Six days after the Jodim massacre, December 25, Christmas

Luke

I woke up to hear Helen yelling and jumping on me. "Daddy! Daddy! Wake up! It's Christmas!" She basically pulled me out of bed and out of the door, and then I clicked on the correct button on the elevator. The door closed, and Helen started jumping up and down. "What do you think that I'll get this year, Daddy?"

"I don't know, Helen. You'll have to find out!" The door opened, and Helen ran up the stairs at top speed. I just chuckled and went back down to my room to see what Selena was doing. She was just waking up when I walked back through the door.

"Let me guess: Helen pulled you through the door?"

"Correct." Selena chuckled at the turn of events.

"I mean, you did this to yourself. You told her about this, and it is her first Christmas." Selena grabbed the remote for the new Television that Gality installed in every room. She turned it on, and flipped to the news channel. The news was showing a group of small children attempting to make a Chansey out of snow when the topic suddenly changed.

"Breaking news! This is George Heartnlover of the Herhen region news, and the Gardevoir now labeled as "The Hero Slayer" has taken the life of Herhen protector Elisabeth Andersin, and destroyed the Christmas decorations!" Selena turned the television off and slammed the remote against the wall. I ran over and pushed the button to activate the anti-noise button in order to not bother other paterons. "This makes no sense! I know she struggled to stop herself from killing, but the news said 182 innocent civilians were killed, along with a protector of the region. That's mass murder!"

"I think that I have a reason."

"What?" Selena snapped.

"Well, assuming that Gality DID mind control Jubilee," I reasoned, ignoring Selena's anger. "Which I still can't prove directly, there are symptoms of that."

"And what are those? Selena asked concerningly.

"Well, these are possible. I found a book on this stuff at the Stevenston Library. It says the possible symptoms of mind control are psychosis, dementia, acting on a whim, low anger threshold, hallucinations, depression, and complete insanity."

"So… those are just… possible, right?"

"Correct. However, it is likely that, if my unfortunate hypothesis is true, she at least has one of these. I can eliminate psychosis, dementia, and hallucinations, since it seems that her battling and planning are not tampered with. She's also probably completely insane, but she could be partly insane, if that makes sense." There was a long pause as I just sat on my bed for a little bit. "Oh yeah!" I exclaimed, trying to change the subject. I went behind my nightstand and pulled out a present. "So do you remember when your wedding ring was blasted by Tapu Lele on our visit to Alola?" Selena nodded. "Well, open this." I gave it to Selena, and she opened the box, revealing a diamond ring.

"How did you get this?!"

"I had Gality make it for me. I told him about your last one, and he says that ring can apparently take the power of one of Gality's double Psycho Cuts. Selena put the ring on, walked over to my side of the bed, and hugged me.

"Its beautiful, Honey."

"Well, I'm glad you like it. We should probably get Helen and bring back the mountain of things that she probably got from her friends." I walked out the door and into the elevator, then up the stairs and to the park, which was covered in Christmas decorations. Helen ran up to us with a multitude of presents in her hands. We picked some of them up and started to walk back towards the room.

Steven

I walked into Gality's workshop to see him smoothing the corners on a piece of metal for most likely another project. "Gality!" I shouted over the noise of the machine. He stopped the machine, set the piece of metal on his bench, and took off his safety glasses.

"What, Steven?"

"Go back to your room! Why are you working on Christmas?"

"Because it's my job. But if you say go home, who am I to argue?" Gality walked through the doors of his workshop, holding some sort of present. I walked out of Gality's workshop and into the conference room, where Cynthia was waiting.

"So, you called me here, but what for? There's no one else here!"

"Well, I have something for you." Cynthia walked over to me with a present in her hands. "I know that you collect rare stones, but I have something that you may consider more valuable." I took the present and opened it, amazed at what I saw.

"The old photo at my house in Mossdeep?"

"Yes."

"This photo was taken the day I was crowned champion of Hoenn. Father told me to have a photo made to remember the moment. I wish he was still here. I haven't seen him in almost 200 years."

"Do what you want with that, Steven. I'm going to see how much of a mess the kids caused at the park." Cynthia walked through the doors of the conference room, and I followed her out, but headed up the stairs to my room to find a place to set the photo.

Luke

I got up from my side of the bed as I heard a knock on the door. I opened it to see Gality standing there, with a present in his hands. "Hello Gality! Who's that for?"

"You, Luke!" I grabbed the present and walked in the room, and Gality followed me. Selena looked up from the pile of wrapping paper she was under due to Helen.

"What's that, Luke?" Selea asked as more wrapping paper was added to the pile.

"We'll have to find out!" I opened the present as Helen jumped up on the bed to see what it was.

"Did you get a present, Daddy?"

"Yes, Helen!" I replied, picking up the red squares that were in the box. I clicked the button, and they materialized around my hands, then just stopped. :"So, Gality, what do these do excatly?"

"Let me show you!" Gality clicked a button on the right back of the machines, and both of them created red energy shields on both hands. I moved them around, and heard the quiet hum of the energy fields.

"What are those, Daddy?"

"These are the things that keep me from getting hurt." Gality motioned for me to follow him, and I did so. "Will you be alright, Selena?"

"Yes, as long as I don't move!" Selena replied as I shut the door. We made our way to the arena, which was empty that day, and down to the circle.

"So, what should I do, exactly?"

"Block!" Gality yelled as he ran at me and kicked. I put the shield in front of his foot, and he went flying backwards.

"That seems effective!"

"You don't say!" Gality remarked sarcastically as he pulled out a piece of technology and put it on. "Block this!" A yolley of different colored Psycho Cut-looking things came flying at me, and I used the shields to deflect all of them into the floors and walls. "Good. Behind!" Gality Teleported behind me, and I blocked the kick, sending him backwards.

"So, you want a fight, eh?" I asked as I put the shields away. Gality used Teleport, and I rolled to the right to dodge his attack, then I grabbed his leg after his next Teleport and threw him across the room. I then knocked him out of the air after he tried to save himself with Teleport, and he landed on the ground. I ran over and helped him up.

"How did you keep up with that?"

"Easy. I've fought you about ten times, and you tried that same maneuver eight times. YOu become predictable eventually."

"It seems like next time you want me to make up some new maneuvers."

"Well, yeah, I would like some challenge." Gality slapped me on the shoulder.

"You watch your mouth mister!" We both laughed off the arena battlefield and up to the spectator stands. Steven was there to meet us.

"Very interesting technology, Gality."

"Thank you, Steven."

"So, I don't want to overwork you, but what are the plans for your next piece of tech?"

"Well, I would want to…" Their conversation became quieter as they walked towards the main room, and me towards our room, since didn't have a tech mind like Gality or interest in it like Steven had. I walked back into our room to see Helen sleeping and Sleena wearing her best dress: Silver with red stripes at the forearms and waist.

"You should probably get dressed for dinner."

"Fair point." I went to the bathroom and changed into my best suit: Black with a silver X across the chest and a red outline. I walked outside of the base and through the large stone door with Selena, and then we walked towards Nomnher Town.

Selena

We walked up to the waiter running the reservations that night. "Table for two, Stonewall." I said to him. The Ursaring looked over the reservation sheet.

"Follow me." He said as he led us into the restaurant. The place was entirely blue, green, red, and lit by candles. The Usraring had us sit down at a booth at the far right corner of the place. "Your menus." He said, handing us the menus. We read over them, and he just waited for us to set them down. "You ready to order?" We both nodded, and he took out his order pad.

"I'll have a Wiki berry Prime cut with a drink of Kelpsy berry juice." I answered and gave the Ursaring my menu.

"I'll have a Raust berry burger with a water to drink." The Ursaring picked up Luke's menu and walked towards the kitchen.

"Figures that you would order a water at a fancy restaurant."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing." We sat in silence for a couple of minutes. "Didn't you tell me that you grew a couple of days ago?"

"I grew an inch since last year."

"How is that possible? You're 23, and should already be full grown. I mean, I'm 24, as you know, and I haven't grown in six years."

"I mean, I'm still only four foot eleven, which is still short for a Lucario of today, and shorter than Gality."

"What do you mean by Lucario of today?"

"Lucario used to be about three foor eleven."

"How would they fight?" I asked. Luke shrugged.

"I don't know. It would definitely be harder, but not impossible." Just then, the Ursaring brought us our food, and we dug in.

Luke

We climbed onto Henry the Charizard, who offered to take us back from the restaurant because he had a mission to do in the area. We flew into the air, going towards the base. "Hey Henry!" I shouted over the wind. He turned his neck to face me.

"What, Luke?"

"Was it sad that you had to take on a mission on Christmas day?"

"Yes, but someone had to do it, and I didn't want to mess up anyone else's day plans." I sat in silence for a while until I felt Selena fall against me, asleep. I chuckled to myself. Only Selena could fall asleep riding on a Charizard, I thought. We landed in front of the stone entrance, and I carried Selena off Henry.

"Thanks, Henry!"

"No problem!" Henry replied as he flew up to the flying Pokemon entrance. I carried Selena all the way to our room, where Helen was still sleeping. I set her down on her side of the bed and tucked her in. I changed into my pajamas and layed on my side of the bed.

"Goodnight, Selena." I whispered. "And I love you."