Renard paced before the Ruins entrance, trying to will his heart to cease its incessant drumroll against his ribs. Serena sat nearby, observing him with supreme nonchalance. A light breeze ruffled the snow vixen's pale blue fur, and her tails fluttered gracefully behind her, giving the translucent Ninetales a relaxed, regal demeanor in contrast to Renard's visible agitation.

"Should I assume you're stalling in the hopes of finding an excuse not to get involved?" Serena inquired suddenly, her snide tone stopping Renard in his tracks, and he cast her a reproachful look that she predictably ignored. "What's astounding to me is that a kit-age Leafeon is more courageous than a supercentenarian Ninetales," Serena continued, stretching her forelegs luxuriously before straightening up once more, her turquoise eyes glittering.

"Is ridicule the only means of communication you have, Serena?" Renard wondered dryly, taking a deep breath before sitting across from his translucent counterpart, his facial features gradually relaxing. "I thought you said we would collaborate on this matter," he added, focusing his attention fully upon Serena.

"No, I said that I assumed you wished to collaborate, based on our previous discussion," Serena countered pleasantly, and her tails fluttered, a subtle indication that the Alolan fox relished holding all the power in the conversation. A smirk tugged at her lips as she continued, "You have yet to confirm that you even want my help this time around."

"I do want your help," Renard insisted, his tails flicking irritably, and his crimson eyes narrowed slightly. "Although I'll insist you keep your ill-mannered tongue under control for the duration of the discussion," he added with a low growl.

"Oh?" Serena sneered, her eyes glittering with mischief. "Didn't you try fighting Diablos without my input once before? In what sense is this a collaboration if you deny me the option of talking to you?"

"I have no objection to you speaking in your usual manner," Renard clarified impatiently. "But we could do without your derisory commentary."

"Sheesh, tie a bitch's tails together, why don't you?" Serena griped, but the smirk remained upon her muzzle.

A sigh escaped Renard's lips and he rolled his eyes, internally debating whether it was even worth the headache to try and secure Serena's cooperation. He supposed he might have been asking for trouble by requesting she refrain from interjecting insults into every sentence, because now he was wondering whether he'd prefer the antagonism over the likelihood of Serena retaliating by doubling down on her uncouth mannerisms.

"Let's get right to the point," Serena practically purred and Renard blinked, shaking himself to dispel any haziness or confusion from his brain, and focused entirely on Serena. "The only chance you have of overcoming Diablos is to trust me."

"I...beg your pardon?" Renard wondered. Serena nodded, her eyes glittering in the sunlight.

"That was your mistake at the Chateau," she informed him casually, but there was a eerie coldness in her gaze that sent a shiver down Renard's spine. "You didn't trust me, and you made assumptions going in that cost you in the long run. Do you understand?"

Renard furrowed his brow, taken aback by Serena's soft, matter-of-fact tone. This was the complete opposite of how she had 'shared' information in the wake of the disastrous encounter at the Chateau, and his immediate impulse was to question the assertion, or ask for clarification. However, he knew Serena well enough to know that doing so would be a mistake. Serena despised having to spell everything out for him, so even if he ultimately disagreed with her insight, the correct approach was to take a moment to actually reflect on what she said before questioning its legitimacy.

"I understand that my approach was inherently flawed," Renard answered carefully. "I had no way of knowing the extent of Diablos' memory, and I underestimated the instability of my emotional state in confronting him. I believed that it was wiser to err on the side of caution than to succumb to his attempts to get a rise out of me."

"Good answer," Serena scoffed, and her eyes glittered dangerously. "In short, you knew of his power to read and influence a person's heart, and steeled yourself to resist that temptation, yes?"

"That is correct," Renard sighed. "I am already aware that my strategy did not work as intended."

"Exactly," Serena growled, and the temperature of the surrounding area fell by several degrees, the intangible Ninetales' eyes narrowing to slits. "You overcompensated for the sake of 'caution', and that was the mistake that allowed Diablos to see right through you. You believed any aggressive impulse was the result of his influence over me. Without consulting me beforehand, or even taking the time to check in with me in the moment, you opted for passive behavior. You didn't trust me to be anything but the negativity within your soul. You rejected me."

Renard flinched, averting his gaze uncomfortably. So that was the issue at the very heart of the matter, wasn't it? As the representation of his inner darkness, Serena embodied the feelings and desires that motivated him to take action in times of stress or crisis, but more importantly, she was a piece of himself, a part of his soul. It may be a stretch to consider her a separate entity than himself, but that did not mean she lacked personal feelings - on the contrary, it was necessary for her to have feelings, even ones that seemingly conflicted with her base personality. Even the most confident individuals cared, on some level, whether they were loved or accepted by others, and part of Serena's role was to connect with others on an intimate level, to crave the acceptance, admiration, or love of others.

"Serena," Renard began, his voice coming out slightly hoarse and constricted and he swallowed with difficulty, feeling as though a lump had formed in his throat. "If I upset you-"

"I'm not that delicate!" Serena snapped abruptly, her eyes glowing with eerie intensity for a moment, but then she smirked and swatted her paw at the air, as if shooing away an insect. "Besides, what does it matter? I'm not a separate person, I'm a part of you. It doesn't make a damn bit of difference whether you acknowledge the offense or not, nor does it matter if I was stung in the first place."

Renard creased his brow, but remained silent. In a queer sense, he supposed having open dialogue on the subject was a step forward, but at the same time, if Serena was hostile to his attempts to apologize for his unintentional slight against her, he knew there was little point in persisting on that front.

"There's no point in apologizing for a slight committed against oneself," Serena noted coolly, as if she were aware of what he was thinking. "It is little different from a self-depreciating thought, or scolding oneself for a mistake. Learn from it and move on. That's all that matters, isn't it?"

"Even so, I'd feel better if I apologized," Renard noted, knowing better than to try and cram said apology into the sentence while Serena was unlikely to be receptive to it. "Just so there won't be any hard feelings."

Serena blinked, and then snickered quietly, her translucent form shaking with mirth. Once her amusement subsided, the Alolan Ninetales made eye contact with Renard, her mouth curling into a smirk. "You're worried about hard feelings between us? How would you even imagine me holding a grudge? What would I even be able to do against you that wouldn't negatively affect me as well?"

"Serena, I recall you once using a curse that gave me insomnia for a week," Renard deadpanned.

"That was seventy-plus years ago," Serena countered, waving her paw dismissively. "And I didn't sleep a wink, either. Why did I even do that?" she wondered, tilting her head and touching a paw to her mouth thoughtfully.

"Let's not get off on a tangent now," Renard said solemnly. He glanced towards the Ruins entrance, a look of apprehension passing over his muzzle. It had been several minutes since Astrid and Leaf had gone inside, and the longer he waited before following, the more likely it was that they might be in danger. He couldn't just stand out here and allow anxiety to dictate his actions. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then boldly stepped inside the cave.

With the first hurdle overcome at last, he paused, his crimson eyes surveying the entrance chamber for any sign of enemies lying in wait. Once satisfied, he glanced over his shoulder to see that Serena had wordlessly followed his lead, her expression one of satisfied amusement.

"Serena, if trusting you is key to overcoming Diablos, I will put my faith in you," Renard told her solemnly, continuing down the path leading towards the central room of the Celestic Ruins. The sound of his paws padding along the smooth stone floor echoed faintly in the enclosed passageway, while Serena's footsteps made no sound at all. "However, such trust cannot be given blindly," Renard continued, glancing back at the intangible vixen following at his heels. "I must be certain that you will not take extreme actions in pursuit of vengeful or petty desires."

"Then focus your heart on Astrid instead of Lucia," Serena suggested snidely. Renard blinked at her inquisitively, and the Alolan Ninetales smirked smugly. "Even when you tapped into my power at the Chateau, you resisted, afraid that I wanted revenge for Lucia's sake," she explained. "Your heart was focused upon her because of the history connecting the two of you with Diablos, and the Lucarionite reminding you of her. Focusing on the dead will only fill you with hatred and sorrow. Focus instead on the living, and protect them."

Renard remained silent, taking a moment to digest what Serena was saying. Discovering the long-lost Lucarionite within the Chateau had definitely been what had dragged his sentimental feelings for Lucia to the surface, culminating in his self-restraint finally snapping when Diablos dared to insult her memory to his face immediately after denying him the right to regain ownership of the stone he had bestowed upon her so many years ago.

The Ninetales tightened his jaw at the memory, and the Key Stone around his neck blazed to life, illuminating the section of golden-white fur over his heart. Renard absently touched his paw to the glowing stone, and slowly let out his breath, clearing his mind of the unease that plagued his thoughts.

"Understood," he murmured, reaching the foot of the sloping path that led to the central chamber. His crimson eyes scanned the room, lingering on each of the ancient paintings and inscriptions etched upon the wall. It seemed like only yesterday that he had been a young Vulpix, exploring the Ruins with his mother as she taught him about Sinnoh's history. A sense of nostalgia washed over him, and a smile briefly graced his muzzle.

A pair of passageways at the back of the room led deeper into the cave, but Renard was familiar enough with the layout of the Ruins to know that it barely mattered which route one decided to take, because the paths converged to form a loop. The Ruins consisted of only four unique chambers: The central room that Renard presently occupied, the western room that contained the legend of the Sinnoh lake guardians gifting humanity with emotions, knowledge, and willpower, the eastern chamber containing similar myths pertaining to humanity's relationship with Pokemon, and the northern chamber, which was dedicated to the history of Sinnoh's creation.

"Hold on a second," Serena blurted, her eyes widening in sudden realization. "Why didn't my curse activate when Sera took the stone from Force?" she wondered.

Renard froze mid-step, the wheels turning in his head. In spite of Serena's insistence that he had subconsciously approved of placing a curse upon the Lucarionite, he wasn't entirely sure how the curse functioned. If he focused, he could pinpoint the stone's present location in the world, but the sort of negative effects it was designed to have, and what the triggering conditions might be, remained a mystery.

"Perhaps it doesn't work on Ghost-types?" he suggested.

"Are you dense? We wanted to make sure Diablos didn't tinker with it while Force was holding onto it," Serena sneered, her tails lashing in annoyance. "Why would I use a curse that wouldn't work on a ghost?"

"Never mind," Renard sighed, shaking his head. There were far more pressing concerns at the moment than speculating why Seraphina had managed to acquire the Lucarionite with seemingly no ill effects. "We can worry about such matters after the present situation has been resolved. I can still sense Diablos' presence within the Ruins," he murmured.

"His energy signature is strongest within the northernmost chamber," Serena agreed, her eyes glowing with an ethereal blue light. She glanced sideways at Renard, her mouth twitching. "It's attached to a very powerful aura."

Renard pursed his mouth. "Then he is possessing someone," he concluded solemnly. He really wasn't surprised by this revelation. Now that Diablos had been restored to his true form, it was expected that he would scatter several of the remaining Spiritomb souls across the region, casting a much wider net and expanding the range of his influence, all without putting his main form directly in the line of fire. Defeating Diablos for good would not be as simple as destroying one or two of his souls, and attempting to track down all of them, one at a time, would be an unprofitable diversion, especially with their current numbers. Perhaps that was going to be part of Diablos' strategy moving forward - to use those souls to manipulate and influence parts of the world while sticking to the shadows.

Scowling, Renard started towards the northeastern tunnel, only to stop dead in his tracks as his senses were bombarded by the most incredible fragrance. The anger he felt in the pit of his stomach faded away, and his mind felt like it had been wiped clean. His nose twitched, the exact nature of the smell evading his attempts to identify it, but it was simultaneously sweet and alluring, with a pleasant bitterness that sent a shiver along his spine.

"Hm?" Serena cast the male Ninetales a puzzled look, then sniffed the air tentatively. After a moment, she snorted disdainfully. "Salazzle pheromones," she sneered.

"I see," Renard murmured distractedly, shaking himself to try and dispel the haziness that was settling around his brain, but with every breath, he became increasingly aware of the scent's addictive quality. Attempting to ignore it only made its elusive flavor more intriguing, until every other concern started to feel unimportant. After several moments, Renard continued walking, no longer concerned with his intended destination, but eerily certain that he was on the correct path.

"Seriously?" Serena snickered, following in his wake. "Do males our age honestly still drop everything else at the vaguest promise of getting laid? They truly are the weaker sex, aren't they?"

"We would have to go this way, regardless," Renard argued, glancing over his shoulder in time to glimpse Serena's skeptical smirk. "Dealing with the situation is my top priority, Serena," he insisted solemnly.

"Oh?" Serena purred, her eyes lighting up with interest. "And if you can't stand firmly on your own legs, you'll trust me to act through you?"

Renard was silent for a moment, then nodded soberly. "Yes. Can I count on you for that, Serena?"

The snowy Ninetales snickered. "It'll be my pleasure," she purred.


Astrid shifted restlessly, the jittery sensation in her body a constant reminder that the disaster she sensed had yet to be averted. Leaf glanced over, then cleared his throat awkwardly to get the group's attention.

"Um, can you guys move out of the way now?" he asked, his eyes widening earnestly. Force and Iris exchanged a look, neither looking particularly inclined to oppose the request, but Cecilia's expression darkened, and she moved to deliberately block the path leading further into the Ruins.

"No," she answered bluntly, sitting back on her haunches to assume a more bipedal stance, and her flame vents blazing with renewed intensity. Astrid stifled a giggle, immediately recognizing that Cecilia was trying to appear intimidating, or at least trying to lend more credibility to her aim of blocking the passageway, but because the Quilava lacked the height and bulk of her evolved form, seeing her assume the stance of a Typhlosion only served to highlight how adorable she looked by comparison.

"Why not?" Leaf whined, seemingly oblivious to Cecilia's intention, although he was eyeing the active flame vents apprehensively.

"I'm not letting you get anywhere near Kaito after what you did to Force," Cecilia growled back, her blue eyes narrowing at the Leafeon. Iris went rigid and latched onto Force's arm, while the Lucario looked over at Cecilia in bewilderment.

"B-but I don't know what I did!" Leaf insisted, tears forming in his eyes as he anxiously retreated from Cecilia's flames.

"Tauros shit!" Cecilia snarled, turning her head and spitting a fireball at the ground beside her feet. Astrid bristled at once and shifted into an aggressive stance, emitting a low growl in warning. The Leafeon whimpered, shaking like a leaf as he tried to inch away from the agitated fire weasel without provoking her further. "You can't just pretend not to remember what happened and expect me to believe you! You tried to kill Force!"

"N-no, I didn't," Leaf protested weakly, tears rolling down his face as he attempted to take shelter behind Astrid's body. Iris' expression contorted briefly, and her body trembled as her eyes glistened with tears.

"Cecilia, calm down," the Lucario urged, cautiously extending a paw towards the irate Quilava, only to pull back with a hiss of profanity upon coming in contact with the superheated air surrounding Cecilia's body. "This isn't helping anything," he insisted through gritted teeth, shaking his singed paw.

"I don't care if it helps!" Cecilia shouted, her voice rising in pitch. "You and Iris said it would have been a fatal wound, and this little shit is saying it didn't happen! If you had died, he'd be getting away with it just by denying it! Iris was THERE! She saw it happen!"

"What are you planning to do about it?" Astrid interjected with a growl, pawing restlessly at the ground, her claws carving gouges into the stone floor. "You make even the slightest move to attack him, I'll rip you apart," she warned, not a trace of joking present within her tone. She had already mapped out the most vulnerable sections of Cecilia's body, and from this distance, it would probably take less than a second for her to tear open the Quilava's throat. She would even have the luxury of choosing whether to use her claws, scythe horn, or teeth, without sacrificing efficiency in the process.

Cecilia narrowed her eyes at Astrid, her flames now burning with the intensity of a miniature inferno. "I'm not letting you through," she growled stubbornly, her eyes blazing with determination. "You'll have to get through me if you want to get to Kaito, or any of my other friends."

"Yeah, and I can totally do that," Astrid noted dismissively. "But do I have to kill you, or will maiming be enough?"

"N-no, don't hurt her that much!" Leaf pleaded desperately, shaking his head frantically. "Shadow likes her!"

The Leafeon's outburst earned a bewildered look from the three opposing Pokemon, and Astrid seized that opportunity to pounce upon Cecilia. With instincts and reflexes honed from years of hunting prey, a split-second of distraction was all the Absol really needed to get the drop on her quarry, and because the Quilava had made the questionable decision of assuming a bipedal stance, her active flame vents were currently facing away from the Absol, minimizing the risk of getting burned.

Cecilia yelped in surprise and fear, but by the time she had realized what was happening, it was too late to do anything about it. The Absol plowed into the fire weasel's unguarded torso, toppling her backwards with absurd ease. If Astrid so wished, she could have snapped her jaws around the Quilava's throat, slashed her stomach open with her claws, or selected any number of similarly horrific endings generally reserved for prey species, but she deemed such measures unnecessary for now. With a triumphant growl, Astrid slammed her forepaws against the Quilava's shoulders, pinning her firmly against the ground, and then planted her hindquarters down on the fire weasel's lower body, ensuring that Cecilia was completely immobilized, with the bonus of smothering her flames against the stone floor.

The Quilava squirmed and thrashed beneath her captor's weight, growling as she vainly tried to slip away. Her eyes blazed with anger and she opened her mouth, preparing to launch a stream of fire point-blank into the Absol's face.

Expecting such a tactic, Astrid's body shimmered with a pale blue light, and just as a tongue of flame glowed from Cecilia's maw, Astrid clamped her mouth around a sphere of blue energy formed within her jaws. A spiraling tornado of water unexpectedly erupted from the ground, completely drenching both females and extinguishing the Quilava's flame vents with a loud hissing sound. Cecilia coughed and sputtered as water filled her mouth, stifling the jet of flame she had produced, and leaving her gasping for air once the wave receded.

"Is this good enough, or do I have to scratch you a few times?" Astrid wondered, her tail wagging slightly.

"Bite me," Cecilia spat, before lapsing into a small coughing fit, likely the side effect of inhaling a mouthful of water. Astrid tilted her head thoughtfully.

"I hope you don't mean that literally," she giggled, opening her mouth to show off her carnivorous fangs. "That might hurt, even if I just gave you a nip at your shoulder or whatever."

"No, don't hurt her!" Leaf pleaded.

"I'm not going to hurt her," Astrid reassured him, but then narrowed her eyes sternly at the captive Quilava. "But I wasn't about to just sit back and let you threaten Leaf, either," she growled.

Cecilia attempted to squirm away, but Astrid had a significant advantage in terms of weight, mass, and experience. She wasn't going anywhere without some sort of outside interference. Cecilia seemed to realize this as well, because she stopped struggling, her eyes trembling as she gazed around the room with visible desperation.

Then, without warning, the fire weasel broke down, her mask of anger and defiance peeling away to expose the vulnerable emotions underneath. Her blue eyes filled with tears, and she choked back desperate sobs, her lip quivering as she fought vainly to regain her composure.

Astrid had witnessed the use of Fake Tears innumerable times over her battling career, often because Blizzard got a kick out of using it on people who weren't expecting it, so she had a knack for distinguishing when someone was faking an emotional outburst to gain sympathy, and when it was genuine. Such emotional appeals tended to be wasted on her, anyway.

"I d-don't want anyone else to d-die," the Quilava whimpered, sniffling loudly and closing her eyes tightly in a vain attempt to stem the tears rolling down her cheeks. Iris looked for a moment like someone had just stabbed her in the heart, and Force's aura antennas shifted, prompting him to look over at his weeping companion with a deeply uncomfortable expression. "I c-can't h-handle it," she sobbed, her voice trembling so badly that it was astonishing that she managed to finish the sentence at all.

Astrid felt frozen in place, a rare moment of complete indecisiveness. She had absolutely no idea what Cecilia was freaking out about, but was just suspicious enough that she didn't think it was a good idea to back off, either.

"F-force almost d-died," Cecilia continued, so distraught at this point that she didn't even seem to notice, or care, that other people were nearby. "After R-rio...I c-can't...what am I...h-how can I...?"

"Get off her," Iris abruptly ordered, her voice brimming with unexpected authority, and Astrid blinked, so taken aback that she complied without question, retreating from the downed Quilava. Iris went over to Cecilia and knelt beside her.

Leaf cocked his head in confusion and started to approach, only for Astrid to block his path with her foreleg. He looked up at her inquisitively, and she shook her head, wordlessly signaling for him to stay close to her and give the other Pokemon space. From the corner of her eye, she spotted a hint of frustration in the Leafeon's gaze, but when she looked over again, the expression had already disappeared.

Cecilia had gotten back to her feet with Iris' assistance, but her tears kept falling. Iris wrapped her arms around the Quilava's neck, whispering reassurances in her ear, unbothered by the Quilava's damp fur, or that she was sobbing into her shoulder.

Force shifted awkwardly, clearly unused to witnessing one of his companions falling apart like this. Finally, he went over to his companions and whispered something to Iris, who relayed the message to Cecilia. After a moment of whispered conversation, the Lucario straightened.

"Iris and I will be taking Cecilia out of here, and then come back to collect Kaito," he announced. "After that..."

Force abruptly trailed off, his nose twitching, and his eyes glazed over slightly. Astrid tensed, recognizing the symptoms even before she sniffed the air to confirm. Predictably, her senses were immediately bombarded with a sweet, alluring fragrance that seemed even more potent than the strain of perfumed toxins Circe had used at the Solaceon Ruins. The sudden pause did not go unnoticed by the Lucario's peers, and Iris looked up at him inquisitively.

"Um...Force?" she called out tentatively, but the Lucario was peering distractedly down the tunnel leading further into the Ruins, inhaling deeply through his nose. "Force?" Iris called again.

"You should probably go before it gets worse," Astrid suggested seriously, earning a bewildered look from the Kirlia. "Salazzle expel some kind of pheromone-laden perfume strong enough to bend males to their will," she explained rapidly. "To put it into perspective, at the Solaceon Ruins, Shadow was manipulated into intercepting my Dark Pulse."

"Yeah, and then I kicked her stupid tail," Leaf chimed in, puffing his chest out proudly. His nose twitched, and he shivered slightly, his eyes glazing over. "It does smell good, though," he murmured distractedly.

Iris looked appropriately unnerved by this revelation, glancing between Force and Leaf uncertainly. "Wouldn't Kaito be affected, then?" she wondered, before getting a really weird look on her face. "Wouldn't Kuro be affected?"

"I don't know who that is," Astrid replied brightly. Iris shook her head distractedly and closed her eyes in focus. A moment later, the other three Pokemon disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Astrid and Leaf alone. The Absol frowned and looked over her shoulder at the tunnel they had arrived through. "Shouldn't Renard have caught up by now?" she griped.

"Maybe he took another path," Leaf suggested, closing his eyes and breathing deeply through his nose, his leaf-like tail flicking contentedly.

"Oh, that's right, there are two paths," Astrid muttered distractedly. Her heart was hammering inside her chest again, but at the same time, she felt the ever-familiar surge of anticipation that came right before an important battle or event. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that she was shaking with excitement, rather than fear. She hungered for the battle ahead. This was going to be her first major encounter with the malevolent ghost since Eterna Forest, and she felt much better prepared to handle him this time.

She glanced down at the glowing white stone embedded in her foreleg bracer, purring as she felt its energy gently coursing through her limbs. If Renard and his Key Stone were nearby, then she would probably be able to safely tap into the Absolite's full power, which should be enough to give her an edge over Diablos. Her inability to fully control that power had been her undoing at the Solaceon Ruins, but she also hadn't been in the proper mindset at the time.

This time would be different. She was sure of it.

Predator Game, First Round