piper's hair, which was in pig-tails, as well as her own insistence on wearing the same purple and white colored clothing she always wore. "What the heck was I wearing? Did I think that was some bizarre fashion statement or something?"
Piper recoiled at her pig-tails. "Ugh, how did Abuela let me go out looking like that?"
"And look at Cameron" Julia showed to Piper. "She used to be so jealous of how close the boys were. I found her one morning by the water, trying to imitate that same style as they did because Michael and Chris did it whenever they won Gym Badges." Julia's smile faded as her eyes fell on Michael. "My Michael. He used to have the brightest and sweetest smile in the world." She put her fingers on the image of his face and sighed. "And after this, everything went wrong."
Piper echoed her cousin's sigh. "I wish we could have done something."
"It all happened so fast" Julia recalled. "First came Giselle, then I got jealous, then the Titanio Gym Battle, then he was kidnapped and branded. We couldn't have done anything if we wanted to." She took the picture out of it's frame to look it over one last time. "The memories are just too painful to go through."
Piper looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Julia squeezed her eyes shut and wept. "Piper, I don't think I can do it anymore. My heart is completely broken." She made to tear the picture up, but Piper grabbed her arm and stopped her.
"Hold on a second, Julia" Piper cried out, pulling her cousin over to her. "Michael wouldn't want you to give up. He would want you to keep fighting with everything you had. His legacy falls on us, now."
"It wouldn't have had to if I wasn't so spiteful of Giselle" Julia muttered. "Now, the man I loved is gone and it's all my fault."
"Unless you were the one who set up those bombs" Piper assured her as she held her cousin's hand, "you had nothing to do with it. This was all on the Syndicate and the Kingstons for turning their back on him."
"I can't be mad at the Kingstons for doing that when I did it too" Julia sobbed.
Piper flung her arms around her cousin. "We're gonna get through this, Julia. I promise you." As the two embraced and shared in their sorrow, Julia dropped the picture she was keen to rip apart. Piper looked at the back of the picture and raised her eyebrow. "Hey, Jules. Look at this." She took the picture up and showed the back to her cousin.
"What is this?" Julia asked. On the back of the picture were written two things. First was her own name in all capital letters and spaced out for an unknown reason. Beneath was written the words:
In Icarus's Nest
Julia gasped. "Icarus's Nest? How could I be so blind?"
Piper looked at her in confusion. "Julia, Icarus is dead."
"Icarus's Nest is the name of the urn Michael kept the ashes of Icarus in" Julia explained. She rose to her knees on the bed and moved a panel on the wall in their bedroom out of place. Behind the panel was a secret compartment. Piper wheeled herself back in her wheel chair and was floored by the discovery.
"Well, I'll be darned" she said.
Julia took her Poké Gear and lit up the compartment. Within it were the urn that contained the ashes of Michael's deceased Espeon and an electronic safe, protected by a passcode. Julia took out the urn containing Icarus and kissed it. "Please, Icarus. Give me the strength to find what we need to." She then put the urn back in place and reached for the safe. Instead of an ordinary padlock being used, it was a keyboard of all 26 letters of the alphabet and the word Enter. She took a deep breath and entered the letters on the back of the photo. "J-U-L-I-A and Enter!" The gears in the safe clanged and gonged off, pushing the safe door open. Julia looked inside the safe and gasped.
"What is it?" Piper asked.
Julia reached in and pulled out a golden chest, locked by a specific key. The tears she wept now were ones of joy and relief. "We found it! Oh, Piper! We found it!"
Piper gasped. "Oh my goodness."
Julia's Poké Gear rang in her hands. She answered the call. "Yes, Amanda?"
"I've finished moving everything to the External Hard Drives" her protégé affirmed. "How did you guys do, Professor?"
"We found it, Amanda!" Julia exclaimed, her heart lighter than it had been in a very long time. "Call a Corviknight Cab for three. We're going to Kingston Castle."
"At once, Professor" Amanda said, her own heart lighter as well. With that, the call ended.
Julia wiped away her tears as she clutched at the golden chest James had left for his grandson, her arms trembling as she did. "This is the best news I've heard in a long time."
Piper nodded. "Now, we can finally get some long needed answers."
"For the first time in a very long time, Piper" Julia revealed, "I have hope."
{Meanwhile}
After the bitter grudge match between Matthew and Ryan had ended, no one had uttered a word in their group. Once Matthew had stormed off after his clumsy and awkward confession to Addison, she and her friends had returned to the Pokémon Center in Trickton and remained silent for the longest time afterwards. While Ryan's Pokémon recuperated after the violent clash, they sat in silence. While they went to purchase themselves some supplies for their journey ahead, they were silent. And while they sat in the Pokémon Center as the time flashed above them, they were as silent as death itself.
Ryan, still rattled by the blow he'd received from Matthew, would occasionally rub the wound and look to Addison, who seemed entirely lost in her own thoughts. While he wanted to comfort her and tell her things would get better, he couldn't find the words to do so. Because he was shell-shocked by what his brother had become and could very likely still be turning into. He knew his brother just wanted to do the right thing, but his way was so aggressive, angry and vengeful, that Ryan couldn't help but be disturbed by the path Matthew was walking. The only brief solace he got was from Holly, who was gently rubbing at the mark on his face with a wet cloth to ensure it wouldn't begin to bleed out.
Holly sat beside Ryan, tending to him after his encounter with Matthew. She had always known the two were competitive and instinctively hot-headed, but never in her right mind would she have ever expected Matthew to sucker punch his own brother. She had been so shocked, she couldn't even find the strength in her to retaliate in her crush's defense, but only fell to his side to tend to him. Addison was the one who stood up to Matthew. Holly couldn't help but find this alarming. She had thought that Addison had been outed for having feelings for Matthew, which was why Ryan went off on his own to challenge Shannon. But now, her plans have been thrown for a loop again. She needed to up her game if she hoped to finally win her crush's affection.
Tommy was also uncharacteristically silent while the others were not speaking. He seemed to finally grasp concepts that he had once either been too young or too ignorant to understand. What had gone down between Matthew and Ryan was incredibly serious and there wasn't some levity or good humored words he could say to make things better. Though he looked as if he wanted to break the worrisome silence among the group, he kept to himself until he knew the time was right.
Addison's silence, however, was the most deafening. She had always been the one to keep the peace between everyone, sort of like everyone's big sister. But for the first time this entire journey, she was the focus of one on the boy's feuds. Matthew had gone out of his way to confess that he had feelings for her, something she had always suspected but secretly dreaded. She never wanted to be a lightning rod for tension between the boys. She wanted both of them by her side as her best friends. They'd known each other as long as they could remember. They'd played together, learned together, fought together and grew together up to this point. But as quickly as they had all become friends, it all seemed to fall apart. She had seen the shadows hanging thick on Matthew's heart. His resentment towards his family and the lies they believed about Michael, combined with this bizarre jealousy for Ryan was poisoning the brotherhood they were supposed to have with each other. And now, while she knew she had to tell Matthew what she said to him, she couldn't help but wonder if she had just lit another powder keg between them. And now, with her more confused than ever regarding her feelings towards Ryan, she truly did not know what to do.
As they sat in the waiting area of the Pokémon Center, Ryan was the first to break the silence. "What if Matt was right?"
"What?" Holly asked him.
"What if he was right about this whole Pokémon League thing?" Ryan asked her. "What if it is just a pointless distraction from what's really going on?"
"You can't think like that, Ryan" Holly told him. "Being the Champion has been your dream since we were little kids."
"The Syndicate is running amok in Arcana" Ryan reminded her. "The same Syndicate that killed my cousins. and Mark and Lizzie too. How can I justify going out of my way to put you guys in danger, if it's just for some crummy badges?"
"They're not crummy badges, Ryan" she insisted. "They've been your dream to collect."
"Dreams are for kids, Holly" Ryan said sadly. "Maybe it's time we started to grow up and accept that we can't live the lives we wanted to as kids."
"But we're still kids, Ryan" Holly spoke up, sorrow teeming in her every word.
"No" Tommy finally chirped up.
This caught Ryan and Holly off guard. "What?" they both asked in unison.
"Matt's wrong" Tommy insisted. The boy rose to his feet, seemingly determined to make some patriotic speech to the older kids he was traveling with. "I may not have been around for all of your adventures, but from the things I've seen with you guys, you seem like you're capable of doing impossible things all the time. And not because you're acting like adults all the time. It's because you guys are still learning how the world works. And so am I. How can I learn how it works from someone who knows how it works and expects me to learn the same way they did? The best way to learn is through experience. And not for nothing, I've seen you guys experience and do so much since I joined you."
He turned towards Ryan. "Ryan, you and Matthew both took on that really tough Gym Leader in Taghwan. But when it came down to the last Pokémon, who's was the one still standing?"
Ryan thought for a moment. "Mine?"
"Exactly. And when that poacher was hunting after the pride of Pyroars in the Safari Zone, who was the one who stood up to him?"
"I was" Ryan said, his spirits beginning to pick up.
"And who was the one who decided to make his own name in the world with all his friends, with or without his parents consent?"
"I was" Ryan said, his confidence returning in droves.
Tommy turned towards his sister. "Holly, when we first got out Pokémon, both of us didn't know at all how to take care of them or train them. Yet, I've seen you turn your Eevee and Roselia into some of the best Pokémon I know. And when Ryan was in danger from those Syndicate Snatchers, who helped save him?"
Holly cracked a smile. "I did."
"And I know we're going to do even better things if we keep going on this journey" Tommy insisted. "Do you want to know why?" Without waiting for the two to answer, Tommy pointed to Addison, who was surprised he was going to talk about her. "Because of her."
"Me?" Addison asked.
"When that big scary monster in the Library attacked us" Tommy reminded her, "it wasn't Ryan who stopped it. It was you, Addy. You put aside your own fears and doubts and you took on all of those Ghost Pokémon to protect us. You guys have all shown me what being true Pokémon Trainers is all about. You guys all talked about Mike like he was the perfect trainer. But I don't want to be like Mike. I want to be just like you guys. When I get to challenge the Pokémon League, I want to be as brave as Ryan, as kind as my sister and as smart as Addy."
Addison couldn't help but beam. "Tommy..."
"Sure, we could all be like Matt and be tough and stuff" Tommy continued, "but we're still together for a reason. And that's because we all gel well, not just as trainers, but as friends." He looked at all three of them. "You guys are the coolest and best friends a boy like me could ask for. And I wouldn't want you guys any other way."
Holly pulled her brother over to her and hugged him. "Oh, come here you."
"Okay" he choked. "Maybe not this much."
Ryan jumped to his feet. "What are we doing just waiting around here for?" he asked. "We've got to get a move on." He turned towards Addison. "How far is Iron Mountain from here?"
Addison looked on her Poké Gear. "It'll take a few days to get there, but I think we'll be fine so long as we stick to the roads and don't take any detours."
Holly kissed her brother on the cheek, prompting him to squirm out of her grip and wipe his face on the couch cushion. "Tommy's right. Why waste all this time moping when we can be out there living our adventure to the fullest? Let's get a move on towards Iron Mountain!"
Addison nodded. "Count me in."
"Me too" Ryan affirmed.
Tommy wiped his face clean of his sister's kiss. "As long as Holly saves those kisses for someone else, I'm in!" Ryan tussled the boy's hair and Addison bent down and kissed him on his head. Tommy groaned. "Ew, more kisses."
"If you don't want those kisses" Ryan laughed, "don't go off making those big speeches."
"I'll remember that from now on" Tommy nodded.
"Let's hit the road" Addison insisted. With that, combined with their rejuvenated optimism, Ryan Tommy, Holly and Addison made their way for the exit of the Pokémon Center and their next step on an exciting journey.
{Meanwhile}
In the middle of the plains of the Safari Zone, the Rangers that had been pursuing Hunter throughout the territory were all sprawled out in the grass, thoroughly trounced by the combined efforts of Jocelyn Aced and Hunter. So too were the Ranger's Pokémon, completely thrashed in battle by the two trainers who were far superior to them. As Jocelyn tried to make sure the coast was clear of any more attackers, Hunter laughed menacingly.
"I didn't think you had it in you to do something like that, Jocelyn" he remarked. "Color me impressed."
"I did what needed to be done" the daughter of Elezar said briskly. "Nothing more."
"But the way you throttled those guys?" the Poacher from Hoenn snickered, "your Dad better be giving you a reward sometime soon. Or maybe The Grand Master will."
As Jocelyn recalled her Mienshao, she looked towards Hunter. "Why are you still here? You've been expected at the base since after the Taghwan Hall burned down."
Hunter folded his arms behind his back. "What good is keeping the world's most renowned poacher cooped up in some musty old volcano? I need to be around Pokémon. That's how I have my collection of over 700. And even more hides sold for fabulous amounts of cash."
"Make sure you report to my father, Hunter" Jocelyn spat, calling out her Dragapult. "And get yourself out of here before those rangers come to."
"Aw" Hunter sneered, "is Daddy's little princess worried about me?"
"I'm not coming back here to bail you out if you stay, Hunter" she warned him as she mounted the back of her Dragon as if it were a flying scooter.
"Don't worry" Hunter assured her. "I've got more than enough pelts I've got to go skin and hang on my wall at the base, anyway. I'll be there. You ought to be getting back yourself. Isn't it past your bedtime?"
Jocelyn grunted and took off into the skies, leaving Hunter there by himself. As she took off, she looked to her Pokémon. "Arrogant snot. If he's acting so cocky, why would he have needed me to come in and bail him out." Her Dragapult chuffed like a Tiger at the sound of her master's complaints. prompting his trainer to scratch her head lovingly. "Don't worry, Droopy. We'll be home soon." At those words, her Poké Gear went off.
She frowned. I guess I spoke too soon. She picked up the call without caring who was calling her. "What is it?"
"You have a new assignment" her father informed her on the other line.
"And only I can do it?" she asked, expecting her father to lace into her about camaraderie and team work.
"You are the only one I can trust to get this right, Jocelyn" Elezar spoke softly.
This caught Jocelyn off guard. "Oh. Then I'll be sure to not fail you, Father. What is my assignment?"
"Courtney's failure to abduct Professor Pines has put us in both a precarious as well as an opportunistic position" he explained. "And it may very well force the hand of Michael's beloved. She will likely flee to the stronghold at Kingston Castle. If she gets there, it will be impractical to take what we want from her. Lady Bonnie has fortified the castle to prevent us from taking it without an army."
"Did you want me to take Professor Pines, then?" Jocelyn asked.
"No" Elezar said dryly. "Professor Pines has been a thorn in my side since she brought Michael Kingston back from exile ten years ago. I have no need to keep her as a prisoner. But, she does have something in her possession and is likely going to spirit it off to Kingston Castle. This trinket is a golden chest, said to contain what James Kingston left to Michael upon his passing. The Grand Master has reason to believe that the contents could perhaps be a danger to our goals of completing my father's research. Seize the chest and bring it back here."
"What of Professor Pines?" his daughter asked.
"I think the poor woman has been apart from her true love for far too long" he hissed on the other line. "Kill her."
Jocelyn frowned. "As you wish, father." With that, she veered her Dragapult towards Parlor Town.
