Operation GEAR: The Angel of Reckoning

by The Great Butler

A girl and her friends set out on a search for truth in a land torn apart by political and religious strife. However, they are unaware of what they are stepping into: the grasp of a terrifying, inescapable enemy that aims to bring down mankind's greatest achievement, the Pokemon League. Soon, the truth becomes clouded, and a desperate struggle for survival begins.

32. Bridge Over Troubled Water

Not too much to say before we get to this chapter. It's going to be a lot more straightforward and in some ways less heavy than the last several have been.

-:-

CHAPTER 30: Bridge Over Troubled Water

-:-

Reconvening in the hotel's restaurant for a meal the next morning brought the group a much-appreciated sense of peace after everything they had been through since arriving in Olivine. Even after the ominous statement from Polaris broadcast the previous night, discussion of the cult's activities stayed firmly on the sidelines as they ate, their small talk instead centering on more upbeat topics, such as recent Pokémon Baccer matches and battles featured on Victory Station. Why worry about the matter when the combination of good food and pleasant company helped them forget about their troubles, even temporarily?

There was some variety in the meals each trainer chose to start the day. Amanda and Anabel both opted for a simple fruit tart, owing to the disciplined morning routine Amanda had introduced Anabel to. Olivia, on the other hand, was less restrained. When the time came for their orders, she eagerly jumped to the front of the line to ask for a big stack of pancakes with Bluk Berries, and once she got them, wasted no time drenching in the most cloyingly sweet syrup available. Matt was more restrained, choosing nothing more than a simple bagel with sausage, although both Olivia and Anabel noticed that this time, he added just a small bit of honey to the mix of his normal meal.

None of their breakfasts compared to what Nekou took for herself. A sizeable tip convinced the restaurant staff to look the other way when Matt brought in something he cooked himself for her, and it was lucky for the staff that they did. It would have taken multiple orders to rival what he whipped up - a veritable mountain of an omelette, covered in a creamy layer of Moomoo Cheese that only made it all the more delectable. Nekou tore into the plate with wild abandon, her demeanor becoming borderline desperate as she sought to recover her strength.

"Whew…" Nekou sighed, contentedly patting her stomach after the last bite of the feast made its way down her throat. She picked up the croissant that accompanied the omelette, but before she bit it, she cheerfully added, "Compliments to the chef!"

"You know, you're acting like your old self again," Olivia pointed out, sipping from her cup of Sitrus Berry juice.

"Well, how could I not?" Nekou asked. Shooting Matt a wry look through half-closed eyes, she curled her mouth up into a teasing smirk, "Matt knows the way to a woman's heart is with cheese, after all."

Not one of the five seated at the table could help themselves from breaking into raucous laughter, as Nekou's good-natured joking proved too much to resist. If there had been any residual tension hanging over them, her remark defused it. Though it went unsaid, all of them shared a similar thought - they hadn't laughed like this, unchecked and unencumbered by any sort of problem - in far, far too long.

And yet, that moment of levity proved fleeting. Just as quickly as it started, it was cut short by the sound of Anabel's phone alarm going off in her jacket. She retrieved the device and glanced at its screen, then turned to the others.

"Time to go," she informed them. "Clair's expecting us."

"Alright then," Matt replied, standing up. "Let's get ready and then head over there."

Olivia and Anabel rose to follow Matt, but before Amanda could fully slide out of the seat to join them, Nekou spoke up. "Amanda, would you stick around here with me for a minute? I wanna talk about something."

Amanda hesitated, thinking over whether she should accept Nekou's request or follow her brother. Luckily, he noticed her indecision.

"It's fine, Amanda, we'll come back and get you after we pick up what we need upstairs," Matt said to her. "Don't worry about it."

"Thanks," Amanda said, smiling back. Just outside of her notice, Matt and Nekou shared a look, Nekou wordlessly asking Matt to trust her and Matt accordingly following along. As he, Anabel and Olivia turned and left, Amanda slipped back into her seat and asked her, "What was it you wanted to talk about?"

"Well…" Nekou hadn't expected her words to get caught in her throat, but they had. The magnitude of Matt trusting her to treat his beloved sister well was very much present in her mind, and after everything he had done for her, she didn't want to let him down. "I guess… I guess I'm just wondering how you're doing, Amanda. We've all been through a lot of shit lately and, well… what happened yesterday couldn't have been easy on you, what with running into Mercury and all."

Taken aback by such an unexpected question, Amanda placed her hand against her chest and drew in a soft breath. "I'm... not complaining that you would ask, but would you tell me what prompted you to bring this up?"

"I'll tell you the same thing I told him." Now that the conversation was progressing toward more familiar territory, Nekou was able to relax a bit, sinking down into her seat. "Ariana… I mean, Maman… she was the most important person to me for a really long time. She helped me be who I am. Seeing just how much you were denied that, the way she turned her back on you and tried to play you two against each other… it fucking sucks. It made me want to puke. So I really want to know, Amanda… how are you doing after all of that?"

"She helped you be who you are?" Amanda reflected, crossing her hands on her lap. "It was very considerate of you to ask," she finally answered, her tone quiet yet carrying a dignity and composure that impressed Nekou. "Thank you. I'll tell you, I don't like to live my life always looking back and second guessing the past… I haven't personally known you for very long, but my intuition tells me you understand that. It's helpful to be perceptive when you're, well…"

Amanda raised her hand and gestured toward her face, an action whose meaning Nekou immediately picked up on.

"Yeah, I get wanting to live without regrets…" The more she talked, the more Nekou realized she was stalling to avoid addressing the undercurrent of sadness she sensed in Amanda's voice. Of course Amanda didn't like looking back at the past. How could she when her parents' neglect, the very thing that had robbed her of her sight, was waiting for her there? Even her better memories, from when she lived with Matt in Rustboro City, had their roots not only in that neglect but Cyrus's manipulations as well, rendering even them the fruits of a poisoned tree. Nekou just couldn't let Amanda's comment about looking back on the past go by, especially given the context of their conversation. "If your outlook on life is to not second guess the past, though… I can't imagine what happened yesterday was easy on you at all."

"You really have a way of seeing through me, don't you?"

In reality, the facade Amanda presented was far less formidable than she hoped it would be. There was no way Nekou could miss the subtle tremors wracking her body, or the sadness Amanda tried and failed to mask. It certainly didn't take any of Nekou's well-honed people-reading skills to see them, nor was it hard for her to recognize that the things Amanda were wrestling internally with were some of the exact same ones she had been dealing with herself. Nekou reached across the table and took Amanda's delicate hand in her own, making Amanda quietly gasp in surprise.

"It's alright," Nekou promised her, "I ain't judging. Far from it. You don't have to hide how you feel."

"Is that so?" Amanda sighed, letting out some of her excess tension as she exhaled. The sensation of Nekou's grip did wonders for her internal sense of security. "If… if that's alright, then… I've worked too hard to get dragged back into the past now. I can't just give up and lose everything I've fought for… don't get me wrong, though, seeing Mom yesterday hurt. A lot. It still does. There's some part of me that's even glad I didn't have to physically see her. Imagine, a day where I'm actually happy to be blind." Amanda laughed bitterly to herself, but kept talking. "But I'm not going to let her win. I refuse to. If anything, that encounter yesterday is making me think about embracing who I am even more than I already do."

That comment struck Nekou as somewhat odd, so she asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Hm?" Amanda's words had slipped out without her really thinking about them, and what she had said didn't fully occur to her until Nekou questioned it. Hoping to downplay it, she rushed to answer, "Oh, uh… well, I meant that as much as I love battling and I'm good at it, I don't think it's what I really want to do with my life. Being a Frontier Brain is fun and all, but it's just a hobby of mine, and I'm honestly thinking about telling Anabel I plan to eventually resign. I'd rather not do it for a living full-time. My heart's in the classroom, with my students. I love reading and learning, and it was Grandpa, Professor Chiaki, who gave Matt and I a helping hand when we really needed it. I… I want to be that for the younger generation, just like Grandpa was for me. Any of my students could be in a bad place when they come into my class and being there for them is what really makes me feel alive."

"I think that's really commendable of you, Amanda." Nekou knew Amanda couldn't see the wide, genuine smile of admiration on her face, but she imagined Matt's sister would have been quite surprised if she could. "Speaking as someone else who has a passion for reading books and learning things, you're doing a good thing by using your interests like that. If there's anything I can do to help you out, tell me. I'll have your back."

"Thanks… I appreciate that. I recognize you've been through a lot lately, too… if we can be friends, that would be great. Let's watch out for each other."

"Let's," Nekou replied, giving Amanda's hand a shake of gratitude.

"If we can be friends…" Amanda thought. "Maybe I can talk to you about other things, too… I'm not ready for that yet, but maybe…"

-:-

Route 108 in the Hoenn region's southern seas had acquired a well-earned, somewhat infamous reputation for being a graveyard for ships. Its irregular depths created numerous patches of shallow water, rendering the route tricky to traverse for larger vessels. No monument to that reputation stood more prominently than the wreckage of the S.S. Cactus. Once a proud cruise liner that sailed between Slateport and Lilycove, its operators had decided to expand its route, sending it further southwest to stop off in Dewford Town before heading north to its final port of call near Petalburg City. Its maiden voyage on its newly-lengthened line ended up being where it would meet its fate, however, as the ship proved too large to effectively navigate Route 108's waters. It ran aground and was never salvaged, being left behind as a plaything for the winds of time. As days turned to weeks and months to years, the Cactus even lost its name to history, coming to be known merely as the Abandoned Ship among the public.

Yet, on that day, whatever secrets the Abandoned Ship still held were not the ones the rogue Tenganist Zinnia was after. She flew further north on her Salamence, past the wreckage of the Cactus, until she reached the other ruins Route 108 was known for. Known simply as Sea Mauville, it appeared to the outside world to be nothing more than an oil platform that had fallen into disuse and partially collapsed, later becoming a natural habitat for native plants and wild Pokémon. But Zinnia and the other Tenganists living in the hidden Draconid village knew better. They'd already been suspicious of the activity going on there, but information Zinnia acquired through her attacks on the Devon Corporation's vehicles confirmed something sinister had taken place at Sea Mauville before it was supposedly abandoned.

That was why she'd invaded the facility, and even though she came armed to the teeth with all her Pokémon out of caution for the security she anticipated, Sea Mauville truly did appear to be deserted. On some level, it disappointed her. Destroying the transports was half the fun, she felt, and just stealing from Devon wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable. But she had come on a mission, so her own personal thrills would have to wait. She probed deep into the facility, stopping only when she found a room with papers strewn all around from end to end. Evidently, when Sea Mauville's staff left, they'd gone in a hurry.

"Say good morning very loudly… don't bring Pokémon to your workplace… Always arrive on time, always stay late…" With every line Zinnia read from the document at the top of the pile in her hands, she cringed more and more. "Yikes, what a rotten way to live! These guys really needed some imagination!"

"Mum?" her Whismur, Aster, murmured next to her.

"It's alright, dear," Zinnia said, comforting Aster by petting her on the head. "Their silly rules aren't what we're here for, anyway." Shuffling through the stack of papers some more, Zinnia abruptly stopped when she noticed a certain word. "Here we go, something with a big ol' 'Confidential' splashed across it! This is what I was looking for!"

Clearing her throat, the renegade Dragon-type trainer began reading out loud.

"Devon Secret Investigation Report… the development on new energy turned out to be true. The energy that uses Pokémon's bioenergy is called Infinity Energy…" Searching the documents further, Zinnia found another that caught her eye. "Sea Mauville company song… For the bright future Hoenn, we won't take our days off. Dig through, dig out great energy… Swear your selfless devotion, unionization is out of the question. Dig through, dig out great energy… Drive away our competitors, we won't take our overtime pay. Dig through, dig out great energy…"

Angered by what she was reading, Zinnia snarled and ripped the pieces of paper before crumpling up the pieces. "I knew it! They were drilling here to try and harvest Gaia's energy for their own profit! Three thousand years pass and nobody learns anything!"

"Mum!" Aster exclaimed, trying to get Zinnia's attention. "Mum!"

"What is it, my dear?" When she turned to look at Aster, she found the Whismur holding another document, one she had missed in her earlier search. "What's that? Let me have a look." Taking the paper from Aster, she again read it out loud. "'Top Secret Devon Corporation - Angel Corporation Business Log.' Angel Corporation?" Zinnia wondered with a tilt of her head before turning her attention back to the document. "'With the impending closure of Sea Mauville, I, Raizoh Cozmo, have already been recruited for new employment. The President has been contacted by President Gabriella Bouchard of the Angel Corporation in Kanto, who has expressed interest in investing in our work. As a result, my team and I have been contracted to continue our work on Infinity Energy out of a brand new laboratory at Angel Tower in Viridian City, Kanto. I can only hope my son, my dear Takao, will forgive me. What I do, what we do… it is all for the future world he will live in, which I hope my work will help sustain."

"Mum?"

This time, Zinnia did not answer Aster's questioning chirp. She was too caught up in the story playing out on the paper, which progressed to a new section denoted by a later date than that on the first. "As our last task at this facility, President Bouchard has sent over an unusual meteorite. It reminds me of those that can be found in this region at Meteor Falls, but somehow, it is different. The energy signature we found from it is unlike anything we've seen before - except for Infinity Energy. Does this meteorite have some relation to Infinity Energy? Is its energy the same? If we can determine the answers to those questions, we may be on the cusp of discovering a renewable energy source unlike any this planet has ever seen. President Bouchard also gave us some books from her collection to study in relation to this mystery. They speak of these strange meteorites, 'Meteonites' as they are called, falling on our planet in ancient times. Perhaps we can find others, if we are to use them as an energy source? These books also reference a giant Meteonite, which they label a Megalith, being located in the Sevii Islands. President Bouchard wishes for us to help her find it. I hope our work ends up paying off… for Takao's sake. For everyone's."

Standing, Zinnia stuffed the paper into her cloak and turned to Aster. "We gotta go to the Sevii Islands. I know a lot of years have passed, but we'd know if they already got their hands on that Megalith thing. All this advancement in human technology and knowledge, and yet their worst instincts keep drivin' them to dig up rocks and mess with forces they don't understand! We gotta get there first and bring that Megalith home to Grannie and the others, Aster."

"Mum!" Aster happily replied, signaling her agreement with Zinnia's plan.

-:-

The Dragon's Den might have appeared to be nothing more than a simple cave behind Blackthorn Gym, but its unassuming appearance hid a sacred site. It was not such for just the Dragon Clan that inhabited the area but for Dragon-type trainers as well, who would visit the city on pilgrimages to see it. Its entrance tunnel led to a vast underground lake, and in the center of that lake was an island with a small shrine built on it.

Clair had left Renzo inside the shrine with the Dragon Clan's elder while she went outside to meet Lance, who had sent word that he would be coming to visit. Whatever they were discussing was of no concern to him. No, his mind was filled with thoughts relating to only one subject as he sat there, kneeling and breathing in the incense burning in the shrine: his childhood.

It hadn't been a happy one. Born to a destitute single mother in the crime-ridden town of Pyrite in the Orre region, he ended up on the streets at an early age. In the one bit of luck fate had decided to afford him, he fell under the protection of a gang of other children, led by an orphaned brother and sister who took a liking to him. Back then, if you were going to survive on Pyrite's mean streets, you had no choice but to turn to crime. Renzo's gang were little more than petty crooks for a long time, sustaining themselves by stealing goods from the local Poké Mart at first and later upgrading to waylaying competitors at the town's Colosseum for money. When they ultimately went their separate ways, Renzo stuck close by the gang's leaders Noel and Leon as they moved into Orre's lawless desert, becoming Pokémon hunters strong enough to attack travelers with near impunity. He clawed his way up the rungs of power from there, and when he learned of the development of the Battle Frontier under Anabel's direction, he parted from Noel and Leon to seek his revenge. They never understood why he blamed her and Olivia for the course his life had taken, but Renzo always insisted that it was his burden to bear, not anyone else's.

And that vengeance was, after so many long years of waiting and preparing, almost within his grasp. There would only be a little more of a wait. Just a little longer, and his hated nemeses would arrive on the island to face him. To see him for what he truly was.

Outside the shrine, Clair was also waiting for Anabel and the others to arrive. Besides her pupil's trial, however, she also had more immediate concerns. The tone between her and Lance was tense as the two cousins stared each other down.

"Clair, forgive me, but I must insist," Lance said to her, his arms firmly crossed. "I've heard rumors that Polaris is planning something around the time of the Pokémon League, so I think you shouldn't attend. The other members of the Elite Four and Blue are all in Orre for the Pokémon World Tournament, so dealing with it is up to me."

"You forget I'm also a Dragon Master," Clair argued back. Her tongue was as sharp as ever, though Lance had grown resistant to it over the years. "How many times do I have to prove it to you? Was it not enough for Grandfather to finally give me his approval? What is it that you still believe I lack?"

"It's not a matter of what you lack or some sort of judgement over your abilities," Lance maintained, firm in his tone. "Polaris is not to be underestimated. You surely saw what they did to Ecruteak City."

Clair huffed. How could her cousin be blind enough that he would so easily dismiss her? "That's even more of a reason you need my help!"

Despite her persistence, Lance remained unmoved. "I cannot vouch for your safety if something happened there, so it's a risk I can't take."

"You can't vouch for my safety?" Clair indignantly repeated, stunned by just how little Lance seemed willing to acknowledge her. "Then cancel the League altogether! If it's too dangerous for me to be there, it's too dangerous for anyone!"

Clair initially thought she had managed to argue Lance into a corner, but when he turned away from her, she knew her logic had somehow still failed. "You need to be here to keep Blackthorn safe," he said, looking out over the lake. "Your honest, straightforward personality is admirable, but I hope you will gain more perspective soon. For now, it appears your guests have arrived."

Lance's observation prompted Clair to shift her eyes to the lake as well, and true to his word, she could see Matt, Amanda, Nekou, Anabel and Olivia in a boat approaching the island, with Clair's Gym Trainer Fran accompanying them. The sight left her with conflicting emotions. She badly wanted to keep arguing with Lance, still believing she could get him to see things her way, but at the same time, some part of her appreciated the interruption.

In the end, she simply crossed her arms and instructed her cousin, "Go get Renzo for me."

"Alright."

Lance exited the scene right as Matt and the others arrived, leaving them to only catch a brief glimpse of him as he entered the shrine. "Who was that?" Matt asked Clair. "Was that Lance?"

"Yes, it was," the Gym Leader sighed. "And I'm sure the next question you're going to ask is why he's here, so I'll tell you. I'm just as much of a Dragon Master as he is, yet he doesn't want me going to the Pokémon League. Something about rumors that Polaris is going to do something there. Do you believe that?"

"You don't say…?" Nekou muttered under her breath. "Polaris up to something at the Pokémon League, of fucking course…"

Anabel also got pulled in by Clair's remark and removed her sunglasses, intending to pursue it further, but before she could do so Lance emerged from the shrine with Renzo and the Dragon Clan's elder in tow. Renzo scowled in disgust as soon as he saw Olivia, but he held his tongue until he locked eyes with Anabel, at which point he could no longer hold back.

"So you actually showed up," he growled, accusingly jabbing a finger at her. "It's about time one of you takes responsibility for something."

"What gives you the right to say something like that?!" Olivia snapped.

"I earned that right through many difficult years of hardship and patience," Renzo sneered back. "You can have some patience to find out."

"Keep her out of this," Anabel sharply interrupted. "I don't know what your problem with me is, but it's with me, not Olivia."

"For once you've said something right. My problem with you isn't my problem with her. She comes later. For now, this is the day both of you just start to pay for taking everything from me."

Away from the escalating dispute, the elder quietly said to his granddaughter, "Clair… this child you've trained, he clearly possesses great potential, but he worries me. I fear his heart may be closed off. This test will have to prove to me otherwise."

"This may shock you, Grandfather, but I agree," Clair concurred, keenly glaring at her student. "He still hasn't been able to let go of his obsessions like he has to."

"You've grown, Clair. That's why I was willing to give you my acknowledgement. Now let's see how this turns out."

With that, the elder walked forward, clapping his hands to get the attention of not only Renzo but Fran and Matt's group.

"We are all here now, so it is time for Renzo's trial to begin. Fran, if you'd be so kind…"

"Yes, sir!" Fran eagerly replied. Turning to Matt, Nekou, Amanda and Olivia, she said, "Come with me over to where we'll be watching the battle. Anabel, please go to your place over there to the right."

Anabel started to head in the direction Fran pointed, but she didn't get more than a step away before she was stopped by a tug on her sleeve. It was Olivia, who expressed to her, "Good luck, Mom. I want you to show him what we're made of."

"Oh, I will. I promise. Don't you worry about that."

No more words were needed between anyone. Olivia went with Matt, Nekou and Amanda to the long bench Fran guided them toward, while Anabel and Renzo moved to their respective ends of the makeshift battlefield. Clair and Lance followed Fran's lead as well and sat down next to each other, but when Nekou seated herself next to him, Lance immediately got up and moved to Clair's left, leaving his spot at her right for Fran instead.

Nekou immediately noticed the gesture, and shot him a dirty look, thinking, "The fuck is your problem, Cape?"

Everything was in place for the trial to commence, and the elder took up his place on the sidelines to oversee the battle. The old man raised his arms into the air, making his black-and-gold robes flutter, before he announced the battle, "This trial shall be a full Single Battle in which both sides may change their Pokémon at will. The first side to see all six of their opponent's Pokémon faint shall be declared the winner. Those are the rules, and now, please send out your first Pokémon."

Renzo was the first to act, producing a Poké Ball from under his weathered poncho. "For my mother… Whimsicott, come out!"

"For your mother?" Anabel murmured. She watched as the sheep-like Pokémon with a mane of white cotton materialized in front of Renzo, but couldn't help but cock her head at his remark. "What does your mother have to do with this?"

"Of course you have no idea," Renzo snarled, returning Whimsicott's ball to its place under his poncho. "Why would spoiled people like you and Olivia know anything about those you leave behind in your wake? I'm not going to answer your question now. Not yet. No, you're going to wait until I make you and Olivia understand what real despair is like. What the hopelessness I've lived with for so many years really feels like. That all begins right here, right now!"

The entire line of spectators were left unnerved by Renzo's ranting, just as much as Anabel herself. Nekou bit her fingernail, while Olivia rocked back and forth and Matt tugged at his scarf.

"This is the star pupil you've been telling me about?" Lance quietly asked Clair. "He's not going to come out of here with a passing grade with that sort of talk."

"Don't you think I know that?" Clair hissed back, unable to hide her annoyance at him. "I gave him all the training I could. From this point on, it's up to him."

Nekou, meanwhile, cared little for Renzo's status in the trial. She harbored far more concern for the girl sitting at her side. "Olivia, you doin' alright right now?"

"What do you think?" Olivia muttered. Her tone of voice was difficult to place as she rigidly stared ahead at Renzo and Whimsicott, but the way she bit down on her fingernail told Nekou everything. "I just want Mom to destroy him."

Little did Olivia know just how much her feelings aligned with those of her mother. Renzo's ranting had pitched her into an emotional tailspin, but not towards the despair he'd hoped for.

True loss? Renzo wanted to talk to her about true loss? What about Amelia and Ophelia? Rich right after? The years-long estrangement between mother and daughter that followed those deaths? Did he know anything of true loss?

But Anabel gave none of those words voice. She wouldn't. Under no circumstances was she willing to give Renzo the satisfaction of seeing her crack. Instead, she regarded the scene in front of her with ice in her veins. Renzo, Whimsicott, where her Pokémon would stand in opposition to her - she absorbed each element with a cold, calculating precision. With each passing second she shifted further into a mood of intense, tactical thinking, a mental state she hadn't entered in ages. It was how she used to become when in the heat of battle, and while that side of her had laid dormant for a long time, now it was back.

"If that's what you want, I won't hold back against you." The shift in Anabel's disposition was palpable, so much so that it unnerved Matt, Amanda and the other onlookers. She focused all her icy, intense passion squarely on Renzo, narrowing her eyes as she brandished a Poké Ball of her own. "It's been too long since I was able to battle without thinking about anything… I'll give you a taste of what the Battle Frontier is truly about."

Anabel didn't say anything more before sending out her Pokémon. She didn't even actually throw the ball, instead opting to just pop it open. The flash of light that emerged gave shape to a Slowking, who scratched his side and yawned when he appeared.

Off to the side, Matt blinked. "Wait, that Slowking… isn't that Rich's?"

"You're right," Amanda confirmed. "Anabel's been taking care of him all these years since…" Remembering that Olivia was sitting right there at her side, she stopped her train of thought and amended the words she planned to say. "Yeah, he's been with her for a while now."

Renzo, meanwhile, was unaware of his new opponent's significance. He saw only that Anabel had sent out a part-Water-type Pokémon against his part-Grass-type Whimsicott, and his confidence swelled. "If you think you're going to just toy with me, you're in for a rude surprise," he warned Anabel.

"We'll see about that," Anabel replied, crossing her arms. "Let's begin."

Taking Anabel's comment to Renzo as an implicit request to commence the battle, the Dragon Clan's elder stretched his arms out towards the two sides and boomed in a voice far more powerful than his age might have suggested, "Let the trial begin!"

"Whimsicott, Tailwind!" Renzo called out as soon as the signal was given.

Matt, Olivia and Nekou had leaned in closer to watch when the battle began, only to have the powerful winds Whimsicott whipped up around herself blow right into their faces. Slowking stood fast in the face of the storm, unharmed by the gusts, but Anabel was keenly aware that Renzo's plan wasn't to damage him.

"So be it." Lifting her right arm from where she had crossed her limbs against her chest, Anabel snapped her fingers and calmly directed Slowking, "Flamethrower."

Slowking's demeanor shifted abruptly when his trainer's instruction met his ears, almost as suddenly as hers had earlier. As he struck an angry expression, a surge of fire welled up in his mouth and erupted forth, trained squarely on Whimsicott. The cyclone she'd created couldn't push his blazing onslaught even one degree off its mark.

Renzo considered himself lucky that Tailwind still had other, more important uses. "Into the air, Whimsicott!" he ordered.

Instead of leaping, Whimsicott simply relaxed her muscles, allowing the winds to lift her up. Slowking's Flamethrower passed harmlessly beneath her, and she snickered as she rode the currents in an erratic path, zigging and zagging over the island.

"Of course you'd have a trump card or two up your sleeve," Renzo taunted. "You couldn't have gotten to your station in life completely for free… but I'm going to show you how much harder I've worked."

"Then show me your talent in its entirety. Slowking, chase it with Flamethrower!"

Much to the shock of both Renzo and Whimsicott, when Slowking directed his flames toward the ceiling of the cavern, he was able to get far closer to his target than either of them expected. Whimsicott squealed as she swerved around the first jet Slowking shot up at her, and she used her winds to deftly weave through the firestorm that followed. The winds might have been her ally, but with every pillar of flame Slowking sent up, her available space constricted ever further. The cotton on her back soon ignited, making her shriek as she dropped to the ground and rolled over to extinguish the blaze.

A tiny bead of sweat formed on the side of Renzo's head, but he shook it off along with the concerns that created it. "There's no way on this Earth you're going to best Whimsicott when it comes to speed, not like that. Show her, Whimsicott! Leech Seed!"

With the tongues of fire that caught on to her cotton snuffed out, Whimsicott shot off back into the air. She plucked handfuls of seeds from her mane as she floated around and threw them directly at Slowking. Thin yet firm vines emerged from them upon contact and wrapped around his body, constricting him tightly enough that they impeded his movement without fully stopping him.

"Well played." Anabel's praise was as frigid as everything else about her present mentality, but it was genuine. "I'll need to go for a swift knockout, then. Slowking, Hyper Beam."

While Slowking began gathering energy in the gem on his crown, Olivia shifted uncomfortably. A certain, unwelcome memory had resurfaced in her mind, and it prompted her to tug anxiously on Amanda's sleeve. "Hey, Amanda… you said that's Dad's old Slowking. He did eventually get over his problems using Hyper Beam without hurting himself, right?"

"You have nothing to worry about, Olivia," Amanda assured her. "Your mom did a great job helping him."

"If you say so." Olivia puffed out her cheeks and pouted. It wasn't that she didn't believe Amanda, far from it. But with just how much the entire group's collective fortunes had turned recently, how could she just take it by faith that things would work out?

Slowking's gleaming gem had started to give off sparks, but since he still wasn't ready to carry out his attack, Renzo seized the chance to act first. "You've done enough, Whimsicott! Bail out with U-Turn!"

Darting forth like a bullet, Whimsicott tackled Slowking, pushing him a foot or two backward. She then reverted into light and returned to her Poké Ball, snickering at her foe as her form vanished. Another Poké Ball burst open from under Renzo's poncho in turn, releasing his Hypno to take Whimsicott's place.

Much to Hypno's misfortune, however, the moment he appeared on the field was also the moment Slowking's Hyper Beam reached full charge. With one last bright flash, the blinding crimson beam ripped through the chilly air in the cave, exploding with a ball of smoke when it struck its target. The blast threw Hypno violently against a stone at the edge of the battlefield, which crumbled from the impact and left him lying on the ground in a heap among the rubble.

There was one factor working in Hypno's favor, though. Had Whimsicott taken the Hyper Beam instead, her dainty, fragile body wouldn't have been able to hold up against it. Hypno fared better, and as a result, he was able to push himself back onto his feet without much effort, even if he groaned in pain on the way up.

"Get your head in the game, Hypno!" Renzo forcefully ordered. "Seismic Toss!"

Hypno smacked his own head with his right hand twice, an act which helped him clear his mind. Taking notice of Slowking's exhaustion from the way he was slouched and breathing heavily, Hypno broke into a sprint. He was upon Anabel's Pokémon in the blink of an eye, his movements made even faster with Whimsicott's Tailwind blowing at his back. Once Slowking was within his reach, he wrapped his arms around the Water-and-Psychic-type and jumped upward.

Renzo couldn't see it, but while Slowking was stuck in Hypno's grip, he recovered his focus and shot his trainer a sharp grin. Anabel returned the gesture in kind, fulfilling his unspoken request by calling out, "Scald!"

A burst of steam and hot water erupted from between Slowking and Hypno, driving the two Pokémon apart as they crashed back to the ground. Their separation let Slowking escape the full impact of Hypno's Seismic Toss and allowed him to fare better than his foe, whose body buckled as he stood. A wide burn mark was singed into Hypno's chest, a remnant left behind by the searing water Slowking exposed him to.

Incensed by Slowking slipping from his Pokémon's grasp, Renzo thrust his open hand forward and snarled, "Dazzling Gleam!"

While supporting his weight by bracing his right hand on his knee, Hypno lifted the pendulum in his left toward Slowking. A bright light, shining vividly with the colors of a rainbow, flashed from the metal disc, flooding the Dragon's Den with its radiance. Slowking, like the humans both standing and sitting around him, had to shield his eyes.

That move bought Renzo and Hypno valuable time. With Slowking stunned, Renzo took advantage of the opening, ordering, "Seismic Toss, and do it right this time!"

"Hyper Beam!" Anabel reflexively responded, even as she donned her sunglasses.

Hypno scrambled after Slowking once again, but the soreness overtaking his muscles hobbled him, making his movements clumsy and erratic. The last vestiges of the Tailwind helped him along, but even that wasn't enough to get him to Slowking before the latter's Hyper Beam fully powered up.

Off on the sidelines, Matt, Fran and even Olivia couldn't help but cringe as they watched Hypno get swallowed up by the blazing red ray. He was left lying in a tangled heap in the aftermath, with no question outstanding regarding whether or not he could continue fighting. That one answer, if nothing else, was painfully, explicitly clear.

"That Slowking was your father's?" Fran whispered to Olivia in quiet awe. "I can see from it that the stories about him were true."

"That's right!" Olivia exclaimed, shrugging off her own shock to put on an exaggerated air of pride. "Of course that's my dad's Slowking. There wasn't anything he couldn't…" Her face fell when her beliefs of her father's present whereabouts reasserted themselves in her mind, piercing her bravado, and she silently thanked her luck Fran hadn't noticed.

"But after fighting Hypno and using Hyper Beam twice," Lance pointed out, "Slowking's obviously exhausted."

It was hard to argue the validity of Lance's observation. Slowking had fallen to one knee and was breathing deeply, and the persistence of the Leech Seed vines in sapping his strength wasn't helping him recover at all. Still, though, he'd taken Renzo's first Pokémon down, so in Anabel's eyes, it was good enough.

Renzo, on the other hand, was less than satisfied with his own progress. Just weakening Slowking had taken not only everything Hypno had but the support Whimsicott provided as well, support that just faded away along with the last of her Tailwind as he recalled the Psychic-type Pokémon.

"Don't think you've won yet," he hissed, tearing an Ultra Ball from under his poncho. "I'm not going to make this anywhere near a cakewalk for you! Ferrothorn, Power Whip!"

The moment Renzo pitched the sphere, his Ferrothorn burst from it in a flash of golden light. She acted on his order in an instant, clamoring in Slowking's direction and closing the distance between them.

"That one's gonna hurt..." Nekou voiced her anxiety, even though Anabel seemed unfazed by what was happening.

Having his strength persistently sapped by Leech Seed. Falling from many feet up after breaking free from Hypno's Seismic Toss. Being blinded by Dazzling Gleam. And finally, the strain of using Hyper Beam twice. It all added up and served to exhaust Slowking, and with all the fatigue from all those ordeals weighing on his shoulders, he was unable to flee from Ferrothorn when she swung and smashed one of her green, glowing pods into him. He groaned as he fell over, and his defeat was pointedly underlined when Whimsicott's Leech Seed finally broke from his body.

"Slowking went down…" Olivia uttered, staring blankly at the Pokémon her parents shared. "Is he not totally over his problems with Hyper Beam after all? I hope Mom has this under control…"

"I promise you she does," Amanda insisted. "There is no doubt in my mind who's going to win this in the end. Your mom is just warming up."

"I really hope you're right about that…" Olivia replied.

Out on the battlefield, Anabel held up Slowking's Poké Ball and recalled him back to the safety of its confines. "You did well, my friend… my precious, precious friend."

She still lacked understanding of why Renzo held such a deep grudge against her family, but as she swapped the ball in her hand out for another, Anabel was hit by a sudden realization - she didn't care anymore. It didn't matter to her why he was so obsessed, just that he was, he was threatening her family, and it fell to her to put him in his place. So while she might not have cared about the reasons for Renzo's quest, it was still very, very personal.

"In all the time I've spent at one Battle Tower or another, I relish the days challengers like you show up," she said to Renzo, her manner remaining as cold as ice. "Those who let me battle with nothing held back… and let my Pokémon and I be who we really are."

With that, Anabel popped the ball open. The light that emerged concentrated a few feet in front of her, and the lithe, graceful form of a Gardevoir materialized.

"A Gardevoir?!" Renzo blurted out in surprise, his scarf nearly coming loose from the movement of his mouth. Catching himself, he made sure to adjust the article around his neck and face before jeering at Anabel, "You really haven't caught up with the times, have you? All nice and safe perched up in that ivory tower of yours, totally unaware of what happened when Polaris messed with that Pixie Plate of theirs! It's about time you learned about what goes on out in the real world, starting with you seeing firsthand what happens when you send one of those Fairy-type Pokémon to face a Steel-type!"

"How can he say something like that?!" Olivia seethed through clenched teeth. "He doesn't know what Mom… what either of us has been through…"

Nekou, as a comforting gesture, put her hand on Olivia's shoulder. "He's fucking with the two of you. Pressing your buttons. Anabel ain't gonna fall for that, so don't give him what he wants."

"Fine." Olivia slouched and crossed her arms, and although the others couldn't hear her, she kept grumbling to herself. "Come on, Mom. Smash him into next week and then add a couple months on top of it."

Mentally, Anabel had to concede that Renzo had a point about one thing. No information on the particulars of Fairy-type Pokémon had been in the many books she'd consumed over the course of her life. There'd been mentions here and there of elemental types that no longer existed, but nothing further. Still, in her state of heightened acuity, Anabel sensed she had an opening. Just from what Renzo had said, she was able to determine that a Steel-type like Ferrothorn held an advantage typewise against Gardevoir - but also that she knew just the way to deal with it.

"You might be right that my knowledge of Fairy-type Pokémon is lacking," she finally said, "but I challenge you to make that mean something. Try us."

As if to put a dramatic period upon her trainer's threat, Gardevoir casually hummed and brushed her gown off. Her flippant, unconcerned attitude, along with Anabel's fearlessness, only served to incense Renzo even further.

"You mock me even now? I'll make you pay for that!" Shifting to look at Ferrothorn, who was staring Gardevoir down glaring daggers all the while, Renzo issued the command, "Put them in their place with Gyro Ball!"

Ferrothorn flipped over and balanced herself on the green spike atop her head, then propelled herself toward Gardevoir while whirling around at a blinding speed. The three steel pods at the end her vines had each taken on a blue shimmer, their owner's spinning turning them into dangerous battering weapons.

"You know what to do, my friend," Anabel thought.

Sensing Anabel's unspoken direction, Gardevoir exhaled. Ferrothorn's oncoming Gyro Ball did pose a threat to her, and she hadn't missed that. She just didn't fear it. Relaxing and attuning herself to the subtle sounds of the underground lake, she let her senses take the lead and guide her out of the path of the first swing Ferrothorn took at her, continuing her lithe, elegant swaying around every one of the Grass-and-Steel-type's subsequent attempts to strike. Gardevoir's dancing kept just beyond Ferrothorn's reach with every blow, frustrating both her opponent and Renzo as they tried helplessly to get to her.

"You treating this like a game is only going to make it even more enjoyable when I crush you," Renzo jeered, forcing a broken, stilted grin. "Ferrothorn, Power Whip!"

Ferrothorn skidded to an abrupt stop, grinding up the dirt beneath her, and lashed out with one of her vines. Even that couldn't change Renzo's lacking fortunes, though, for as soon as the vine and its attached thorn pod drew near Gardevoir, she bent back, her flowing dance allowing the attack to sail harmlessly over her. It made no effect on her at all aside from tousling her hair.

"I believe it's time for you to show him your skills, Gardevoir." Anabel not only didn't sound worried, she sounded like she was almost bored. That flat, dispassionate tone struck the slightest hint of fear into Matt and the others; even Olivia and Amanda, the two who knew her the most, struggled to remember a time they'd seen her in such a state. "Mystical Fire."

Gardevoir swayed away from Ferrothorn and spun into a pirouette, a ring of fiery wisps that gave off an eerie blue glow taking shape around her. Seeing them, both Renzo and Ferrothorn recoiled at the clear danger they posed. Neither had accounted for the possibility of Gardevoir knowing a Fire-type move.

"Get away, Ferrothorn!" Renzo yelled in a frenzy. "Do anything you have to do!"

As the wisps circled around her, it became Ferrothorn's turn to dance. She just barely managed to lift her leftmost pod off the ground in time to let a pair of fireballs pass underneath it, and she had no time to spare in doing the same to evade those sent after the pod on her right. Several more followed, drawing near to her main body and forcing her to jump out of their path. Olivia, watching with rapt attention, could have sworn she saw sweat rolling down Ferrothorn's steel body.

Anabel, meanwhile, remained as outwardly apathetic as ever. "Do it," she said, uncrossing her arms and snapping her fingers again.

On Anabel's cue, Gardevoir halted her dance, and the wisps accordingly froze in place, encircling their target. Gardevoir briefly locked eyes with Ferrothorn before spreading her arms and crying out toward the ceiling of the cave, her haunting chant echoing through the cold air. Her fireballs reacted to the shriek, following the signal to home in and engulf Ferrothorn. The Grass-and-Steel-type Pokémon flailed in the dirt, but for all her efforts to quash the blue inferno consuming her, the flames were just too strong for her to extinguish. By the time they faded on their own and allowed Ferrothorn to move again, she collapsed, unconscious.

Almost instantly, Olivia was on her feet. "What was that about learning what goes on in the real world?" she yelled at Renzo, putting her hands around her mouth to direct her voice straight at him. "Yeah, well, here's a rule from the real world for you - talk shit, get hit!"

Renzo didn't acknowledge Olivia's trash talk, but whether he was ignoring it or truly hadn't heard it at all, she couldn't tell. A hand on her shoulder pulled her back down into her seat, and she expected to receive some sort of scolding. Much to her surprise, she saw Nekou looking down at her, with the broadest, most obviously I'm-proud-of-you grin on the older woman's face imaginable. And with that sort of reception, how could Olivia not respond by returning the gesture?

"Aha… Olivia and Nekou really are like two peas in a pod, aren't they?" Matt whispered to Amanda, who replied with a soft giggle.

"You can say that again," she agreed, smiling.

Out on the battlefield, Renzo lowered his head as he recalled Ferrothorn, initially without a word. His hat covered his eyes from view, and behind his scarf, he clenched his teeth. "So you've got enough fight in you to overcome that situation…" he seethed in silence. "But my real-world experience will still win out over your privilege…"

"Come now, are you already finished?" Anabel questioned him, snapping him out of his bubble. She beckoned him with her hand, challenging him, "If that's the full extent of your abilities, I'm disappointed."

"You… you'll regret saying that!" Renzo raged, flinging Whimsicott's Poké Ball to send her out again. The Grass-and-Fairy-type Pokémon had barely taken shape before her trainer shouted, "Use another Tailwind!"

"Mystical Fire!" Anabel countered, snapping her arm upward.

For a fleeting moment as the battle resumed, neither Pokémon paid direct attention to the other. Gardevoir twirled in place, igniting another ring of magical blue embers around her body. They had just flickered into existence before Whimsicott, her eyes blinking brightly, called down another gale of wind to wash over the island. Gardevoir, standing firm in the face of the tempest, swayed her arms and hips in a dance reminiscent of those in the traditions of the Alola region, beckoning her small army of ethereal torches to attack their target.

"Upward, Whimsicott! You'll be safer up there!"

Much as she had done while fighting Slowking, Whimsicott let her Tailwind whisk her skyward, away from Gardevoir's flames. The living ball of cotton peered down at her nemesis from her comfortable position overhead, and when she locked eyes with Gardevoir, she snickered. Gardevoir had sent her Mystical Fire after Whimsicott, but even as her gaze glowed blue from using her psychic powers to change the wisps' trajectory, she couldn't catch them up to their mark. Before long, the whirlwinds took their toll, snuffing out the flames while Whimsicott remained safely ahead of them.

"I must say, your creativity deserves praise," Anabel said to Renzo as she carefully observed Whimsicott's movements.

"I don't want your praise!" Renzo angrily spat back. "I don't need it or anything from you, not until I make you see what you took away from me!"

"I can't understand anything until you tell me what it is that I supposedly took from you." When Renzo failed to say anything further, even after she prompted him to, Anabel sighed. What did he expect from her, exactly? To just surrender? No, that couldn't be it. If she surrendered, she wouldn't be understanding whatever it was he was so obsessed with showing her through the battle. "Fine, then. If this is how you want to do it… I clearly need to shake things up and change this battle's direction."

Much to the surprise of both Renzo and the collection of spectators observing, Anabel crossed her arms in front of herself to activate the power of the purple crystal set into her bracelet. Matt, Nekou, Olivia and Amanda, all already knew she possessed such an item and were more surprised that she was using it so soon. As for Clair, Lance, Fran and especially Renzo, they were all caught off guard by the Z-Ring's mere presence. While his cousin and her Gym Trainer gasped at seeing it, Lance covertly scowled, noting to himself the potential annoyance Amanda's technique could pose to Polaris's future plans. He wasn't yet aware of the full details surrounding the destruction of the Guanosine Base, let alone that Anabel had already used it there.

The energy that poured out of both the bracelet and from the ground at Anabel's feet flared around her with such force that it undid the black ribbon holding her ponytail in place, allowing her hair to freely flow behind her. Renzo could do nothing but helplessly step back, genuine fear setting into him, as she completed the poses necessary to send the energy into her Pokémon. Gardevoir mimicked Anabel's movements the whole time, moving in perfect sync with her.

"L-Leech Seed!" Renzo finally managed to sputter right as the arrow of light flashed in front of Gardevoir.

Whimsicott reacted in the blink of an eye, flinging the seeds at Gardevoir. In spite of Whimsicott's best efforts, the seeds planting onto Gardevoir's body didn't bother her at all, not even when the vines grew out of them to constrict her. The move she and Anabel were about to execute required little actual movement, so any obstacle the vines' presence posed was marginal at worst.

"Gardevoir…" Anabel called out, "Shattered Psyche!"

Gardevoir's eyes completely filled with blue light, and in an instant, Whimsicott found herself seized by the Psychic-and-Fairy-type's telekinetic powers. She forced every ounce of strength she could into her muscles, but try as she might, she was completely and utterly immobilized with no chance of escape. Gardevoir held Whimsicott still in midair for a moment before flicking her head diagonally downward, smashing her foe into one of the rocks in the water just off the shrine's island, shattering it in a cloud of dust. Such was the fate of every other stone she slammed Whimsicott into as well, her own effort never needing to rise far beyond just turning her head in the direction she wanted Whimsicott to careen into. The Dragon's Den practically shook from the ferocity with which Gardevoir attacked her foe, the air filling with dust from the rubble. Finally, once she'd reached a level of satisfaction with her work, Gardevoir lifted Whimsicott high into the air and slammed her back down to the earth, leaving her battered far past the point of unconsciousness.

Three Pokémon down. Three Pokémon down. Half his team had fallen, and Anabel? She barely had broken a sweat, moving past Slowking's defeat and maintaining her relentless pace like it was nothing. Like he was nothing. That one word - 'nothing' - echoed in Renzo's head like a siren as he stared down at his trembling hands. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

"I'm not… I'm not… I'm not nothing!" Renzo's anguish and sheer, unrestrained rage rocked the Dragon's Den. He was so blinded by his emotions that as he called Whimsicott back to her Poké Ball and swapped it under his poncho for another, his vision shifted, briefly showing him an illusion of the harsh, grimy streets of Pyrite Town - where he had been taught he was nothing in the first place. The vision so distressed him that he fumbled the new Poké Ball, nearly dropping it before managing to recover and toss it, releasing his Camerupt.

Both Clair and Lance spotted her pupil fumbling. "That trainer of yours doesn't appear to have absorbed your teachings, Clair," Lance warned, his voice grave in tone.

Clair crossed her arms, but besides that, was uncharacteristically unresponsive to Lance's criticism. "I thought otherwise… if he doesn't turn this around soon, I'm clearly going to have to restart his training from the beginning. I thought he had grown past this…"

"I see…" Anabel quietly said, watching Camerupt shaking out her red fur and bracing for battle. "Gardevoir, you've done plenty alredy, so take a rest," she said, holding up the Poké Ball necessary to recall the Psychic-and-Fairy-type. When Gardevoir dissolved into light and returned to the safety of the sphere, the Leech Seeds and their vines didn't go with her, instead breaking apart on the ground. "I must continue to fight with everything my Pokémon and I have… otherwise, this exercise is meaningless."

Anabel had meant that as an expression of respect, that she wouldn't patronize Renzo by going easy on him, but that wasn't how he took it. In fact, when it hit his ears, all he felt was an even greater spike of anger. To him, it came off exactly the opposite of how she intended, as if she was talking down to him.

Still, he said nothing, reacting only by clenching his fists even harder than he already was. Anabel, meanwhile, threw an Ultra Ball from which her Medicham emerged, landing deftly on one foot.

"Ah, finally!" Amanda exclaimed, clapping her hands together when she heard the Fighting-and-Psychic-type's voice. "I've been waiting for this," she explained to her companions. "I got Anabel into meditation because I thought it would be good for her. That's why she got a Medicham… so now I finally get to witness it get some action!"

"But what's that around its neck?" Olivia asked, leaning in to stare at Medicham.

The answer to Olivia's question soon became apparent. At the center of the golden cross holding the blue ribbon around Medicham's neck was a light pink stone with a half-darker-pink, half-yellow helix within it. Anabel pulled down the folds of her scarf to reveal a Key Stone set into a white pin, and when she touched it, beams of light flowed from Medicham's stone back to it.

"A Medichamite…" Clair noted, nervously watching to see how Renzo would respond.

Several seconds passed, and Medicham tore out of the cocoon of light that formed around her. Her head was now concealed in a turban-like garment with a yellow gem at the center, while her waist was wrapped in yellow bands with blue jewels hanging off them. Most notably, four intangible arms given form by Medicham's pure fighting spirit flowed from her back, standing at the ready to assist her in combat. They unfurled with natural grace as Medicham exhaled to clear all remaining distraction from her mind.

"First a Z-Move, and now a Mega Evolution…" Renzo bitterly grumbled. "How much more are you going to subject me to?"

That got Anabel's emotions to stir, even if just slightly. "You are the one who swore you'd get vengeance on me by defeating me, Renzo. If you don't have faith in your Pokémon to be strong enough to overcome me, you will never secure that victory."

"I'll… I'll…" Renzo's anger was slipping out of his control again. "I'll show you! Camerupt, Flash Cannon!"

"Medicham, Psycho Cut."

The glowing, purple energy blades Medicham flicked from her arms met Camerupt's beam of silver light over the middle of the field, kicking up a gust of wind and a large plume of smoke that obscured the two sides' view of each other. Renzo hesitated, and that tiny window afforded Medicham all the opportunity she needed to fling more Psycho Cut blades into the cloud. A number missed their target but several landed, each one slicing tufts of fur off Camerupt's body and leaving cuts in the flesh underneath.

"Shake it off, Camerupt!" Renzo cried. Words proved quite easy for Renzo to say, though had he been able to follow his own advice at the time, he wouldn't have been two steps away from madness. "Heat Wave!"

For the first time, Anabel's icy facade melted, albeit slightly. Watching Camerupt's fiery gust wash over Medicham, she tensed, thinking to herself, "Come on, Medicham, hang on and get through this… don't get burned, please…"

Camerupt was able to keep exhaling fire for several more seconds before finally running out of air in her lungs, and the Heat Wave abated along with the last vestiges of Whimsicott's second Tailwind. Both Pokémon were left catching their breath, but it was Medicham who was the first to recover, much to Olivia's excitement.

"Get him, Mom!" she called out in encouragement.

"I will." Snapping her fingers yet again, Anabel directed Medicham, "Drain Punch."

Medicham moved in on her opponent, using her well-trained legs to close the distance between herself and Camerupt in the blink of an eye. She slugged Camerupt square on the cheek, sparking up a flicker of green light that trailed back up her right arm and settled into her muscles, healing them.

"Again, Medicham. Another Drain Punch!"

Pivoting, Medicham swung around and aimed one of the ethereal arms at Camerupt's face. It was a sight that made Renzo sweat. He was all too aware that, without the help of Tailwind, Camerupt was far too slow to escape the blow. He also knew, however, that there was another option available to him.

"Rock Polish!" he cried out, almost reflexively.

Camerupt's fur pressed against her body, and a white shine flowed through her from head to tail. Her more aerodynamic profile granted her the agility she'd lost when Tailwind faded, allowing her to just barely slip away from Medicham with only a nick against her left flank.

"Ah, well done!" Renzo only scowled further at Anabel's words of praise, misinterpreting them as sarcasm even though they were as genuine as ever. "This is what I wanted to see from you, talent that will let me battle without thinking about anything else!"

"That'll be your undoing!" By that point, Renzo was barely even considering his words before they left his mouth. He, not Anabel, was the one battling without thinking about anything else - teetering on the razor's edge of coherence. "Camerupt, Heat Wave!"

Bucking to a stop, Camerupt turned and spat another gust of fire at Medicham. The Mega Evolved Pokémon bent far back, taking advantage of her well-honed flexibility to gracefully bend around the flames.

"Medicham, Drain Punch!"

"Keep going, Camerupt! Heat Wave!"

Nekou sighed and lowered her eyelids. "Someone has never heard what the definition of doing the same thing and expecting a different result is."

Whether Renzo knew that was the definition of insanity or not, Nekou's prediction largely panned out exactly how she thought it would. Every time Camerupt sent a new fiery wind Medicham's way, the Fighting-and-Psychic-type simply somersaulted out of the way. The two Pokémon fell into a fierce yet strangely elegant dance, Medicham twisting through the storm of flames Camerupt set upon her like a disciplined gymnast and Camerupt galloping away every time Medicham got within reach in return. Neither was able to land a clean hit on the other.

"This is going nowhere fas-" Olivia started to say before something caught her attention. Leaning in to scrutinize it, she noticed a look of increasing exhaustion in Camerupt's eyes. "What's the deal with that? Medicham's barely hitting Camerupt and yet it looks like it's been running every Pokéathlon event there is."

"That's Pure Power at work, Medicham's ability," Amanda explained, folding her hands on her lap, "Medicham is already a pretty strong Pokémon, and Mega Evolution makes it even stronger, but Pure Power… well, Pure Power takes that strength and doubles it. Even just a tap from Mega Medicham is going to hurt."

"Ah! That's what I want to hear!" Olivia replied, taking clear glee in her mother's advantage.

Out on the battlefield, Camerupt's fatigue was catching up with her. It was becoming more and more of a struggle for her to stay ahead of Medicham's relentless pursuit, forcing her to abandon her attempts at mounting a counterattack. Still, she couldn't run away forever, and Medicham cut in front of her to deliver a crushing blow to her face.

"You're not putting us down after we came this far!" Renzo roared as Camerupt, tossed away from Medicham by the punch, stood back up. "Earth Power!"

Summoning what strength she still possessed, Camerupt reared back and slammed her front hooves into the ground. The terrain around her legs erupted with veins of golden light that cast a dazzling glow throughout the cavern and across the lake. It cracked through the battlefield until it fractured the earth beneath Medicham's feet.

"That's fine, Medicham," Anabel calmly said, attuning her thoughts with those of her Pokémon. "We can manage this. Bullet Punch."

For an incredibly brief moment, Medicham's focus wavered, but Anabel's soothing words and their mental connection helped bring her back to clarity. Taking a calm, deep breath, she balanced on the stone she'd been standing on, and with one graceful motion, sprang up and over the ruptured terrain to land on another. Medicham moved with the ease and grace of a gently flowing river as she closed the distance between herself and her target, leaping from one broken piece of earth to the next.

From where Renzo was standing, time seemed to grind to a halt. Medicham, with all four of her ethereal arms pulled back and at the ready, was making a joke of Earth Power's destruction. It wasn't slowing her down at all. "Camerupt, watch out!"

But Renzo's warning came far too late. Medicham was already upon his Pokémon, bombarding Camerupt's face with punches from her additional arms. Each impact was modest at best, but the sheer number of blows made up for each of their individual weaknesses.

"Camerupt, put an end to this now!" Renzo shouted, nearly blinded by the rage he felt at Camerupt being cornered. "Heat Wave!"

"You put an end to this with Drain Punch, Medicham," Anabel coolly replied.

The two Pokémon locked eyes, both instinctively knowing that this clash would be their last. Camerupt managed to get the drop on her foe, puckering her lips and blowing flames in Medicham's face. The Fighting-and-Psychic-type fearlessly dove straight into the blistering onslaught, however, braving the harsh conditions to draw in and deliver one last punch right between Camerupt's eyes.

Ultimately, it was Renzo's Pokémon that folded in the wake of the duel. Medicham stood triumphant over Camerupt as the latter crumbled at her feet, the energy she sapped with Drain Punch passing through her body and healing her injuries.

"That's four," Nekou pointed out, riveted by the action unfolding before her. "Two to go."

"And Mom's still got five of hers left," Olivia added, before calling out, "You hear that? You're almost finished!"

Renzo had just finished returning Camerupt to her Poké Ball when Olivia taunted him, her derision making him clench his teeth even tighter behind his scarf. "If you think I came here without a secret weapon, you've got another thought coming!" he thundered. He slung his next Poké Ball into the battle and his Cloyster materialized directly in front of him. There wasn't much truth to the claim Cloyster was a secret weapon, but with Renzo already on the razor's edge of coherence, he couldn't place much of a filter on himself either. "Shell Smash!"

"Medicham, Drain Punch!"

Both Pokémon acted on their instructions at the same time, but Medicham proved faster than her foe. She whipped around, taking advantage of her gymnastic spin to add momentum to the punch she hit Cloyster with. The Water-and-Ice-type had enveloped himself in a pure white light, which shattered off his body after Medicham beat him down. He was slow to rise back up and had already been left breathing heavily.

"Shell Smash makes Cloyster's power and speed go up, way up," Amanda noted, the red glow radiating from him bearing out her observation. "The thing is, that strength comes at the cost of its defenses."

"And Cloyster's already lookin' pretty fucked up…" Nekou added, clasping her hands in front of herself and leaning against them. "But with that speed boost, if he outspeeds Medicham… then he might actually have a shot at turning this whole thing around."

Their conversation pierced Renzo's bubble of anger enough to register in his mind, and he declared while thrusting his right arm forward, "That's right! Prepare to feel the same despair I did on the streets of Pyrite! Icicle Spear!"

Renzo's threat was a potent one, and wasn't lost on Anabel or their audience. Icicle Spear was a move that could strike its target multiple times. By itself, it wouldn't be particularly dangerous, but Anabel swiftly deduced Renzo had coupled it with the two things most Cloyster trainers did. Cloyster's ability, Skill Link, ensured Icicle Spear would always hit the maximum number of times possible. Between with the rush of speed and strength he gained from Shell Smash, it remained very possible that Cloyster could reverse Renzo's fortunes.

Even in the face of that overwhelming danger, however, Anabel refused to yield. "You ready, Medicham? This is something only you can do." Medicham looked back at her and gave a reassuring nod, so Anabel said, "Then do it, Medicham. Drain Punch!"

Cloyster smirked as the horn above his head became encrusted with ice, but when Medicham began running straight for him, he broke into a broad, cocky smile. Did she not know what he was capable of? Whether or not she already knew didn't matter, really. He intended to drill home the point in a way she'd be sure to never forget. He fired the spear of ice at Medicham, cockily assuming he had the firm advantage in the battle.

That was when things took a turn neither Cloyster, Renzo, nor the onlookers could have anticipated. Without even as much as a blink or a single muscle fiber flinching, Medicham snatched the icicle out of midair using the upper left of her ethereal arms. Cloyster screeched in anger and fired another, only for her to catch it with the upper right appendage. Not to be outdone, her lower pair of ghostly arms sprang into action, snagging the third and fourth spears. Only the fifth and final icicle hit its mark; it left a dramatic wound in Medicham's chest, but by itself, it wasn't enough to take her down.

"Cloyster, do something!" Renzo cried out as Medicham closed in on him. What that something was, Renzo had no idea, but he saw just how perilous his situation was all the same.

Cloyster's interpretation of the order led him to snap his shell closed, hoping to shield his tender insides from Medicham's reach. Not even that defensive maneuver could slow her down, however. She threw the four Icicle Spears she'd caught aside and leaped onto him, willing her four extra arms to jam themselves into the cracks in his carapace and pry it back open. Now with nothing impeding her, she pulled her right arm back and drove it straight into Cloyster's face. The Water-and-Ice-type Pokémon thudded to the ground, a sickening gurgle slipping from his mouth, while Medicham stood victorious over him. Her chest wound faded away, the energy she'd drained from him healing it in full.

"And now the true test begins," Clair said to herself, crossing both her arms and her legs and frowning. "Renzo, what will you do?"

"That's… Cloyster, Camerupt, Ferrothorn, Hypno, Whimsicott…" Olivia said out loud, counting each of Renzo's Pokémon off on her fingers. Thinking back to what she'd seen on the Ice Path, her deductions led her to the last of Renzo's Pokémon. She jumped to her feet and shouted at him, "I know the last one you've got is Conkeldurr! You're toast!"

Renzo did not immediately reply to Olivia's taunt, instead calling Cloyster back and sending Conkeldurr to take his place first. When he did answer, he growled at her, "I don't need your comments! I don't need anything!" Turning his increasingly unhinged fury on Anabel, he continued, "I don't need anything from any of you! You can burn once I'm done with you, for all I care!"

"Is that so?" Anabel glanced over to the others. Matt, Nekou, Olivia and Fran were watching intently for what would happen next, while Amanda listened just as well. Lance and Clair, on the other hand, were exchanging quiet comments between themselves. Suspecting that they were discussing the status of Renzo's trial, she decided to change course and held up Medicham's Ultra Ball. "You've done enough, my friend. Return."

As the red light retrieved Medicham and drew her back into the sphere, Renzo lowered his head and demanded, "Are you toying with me now?!"

"Whether you recognize it or not, you've done well to stand against me," Anabel said, conspicuously not answering Renzo's question. She drew another Ultra Ball from within her jacket and held it out toward her opponents. "The Battle Frontier was meant for matches exactly like this one, and it has long been my dream to see trainers show off their talent in all their glory… now's the time for you to show me your ability, Renzo. Go."

With that, Anabel tossed the Ultra Ball. It exploded in a shower of sparks, and before anyone in the Dragon's Den could see the Pokémon she'd sent out, they could feel static electricity in the air. Whatever it was had charged the atmosphere just by being present. As it rose to its full height, passing four, five feet before settling just over six, it assumed a quadrupedal shape that both Renzo and their audience regarded with stunned familiarity.

It was a Raikou, the legendary Pokémon written in legend as having been born of a beast Ho-oh resurrected following its demise in a lightning-fueled fire. Raikou stretched out its muscles, reigning over the battlefield with the graceful, majestic intensity of a powerful king, its purple mane flowing behind it while its yellow-and-black fur gave off tiny sparks. Conkeldurr, intimidated by Raikou's overwhelming presence, shifted his concrete pillars to shield himself from it.

"You… you…" The appearance of the legendary Pokémon, and Conkeldurr's reaction to it, had taken a torch to the final threads of Renzo's grasp on sanity. Shaking from head to toe, he covered his face with his hands and bent backward, twisting so far that he risked his hat falling off. Right before it did, he snapped his head back into place, his visage contorted into a look of scathing, overwhelming rage behind his scarf. "You took my mother! You put me on the streets! And now you mock me like I'm nothing to you!"

"Just what is he talking about?" Nekou wondered.

"He won't even tell me," Clair replied. "He wouldn't even say the person he lost was his mother… I'm as in the dark as the rest of you are."

So, too, was Anabel. "If you refuse to tell me who you are and who your mother was, I can't help you."

"Oh, I don't want help from you," he snarled, his mouth twisting into a mad, grotesque grin they could see even beneath his scarf, "I want to watch you suffer. You and that daughter of yours, I'll burn down everything you've built and dance on the ashes!"

Lance shot Clair a glare of disapproval, and even though she didn't see it, she figured she knew what he was thinking by that time. Renzo was failing his test. There wasn't any other way to spin it. She'd tried every way she could think of to get through to Renzo that the test was never one of power, but one to see if he possessed the strength to let go of the past, and his results were plain for the naked eye to see.

Olivia, meanwhile, had heard enough. Jumping to her feet, she yelled over to Renzo, "Just stop it! I haven't done anything to you! And as far as I know, Mom hasn't either!"

"Mom. Mom… the word you don't get to use around me," he sneered. "You'll have plenty of time to understand what you two did to me when you have what you left me with… nothing."

"If you're going to keep talking like that, I've heard enough," Anabel replied, her manner growing cold once again. "It's time to finish this."

"Don't patronize me!" Renzo screamed in indignance. "Conkeldurr, we'll just outrun that thing! Mach Punch!"

Anabel's eye twitched behind her sunglasses. Tuning her mind to Raikou's, she communicated to it, "Raikou, let Conkeldurr come in close."

Conkeldurr peeked out from between his pillars, and when he saw Raikou making no move to advance on him, his fears were at partially allayed. He flexed the muscles in his bulky arms and used the pillars as springboards to propel himself in Raikou's direction, readying a punch as he drew near to it.

Little did Renzo suspect he was leading Conkeldurr into a trap. Conkeldurr himself still harbored doubts but only realized the danger he was in when Raikou dauntlessly locked eyes with him.

"Now, Raikou!" Anabel suddenly declared. "Scald!"

By that point, Conkeldurr was only a few feet away and squarely in front of Raikou, the worst possible place he possibly could have been. The legendary Pokémon lowered itself so its mouth was level with its target, then hit him with a jet of steaming hot water from deep within itself. Conkeldurr pitched back into his pillars simply from the force with which Raikou spat the liquid, but as he jumped back up to his feet, the wide burn mark spreading across his torso made clear the attack had left a lingering mark.

"You… you burned…" Renzo's memory flashed back to what had taken place mere minutes earlier, which already felt like an eternity to him. He'd tried to burn Medicham with Camerupt's Heat Wave, oh, had he ever tried, but it proved a fruitless endeavor. And then Anabel had the nerve to not only throw out a Raikou like it was no big deal but then have it burn his Pokémon on its first attempt? With a move he had no idea Raikou could even learn, no less? "You arrogant monster! There is nothing you won't rob me of?! You hate the idea of letting me have even an ounce of dignity!"

"Is it just me," Olivia piped up, nudging Nekou in the side with her elbow, "or is his Conkeldurr actually looking more energetic after getting burned? Like it could actually fight better now?"

"You said his Conkeldurr looks stronger after getting burned?" Amanda asked to double check.

"Yeah. What's up with that?"

"A Conkeldurr that gets stronger after getting burned, instead of having the burn sap its strength…" Crossing her arms and nodding her head, Amanda concluded, "Its ability must be Guts. If a Pokémon with Guts gets afflicted with a status condition, its physical strength increases… but it sounds like Renzo is still upset about it? Does he even realize his Conkeldurr has Guts?"

"I don't think he does, no," Clair flatly said. "He is so blinded by his hatred that he is failing to see what his Pokémon are doing for him… and that is why he is failing this test."

Anabel, sensing all the same things her audience did, had arrived at the same judgment. It only seemed right to her to put an end to things before Renzo could spiral any further out of control, and acting on this decision, she swung her hand up and directed, "Raikou, use Extrasensory."

Rainbow light flashed through Raikou's eyes, and a split second later, the same light took hold of Conkeldurr's body. Raikou fixed a close, unblinking stare upon the Fighting-type, telekinetically pinning it down.

"Drain Punch!"

Conkeldurr fought valiantly against the influence of Raikou's Extrasensory, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't withstand it. When the psychic power's hold on him finally broke, he crumpled to his knees, unable to mount a counterattack.

"Extrasensory can make its target flinch," Fran observed. "Renzo's disadvantage is only deepening…"

Renzo was having none of it. "I'll crush you! All of you! Conkeldurr, Mach Punch!"

Energized by the adrenaline coursing through his veins, Conkeldurr was able to push his previous fear aside and barrel toward his foe. That newfound bravery posed a profound downside, however, one that Renzo completely missed. By attacking head-on, he presented Anabel with the opportunity to set the battle's pace on a silver platter, an opportunity she didn't hesitate to take advantage of.

"Raikou, escape with Magnet Rise!"

The sound of thunder filled the Dragon's Den as Raikou leaped out of Conkeldurr's reach, propelled by electromagnetic pulses generated from the pads of its paws. It shot through the air like a bolt of lightning, landing on a stalagmite jutting up from the edge of the shrine's island.

"Go after it!" Renzo roared, his voice cracking from the wrath consuming him.

Conkeldurr planted one of his pillars in the ground and used it as a pivot, whirling around to face Raikou again without losing momentum. Yet, for all his relentless charging, Raikou stayed comfortably ahead of him. He reduced the stalagmite to rubble with a single punch but Raikou was already gone, having jumped clear across to the other side of the battlefield. As the chase persisted, the Dragon's Den boomed and cracked as if it was at the center of a powerful storm, Raikou splitting the air with another peal of thunder every time it jumped.

"Conkeldurr's going way faster than those tiny little legs should be able to carry it," Olivia said to the others, "but even so it's never going to catch Raikou like that."

"That's right," Nekou agreed, nodding. "Anabel's completely setting the pace here. She can end this whenever she wants to."

Anabel knew she had that advantage, too. She stood silent and still, watching as Raikou led Conkeldurr around the field. Neither he nor Renzo realized what was happening. Both thought they were chasing Raikou and the legendary Pokémon would eventually tire, but in reality, Raikou was herding Conkeldurr straight into the center of the arena, where he would be most vulnerable.

And the moment he stepped into that danger zone, Anabel struck. "Now, Raikou, move in!" she commanded, extending her hand.

Raikou was in the middle of a leap when the call came. From its vantage point over Conkeldurr's head, it abruptly shifted direction in midair using another electromagnetic pulse, setting its sights upon its target directly below. Showing no fear, Conkeldurr pushed himself up on his pillars and tried to punch Raikou, but he had no chance to swing through before the beast pounced on him. His pillars slipped from his grasp and crashed to the ground at the same time Raikou pinned him, holding him down at the shoulders.

"I believe our battle is over," Anabel said, bringing her arm up but not snapping her fingers like before. "Raikou, Thunderbolt."

Just winning the battle wasn't enough for the legendary Pokémon. It pushed down harder on Conkeldurr's shoulders and locked eyes with him, forcing him to submit with nary a sound. The fight went out of the his eyes along with his energy, the Fighting-type going limp under Raikou's weight. The outcome was already more than clear by the time Raikou finally carried out Anabel's order, illuminating the Dragon's Den with a kaleidoscope of light from the electric bolts it let loose. By the time it was over and Raikou backed off, Conkeldurr was far, far past the point of fainting.

"Renzo has no more Pokémon that can battle," the elder announced, "meaning the winner of this battle is-"

"No, don't…" If Renzo had been increasingly detached from reality throughout the battle, its end brought all that reality crashing right down upon him. The sight of Conkeldurr out cold while Raikou happily licked Anabel's face and she pet it told him everything he needed to know. Everything he could no longer deny. Overcome by despair, he fell to his knees. "You… you and that kid of yours… it's all your fault! Everything is your fault! If it wasn't for you, he would have… I wouldn't… and she, she… now there's nothing! I'll never get the Dratini I needed so I could get my revenge with my mother's favorite Pokémon… and without that, I have nothing left!"

"What is he going on about?" Olivia wondered, pouting angrily.

She went over to her mother's side while Matt, Nekou, Amanda and Fran followed Clair and the Dragon Clan's elder in Renzo's direction. Before they could get close, Lance stepped in front of them, blocking their way with his arm.

"You mustn't interfere with the proceedings. It is the business of the Dragon Clan."

"If you say so," Matt deferred. Although he did stay behind the line Lance established, he harbored significant doubt about the former champion's insistence. Did the scene he was seeing unfold before him really not justify stepping in? Behind him, Nekou felt the same, crossing her arms and scowling.

By the time his mentor and her own master approached him, Renzo had started punching the ground and didn't notice them until they addressed him.

"Renzo, listen to me," Clair said, looking down on him. "Do you understand why you failed the trial?"

"Because I wasn't strong enough!" he fumed, not looking up at her. "Because… because these Pokémon weren't strong enough!"

"When it comes to your own strength, you're so close and yet so far," the elder judged with a shake of his head. "The outcome of this battle was never the test. You had to show us that you were capable of letting go of your past when faced with it. Clearly, you are not yet strong enough to do that. Your unwarranted criticism of your Pokémon only goes to prove that. They performed to the best of their ability for you. You have no right to fault them for coming up short under your direction."

"I…!" Renzo couldn't process what he'd been told. The elder's harsh condemnation of his actions broke what little of his sanity still remained, and all he could think to do was escape from what so badly hurt him. He snapped to his feet, recalled Conkeldurr, and ran. He ran right past Clair and the elder, past Matt's group and Lance, and shut his eyes so he didn't have to look at Anabel, Olivia and Raikou.

When he made it to the boats at the edge of the island and boarded one, Clair moved to follow him, but was stopped when Lance put his hand on her shoulder.

"It's not worth it, Clair," he told her as Renzo set off for the cave's exit. "Going after him won't teach him anything."

"I must concur with Lance," the elder agreed, scratching his chin. "Renzo must find his own reasons to return here, if he so chooses."

"You two have got a point. I'll just have to try not to worry about it…" It pained Clair to admit they were right, and not just because of her own pride. She'd grown fond of Renzo over her time teaching him. Even for all his obsessive behavior, she truly believed he had a good heart and just needed to be pointed in the right direction. As she turned away from the direction he'd run and instead approached Anabel and Olivia, she expressed a silent wish that he'd find his way back to her sooner rather than later. "Olivia, your match with me is up tomorrow. I hope you are prepared."

"How could I not be after watching that? I've got a lot to live up to!" Turning to Anabel, Olivia flashed a broad, happy smile. "That was awesome, Mom."

"Thank you, Olivia… I do regret it somewhat that I had to be so harsh on him." Anabel paused to catch her breath. When she removed her sunglasses, Matt, Nekou and the others could see that her face was pale. "I haven't had a chance to battle without holding back like that in a very long time… it's a bit exhausting. Still though… I had to give him a true test. It was the only thing I could do for him… I couldn't go easy on him, so I had to embrace the person I used to be."

"I guess so," Olivia said with a shrug. "He didn't have to be so salty about it, though."

-:-

Gentle gusts of salty ocean wind flowed across Slateport City, much as they always did. One of Hoenn's premier seaside communities, Slateport was known for its clean water, abundant seafood, open-air market, along with its Oceanic Museum and Contest Hall among other things. However, none of those places were Zinnia's destination. After acquiring a red, hooded tracksuit to wear so she wouldn't stand out, she'd gone straight to Slateport Harbor and slipped into the crowds boarding the S.S. Hestia. A cruise ship popular for family vacations, the Hestia's route would see it sailing from Slateport to Vermilion City in Kanto, where Zinnia planned to switch off to a Seagallop Ferry for the rest of her trip to the Sevii Islands.

"Mum?" Aster murmured, following along closely at Zinnia's feet as they walked with the crowd getting ready to board the Hestia.

"What is it, Aster?" Zinnia replied. Following the Whismur's gestures, she spotted a group of children a short distance away, who were staring in their direction. More specifically, it was Aster that had caught their attention, a turn of events that made Zinnia laugh bemusedly. "Ahaha! Aster, they just see how darn cute you are, like always!"

Zinnia snatched Aster up in her arms and flashed the children a broad, cheery smile, one that drew similar expressions in reply. They were then called by a couple nearby - their parents, Zinnia guessed - and ran off with as much cheer as ever.

"See that, Aster? They're the sort of people we're doing this for." Aster cooed softly as Zinnia pat her on the head. The Draconid's face turned serious, and she said, "We gotta stop those unimaginative guys in their ivory towers from takin' advantage of what this planet gives 'em and runnin' it dry… whatever it takes."

-:-

Little did Zinnia or anyone else know, she was not the only passenger aboard the Hestia with a boatload of secrets. In the vessel's hold hid a man whose presence was concealed by the powers of the Pokémon he carried with him. It was fortunate for him that he had that option, as if he had been visible to the crew and passengers, his disheveled, ragged clothing would have caught enough attention on its own. Combined with his long white hair and absolutely immense, inhuman height, there would've been no way to avoid the sort of spectacle he desperately wished to avoid.

Still, though, something called out to him. The presence rang out in his head, tempting him with the urge to investigate even as knew very well he couldn't emerge from his hiding spot.

"It's near… I can tell," he mumbled to the Poké Ball he held between two of his tremendous fingers, leaning back against a wooden crate. "It's near and yet I cannot search for it… not even with you and your Camouflage, my partner… we've worked so hard to restore order and yet our path is not over…"

-:-

"I hate you! I hate you all!"

After fleeing the Dragon's Den, Renzo left Blackthorn altogether and skulked back up into the Ice Path. The clearing where he had decisively swept Mercury and the rest of Polaris away just one short day prior was now encircled by burned trees and brush coated by a light layer of snow, the fires put out by the nearby city's humans and Pokémon. Its ruined state provided a fitting mirror to Renzo's mental state as he again fell to his knees and punched the ground.

He wasn't just cursing Anabel and Olivia anymore, even though they remained the primary targets of his ire. What about Matt, Amanda and Nekou? He'd saved them from Mercury the previous day, and they were so ungrateful that they couldn't stick up for him? And that was saying nothing of Fran and Clair, the ones who he saw as responsible for training him to accomplish his goals.

"How could they let me down?!" he shouted in despair, repeatedly beating the cold earth with his fist. "Was I just a pawn for them to show up Lance? They weren't willing to help me… they took advantage of me, wasted my time, and now I'll never catch up to that girl in time…"

"They might not be able to help you catch up to her in time, but I can help you."

Those sinister, alluring words came from Finansielle, who emerged from the path leading further up into the caves. Renzo stood and looked her over, realizing immediately that she had been waiting for him but unable to reason out how she had known he'd be there.

"You're another one of them, aren't you?" he demanded of her, deducing her affiliations with Polaris from her manner of dress. "What makes you think I'd want to talk to someone who works for him?"

"Ah, so you know," Finansielle replied, giving Renzo a coy smile. "I thought you might. I understand how you feel, Renzo. Like you, I have lost everything… together, we can get it all back. But I don't expect you to listen to that offer coming from me." Fetching a black Holo Caster emblazoned with Polaris's logo from her uniform, Finansielle offered, "Perhaps you'd like to hear it from a much more important figure."

With that, Finansielle pushed a button to activate the device. A ray of light flickered from its top, soon taking on a recognizable shape - that of Father, Polaris's leader, sitting in his office.

It was the last thing Renzo expected to see. In an instant, his mind was torn between sheer panic, burning hatred and a strange sense of respect that he despised himself for feeling. He refused to show the latter to Father - let alone himself - leading to the maelstrom of emotions in him making him stand completely, rigidly straight. Firm, yet unable to look directly at the cult leader's image.

"How dare you talk to me after all the pain you caused?" Renzo said in a low voice, unable to push himself to a more animated reaction. "Or do you even know what you did? It wouldn't surprise me if you kept yourself completely in the dark."

Father's response completely broke Renzo's facade. "I know everything about what you and your mother went through, Renzo, and I am truly sorry for it."

"How can you say that?!" Renzo snapped. "How?! If you were so sorry, why didn't you come back and save us from Pyrite's streets? Why should I believe you now?!"

Father sadly shook his head, briefly causing the hologram to distort. "I don't blame you for not believing me. You have absolutely no reason to. I also know that it's too late to undo what you went through, but… I want to make amends for it, Renzo, I truly do. I want to make amends for everything this world did to you. That's why I sent Finansielle to fetch you… I want you to go with her. She'll bring you to Polaris's temple… where we can finally meet face-to-face. Please give me this chance. With Polaris, I can fulfill all your wishes... Lorenzo Milovy."

Renzo froze at the mention of his true, full name. "How would he know that's my… there's no doubt, it has to be him. There's no other way… he couldn't know… it would be impossible…"

"Well, Renzo, what do you say?" Finansielle playfully asked him. "Or should I say Lorenzo? What a cute name…"

Renzo's whipsawing circumstances had his head in a spin. He'd started out the day supremely confident that the beginning of his long-sought revenge was finally at hand, only to be crushed mercilessly under Anabel's proverbial heel. And yet, just when all avenues to his lifelong dream seemed completely closed off, here were Father and Finansielle jamming that window right back open again.

He simultaneously had no idea what to do and every idea what he wanted, so the next two words he said came out of his mouth without his full consciousness. "I'll go."

"I look forward to seeing you." Turning his focus to Finansielle, Father said, "Finansielle, bring him to me at once. I want no delays."

"Roger that," she replied before shutting off the Holo Caster. "C'mon, Lorenzo, let's get this show on the road. I've got a transport waiting for us not too far from here."

Finansielle beckoned Renzo to follow her further into the Ice Path, further from Blackthorn City, Clair and everyone else he so hated. He complied without hesitation.

Once they started walking, Finansielle's face twisted into a smirk. Everything had worked out even better than she'd envisioned.

END of CHAPTER 30