Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: The Desire for Freedom Chapter 29, a pokémon fanfic

A week had passed since they had arrived at the Moat, and already, Helios was itching to get back out and into the field.

It wasn't that the agents they were now working with were bad people (except for Skell, who made Rowan and his bullying far worse). Far from it, they were genuinely nice, and Helios liked talking to them, especially Raga. When he was on break and not training the Aspects (which he often did during his breaks), he had a nice sense of humor, and he had tales from missions in Key, as well as his life before being an agent for Key.

Media was a kind woman as well. After Genevieve's vacation ended, she spent a lot of time training Thilia in her Aspects and talking about things that were, well… kind of boring, honestly. She didn't raise her voice that often, except for when Skell made himself a problem - then, she turned into what felt like a dragon.

Skell, meanwhile, just was awful. He always knew how to get under Helios's skin, and Rowan just helped him. Before long, Helios started leaving when Skell and Rowan entered the room. That made Raga react poorly, and soon enough, Skell and Rowan stopped - aside from shooting him a stink-eye now and again.

Overall, Helios managed to handle the agents well. It was just… he was getting kind of bored, in all honesty. When the agents weren't there, the four of them were supposed to train and prepare themselves as agents, and nothing else - there were no games they could play since they were in the joyless Moat.

And the one thing that they were supposed to do, train the agents in the use of the Aspects, was just as dull. They were incredibly untalented - only barely able to resist Stifling now, after an entire week and training multiple hours a day. Genevieve turned out the most talented out of all of them, and she practiced three times more than all of them - and even then, she could only create a basic Stifle.

It was honestly a little disappointing - and they knew it. The agents were frustrated by their lack of progress - and yet Slate was quickly able to remind them that yes, they could resist Stifling, so all hope wasn't lost. Slate, still, was the only one unable to resist Stifling or Stifle himself in any way. He spent most of his time training, even more than Genevieve had, and he had yet to make a single lick of progress.

It was a little strange. Slate had been training to develop his Aspects ever since Helios had, but he had made virtually no progress while Helios had more or less finished. It had gotten under Slate's skin, and Helios made sure not to mention it when they talked together.

Thilia, meanwhile, had yet to find her talent, but she didn't particularly seem to care. If anything, she was positive that she would find hers soon, and that it would only be a matter of time. As for Helios and Rowan, they had been developing their talents, though it was going poorly for Helios. No matter how much he practiced, he just kept on losing control with the Egotism state. At least, Rowan seemed to be able to see more and more.

They had been seeing less and less of Lady Pandora as well - she was constantly busy with other bases, which had been seeing an uptick of illnesses and injuries. It made him a little sad, honestly - Pandora was just so nice, no matter how much Rowan said she was sick at heart (he was sick at heart).

Regardless, they had continued to train both themselves and the agents. It had made everything boring, to be honest - soon enough, yesterday, today and tomorrow all melded together in a meaningless miasma of time spent bored. The agents were making very little progress, considering how much of a long-term mission this was. They just had to be patient and wait, wait, wait.

...

"You three have an on-site mission."

Helios looked up from the book he was reading - a history book of great generals and the wars they fought in. It was really interesting, and something he had been sinking a lot of time into. Next to him, Rowan polished a jade ring with his name on it. Helios had meant to ask him where he had picked that up but decided not to after a while. None of his business, after all.

Thilia, who had been baking a little to cheer up the agents when they had returned (Media had been particularly unhappy with her progress) perked up. "Really, ma'am?"

Pandora walk-teleported to them, holding a scroll of paper. On it would usually be Angira's sigil of a granite shield, where they would get new orders (for this mission, Raga would be the recipient, when Angira had processed what information he had given her). Instead, though, there was a sigil of a thin golden sword. "Yes, really. And it comes from a special friend of yours."

Rowan's eyes widened. "You're kidding… Culus chose this mission?"

"Correct - it went through Lady Angira, of course, so don't expect anything crazy. But generally, he suggested this when reports came in of your four doing nothing. Lady Angira took his idea and refined it, but he created the mission statement."

Rowan rushed forward and grabbed the statement. Helios and Thilia walked up as well, to look at what was stated on it, written in Culus's handwriting.

Mission: Gather Intel in Nucifera's Moat

Abstract: While we have agents working in the Citadel to gather information, there is a chance that there is a small Shadow Worker presence in the Moat to corral and control the people there. If Pokemon from the Moat are being abducted and used as Shadow Workers, they may be noticed as missing.

Objective: Masquerade as commoners working in the fields and subtly ask the people in the Moat whether they have noticed anyone go missing. Develop connections to alert you if things go wrong.

Rowan looked over this, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, ma'am?" Thilia asked. "Shouldn't this go to the more experienced agents? This seems a little too difficult for us." Thilia, please shut up.

Pandora shook her head. "Fortunately, no. The Shadow Worker presence in the Moat will be smaller than the presence in the Citadel, considering how much more common the Hats are, as well-known members of the community. Raga found that they went through 'a small independent period of training' to become Hats, where they were turned into Shadow Workers. Recruitment is quick and almost brazen in the Citadel - any presence in the Moat will be small, considering the lack of utility the Moat-goers will have."

Rowan nodded. "And as long as we're careful, we should be relatively safe. They aren't actively looking for us, are they?"

Pandora shook her head. "Lady Angira, supposedly, was reticent about it, but she recognized that we need reconnaissance on two fronts. In a few days, she'll send some agents from Dragnis to come and help with the Moat situation, enough to tell if it is worth pursuing. Until then, do some simple surface spying."

Helios and the others nodded, though the former had a tight grip on his throat as he did so. Agents from Dragnis. Would they respect him? Would they not, considering Calion's existence?

Pandora then gave them a few more details concerning what specifically to ask for and where they would be working. Because, as a Zorua that could disguise themself, Rowan was the least recognizable out of the three that would be going on the mission (Slate was being kept behind, much to his frustration, due to being too valuable), so Rowan would be kept in the area under the most scrutiny, which was near the medical wing. Thilia, as a healer, would be considered too valuable by the Moat-goers to be in the medical area, so she would work as the cook making food for the workers.

Helios, meanwhile, would be kept near the physical workers due to his physique.

"Are you kidding?" he raged, his cheeks burning up a little bit. "I'm better than that! I'm a prince!"

Rowan scoffed. "You won't be a prince out in the fields. Out there, you'll be… what's your fake name again?"

"Helian-"

"Hector," Slate interrupted, looking a little forlorn. "You used that name in Regilia, and they might be on the lookout for it."

Pandora nodded, which made him all the more annoyed. Hector. What a stupid, stupid name. "Why can't I go to the medical wing? It's not like Rowan will be completely unrecognizable, considering how small he is. And they'll be looking for a Charmander, not a Charmeleon."

Rowan scowled, but Pandora thought consideringly. "That was Culus's suggestion," she said. "And he and Lady Angira argued on the subject for a while. It's not like the idea had no merit, either. How about this, Helios - you and Rowan alternate between the fields and the medical sector of the Moat for as long as you guys are assigned on this mission."

"Agreed!" Helios said instantly. Rowan continued to argue, saying that with his stature, he wasn't fit for physical work, but Pandora shut him down immediately, saying that his work with Kenki left him filled with muscular vigor. It went on for a little while, but once Helios and Slate joined in to argue him down, he was forced to relent.

Thirty minutes of preparation later, they left for where most of the Moat's working population lived. Once they reached the medical sector (which was also the area where the cooks were), he said his farewell to Thilia and a semi-surly Rowan, before going to the fields.

While the inside of the Moat was a shit-heap, probably since everyone skilled went abroad for monetary reasons or was sent to the Citadel if they tried to stay, the outside of the Moat was used for mass agriculture. Berries, fruits, and even some feral livestock were grown, but there were also a lot of mass-produced crops, like wheat and rice. Lady Pandora told Helios, in no uncertain terms, that the Fire and Water-type Pokemon went for the rice fields since a wet environment posed the least amount of risk for Fire-types to burn everything down.

As Helios arrived, he couldn't help but feel a bit squeamish. There was water around, way too much water. It reminded him of a bog or something, considering how wet and squelchy everything was. It was no place fitting for a prince, only fit for the most minor of commoners to plow.

Helios grimaced, before making sure his muzzle was back on. With his lack of control, he had put the muzzle on before leaving. Partly to disguise his face as well, it served to prevent him from saying anything self-incriminatory while he was around people who had no idea who he was. It was sufficiently shoddily made of mud and clay to not be suspicious and as an insult!

He waded through the wet rice fields to the foreman, an ugly-looking Araquanid, before tracing words in the mud for the foreman to read.

I AM HECTOR. I CAN NOT SPEAK BUT I AM STRONG. WHERE SHOULD I WORK?

The Araquanid looked at him as if he were a maggot. "A mute?" he said, disbelieving. "Arceus, you're a loser." Helios immediately tempered the absolute fury that had kindled in his throat - he couldn't fail, he couldn't fail, he couldn't fail!

Once he had pushed it down, he went to trace words in the mud again, his finger shaking a little as he did so.

PLEASE TELL ME WHERE I SHOULD WORK.

The Araquanid sighed. "Well, don't expect to get paid for today's work, since we have yet to draft a salary or hourly wage. Until then, Fergus, GET THE HELL OVER HERE!"

With that, a Poliwrath walked over from tending the rice paddies. "You called, boss?"

The Araquanid pointed at him. "Give this loser a run-down of how to sow and tend the fields, and hurry up. We'll be moving to field three in thirty minutes."

The Poliwrath looked him over for a few seconds. "Are you sure?" he asked. "This kid doesn't look like he can learn that much so quickly."

Helios's fists nearly burst into flame, but the Araquanid answered for him. "He's mute, so he won't ask too many questions. Tell him what to do, watch over him and make sure he doesn't fuck up. That's all that I'm asking for, Fergus." The marsh-like rice quivered around them. "Unless, of course, you'd like to push this off on someone else. Someone who has had a very poor night of sleep?"

The Poliwrath shook his head. "No, sir. Come over here…"

"Hector. The brat's name is Hector." The Araquanid said.

"Hector. Let's go." The Poliwrath turned around and walked away. Helios, not for the first or last time, wished that he got the first day in the medical sector.

"Don't mind him," the Poliwrath said. "He's normally a nice-enough guy, though he doesn't take too much shit from anyone. I'm on his whitelist if you would believe it. He's been complaining about a shit night of sleep all day."

Helios could only nod sympathetically. If he were in charge, he'd kick the Araquanid out without a second thought.

The Poliwrath led him to a compact square plot of land, where other Fire and Water-type Pokemon were working. A small Litwick struggled to pull out a few weeds, threatening to strangle some of the rice, while a Croconaw made sure the water was reaching where it needed to go.

Over the next few minutes, the Poliwrath explained to him the duties he would have to perform on the plot of land. Helios listened, but the Litwick with wax almost melting in the sun chipped at his attention.

Eventually, the Poliwrath stopped explaining when he noticed that Helios wasn't paying attention. "Hey, Hector, pay attention." He snapped in front of Helios's face, but he was too enraptured by the sight of the Litwick almost falling apart. "We're in the middle of something."

Then the Poliwrath went to look at what Helios was looking at before he uttered a small curse under his breath. "Cerat, Khips, help Wick! He's melting!" He looked over at Hector. "I'll need to borrow a flame for a minute."

They spent the next few minutes helping out the Litwick - his wax had absorbed too much water, and he had been focused too hard and that one particular weed he'd been pulling out to notice.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he repeated, bowing his head at the Poliwrath. "Please don't tell the boss."

The Poliwrath clapped the Litwick's back. "Don't worry about it. We all know that you have issues focusing." That statement felt almost directed at Helios, so he took the hint. "Khips, go call over someone from med for Wick." A Wimpod that had helped them out scurried away from the field.

The Poliwrath turned to Helios. "Good job. Let's see you put that focus into your work." With that, they resumed the lesson, before the Poliwrath left Helios off to his duties.

Twenty minutes later, Helios found he detested manual labor. Even when they were traveling, Slate would let him take breaks when he wanted. He had been focused on finding Kite, so he hadn't had that many, but the option alone was nice.

This wasn't. Even if he was tired, hungry, or thirsty, the work was forced to continue. He was forced to continue. His claws scrabbled at weeds, trying to separate them from the rice they were working to cultivate. He couldn't even focus on his actual mission, since he had to have some time to write down what he wanted to say for no one to read.

The mud stuck to his scales, the filth making him feel disgusting. This - this wasn't how a prince was supposed to live. He refused to continue working.

Helios sat down, even as the other workers continued to work around him. He wasn't going to sit here like - like a mongrel. He was better, he was better. As the minutes continued to tick on, he watched the other workers continue to work diligently. They could have their work, but he refused to take any part in it.

"Well well," Helios froze as he felt a chitinous claw touch the top of his horn. "So, Hector, how long did you plan on trying to fool me? If you thought that your deception would last more than half an hour, you are sorely mistaken."

None of the other workers were working anymore. Now, they were all staring at Helios, or the very least, a spot behind him. Helios slowly turned around to see a very pissed-off Araquanid.

"Did you think," the Araquanid said softly. "That this was some sort of game that you could get paid for? That if you just pretended to work for ten minutes and lounged for the rest, you could get a full worker's salary?"

Helios opened his mouth to say something, before remembering that he was currently muzzled.

"You see, Hector, I don't appreciate-"

"It's my fault, sir," the Poliwrath said, walking forward. "I was supposed to keep an eye on him and failed to do so."

"You did mess up," the Araquanid said. "But don't think that the blame lies only with one person." The Araquanid then poked Helios in the chest again. "It's a matter of perspective. You failed in keeping an eye on this boy, and this boy failed to keep up his end of the bargain. You work, understand?"

He wasn't even getting paid for this! Hell, he was supposed to be gathering information, not - not this.

The water from the Araquanid dripped down his front, but Helios knew that the mission required him to keep his cool. Keep his cool… keep his cool…

"I'll let it go this once," the Araquanid said, turning around. "For both of you. I'm not in a punishing mood right now, and both of you will need your strength for the coming lots. Use it." The Araquanid then surveyed the lot. "This needs five more minutes of work. Why isn't Wick working either?"

"He's been waiting for someone from med to come and help him. He was melting earlier."

The Araquanid scoffed. "Brat said he would evolve soon five months ago. Evolve soon, my armored behind." He looked at the Litwick, who was quivering. "While you wait, keep an eye on Hector. If he takes a break, you tell me. Got it?"

The Litwick slowly nodded. Helios sighed under his muzzle. How annoying.

Under the Litwick's watchful eye, Helios was forced to work, to work and work and work. It was a hellish, nightmarish duty. The work never became easier, the task wasn't fulfilling, and he just found himself wanting it all to be over.

Five minutes passed, and the Araquanid judged them ready to move on to the next lot - and when they arrived, it was just the same, but with more weeds and another messed up water-bog-thing. They jumped to work, the Litwick still keeping an eye on him.

Eventually, the work fell into a sort of monotonous haze. There was only so long you could mentally complain about your status before it became an old ache. He just had to keep working and working, and soon, hopefully, maybe, eventually, it would end.

Thirty minutes had passed, and the Litwick's medic still hadn't arrived, even though the Araquanid had long since left to laze about and leave his superiors to suffer. He couldn't help but think that this was his private hell, for everything that he had done so far. Studying, training, sparring - nothing compared to this.

The pain of this work wasn't as bad as the pain involved in those parts of work - it was just repeated muscular exertion, easy. No, it was the endless nature of it, the complete lack of closure. These people had been working here for years, hadn't they? Wouldn't they get tired? Leave for the fruit of the land? Maybe get a servant to- wait, no, they didn't have servants.

He couldn't even advance in his mission, either. There was no one to talk to, no one to speak with. If he spared the time to write something out, the Litwick would learn about it, and if Helios didn't want to get on the Araquanid's bad side, he couldn't imagine what it would be like for the Litwick.

After making it halfway across the lot, though, the sun shining high in the sky, he heard footsteps and turned to see an Eevee walking to their lot, wearing a medic's uniform. Finally.

As the Litwick turned to the Eevee, eager to heal himself and get back to work (he couldn't imagine why), Helios took the chance to take a small break. Kneeling in the mud, he let his poor legs relax, letting a small weight get off his shoulders. His brain felt like it was burning, though he couldn't begin to say why. To distract himself, he let his attention wander to what the Eevee was saying.

"... keep yourself properly dehydrated and viscous, Wick," the Eevee said. "Even though we're resilient and practiced, neglecting our condition is a surefire way to an early grave." The Litwick was nodding dutifully, clearly eager to get away. "You should be grateful your coworkers noticed, or you'd be in a lot more trouble."

"U-Uh, yeah," the Litwick said. "Listen, Anna, I know you're busy, and I'm busy, so-"

"Nonono, we're having this conversation," the Eevee insisted as she continued applying some sort of berry lotion to the Litwick's wax. "I didn't take a house call for nothing, you are paying attention."

As she fussed over the Litwick, Helios felt a small measure of anxiety. Belatedly, he remembered that the Araquanid would come back soonish to lead them to a new lot, so even though he wanted to take a nice, long break, he wouldn't get that sort of luxury.

Eventually, as the Eevee fussed over the Litwick and Helios worked, the sun moved across the sky. Soon enough, the gurgling of his stomach was too much to ignore, and his work began to slow, the lack of food punishing him.

Then, he heard the sweet, sweet sound of his Poliwrath superior saying: "Lunchtime, boys!"

If it wasn't for sore muscles, he'd have joined everyone else in cheering. As it stood, a small Happiny was lugging a bag of something to them - and in it, Helios could practically smell the food. Everyone, barring the Eevee who was still tending to the Litwick for some reason (apparently, they were old friends or something, since she was the only medic with enough talent to help a Litwick), grabbed a few berries and dug in.

After he had a few berries as an appetizer, he looked around, waiting for something a bit more appetizing. But the Happiny had already gone away, and his coworkers were slow in… was this it? Was the appetizer the entire meal?

His stomach rumbled hard, harder than it had before. Now that he was looking more closely, he saw nothing but lean muscle on every other worker - there was no fat anywhere to speak of. This was the Moat, where residents that stayed in the walls starved regularly. The workers only had enough to get by for all of their hard work.

This - this wasn't fair. None of this was fair, none of it at all.

The Poliwrath looked at him. "Huh… you're a foreigner," the worker concluded, making him jump slightly. "That, or someone exiled from the Citadel, right?"

Helios nodded, before taking a small stick and writing in the mud. If he was ever going to get the information he wanted, now was that time.

YES. I CAME HERE LEARNING THAT THERE WERE DISAPPEARANCES AMONG THE WORKERS, LOOKING FOR A WAY TO MAKE A LIVING.

The Poliwrath raised an eyebrow. "Other than Jastor, no one has gone missing lately." Helios filed the name in his mind to report back later. Maybe it was just a normal case of a missing person, maybe it was a Shadow Worker kidnapping in disguise. "Still, there doesn't need to be a disappearance for there to be work laying around. Citadel folk like keeping us underneath their heel, whether it's starving in slums or slaving in sharecropping."

He didn't know that word but nodded attentively. There was another conversation behind him, and he momentarily turned to listen.

"... miss Anna," the Araquanid said, having finally returned. The Araquanid then created a pool of crystal clear water, with no impurities in it whatsoever. "If you find yourself thirsty, go ahead and take a drink."

The Eevee from earlier looked at it before shaking her head. "Thank you, but I'll be going home soon enough. Your kindness is appreciated, sir."

"Oh, no, the pleasure is mine," the Araquanid said before spraying a rock with a fine mist to clean and cool it. "If you need a seat while you keep an eye on Wick, take it here." He then pulled out a bag of food. "And, if you hunger, take something from here."

The Eevee obliged, and the rumbling of Helios's stomach commanded him to take a few berries to soothe his hunger. But as he tried to get up and eat something from the bag the Araquanid offered the Eevee, the Poliwrath pulled him down.

"Trying to take from her would get you fired in an instant, Hector," the Poliwrath murmured. "She's more important than either of us ever will be now. It's a fool's idea. Temper your hunger, and you'll forget about it soon enough."

Helios scowled under his mask.

WHO IS SHE? WHY IS THE BOSS SIMPERAYING OVER HER?

Ah, he misspelled it. Well, he could erase a bit.

WHY IS THE BOSS SIMP-ING OVER HER?

Wait, he'd erased too much - but before he tried to erase what he had written and start over once more, the Poliwrath laughed.

"Anna? Well, she used to be like any of us, toiling her days away. I mean, according to Wick, she used to be a part of the med squad, but she was scouted by some higher-ups to serve in the Citadel's hospital. Right now, she's on one of her break days." The Poliwrath's voice sounded wistful at that.

Helios raised an eyebrow.

AND THE SIMPERING?

"Oh, that? The boss has been looking to get a promotion to start working in the Citadel again. He's a nice guy off the shift and all - well, not to you, he doesn't like disabled and weak people - but he'll take any chance possible to get in good graces. If Anna were to pass on the right word to the right people, he may get his shot."

Helios looked over to the Araquanid fussing over the Eevee.

WHAT A WEIRDO.

The Poliwrath chuckled but quickly wiped over Helios's words. "Yeah, he is," he admitted. "But you'll get used to him. Once you prove you aren't a burden, he'll lighten up on you. He has hope, unlike my other bosses. They thought that pushing me around was the only fun they'd have in life."

Helios didn't quite believe that but didn't seek to push. Instead, he looked over at the Eevee - Anna.

She looked… startlingly familiar. She wasn't quite a cardboard cut-out of Eve, but the face was similar enough that they could be family.

*SMACK*

"Get your head out of the gutter, man," the Poliwrath said, an annoyed look in his eyes. "She's too young to date."

Helios turned bright red.

DATE?

"Oh, you'll get there in time, Hector." The Poliwrath's eyes misted over. "In my day, there was this Politoed… oh~"

He was being adult-weird. Helios turned to Anna more contemplatively. Was it a coincidence that she had risen to a high position while looking like that? He'd heard that Regilian and Eonian forces were looking for Eve - were some Nuciferans thinking they could trick them with Anna, maybe?

He snorted. No, that was a stupid idea. He got up, wiggling his foot a bit. Even though he didn't want to work, he had an appearance to keep.

"Anna? Anna, are you there?"

Helios froze as a familiar voice sounded through the field, and twisted around to see her. Eve.

"Oh, hey, Vivid," the Eevee - no, Anna, - said. "I'm sorry it's taking so long."

Vivid? Helios looked at the Poliwrath.

"A Princess Eve lookalike," he whispered. "Lots of people want the attention of the wayward princess."

Helios looked at Vivid. For a lookalike, they had gotten a frightfully large number of details accurate. Hell, they'd manage to get the eye color perfect, too. And the facial structure was identical - but then, that was probably familial, and the resemblance to Eve would be a coincidence.

THEY PUT IN THE EFFORT. Looking at Vivid and Anna together, he saw the eerie resemblance in full force. ARE THEY BOTH COSPLAYERS?

"Anna isn't, for sure. That Vivid girl is." The Poliwrath laughed. "Imagine if the Princess graced us with her presence. What would it be like, to be around royalty?"

NOT THAT FUN.

"Oh, put in some imagination, Hector," the Poliwrath said lightly.

Yeah… Helios looked over and saw Vivid and Anna looking directly at him. He flushed, before looking away.

Then he heard that familiar voice speak again and turned to see Vivid walking toward him, with a strange limp. "Hey," Vivid said, in such an Eve way. "Have we… met before?"

What was she…

NO.

Vivid blinked. "You're mute?" she asked.

YES.

She turned away. "Never mind then," she said. "You just reminded me of… well, never mind."

There it was again, that feeling of familiarity. If he didn't know better, he would swear that Vivid was Eve…

… unless…

Before he knew what he was doing, he tapped on Vivid's tail, making her turn around. A flash of irritation appeared on her face, but it was quickly smoothed over. "Yes?" Off to the side, he saw Anna waiting patiently for the conversation to finish - and the Araquanid looking antsy. He couldn't take too long.

What was the perfect thing to say to someone he suspected might be Eve? A shared experience, one that wouldn't cause too much attention…

… and then it came to him. Something the Shadow Workers would know nothing about, something that normal people would know nothing about, but something that Eve would.

He wrote it down and showed it to her.

Kapun took a walk through Lition, not particularly caring exactly where he was going. It wasn't like he was going to be doing much back at the base, either.

Hastor, a belligerent Primeape, was incredibly slow at developing his Aspects, and Kapun was the one in charge of training him. He had no idea how Hastor had managed to get past the tests required to be an agent of Key, but then again, people like Helios could toughen up at times of crisis, so why couldn't people like Hastor?

But at least Helios, with a strong determination and a modicum of talent, was able to develop his Aspects quickly - in fact, barring Culus, he had been the first to develop his Aspects. Hastor, meanwhile, existed as a sarcastic agent for the actual leader, a strong female Druddigon called Wyvell, to bounce ideas off of. Brylle got to train Wyvell. Lucky…

Kapun flinched as a particularly painful throbbing of pain pulsed through his head. Hastor was ridiculously loud, when he was angry, which was, unfortunately, most of the time. You just had to weather him out most of the time, but he didn't make it easy. Hastor was faster than the others at developing his Aspect out of sheer determination.

Faster than the others didn't mean much, though, when everyone else was much more pleasant to deal with. Wyvell usually kept to herself, discussing possible infiltration strategies with Dad during her break time, as well as forming a light friendship with Brylle. She was cordially polite to Kapun and never seemed to be nonplussed.

The other agent, the one that Sable got to train, was a 'never speaks until needed to' kind of person. A thin, yet tall, Gothitelle called Esmerel, she spent her nights divining the future of the mission with the stars and would say nothing at all when Sable took the time to train her in resisting Stifling. She would speak if requested, but wouldn't make a sound otherwise.

Sable had once told Kapun that she wanted to trade students since she was tired of having to figure out what Esmerel wanted. Kapun had said, 'be my guest', and for one hour, they traded students. Sable had never again asked Kapun to switch. Kapun wished that she would.

But, other than the painful training of Hastor, there wasn't much to… well, do. As it turned out, when you were back up, you couldn't do anything risky in case you were needed. As a result, they were mostly confined to a comfortable yet small base while the real agents went around looking for a way to safely infiltrate. Dad offered advice time and again, but even after a week or so, they hadn't fully come up with a strategy.

Kapun had begged Dad to let him onto the streets of Lition, to see the city he was staying in. For the past few days, Dad had repeatedly denied him the chance to go out, telling him that it was too dangerous. Eventually, though, he managed to get Dad to capitulate with the time-tested strategy of being annoying enough.

Lition, as it was, wasn't… interesting, either. It didn't have the charm his hometown of Pinnaleis had or the terrifying mystique of Fylak's prison walls. Instead, it was just… a city. People went about their business. There were small food shops and places where you could go to relax, a playground that was…

…

"… Kapun!" Koli shouted, kicking the ball at him. "In front of you! Kick it!"

Kapun still hadn't managed to fully see past the fringe of hair that covered his eyes, so he trusted Koli's words.

"Kapun, no!"

And then he remembered that Koli was on the opposite team - but it was too late. With his patented 'Blind Magic Super Starlight Kick' and a bit of bad luck, he had kicked through his goalie's defenses, winning his opponent a point and ending the game. His opponents cheered, his teammates groaned, and he wanted to smash his head into the ground like a Doduo. Repeatedly.

"Kapun, again?" Aster asked, dragging Kapun's head out from the hole he had created through raw head-smashing force. "You said you wouldn't get tricked!"

"It - it was the heat of the moment!" Kapun said, blushing a little. "I panicked, and Koli was on my team for the previous three games!"

"Hey, don't be disappointed," Koli said, walking up to Kapun. "You can still say that you had the game-winning shot."

Kapun groaned even louder. "Gee, thanks," he said miserably. "Can I - can I sit the next game out?"

Aster patted Kapun's back, before leading him to the other end of the playground. Kapun took the help gratefully, before sitting down as Aster left. It was still so… embarrassing to have made those mistakes.

How could he still make those mistakes?! It wasn't like he wasn't capable of seeing past the clumps of hair that covered his eyes - with enough concentration and effort, he could make it seem like they weren't even there!

Even now, he could still push energy into his eyes to illuminate the playground. Koli and Aster, rivals since as long as Kapun had known them, had set up another game of soloccer ball, and it had already gotten started. They were neck-and-neck, and Kapun itched to join the fray.

But he knew that if he did join, he'd probably end up being a burden. Even with years of practice, looking through his hair wasn't an easy task. Give him a few seconds or concentration and he could do it, but any less and he'd find himself struggling to see anything. If he was busy doing something else, like running or dribbling a ball, he couldn't see at all. His instincts were sharp, allowing him to still play, but if he forgot things like teams during the game-

Kapun hit the back of his head on the bench. Whenever he was alone, he entered 'worry mode' and kept on spiraling downward, something he barely had control over. Dad had been trying to get him some help for it, but the healers said it wasn't something they could deal with. In the end, Kapun just had to live with it.

In the end, Kapun just rested his head back and kept on practicing his see-past-his-hair ability. He couldn't let the ability cripple him forever.

He looked around the playground, at the rest of Pinnaleis on the horizon. He could still see, good, good. What about on the sea - okay, still good.

Wait…

"And that's game!" Koli shouted. "I win again."

Aster growled. "You won't get too far," he promised. "Next game, I will find a way around your tactics!" The rest of their friends supported the team leader, glaring at each other - and yet, there were probably some nice looks as well. Kapun wasn't paying too much attention to them.

"Uh, guys?" Kapun asked, looking over the sea. "What's up with those ships?"

Aster and Koli looked over to where Kapun was looking. "Those… aren't merchant ships," Aster said slowly, his father being the only authority on naval matters (barring Dad, of course). Aster climbed the bars to get a better look. "On the center ship… I think that's a Samurott. And he's surrounded by guys wearing scarves."

For whatever reason, Kapun had a sinking feeling in his stomach.

…

Until now, that had been the worst day of Kapun's life. He shook his head, trying to clear himself of the memories, but they persisted.

Koli had died in the initial attack, a scarfed Pokemon getting to him. A Collared, he now knew. Aster had managed to survive and, like a lot of kids (including himself), was forced to enlist with Kenki. He had managed to get into Kenki's good graces faster, thanks to what Dad did to Kenki, and had more or less accepted the situation.

It was… infuriating, for lack of a better word. But he and Aster had been doing the same thing, which was trying to make the best of an awful, awful situation. Kenki's takeover had been quick and merciless, and he didn't have any hope of things getting better. He had adapted, of course - with no friends and plenty of enemies around, he had developed a more suspicious, belligerent attitude, and with the time on his hands on guard duty since he had developed his eyesight to a level he hadn't thought possible before - but it was a terrible, terrible time.

And then Culus came along - and everything changed. Looking back, Culus had probably manipulated him at some points, but Kapun didn't care. Culus had helped him, helped Dad, out of their awful situation. They were never going back to their old lives, but he'd already lost it the day of Kenki's invasion.

His childhood… well, he was still a kid, but he was more involved in serious matters now. There was no time to play on playgrounds anymore…

… and yet, Kapun found himself walking toward the playground, where several kids were still playing. Maybe, just for one afternoon, Kapun could pretend that things had never changed. That he was still who he had been all those months ago.

"... missing one person," a Trubbish said, waving a straw in the air. "With Fenny sick, we just can't play!"

Kapun coughed, drawing all the kids' attention. "Then, can I play?"

The Trubbish - the leader of the kids, maybe - raised an eyebrow. "Who are you?"

"I'm just new in town," Kapun said. "I'm Nupak. Mind if I play?"

A kid Delibird off to the side scoffed. "You? As if - we're the cool-"

The Trubbish glared at him. "Seltz, shut it. We need another person, in case you forgot."

"... he probably sucks, though," the Delibird said. "Can you even see what we're doing?"

Kapun took a look at him. "Obviously."

The Delibird scowled.

"Alright," the Trubbish said, getting between the two of them. "You can play soloccer ball?"

Kapun grinned. "Yep!"

A few minutes later, they had gotten started. The Trubbish and her friends were on the other team, while he was on the Delibird's team. It took a minute or two to get a feel for their strategies - Lition's soloccer ball was different from Pinnaleis's soloccer ball - but soon enough, he slotted in nicely to their team. The Delibird's animosity faded away as the two of them focused on the game.

Despite Kapun's increased fitness, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the game was still challenging for him. The Trubbish's team was well-coordinated, if a little slow, and they had a response for everything that Kapun's team had. Their goalie had a bit of a lame leg, which meant that they were consistently being scored on - but by pushing himself hard, 'Nupak' was able to make around half of their team's goals.

Eventually, it got to the point that, when his team was on the offensive, a third of the Trubbish-team's players were hovering around him, judging him to be the largest threat on the field. It was flattering, but also a little annoying, as he had to constantly weave through them for their team to make the proper plays.

Eventually, they reached the match point. Most of their team was ridiculously tired, but the opposing team was even more so, considering how hard Kapun had put them through their paces. Kapun, for his part, was only mildly out-of-breath, and a few seconds of standing still allowed him to recover some stamina.

"Good Arceus," the Delibird said, looking at him appraisingly. "Where did you come from? Hovete?" Hovete was stereotyped as having good soloccer ball players, he faintly remembered.

"I come from Naixe," he said eventually. "But honestly, Lition's nice." At that, the Delibird puffed up pridefully.

"Then let's show you what Trelerecticans can do, Nupak!" The other team members nodded, a fire lighting in their eyes. Kapun grinned, before turning to face the other team.

Despite his team's new passion, the Trubbish's team had pulled themselves together. Their offense was poor, and Kapun managed to break through and steal the ball. It took some dribbling and passing the ball around, but Kapun manipulated the field to the point where the Delibird could take his shot and win the game.

But even with a clear shot, Seltz didn't go for the shot. It was only after he gave Kapun a sharp look did he realize what the Delibird wanted.

With a strong and swift maneuver, Kapun slipped through the five kids barring his way, before jumping in the air. The Delibird kicked the ball at him accurately, enough to bring it close enough for a clear shot. Two of the enemy team members tried to intercept it, but they were just a few inches short.

As the ball neared him, Kapun swore he saw a flash of something blue - but the moment passed, and before he knew it, the ball was at his feet.

"Blind Magic Super Starlight Kick!" he shouted, twisting in the air to kick the ball with all four of his feet, almost like a top. Each hit put force behind the ball, the ball almost staying still in the air as he did so. It was only after the fourth kick did it zoom off into a super-fast trajectory, off to the corner of the net.

The Trubbish, their goalie, tried to block it - but it was too late, and she was too slow. The ball slipped through the plastic bag the Trubbish tried to use as a net, landing in the goal.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!" the Delibird shouted, to monstrous cheers for their team. "AND THE MVP IS… NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPAAAAAAK!"

The silliness of the made-up name couldn't wipe away the smile on his face. For the first time in months, Kapun felt like who he had been before Kenki. Just… well, a kid, trying to have fun. None of these kids had lost anything to Kenki, the Temptress, or Phosophor. They were just… happy.

"Seltz, come on!" Kapun turned to see a large Delibird and Garbodor wave. "We have to go home for dinner!"

"Coming, Mom!" The kid turned over to him. "Thanks for the game, Nupak."

Kapun grinned. "No problem."

He then heard coughing, before seeing Dad off at the corner of the playground, his large scar partially hidden with makeup. "Come over, Nupak," Dad said, tapping his claws on the fence of the playground a little impatiently.

"Coming, Dad." With that, Kapun ran outside the playground, and he and Dad began to walk away. As his heartbeat began to slow, some of his senses returned. "So…"

"I'm glad you had fun, 'Nupak'," Dad said understandingly, giving him a wink. That wink then faded away to something more somber. "How long has it been since you…"

"... seven months?" Kapun said, a little morosely. "It hasn't been too long, but it's felt like forever."

Something like a guilty expression crossed Dad's face, before quickly being wiped away. "Things have been tough, huh?"

"... yeah." As they walked through Lition, Kapun noticed that they weren't going straight to the base. "It's been… tough. Working for Kenki… dealing with food, and other people… everything since last month…"

Dad started rubbing Kapun's back, something he did as a kid to comfort him. "It'll get easier with time," Dad said. "Life eventually falls into a rhythm, something that you live through repeatedly. It never feels like it, but things start to repeat. Happiness is a part of that cycle."

"... right."

As they walked, Dad asked him what he did in Lition. He hadn't done too much, really, beyond basic tourism and looking around. The highlight of the day had easily been the soloccer ball match with the other kids. Even now, his blood was pumping hard, and his feet started to feel a little sore.

"... you used your 'Blind Magic Super Starlight Kick'?" Dad asked as they climbed up a large set of stairs. "You're not blind anymore, are you?"

Kapun rolled his eyes. "I was never blind, Dad. I just found it hard to see sometimes. I'm not going to change it to 'Good Eyesight Magic Super Starlight Kick', now am I?" Dad snorted, and his chest felt warm. That may have been the nice situation or exhaustion from climbing steps for a while. "By the way, Dad - where are we going?"

They started climbing one final flight of stairs, before arriving at a pavilion overlooking a large part of Lition. In the center of the pavilion was a statue of one of the Trelerectican oligarchs - a narcissist asshole. None of the Litionese were looking at the statue, though, and were instead enjoying the view the pavilion gave.

Dad led him to the edge of the pavilion, where they could see all of Lition. Kapun climbed the railing so that he could get a better view of everything. He saw several of the sights he had seen while touring, and the square playground he had played in earlier stuck out well.

"... this was one of Fedina's favorite sights," Dad said softly. Kapun didn't say anything. What could he say?

When Dad told him about Mom, and how she died, he'd been… confused. Why would the rebels go for her? Why was he so… unlucky? If Mom hadn't been a part of Key, would she still be alive?

"She never regretted anything she did - and she wasn't exactly perfect, either." Dad's voice now had a wistfulness to it. "She gave Angira no small amount of headaches, but there was no denying what she had brought to Key. We suffered a large blow when she died."

There was a small quaver in Dad's voice before he fell silent.

"... was… she like me?" Kapun asked. "Did she have problems seeing as a kid? Did she ever have 'worry-mode'?"

Dad sighed. "Honestly, I don't know. I'd planned on asking her more about her childhood, but she was always focused on the path to the future. Who she had been was never more important to her than who she would become." Dad then gripped the railing tightly. "Who she would, in reality, never become."

"... where was I, when Mom died?" Kapun asked.

"Still in the nest, as an egg," Dad answered. "Having you was the last thing she had before coming here. On her breaks, she'd have someone teleport me here, bringing your egg along with me. We'd watch the sunset… and everything was…"

Dad then turned away from the sight, breaking the conversation entirely. Kapun wanted to say something, anything, but what could he say? It wasn't like he had anything to do with her death, and Dad… well, he knew Mom more than Kapun ever would.

Kapun looked back over the sight. Over here was the first - and likely, last - time that Kapun had anything resembling a normal life. If Mom had stayed alive, would he be a Trelerectican instead of Vidnesian? Someone raised in Lition instead of Pinnaleis?

Or would he have been like Sable, Brylle, and Thilia, not belonging to a nation as opposed to an organization? Would they have been his childhood friends, instead of Aster and Koli?

What… were the things that could have been? What were the paths that he, Dad, and Mom could have taken?

For a split second, Kapun thought he could see blue lines spreading from the ground under his feet. In another blink, they were gone, and Kapun eventually dismissed it as a trick of the light.

It… it didn't matter, anymore. He'd subscribe to his Mom's philosophy for now - focus on the future, instead of the past or present. On who you wanted to become, rather than who you were before or were now.

"Dad… I think it's time we went back to the base."

"What do you mean, 'I can't see her'?!" Eve shouted.

Nimbus looked at her impassively. "She is practicing the usage of her Rhythm right now and has been practicing control over her switching for the past five-and-a-half hours previously. Please leave now."

"But we agreed-"

"She has told me to communicate her sadness at her inability to see you right now. It truly ails her - but what she is doing now is far more important. For the time being, please do not bother the Princess."

"I-I-" Eve sputtered. What was so important about 'Rhythm' that she couldn't talk to Eve? "When can I talk to her?"

"When the time is more convenient. Please, leave."

Despite the vast difference in power, Eve couldn't help but fantasize about taking Nimbus by the throat and throttling her for all she was worth. Unfortunately, that wasn't how the world worked. Nimbus was around two to three times bigger than her and had a lot of meanness packed behind an impassive face.

"Selene!" Eve shouted instead. "Selene!"

Nimbus's eyes flashed. "Say another word, and-"

Then, interrupting Nimbus's threat, came a voice from inside the room that Selene was in. "Let her in, Miss Nimbus." The voice wasn't that of Selene's but another voice, female but still unfamiliar to her. Eve had probably heard it before, but she couldn't exactly place where. "While Selene recovers, I can talk to her."

"... as you wish, Lady Two." Nimbus stepped aside. Eve took the chance to shoot one last dirty look at the Shadow Worker before walking inside.

The inside of the room that Selene and her sisters were training in was surprisingly clean - and yet, it was also empty. There was a separate section of the room that looked to be soundproof, and in that area, there were a few people, all with dreamy gazes.

Eve didn't face Selene as she walked inside. Instead, she saw a somewhat pristine-looking Roselia, one that looked an awful lot like Penelope. She was Two.

"Hello, Eve," Two said, before clapping her two rose hands together. A pair of soft, velvety cushions appeared before the two of them, and while Eve couldn't see exactly who had brought them in, she had seen someone bring them in the blink of an eye. Two then sat down on one of the cushions. "Please, sit."

This was a feeling that she was getting rather familiar with. Eve sat down on her cushion, giving her legs a bit of a break. She took a moment to sigh and relax.

"Thanks," Eve said - before her stomach made an uncouth gurgle. She stiffened slightly, a look of panic briefly flashing across her face. Two giggled softly, before making another odd gesture with her rose. In another blink of an eye, a plate of refreshments (peeled and powdered Iapapa berries) appeared before them. Eve then blushed, before taking one of them. "You five have been given dedicated servants, then?"

Two took one of the berries, chewing on it thoughtfully. "Not exactly," she said between bites. "The servants are… self-created, in a sense."

"Self-created?"

"In the sense that I can call Selene 'myself'." Two looked at a spot in the rafters, off in the corner. Following her gaze, Eve saw a pair of glowing eyes looking over them. "Obedient to our every command, completely and utterly focused on their tasks-"

"Two, you're scaring me." The sad part was that she was only half joking. If Selene 'made' the servants - that sounded like brainwashing. Like Shadow Workers, in other words. "Please tell me you didn't brainwash…"

Two didn't say anything. Eve looked at the spot where the servant had been - there, she saw the pair of glowing eyes. They blinked irregularly, almost as if only blinking when they had to. "Why did you agree to let them teach you how to make Shadow Workers?!" she burst out, feeling her stomach turn.

Two frantically shook her head. "They're not Shadow Workers. If they were Shadow Workers, Selene would be able to sense it."

Eve paused, then chose to push aside her doubts for the time being. "If they aren't Shadow Workers, then why are they obeying you? Are they Collared?"

Two shook her head again. "They're normal people, relatively speaking. They're just under the influence of Selene's Rhythm."

"Selene's… what?"

Two popped another berry in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. "Do you remember Selene's performances?" Two eventually asked. "Those beautiful dances that captured everyone's attention?"

"How could I forget?" Eve had attended more than a fair few of those performances. Even with Eve's developed ability to resist the trances that those performances brought, they had firmly cemented themselves into her mind. It wasn't as if the memories of falling under those trances could easily slip her mind.

She then put two and two together, before shaking her head. "Try again," she said, somewhat harshly from the wince on Two's face. "Even the people who fell into Selene's trances the quickest recovered quickly once she stopped. She also loses focus when she dances - that means that she can't give any orders."

Two just looked down at the berries.

"You can tell me the truth," Eve said, feeling a little awkward. "I know things have been different, but I'm still Selene's friend. And you? You're a part of her-"

Two looked up sharply, her eyes flashing. "I'm not."

That caught Eve off-guard. "You're not?" she repeated.

"You can't think of us as 'parts' of Selene. We're individual people, with ideals, emotions, desires, and personalities of our own. Even though we can access each other's memories, we aren't the same person. I'm Two, not 'the second ego Selene has thought up in her head'." Two's voice rose slightly with each sentence.

Eve would have to mend this quickly. "Right, you're one of her sisters." She hadn't taken that quite as seriously as she could have. Normally, siblings walked alongside you, not inside you. "Can you give evidence for this 'hypnosis' thing? Normally, I'd believe you, but…"

Two's eyes went a little blank. "Hello?"

"Sorry, I'm talking with them right now. If you wouldn't mind?"

"Oh." Right, they could talk, so they had discussions. "Go ahead."

As Two talked with the rest of her siblings, Eve helped herself to the berries while she waited. It was a little funny to see expressions flash across Two's face. It was also a little concerning, judging from the faces Two made - from concerned, to confused, to placidly accepting.

Two's eyes then focused again. "If you wouldn't mind, Eve, could we demonstrate it on you?"

They wanted to demonstrate on her? But she was resistant - ah, they thought because Selene was stronger now, the dances would have a stronger effect. It probably was stronger - that meant that Eve would have to build up more resistance to it. This was as good of a time as any. "Go ahead, you five." An Impidimpish smile crossed her face. "Try me."

Two simply looked off to the side. "If you're sure."

"I'm sure."

Two then bathed herself in glowing rainbow light, and odd sounds started coming from her, the Roselia form melting and morphing away. By the time the rainbow light stopped, Selene was facing her.

But instantly, Eve felt something wrong. There was a powerful pull she was feeling, what felt like a leash around her eyes, dragging her attention to Selene's breath. It was rhythmic in ways that she couldn't describe, as though there was a song hidden deep inside. The expansion and deflation of Selene's chest encompassed more and more of her vision. Her thoughts were being straightened out and redirected, one by one.

"Eve?" Selene's voice echoed in her skull. "Can you hear me?"

She was compelled to answer with the absolute truth. "Of course," her dreamy voice came out.

"I want you to relax. Every breath you take, every time you blink, you fall deeper and deeper into a relaxed state."

And thus, her word was law. "Yes, ma'am."

A stray thought pierced the haze. Even though Eve had answered the question Selene had asked, even though she obeyed perfectly, Selene looked morose for the response.

Then Selene began to speak her truth to Eve, and everything was right again.

"Breathe in… breathe out… breathe in… breathe out… every breath brings you to a more relaxed, more compliant state."

"Yes… ma'am." By now, it was getting harder for what wasn't focused on Selene to formulate words.

Time passed, and she fell deeper… deeper… deeper…

…

"Can you hear me, Eve?"

"..."

"Blink three times if you can hear me."

Blink. Blink. Blink.

Selene walked forward, raising Eve's right paw in the air so that it was pointed straight up. "Until one of my sisters says 'Let it fall', your hand can't point anywhere but up. No matter how hard you try, you can't let it down. Any actions that would force the arm to go down, you can't complete - not until one of my sisters says, 'Let it fall.' If you will obey, say my name." Selene then walked backward, but she had said that Eve's arms must point up, so it would point up until the sisters said 'Let it fall'.

Eve's mouth forced itself open. "Selene," it said of its own accord.

"Good… I will count up from one to ten. With every number I count, you will become more awake and alert. When I get to ten, I will transform back into Two, and you will return to normal, except for the fact that you will obey my command."

Selene then began to count up. "One… Two… Three…" Eve began to feel more of her sensations. "Four… Five… Six…" Thoughts began to fill her brain, though all were directed at Selene. "Seven… Eight… Nine…"

When Eve woke up, she would obey.

"Ten."

And with that, Selene's image fell away to a Roselia's.

…

"What happened?" Eve asked, her head filled with clouds and fog. Normally, her memory was strong, but the memories of the last… how long had it been?

"Selene did what I told you she would." Two was sitting right in front of her, slowly picking at the berries. She didn't seem to be too happy doing so, though. "So now, you can try and prove me wrong."

Eve raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

Two nudged one of the berries forward. "How about this? Pick this berry up with your right paw, and you'll have proven me wrong completely."

"That's it?" Eve asked.

"That's it." Two nudged the berry forward. "Come on, pick it up with your right paw. Try to pick it up any other way and it won't count."

Please, like Eve would need to cheat on such a simple task. Almost as easy as breathing Eve lowered her… lowered her… why wasn't it lowering?

Eve then looked at her right paw, which was pointing straight into the air as though held there by an invisible string. She could sense no psychic power, and her muscles were completely taut - she was the one pointing it into the air.

Eve narrowed her eyes, before putting more force into it. Yet, for all she pushed herself, for all she tried, her muscles wouldn't obey. Trying to rotate her shoulders didn't do anything either - they froze as well.

"What…" She tried biting her forepaw and drag it down with the parts of her body that she could control, but whenever she came anywhere close to putting her mouth near her paw, she would encounter an invisible barrier. Not of mystical energies, but of her body refusing to move past a point. "What did you do to me?!"

"Selene put you under the influence of her Rhythm." Two said. "You're not going to put down your paw until I tell you to do so."

Eve's eyes flashed and she redoubled her efforts. Now, she tried tumbling to the floor in a heap so that her leg would be forced to point in a different direction, at the very least. But the rest of her body was kept in place by barriers. She could try and eat the berries, and walk around with three legs, but anything that would compromise the state of her right paw pointing upwards was self-sabotaged instantly. The more it went on, the more she felt like a puppet with a negligent puppeteer, one who accidentally draped the string of her paw on a prop and wouldn't loosen it again.

"I - this makes no sense!" The more she struggled, the more an awful sense of panic rose in her. She started gathering Swift stars to hit her paw with - maybe even knocking it down a little would help - but the power died in her body. It was a rule now, that her paw had to point up, and she couldn't even begin to fight it. "What did you do to me?!"

"Selene used the Rhythm," Two repeated once more. "Until I say a key phrase, it will stay there forever."

"I - I -" Almost unbidden, her eyes strayed back to the servant that had brought them the berries hanging silently in the rafters. She looked at them in the eye - and she saw herself reflected in them. "Just say it!"

"Do you-"

"I WAS WRONG!" Eve shouted, her voice cracking with fear. "I WAS WRONG! PLEASE!"

Two nodded. "Of course. Eve, let it fall."

The words echoed around in her skull, and she felt some mental switch, hidden so far in her mind that she could never hope to find it on her own (even now, as she lost track of it), flip. Her muscles, without warning, began to obey her again, and her paw instantly fell to the ground. Despite that, tears began to fall out of her eyes in larger volumes.

"I'm sorry," Two said softly. "I - well, since you had agreed…"

"It was - it was a mistake," Eve muttered, staring at her paw. If it wasn't for the pain in her paw, she would have never known what had happened. "I should have… believed you."

Two just gave her a soft hug, but Eve couldn't find it reassuring. All she could think about was her paw pulled on its nonexistent string, her body a prisoner of Two's will. Of Selene's will.

Two then slowly pulled away. "Do you understand now?"

"I… no," Eve said. "I just - it was never that strong…" Eve tried to cast her mind back to what had happened when Selene appeared. She had come, and then… and then everything had slowly become blurry, indistinct, perfect-

Eve shook her head. "This is - what happened?!"

"Selene awakened to us - and the rest of her powers," was Two's simple response. "She was working with a fraction of a fraction of what she can do now. What she did wasn't even that hard."

"'Wasn't even that'..." Eve curled her paw. "So - so…" Her mind scrambled itself for something, and she found a rebuttal. "Why didn't I feel it the last few times we met?!"

"Because Selene hadn't pulled out her Rhythm since she had awoken. She pulled it out, and it was a change she could never undo. It's laced in her breath, in every movement she makes. Right now, she's trying to learn control. Without it… that can happen." Two began to tear up. "I - I'm sorry…"

Eve couldn't accept or reject the apology. Her heart remained out of her control (in the normal way, thankfully). "Why - why…"

Two wiped away her tears. "Phosophor told her to because she needed a way to protect herself from Key."

"From 'Key'?"

"An organization after her. After us. We're an Epsilon Fusion - they want to experiment on us. We had to learn to protect ourselves in case Nimbus isn't enough. The Rhythm is our strongest weapon."

She couldn't deny that - she couldn't even try to resist after two seconds, and she had resistance from years with Selene. "Still, it's…"

"Wrong? You're preaching to the choir." Two then paused. "Although…" Two's eyes went slightly glassy.

"What?"

Two winced, her eyes returning to normal. "Never mind. Just something they had wanted to shout at me. Anyway, do you get why Selene needs to practice using her Rhythm before she can talk to you properly again?"

Eve's answer came out in a tortuously slow way. "... yeah," she admitted. "How long do you think it'll take?"

Two didn't meet Eve's gaze. The thick rock of emotions twisted and turned inside Eve's stomach.

"You don't need to answer that," Eve said after Two continued to stay silent. "I'm just going to leave. Thank you, Selene."

"She - I think she wants to come out," Two said after a second. "But she can't. Because when she does…"

Eve smiled weakly. It would fool no one, but Eve had to try anyway. "No, I get it. Come to me as soon as you can control it. Please."

Two didn't say anything as Eve left. As she crossed the threshold, she felt Nimbus's eternal stare on her. And as she walked, an idle thought crossed her mind.

Her paw felt sore.

...

"You have to leave."

"It's not that easy, Anna-"

"You have to leave." Anna didn't seem willing to budge. "Honestly, even if she is your friend, she can take control of you at any moment, and you'll have no way to resist. It sounds like you live with crazy people, and you need to not be there."

She and Anna were sitting down at Anna's home. She was on another of her break days, and Eve had come to visit her this morning to talk to her about her problems. She had listened patiently until the very end.

"She's not like that," Eve insisted. "She only hypnotized me after I said, 'Yes, try me'. She's kind, and-"

"And how do you know those are your thoughts?"

Eve growled. "I know that our friendship wasn't- isn't fake! She only gained these powers after she came here!"

Anna crossed her legs. "But you said that she could use the power for as long as you could remember."

"In a weakened form!" Eve countered. "Nothing on the level of that hypnosis, just a light trance!"

"Still, your mem-"

"SHE IS MY FRIEND!" Eve stood up, blood rushing to her face. "I TRUST HER!"

Anna reared back, a little scared. Eve continued to breathe haggardly until she slowly came to her senses.

"I'm sorry," Anna said gingerly. "I didn't mean to upset you like that."

"It's not about me, it's about her," Eve sniffed, still a little angry. "I don't want to abandon her. She needs me more than ever. I have to show her that I'm on her side, even through these supposed attacks from 'Key'."

Anna, though, looked thoughtful. "This organization… they want Selene - what about you?"

The anger faded away to confusion. "I said it wasn't about me."

Anna furiously shook her head. "No, you don't get it. What will Key think of if they find out that you're close to Selene? That you come into contact with her regularly?"

Eve paused, as awful scenarios flashed in her mind. It was never an impossibility that someone would have tried to ransom her - to Regilia, back when her biggest problem was an arranged marriage. Ransoming royalty, generally, had higher payouts (at an expense of a bigger risk of failure).

Then other thoughts flashed through her mind. What if they tried reverse-engineering the tech behind Collars and Shadow Workers? They knew about Chain, surely they knew about those. If they turned her…

"... right," she admitted. "Right." She had already been planning to run away from Nucifera - she had to do it faster now. "Have you gotten in touch with Zenny again?"

Zenny was the Zoroark that Anna had gotten to help them. Eve had met up with him a few days ago (Anna not included, she had been needed at the hospital for an emergency). He was a grungy-looking Zoroark with a chip on his shoulder, but he looked more likely to cash in the favor that Anna owed him. (She had whispered to Anna about the possibility of Zenny being a Shadow Worker, and they had agreed not to let Zenny know about the time and place where they'd use the moss, in case he would turn traitor).

"He's brought in another few hundred pounds." Eve whistled. "Yeah, I know, he's good at what he does, even if he can be a bit of an ass."

She had to admit, Anna could find people with skill. "So, how much longer will it take?"

"A week or two, at the very least," Anna said. "If you want to increase the chances as much as possible, we'll wait for a little bit before going for it."

The news didn't particularly excite her, but maybe Eve had gotten her hopes up too high too quickly. "That's fine. I can wait for a week or two."

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Anna immediately stood up, but when Eve went to do the same, Anna pushed her down.

Eve glared at her. "What's the problem?"

"For now, recover," Anna said, a serious look in her eyes. "You were hypnotized not too long ago, Eve. Don't push yourself-"

"To open the door?" Eve asked sardonically.

"To open the door," Anna repeated. "Just relax - and not in the magic trance way." Eve rolled her eyes. Did Anna suddenly think she was some stupid 'trance princess' or something now? She wouldn't fall into a trance with the wave of a paw right now.

The door knocked again. "Fine," she said, if only not to labor the point. "Go open the door."

Anna wasted no time in doing just that, scampering out of her room and to her front door. Eve closed her eyes and concentrated on the sound around her - just enough so that she'd be able to listen in on the conversation.

"... Khips," Anna said, annoyed. "I'm on break today. The other medics will do fine."

A tinny and squeaky voice replied to her. "They can't come - they're busy training a new guy, a Poochyena or something."

"I can't see why they can't treat him on the field and bring the Poohchyena along."

"The Poochyena refuses to go into the fields for some reason. A fear of water or something. I begged them for ten minutes, and they're not budging. Look, Anna, Wick's the one that needs your help."

There was a pause. Was Wick someone Anna was familiar with?

"You should have led with that, Khips. I don't think any of them can treat a Litwick - and I told Wick not to strain himself. Hell, I told him not to go into the rice fields - but when does anyone listen to me?"

"Uh, Anna?"

"Never mind. Khips, I'll go. Just… ugh, give me a minute to change to my old uniform."

"But you're not on duty-"

"I said I'm going to go change. Just wait for me here, Khips, I'll be back in a minute."

Then there was the sound of footsteps before Anna reappeared at the front door. "Sorry," Anna said, looking down. "I have to be somewhere right now, so just-"

"I heard everything," Eve said, her tail swaying a little bit. "And I get it. I'll relax here while you go off and do that."

Anna brightened, before quickly putting on a change of clothes - a small, yet cute uniform that had the wear and tear from years of use. "I'll be back as soon as I can - I just have to treat an old friend of mine." For how annoyed Anna sounded, this was probably something that happened often. "Don't worry, just take a nap or something!"

Anna then zoomed out. Eve followed Anna's progress out the window as she went with 'Khips', who turned out to be a Wimpod. Soon, after a few minutes of walking, she was out of view of Anna's house in the Moat. That left Eve here… alone.

Well, time to… nap.

…

Yeah, she was already bored. Anna would understand.

Eve got up and began to look around - the bathroom was free of the hallucinogenic moss, and Eve couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing. She looked around for games and books that Anna used to own but it was all rather boring.

Then, when she was walking around, she heard a strange creak come from under her. It didn't particularly bother her at first, but as she stepped over that particular spot again, there was another odd creak.

Right, the Moat was just like this. Shoddy houses, awful living conditions, just a poor standard for-

"YAAAAGH!" Eve shouted, her eyes tearing up a little. She looked back down and saw that her claw - which she had forgotten to clip recently - had caught on the nail of the floorboard. Stupid, stupid negligence! Hygiene was important even in a hostile environment!

With a tiny bit of effort, she pulled her claw free of the nail it had caught on, before examining it. Ugh… splinters in her pads, in addition to a torn claw. This would take a while to heal.

Though, why was the floorboard dislodged? She was nowhere near strong enough to pull it.

Eve jiggled the floorboard a little bit and realized that it was loose. Pulling it to the side entirely, she expected to see foundations, bugs, or just even a wall. Instead, Eve peered down and found a small box, coated in a thick layer of dust.

Interested, Eve pulled the box out of the floorboard, before opening it. Inside was a collection of various small trinkets - a long ivory horn, a large diary detailing the life of 'Jepod' (oh, that was the name of Anna's mother!) for a few years, and a set of old pictures.

She was being a little nosy, but boredom easily overcame propriety. She quickly started leafing through the pictures. One was very old judging by the aging on the frame of the page and the more old-fashioned architecture. It was a picture of an Eevee who looked very different from Anna. Probably Jepod as a child?

She looked through them. The Eevee grew up, and though her facial structure more closely resembled Eve's at her age, it was still nowhere near the resemblance Anna shared with her. As the pictures continued, the Eevee became a Leafeon, and a Jolteon entered the picture. Then the images started to resemble the Citadel… and then the Moat…

… Eve knew she shouldn't look through it, but she couldn't help but continue. Eventually, another Eevee came into the picture - Anna. And yet, she looked like she resembled Jepod far more than she did Eve. The last picture was years old, but Anna still looked like Jepod had.

Anna had changed, huh?

Eve put the pictures away, suddenly aware that she was snooping. It probably wasn't that bad, this was, almost certainly, a forgotten cache of Jepod's memories that she had long since hidden away. Still, it was private, so even if they didn't know, it wasn't right to look.

But, as she arranged the floorboard back so that it looked as good as new, she figured that she had waited for Anna long enough already. Taking a quick second to make sure that no one was looking at her, she started following Anna and the Wimpod's footsteps.

The trail, strangely, led clear out of the Moat. The guards, for whatever reason, weren't there, and the opening of the gate was small enough that she could squeeze through it.

She could escape Nucifera forever.

She looked at the gate, almost in shock. The gate had been manned for a long time and the fact that it wasn't right now - why?!

…

Should she… should she take the chance?

…

No… no, she couldn't. Selene still needed her support, and Anna didn't deserve to be abandoned without warning. She had to stay here until she could escape with Selene, and so that Anna wasn't blindsided.

But were those her thoughts-

No, no, no! She had faith in Selene even if no one else did! If only because no one else did!

She then limped out of the gate (the pain in her claw making itself loud), following Anna and the Wimpod's footsteps perfectly. She focused deeply on them because if she didn't, she'd feel that temptation to leave. And she couldn't.

"Anna? Anna, are you there?" she started calling out. "Anna?!"

Then, a few minutes later, finally, she saw the footsteps, now fresher, end. There, in the far distance, was Anna (who was talking to an Araquanid).

Then, Anna turned to look at her. "Oh, hey, Vivid," Anna said - and though she tried to hide it, Eve could hear a note of shame in her voice. At the very least, she was using her fake name in case someone got the wrong (right) idea. "I'm sorry it's taking so long." The Araquanid, meanwhile, gave her a stink-eye, though when Anna turned to look at him, he quickly switched to the brightest of smiles. "I've just been talking to him - it'll only take a few more minutes."

Eve nodded. "Alright, then." Though she kept her voice and face level, she felt a bit stupid. Of course the delay was just a small conversation, what was she thinking? That Anna had been kidnapped or attacked?

Actually, considering what had happened recently- no, still nothing like that.

Then, strangely, she felt a prickling sensation on her skin - was she being watched, or was she just being paranoid? She looked around, and most of the workers of the rice field (so they weren't all lazy wastrels) were slowly eating a small snack. The gluttons, lunchtime wouldn't be for another hour at least.

And yet, two workers had finished - or at least, one of them had finished, and the other was still eating as they spoke. Occasionally, the first worker - a Charmeleon wearing a muzzle, strangely - wrote lines into the mud of the bog, to which the other worker - a Poliwrath would answer. The topic they were talking about was cosplay or something. Odd topic for Moat workers.

Although… the Charmeleon felt familiar. She couldn't place where she had seen them before, yet she was almost certain she had seen them before. It was infuriating. Who could…

… no…

… she'd get to the bottom of this if only to sate her curiosity.

She walked over to the Charmeleon drawing his attention. A look of confusion crossed his face before disappearing quickly.

"Hey," Eve said, somewhat casually, somewhat uncertainly. "Have we… met before?"

The look of confusion crossed his face - and then he scribbled something into the mud.

NO.

She blinked. She'd have thought he'd at least put the muzzle away to… "You're mute?" she asked.

YES.

She turned away, a small blush covering her face. "Never mind then," she said. Though he resembled Helios, he wasn't the wayward prince. "You just reminded me of… well, never mind."

With that, she walked away, that awful feeling of shame crawling on her again. Anna had already wrapped up her conversation, thankfully, so she could just forget this all and have-

*POKE*

Eve paused as she felt a dirty claw touch the end of her tail, and she turned around to see a dumb, almost panicked look on the Charmeleon's face. What an ass - no, she was a princess. She had to be civil about this. "Yes?"

The Charmeleon paused for a few moments, clearly lost in thought. Then, just as she was about to leave (promising herself to complain about it to Anna as she did so), the Charmeleon began to scribble something in the mud. Almost unconsciously, she turned her head to look at what the Charmeleon had written.

KAIR, KAPUN TANTRUM

"... Helios," she muttered softly, and the look of recognition in his eyes cemented it.

The Poliwrath next to him coughed. "Uh, sorry, ma'am, his name is Hector."

As if. She could imagine Helios taking an injury to the throat in the past month that made him unable to talk, but that was clearly Helios…

… or was it a Shadow Worker pretending to be Helios, or was Helios a Shadow Worker?

She couldn't trust him with anything until she found out. Until then…

… she leaned in close so that Helios alone could hear her whispers. "Meet me at the gate to the Citadel at seven."

His eyes widened, but she had said enough already. Turning away brusquely, she offered the Charmeleon one last look, before leaving. Anna, meanwhile, looked confused as she followed her away. Once they were out of earshot of everyone, Anna popped the question. "What was that about, Eve?"

Eve sighed. "We need to plan," she said instead. "Because that was an old friend of mine. One that I've told you about."

"One that you've…" Anna looked back, and her eyes widened. "You're kidding. HIM?!"

"I'm positive." Well, not completely, because Shadow Workers were always a thing. Eve didn't think that they had made Helios into a Shadow Worker just to put him in a rice field, but she could never be too sure when it came to the craziness that was her new life. "And tonight, I'm going to meet him at the gate."

"... are you sure?"

"Well, I've already made the arrangements. It's been a few weeks since Selene and I left him back in Logain, and I have no idea what happened to him in the intermittent time. I want to find out what happened."

"And will you tell him about what you know?"

"Maybe," she said. "I'll just have to wait and see what I say."

"Your Majesty, are you alright?" Genevieve asked.

Arya wished that she could give Genevieve the answer she wanted to give - "I'm perfectly alright, thank you very much" - but father had drilled into her head that she was only to deceive her subjects in case they were suspected of selling information to foreign powers or else acting as a spy. Genevieve was neither of those things.

"Is it strange that I find myself growing ever so weary of the dealings between nobles, and the matter with Phosophor?"

"Not at all, your Majesty. Why do you think that it would be strange?"

Arya sat back, the cold seat of the chair doing nothing for her back and bottom. The throne had plush seats, but she had to keep that clean for ceremonial purposes. "I used to be able to deal with the stress of this position with poise and vigor, Genevieve. This past month has dulled that beyond meaning."

"May I be so bold to offer my interpretation?"

"Speak, Genevieve."

"Your father may have kept the more strenuous portions of his itinerary for himself. I imagine that he would have kept on easing you deeper and deeper into the duties until you would be fully prepared for the mental stress." She then paused. "This seems to be a far busier month than normal."

Arya had to agree. The vacation she had taken last week hadn't reinvigorated her - by contrast, she had many sleepless nights, and when she forced herself to take a Spore-based soporific, she had found out that her quality of sleep was worse as well.

But how was she supposed to relax like this? The hunt for the royalty of their allies wasn't going well - it was likely that Selene was still stuck in Illusuria, Princess Eve by her side. They might have gone over the border, but there was no evidence of that yet. That, and they had special sentries that were routinely checked for tampering by Selene's mind control, courtesy of a device Parasel had developed.

'And yet, could it be that she went by sea?' another part of her mind whispered. 'That's how she arrived in Illusuria, after all.'

She stamped down that line of thought immediately. It wasn't as if the line of thought was inaccurate - it was a concern one of her strategists had brought up, considering the number of ports and ships flowing in and out of Illusuria. Tracking down them all would be a bureaucratic nightmare, and that wasn't to speak of pirated boats and illegal smuggling ships left behind.

Perhaps she should-

"Ma'am?" Genevieve asked.

"My apologies," Arya stated. "I was musing over strategies towards the hunts."

"Which hunts, ma'am?"

"The hunts for Selene and Princess Eve." She paused. "Then again, they're probably the same hunt. After all, Selene and Kite likely belong to the same organization."

Genevieve paused. "What evidence do we have on that fact?"

Arya was bemused until she saw Genevieve's point. "Is the perfect timing of the Kite's performance and Slate's testimony not enough for you, Genevieve?"

Genevieve rubbed her chin. "The timing of the event was well-known, and Slate might have conflated their threats during his testimony with Baize."

"And yet, they were there at the same time, at the same place, without coming into conflict - and, according to Slate, Kite just happened to be on the same boat as Selene. That suggests some sort of mutual agreement beforehand - if they aren't in the same organization, it is at least possible they've kept up some sort of alliance."

And then Arya thought of another possibility. Investigations into the attack at the Twin Moon Ball revealed abnormal substances in the meals - additional soporifics. "With Selene's capabilities, she could have hypnotized the entire stage, but doing it then and there would be her undoing. Yet, if her audience had become more susceptible, then she may not have been able to control it."

Genevieve's brow furrowed. "Ma'am?"

"There is no doubt that Selene is now malicious," Arya declared. "And yet, it may not have been actively so beforehand, only biding her time. Rather, Kite may have forced her hand."

"How so?"

"We now know that Selene has been hiding her abilities - but if she had malicious intent for the ball, then why would she not hypnotize the staff of Regilia before? During previous balls, she had plenty of opportunities." Unless there was an aspect of her power they were missing that prevented it. "She may have been hiding her malice for a more opportune time," she decided - for that was true either way. "And yet, Kite forced her hand by revealing the potential of her abilities, forcing her to take a hostage and flee."

"Yes…?"

"That means that there was likely no coordination between them beforehand - their alliance was a matter of circumstance, rather than previous negotiations."

"Then why wouldn't Selene just hypnotize Kite and hand him over?"

"She was doomed either way - with her abilities revealed, her previous life would be gone no matter what. Meanwhile, Kite was likely someone she could work with in trying circumstances. It is possible that she brainwashed him at some point during their tenure in Pinnaleis, and that Slate took advantage of that state to bring Kite there."

Pieces fell into place - 'Why was Kite cooperative?', 'Why did he tell all of that information freely?', 'Why didn't Slate bring over Selene?', and 'Why did Slate leave the company of people on his side?' were all answered one by one.

"What does it mean, then, ma'am?"

"It means that we can't afford to underestimate someone like Selene, Genevieve." She then bit her lip. "It also likely means that Prince Helios may not be in the same location as Selene. If we are to avoid the assumption that Selene is with Kite's organization, then we have no guarantee that finding one will help us to find the other."

In other words, it was an increased workload. Absolutely, positively, fantastic.

"So," Arya said. "I think it's about time we begin to mobilize."

Genevieve's eyes widened. "Mobilize, ma'am?"

"Kite has an entire organization behind him, and Selene can brainwash people to act at her bidding. Both have groups of indeterminate size behind them, possibly working in concert against us, in a foreign land. The longer we leave this to stew, the more of a threat they can become." Arya looked over at Genevieve. "Is that not obvious?"

Genevieve looked paler than usual. Reaching out with psychic empathy, she felt a measure of fear emanate from Genevieve. "... ma'am, this is a path well on the way to tyranny," she warned. "If you wish to mobilize, you will need weaponry, infrastructure, infantry. To develop all of that in the time frame I believe you want would trample on all of Regilia."

Genevieve's words weighed on her soul. "And yet," Arya said softly. "Leaving those kinds of organizations free in the world will leave our enemies stronger - and once the Eilkan countries find out, they'll take full advantage of them. Maybe they'll ally with Kite and Selene's organizations, maybe they will subsume them. Either way, the Eilkans won't hesitate to mobilize - and if they learn from the two organizations that we've lost the Life Harp…"

Things would be dreadful.

"Yes, Genevieve," Arya said at last. "I will earn the enmity of my people. Perhaps, to an extent, I will deserve it. But I am convinced, Genevieve, that a lack of an action at this point will be more dangerous than the action itself. Bring Caesian here, Genevieve, so that I may speak on the mobilization of the armies. If my people hate me, I will endure."

Hope you guys enjoy the chapter! If you liked it, feel free to fave, follow, and review! I really like reading them!