Ash and Aurian hustled to the bottom floor of the G-Men headquarters, swapping elevators on subfloor nine and scanning their badges before the lift took them all the way down.

"I can't even remember the last time we were down here," Ash crossed his arms.

Aurian bit her lip. "... it wasn't when we caught Saul, was it? After Sinnoh?"

"I think you're right. All of the other post-mission interrogations happened upstairs in the standard rooms. Not here, where dreams go to die."

"Stealing that," Aurian chuckled, coming face-to-face with a solid steel door. She knocked her initials in Morse code, then Ash's.

A slot at eye level opened. "Password?"

"Deus omnium nostrum auxilium," Ash said.

The door unlatched, then opened to reveal Lance at the threshold. "Our password is eerily accurate today. Patonai, thank you for coming. Riley's finishing preparations."

While the walls through the rest of the base were dull brown stone, the Cement Castle boasted several layers of monotonous cinder blocks. The sound of one set of footsteps and two wheelchairs moving over cracked white tile echoed through the hallway.

"This place scares the crap out of me," Aurian shivered. "I know the concrete is to block cell and radio signals, but it feels like the walls are closing in."

Lance nodded. "The bricks shrink the further you go. Quite effective, I'd say. Before you go in, what do you need to know?"

"Does Giovanni know what happened to Faith and Tobias?" Ash asked.

Aurian frowned. "I don't think we even know what happened."

"Legal is working with the Sinnoh Fifth Circuit Court to set a trial date. Faith took a plea deal; ten years and community service before probation," Lance walked the patonai to an alcove at the end of the hall, where Riley sat with three clipboards and a laptop, connected to an ethernet cable.

Riley waved. "Tobias… that one's a bit harder to navigate. He snapped after Wes snagged his entire team. Majorly. If he's deemed safe enough to appear in court, there's no doubt that he'll take the insanity route."

"We can't let that happen," Aurian put a cautious hand on Ash's shoulder. "What do we need to ask to prove that all of Tobias' actions over the last five-plus years were premeditated?"

"It's all here," Lance passed a clipboard to Ash. "Legal team, Overhead, Riley, and I spent a good amount of time working through this. Best-case scenario, we'll get enough out of him to take down Rocket and the rest of the Teams for good."

"What's the end goal here?" Ash asked.

"Legal wants Giovanni jailed for life. There are so many charges against him that it's almost guaranteed, but Legal's best shot is to focus on his impact on others and the Five Regions and Orre as a whole," Lance said.

Riley nodded. "Sure, we're prosecuting for tax fraud, embezzlement, and a slew of white-collar crime. At the end of the day, this angle is where we'll hit the hardest. This is personal for countless people… especially for you."

"All right, this looks doable," Ash lowered the clipboard. "Any advice before we go in?"

"Be alert, stay reserved, don't let him get under your skin," Lance reached for his coffee. "Emotions are great, but not in there."

Aurian smiled. "We beat him, he doesn't scare me anymore. Shall we?"

"Hold on," Ash stood, pushing his wheelchair back. "I'm walking in there under my own power and none of you can stop me."

"Last I checked, our physical therapist said not to do that," his sister raised an eyebrow.

"Last I checked," Ash protested, "we only get one shot to interrogate the single worst person in both our lives. If we're gonna do this, I'm gonna do it on my own two feet."

Riley sighed. "There are chairs in there, you know."

"While I appreciate your iron will, don't hurt yourself for this," Lance paused in front of the door. "You don't have to prove anything to him."

Ash leaned against the wall. "Weren't you the one that said first impressions were everything?"

"You already made a hell of an impression when you blew up his Pokemon and took his eye out," Lance countered.

"Besides," Riley added, "we won't bring him in until we're ready and situated. Come on."

Four G-Men filed into the interrogation room, bare concrete from floor to ceiling. A single lightbulb dangled precariously from a socket overhead, lifeless fluorescent light reflecting off a steel table. Four chairs, crammed in front of the table, squeaked against the floor as Lance, Riley, and the patonai settled in.

Lance pressed a button on the wall. "Send him in, we're ready."

The door opened again two minutes later, four Dragonite Reserve members armed to the teeth escorting a straightjacketed Giovanni diAngelo in. N held the door for his teammates, lingering for a second.

"If things get rowdy, we'll be outside," he saluted Lance before closing the door.

Silence overtook the room, an eyepatched Giovanni taking in Ash and Aurian's battle scars.

"Let's begin with matters of procedure," Lance cleared his throat. "Are you Giovanni diAngelo?"

"Yes."

Riley nodded. "Thank you. The first stage of questioning concerns your actions as the leader of Team Rocket and the resurrected Rebel League, in addition to your infiltration of senior League membership. Before we begin– were you read your rights?"

"N did, yes."

"Do you want counsel?" Aurian asked.

"No one would represent me. I will argue my own case."

Lance flipped to the second page on his clipboard. "Understood. Captains, I leave this in your capable hands."

Giovanni raised an eyebrow when Lance and Riley stayed seated. "Not going through with this without your bodyguards, are you?"

"They're not our bodyguards," Ash laughed, "they're here to keep you alive."

Aurian placed two photographs on the table– one of MissingNO, one of materials recovered from the Mount Silver base. "Let's work backwards. We know what MissingNO was capable of, but what was your intent in engineering it?"

"Charon and Colress originated the idea of a typeless Pokemon," Giovanni said. "Until their research proved me wrong, I was skeptical. MissingNO was built to be perfect. Subservient, more powerful than Mewtwo, no weaknesses– until you two brats destroyed it."

Ash leaned in. "Did you build MissingNO without a traceable aura?"

"Charon believes that is a side effect of its typeless nature," Giovanni shrugged. "It was capable of customizing its attack types to do the most damage. The mental knives that took you down and all of its attacks were made of the same energy. It made the decisions of how to best use what it was given."

"When the International Police swept your headquarters, they recovered ninety-seven Red Chain fragments. Why did your people manufacture Red Chain and MissingNO simultaneously?" Aurian slid the second photograph forward.

"Back-up, in case MissingNO failed. You three," Giovanni nodded towards the wielders, "were the greatest obstacles to our success. Charon and Saturn wanted to make sure we had options in case you wiggled out from under our thumb."

Ash scratched off a line of text. "Hypothetically– if you'd succeeded with your plan to hijack the Island, what would have happened next?"

"We didn't know that the Champions were no longer there. The original plan was to take them hostage. I would have overrun the League, with Goodshow out of the way. It's a shame we didn't move fast enough."

The patonai exchanged a glance.

"You certainly have a knack for making friends in high places," Ash started. "Goodshow, Charon, Colress, Ghetsis, Cyrus, Archie, Greevil… Tobias. How'd you pull all of them together? Bribery? Blackmail? Persuasion?"

Giovanni narrowed his eye. "Nothing of the sort. I've always had a way with words and with people. Rocket was easy enough to take over and revamp. All of the other Teams originated from us except for Plasma. Colress snuck into their ranks, along with a few of our own who became Sages. It was easy enough to influence Ghetsis from there. Though our methods were different, the end goal was the same– domination and subjugation of humans and Pokemon alike."

"We're still curious about Goodshow and Tobias," Aurian said, the smallest of smiles crossing her face as Giovanni shifted in his chair.

"Goodshow was simple. Greed incarnate; the League was never enough. He wanted more power, more control. Who was I to withhold that from a dear friend when the opportunity arose?"

He cleared his throat before continuing on. "Tobias… I'll admit that I never fully understood his motivations. He enjoyed chaos, I found myself in need of someone willing to engage with it to accomplish some of our dirtier deeds. He took to finding suitable Shadows like a Psyduck to water. When he stumbled across that Darkrai, we knew we were set. His goal was to infiltrate the League and be my voice at the Champion's table. Someone needed to interrupt that squad of do-gooders."

"I'm sure you weren't pleased when someone took Darkrai down," Ash crossed his arms.

Giovanni's gaze went cold. "Ah yes, we've arrived at your dumb luck. That Darkrai was undefeated until he met your unique brand of teenage idiocy. Somehow, the child who decimated three of our takeovers destroyed the strongest Pokemon on the continent, potentially in the world. You'd been an issue for years. Tobias asked that I let him handle the situation."

"So the incident in the forest was premeditated?" Aurian asked. "Not an accident?"

"Losing Cyrus was bad enough. Losing Cyrus because a boy with more guts than sense and his two friends got lucky was worse," Giovanni sighed. "If we didn't act fast, we were done for. Tobias and Goodshow laid the groundwork. You know how it played out. How the hell did you avoid League custody?"

Ash grinned. "Teenage idiocy."

"Not to interrupt, but Plasma nearly killed me during my Unova tour. Was that intentional?" Aurian said.

"I believe that Miss Copland was the primary target at Lacunosa Town," Giovanni ignored the shock on Aurian's face. "For someone so young, you were frustratingly good at stopping Ghetsis. Both of you, remarkably, were in all the right places at all the wrong times. You should have been eliminated. But Tobias let you slip out from under his fingers, Ghetsis couldn't succeed because you befriended his sheltered child. Regrets I'll hold to my dying days."

The patonai continued down the first page until every item was crossed off.

"I think that does it for stage one," Aurian wiped her hands on her pants. "Stage two?"

Ash pulled a third photograph from the case file, sliding it face-up across the table. Giovanni took one look at the portrait of Aaron Borealis and turned his nose up.

"I'm sure you know the distorted version of how the Great War resolved," he mused, "why aren't you content with that?"

Ash shook his head. "We're not coming to you as the Armada Captains, we're coming to you as the last Borealises. For Aaron's sake, could you tell us why you killed him?"

"Indirectly, mind you," Giovanni huffed. "The Guild wronged my family, I decided to return the favor."

"You're conveniently leaving out the fact that at least five generations of Cabots staged coups against Guild senior leadership," Aurian said. "Maybe more, but there aren't any documents left that can prove it."

Giovanni groaned. "What are you looking for, my life story?"

The younger patonai raised an eyebrow.

"I assume this won't be filmed?" Cabot motioned towards a camera in the corner.

"No, we're stepping into classified information concerning our patonai's true identities. You're fine until you mention anything that's happened in this time period, independent of their heritage. Clear?" Lance set his clipboard down.

Giovanni gave a thoughtful nod. "It would be for the best if your little secrets didn't leak onto any of the interrogation tapes. Sure would be a shame if the courts discovered that the G-Men had been harboring fugitives for years."

"An empty threat and you know it. We have proof that any charges brought against the Captains were constructed solely for your benefit," Riley said. "Try again."

Ash took a deep breath. "We know about the blood feud between our families. Tell us your side of it."

"You know of Morgan, the betrayed Guardian?" Giovanni asked.

"You mean the first fallen Guardian," Aurian tilted her head. "Second family to manifest aura capabilities and they wasted it."

A spark of recognition appeared in Lance's eyes.

Giovanni rolled his eyes. "Morgan was a Cabot. Our line has been doomed for generations, I was supposed to change that. My brothers and I applied for Guild membership multiple times, as my father and his brothers did before us and his father and brothers did before them. The Guild never let a single Cabot through their doors. I decided I was done with trying to go about things the 'right' way. If the door would not open, we would destroy it."

Ash's eyes burned blue, a charcoal-hued outline manifesting around the older man. "Your aura's identical to Darkrai's. If that's hereditary, no wonder they never let you in! Corrupted beyond repair."

"But it was usable," Giovanni said. "And I'd much rather make use than mourn. The breaking point was watching your damn father become the Guild's golden boy. He had everything I wanted. Respect, power, brotherhood, family. He and his patonai were thick as thieves, his wedding was the talk of Rota. Everything he touched turned golden, everything I touched fell apart. Something had to be done, someone needed to pay."

"There were Guild dissenters, a few, spread across the regions. They were more than eager to help. We started small– intercepted letters, kidnapped Pokemon, destroyed crystals to interfere with communication. Once we had a foothold, I knew where to strike. The Guild was too proud to admit their weaknesses, so we took advantage. By the time Aaron rose to power, it was too late. In the end, Aaron was the eldest descendant of Gabriel, the man that removed Morgan from the Guild. I wanted to leave him alive until the last second so he could watch his world crumble."

"You slaughtered hundreds of people," Aurian's voice cracked, "destroyed families, left us fatherless. What was the point?"

"When you're not given the world, you want it to go up in flames."

Ash put a hand on Aurian's shoulder. "You underestimated Aaron in the end. He knew he wouldn't be enough to stop you alone, you assumed you would be enough to tear the world down."

"Did you know he planned to sacrifice himself?" Aurian blurted, face burning red.

Giovanni chuckled. "That was a pleasant surprise. Tied up a lot of loose ends for us. He was never supposed to get to the Tree in the first place, but two unidentified Guardians cleared his path. We never saw them again, they probably died in the ambush. We thought we'd eked out a victory. Rota still stood but she had no Guardians to protect her."

"Until one of my scouts reported back about Celebi's portal. My mission wasn't done. I jumped forward in time, blind except for my desire to see you dead," Giovanni said. "I should have known you were his from the moment you both started making trouble for us."

Ash crossed his arms. "I don't have any more questions. Ri, Riley– anything else?"

Aurian and Riley both shook their heads.

"I believe we're through," Lance stood. "Any final words?"

Giovanni smiled. "Rot in hell, patonai. It's all you're good for."

Lance and Riley dragged a protesting Ash out of the room. Aurian almost walked away but turned around as she reached the door, eyes unreadable.

"May you come face to face with the choices that led you here and realize that you created your own downfall," she said, voice soft but steely.

Ash poked his head back in the door, a smirk crossing his face. "Checkmate."

The patonai left Giovanni diAngelo sitting in silence in the Cement Palace. Aurian burst into tears the second the door closed, met with an embrace from Riley.

"You did so well," Riley patted Aurian's shoulder, "far better than either of us would if we were in your shoes."

Ash sighed, gaze dark. "Now he'll sit in prison for the rest of his life, kept alive by the lack of a death penalty in Sinnoh. We should have killed him when we had the chance. "

"Then we'd be no better than he is," Aurian said.

"Ri, think of everything we lost, everything we should have known," Ash choked on the last word, tears rolling down his face. "No prison sentence will be enough. He'll never change. There will be no remorse, no apology, no consolation."

She sat next to him, eyes still wet. "As great as it would have been to grow up in Rota, you can't deny that we were supposed to be here. Call it fate, destiny, a cruel accident, but this is when and where we need to be. Us and Riley are the only ones who could have stopped MissingNO."

"She's right, Ash," Lance said. "This operation would have looked very different without you both."

"Why us, Lance? Hasn't our family already suffered enough at Cabot's hands?" Ash hung his head.

Riley put a hand on Ash's shoulder. "If I may… Ash, I don't think we'll ever understand. It's not our place to know. This vicious cycle of Borealis versus Cabot has endured for millennia; your family and his have stood on opposite sides of history for as long as it's been written. Personally, I think you're here to bring this to a close. The blood feud is ended, there is a clear victor. This saga is complete."

"Well, after the trial," Lance added. "I can't imagine what you must be feeling right now."

Aurian offered a sad smile. "It's a lot, to be honest."

"And that's perfectly fine. You have every right to feel broken, angry, disappointed, numb, and everything in between. I promise that we'll do everything we can to make sure he rots in jail. All of his followers will face justice, too," Lance said. "We're not leaving this half-done."

"Thank you," Ash swiped at his eyes. "What happens next?"

Riley motioned down the hall. "Go back to bed. Expect an announcement about a full corps assembly and the last tourney event at some point tomorrow. For now, rest. We'll see you later."

The patonai waved and returned down the long hallway, only whispers left in their wake.

Lance waited until Ash and Aurian vanished behind the giant metal door before speaking. "I hope they'll be all right. This wasn't easy."

"None of their journeys have been," Riley sat back down at his table, "but they always have been strong. Your worry is admirable, but I believe they'll be okay."

"They've seen a lot of trauma. I'm amazed that they still want to stick around," Lance said, sitting across from Riley.

Riley nodded. "Especially after the hell we put them through. They're teenagers! We were twenty-one when we enlisted and they've been around for all our most trying moments!"

"They're something else," Lance propped his elbows on the table, earning a stare of derision from his friend.

"You picked your colonels well. They've developed a knack for proving all of our fears and worries wrong," Riley said. "I believe they'll keep the trend going."

Four days later, Ash, Aurian, Michael, and Misty stood outside of Stadium C, back on Lily of the Valley Island. Former competitors streamed in the entrances on all sides, attendees climbing back into the nosebleeds for the last time. Pop music blared from the speakers, vendors yelled the prices of assorted stadium foods, Michael bought a corndog before anyone could protest.

"This is gonna be super weird," Aurian bounced on her toes. "... does anyone here know that we were on assignment?"

"Lance's announcement was pretty ambiguous, it could go either way," Misty said.

Ash shrugged. "I guess we're about to find out?"

"What a way to finish this thing," Michael crammed the last half of his corn dog in his mouth and flashed a thumbs-up.

Aurian rolled her eyes. "You're disgusting."

"Yeah yeah, love you too," Michael led the way into Stadium C, crutches thumping against the concrete.

The quartet entered to flashing lights and rows of chairs lined up on the field, a modest stage with a podium situated on the other end of the stadium. The Champions were interspersed with the crowd, talking with small circles of competitors.

A familiar figure tackled Aurian in a hug before she knew what hit her. "BlueholyArceusweweresoworriedaboutyouareyouokay?"

"Geez!" Aurian laughed, returning Touko's hug once she regained her balance. "It's good to see you, too!"

Anabel followed, offering a quieter but still enthusiastic embrace. "What she said! Have you picked seats yet?"

"No, we just got here," Ash said.

Touko motioned towards a cluster of chairs. "Want to sit with us? We saved seats just in case."

"That sounds great, thanks," Michael took the chair on the end, setting his crutches down on his left.

Touko and Anabel exchanged a glance.

"Not to intrude, but are we allowed to ask what happened?" Touko's gaze roved from Michael's crutches to Aurian's aircast to Ash's wrist brace.

Ash bit his lip. "It's complicated."

"Like, 'I don't want to talk about it because it's embarrassing' complicated, or 'I can't talk about it because I legally can't' complicated?" Touko raised an eyebrow. "There's a difference between a broken ankle caused by falling down a staircase and a broken ankle caused by–"

The rest of her sentence was cut off by Steven Stone stepping up to the mic, tapping it twice to draw everyone's attention.

"Good afternoon! Thank you for attending the Global Invitational Tournament's Send-Off Soiree!" Steven said. "I'm Steven Stone, former Champion of Hoenn and your new Pokemon League President-"

The rest of his sentence was drowned out by both the competitors and the attendees roaring their approval, the applause taking several minutes to die down completely.

"Wow, thank you so much! It is a great honor and I look forward to serving you all in the coming years. Before we kick-start the Soiree, The League and Champions' Circle have come to an agreement that all of you deserve to know the truth about why the Global Invitational was called off so close to the championship battle."

Silence radiated through the stadium. Ash, Misty, Aurian, and Michael exchanged a conspiratorial glance.

For the next fifteen minutes, Steven danced an impeccable verbal tango between telling the truth and keeping classified information secret.

"... it's thanks to the captains of the G-Men's Armada Division that we lived to tell the tale. Their selfless action and quick thinking saved this island and, likely, everyone on it," Steven paused, taking a sip from his water bottle before continuing on.

"Since the tournament's Final Four was made up of two Rebel League sleeper agents and the G-Men Armada captains, the remnants of the Pokemon League decided that it would be best to suspend the tournament."

Touko turned towards the patonai, eyes wide as dinner plates. "Is he serious?"

Aurian shrugged. "Don't trust Tobias with a knife."

"Or a gun," Michael added.

Steven shuffled in place. "In lieu of a Championship battle, each remaining member of our Top Ten will take on the Elite Four member of their choice, in an on-record six-on-six battle, starting tomorrow morning. These battles will be open for anyone to attend– and we recommend you do! The lineup is as follows–"

Headshots appeared on the board as Steven called their names, the stadium cheering all the way through.

"And last but not least, Assunta Douglass versus Will Harmon of the Johto Elite Four at eight PM! Let's hear it for our remaining Top Ten!"

Steven stepped aside, Shauntal taking his place at the microphone. "In order to celebrate the incredible battles we've seen over the last three weeks, please enjoy this highlight reel, full of your favorite moments!"

A large screen displayed the tournament logo before a blistering rendition of the League anthem came through the speakers, provided live by Karen's rock band.

"Weirdly enough, I'm digging this," Misty said, smiling as her vicious defeat of Rudy appeared for a split second. "Did we know that Karen was a musician in addition to an Elite Four Member?"

Aurian shook her head. "First I'm hearing of it."

Ash was surprised to see clips of all of his battles grace the screen, in addition to a healthy portion of wins from Misty, Michael, and Aurian.

He was less surprised to see no tournament footage of Faith Sorenson or Tobias Langley, like the two trainers blinked out of existence. None of their preliminary battles made the cut, none of their Pokemon were shown during the Melee Battle highlights.

The video reel faded out after Charizard and Dragonair opened the Gates to Hell, pitch-black vortex swirling into the Pokemon League's logo to raucous applause.

"And now, let's celebrate the hard work from all of our competitors with a party we'll never forget! Thank you for attending the Global Invitational, make sure you stick around for tomorrow's battles!" Shauntal shouted, the band starting a new song as she stepped away from the mic.

Anabel gave everyone but Touko a suspicious glance. "I'm assuming you were involved."

"Heavily," Ash said.

"And that you can't give us a lot of detail on what, exactly, went down," Touko continued.

Aurian shook her head. "Unfortunately, no."

"Hey, there you are!" a familiar voice yelled. Assunta ran to enter the circle, greeting everyone with a series of fist bumps. "Glad you're okay."

"Appreciate it," Michael said. "You and your team ready to show Will how it's done?"

"Hell no, I'm terrified. Rumor has it Will's been training a Cresselia that he befriended on vacation in Sinnoh, it was nice knowing you all," Assunta laughed.

The rest of the remaining Top Ten followed Assunta's voice and nudged into the circle.

"Speaking of knowing you all, you were secret agents this entire time?" Morrison asked, arms thrown out.

"Sorry about that," Aurian's face burned red, "we couldn't really come out and say 'hey, we're here to make sure the mother of all criminal organizations doesn't destroy the world while eighty-thousand people are here!' Wouldn't have gone over very well."

Tyson raised a hand. "And you did all of this under codenames?"

"Any way you can bend some rules and tell us who you are?" Vergil protested.

Surge shook his head. "Not worth it, Vergil."

"Our commanders would kill us, sorry," Ash put both his hands up. "I'd like to not die after almost dying."

"From what Steven said, Faith and Tobias were spies too, right?" Assunta crossed his arms.

Michael nodded.

"Geez," Jon shook his head. "I'm glad you were here to help. That artificial Pokemon thing must have been terrifying."

"What matters is that no one has to worry about it again," Ash said.

Auran nudged his shoulder. "Anyways! Just because we're under code names doesn't mean we can't keep in touch after the tourney ends. Want to swap PokeGear numbers?"

The crew of trainers swapped PokeGears around the circle, many cheesy contact photos taken along the way.

"Since you're not battling tomorrow, what are your post-tourney plans?" Morrison snapped a selfie with Ash before pocketing his PokeGear.

Aurian grinned. "We're staying to cheer you on! Then we're taking a break."

"Y'all earned it," Surge said, the rest of the circle agreeing.

After more small-talk, the larger group split, leaving Aurian, Michael, Misty, and Ash with their backs to the wall.

"You leave for Rota in two days, right?" Misty said. "How are you feeling about going home?"

"I'm excited. It'll be nice to help the Preservation Project people however we can. But if Ilene doesn't know that we're totally planning on sneaking away from the palace and spending a few days over at the Tree of Beginning, she's in for a surprise," Aurian nudged her brother.

Michael frowned. "Any particular reason?"

"Every book we've ever read says the Tree used to be holy ground. There are rumors of a Temple somewhere in or near the Tree, but no one's ever found it. I'm hoping we'll be the first," Ash said. "It'll be a nice change of pace."

"Hold on," Misty sighed, "your vacation from stressful, suspenseful work is… more stressful, suspenseful work?"

"No one's gonna die, it's already a big improvement," Ash shrugged.

Misty put her head in her hands. "Sweet Ho-Oh, you're a mess."

"Some things never change," Aurian said. "For once, I'm grateful for that."

Michael pulled Misty towards the dessert table, leaving the patonai leaning against the wall. Hundreds of people partied on the field, spectators and competitors belting the lyrics to an old earworm of a pop song.

"Against all odds, we lived to tell the tale," Ash shook his head. "I still can't believe we survived."

Aurian nodded. "But we did for a reason. The Teams are down, the League's rebuilding, the world keeps turning. Job well done, brother."

"It's nice to know that whatever comes next, you'll still be around," Ash said. "Double or nothing?"

She squeezed his hand. "Until the end of time."

(A/N): Hello hello, thank you for reading Chapter 33 (!)! We've nearly reached the end of our journey– if everything cooperates, Chapter 34 will be the last chapter of Primary Intentions. I hope you've enjoyed this year-long wild ride half as much as I have writing it. Special thanks, as always, to the irreplaceable thechinskyguy for keeping me honest about all the same mistakes I normally make and for generally being the best beta.

Please leave a review, if you'd like! I love hearing from y'all. Thank you for following along from July 2020 until now. See you on the flip side!