Gift of the Protector: Pristine Embrace

by Edge Feyera

A young man eager to absolve his past sins sets out to finish his perilous quest. As he'll soon discover, forgiveness is not so easily found. Sometimes the consequences of conflict are more important than the causes. Where will his journey take him? Can he discover what truly matters in life? And will he be able to find solace in the arms of another? Find out as a new saga emerges.

11. Fight of a Fallen Angel

Chapter 11: Fight of a Fallen Angel

---

A tight focus on the details. Fear morphed into unparalleled perception with the beat of the heart. Once sharp breaths turned into desolate exhales as Feyera looked at their perilous situation.

Edge and Sana were surrounded. Six total. Four Pokemon and two people circling up to them from behind. And Edge knew exactly who the two people were, from not only his dreams, but also as aspects of his murky past.

Sana rocked her head to and fro as Feyera looked past her thick green hair. "VEH FEYERA?!" Sana nervously squeaked, uncertain as to what to do. They had come out of nowhere in this deceivingly vacant storage room. Feyera tightened his grip on the Gardevoir's healthy hand.

His thoughts scrambled, but he found no consoling facts. No strategy relevant to his predicament. All he could do was take in a deep inhalation, followed by a long sigh. We can't do anything, he admitted. They were outnumbered and outmatched.

It was over. They were both caught. The once hope-filled chance to escape now seemed to be a distant dream, isolated by both impassable space and impenetrable confusion. It was an ethereal separation dividing Chris Feyera and Sanaria from the world they would flee to if given the chance. That final distance could simply not be traversed. And yet the open harbor remained cruelly in sight. A bright light symbolizing escape at the end of this room was sardonically closed off by the cold click, resolutely affirming mutual dread.

It all culminated in the simple notching of a weapon, and the soft hum of its contents. A blur of machine and smoky light cut off hopefulness.

"But veh Feyera…!" Sana said in panic as her core began to expel heat, elevating in rhythm and treble. Feyera could sense the impenetrable distress as a sour taste filled his mouth. He swallowed dryly.

The world around them had been snap-frozen by the icy tone splitting forth from her smooth jawline as she stood side by side next to a tall man holding an oversized handgun. Her lips perked together tightly, the dark olive green one piece she wore closely followed her toned body complimenting her flat black shoes, and her frameless spectacles reflected light as brilliant prisms would, cutting between splintered locks of overhanging red hair.

"L—Lorelei?" Feyera belted in disbelief. "W—what …are you doing here?!"

"I should be asking you the same question, Chris." She clutched tightly on the Poké Ball in her hand saying, "You've neglected to tell me a great deal; I'm going to take you in to custody."

"Wait!" Feyera looked down at his stolen Team Rocket uniform, "I—I can explain all this."

"Oh can you?" she asked. She then looked over at Sana, who in turn winced with uncertainty. "Can you really, 'Mister Feyera'?"

"Veh Feyera…don't…no, you can't…" Sana's telepathic thoughts flew from scenario to scenario; focus was as distant a dream as sweet escape from here.

"Yes," he said as Sana gently pulled her shivering hand away. The cold vents above rumbled a soft hum as the air conditioner kicked on with a far off blast.

Feyera felt this uncertainty, for most of it was his own feeding into Sana's, and sent back through an intercreate tie of growing emotional dependence. Although their captors could not see it, the two of them shared a mental bond connecting their emotional disarray like a tight foundation, binding them together as cement would. And to his knowledge, such a bond was not expanding its tendrils. The way it encroached upon both of their essences made it hardly noticeable.

He tried to tell Sana to keep calm and let him talk his way out of this, but he realized in horror that his thoughts of consolation would probably be projected to Lorelei and the man at her side.

Relax, Edge said through telepathy. A lie. A hypocritical statement. It was the very opposite of every impulse his body put him through. A living and visible contrast piercing out of his sternum bone.

The tall man garbed in a white coat cut in front of Lorelei, waving his advanced firearm at Sana's chest. As he strolled before them, his lab jacket wafted behind him, much like an elegant snowy robe. His face was angular like a fox's. It showed little emotion in its taut form and angular lines. His jet-black hair mopped his narrow face, spiking in certain unkempt areas along the back of his head, and a single branch of the straight hair drooped in front of his clean-shaven face. On his thin snakelike nose, he wore a pair of glasses similar to Lorelei's. They were frameless, however their rectangular prism's starkly contrasted Lorelei's jaded crescents. He opened his nearly lipless mouth and spoke plainly, "You ought to take your own advice, Chris."

"You…you're Ein," Edge said as he put both his hands against his hips, winging his elbows outwards. He remembered meeting this man from the dream memory of the Progenitor Procedure—reawakened through Fredrick's Hypnosis. He had the same darkened eyes, the same pale skin, and the same desiccated demeanor.

"Yes." The frail scientist, now taller than Mister Feyera, still looked the same even after two long years; not aging much from his late twenties. Even if Ein had changed over the years, there was no questioning the fact that Edge had heard his very same voice from the computer terminal back in Team Rocket's Celadon Headquarters.

Lorelei cautiously watched as an emotionless Ein marched in slowing procession, still aiming his technologically advanced weapon at Sanaria. Her hushed breathing belied her fear of the mechanized particle weapon. The device Chief Ein held reminded Feyera of a pistol the Rockets used, possibly most similar to a Gauntlet—M class. It was of a similar design, being held by one hand, as a typical magnum would be. Yet its over-sized shape and glossy silver construction told Edge otherwise. Gauntlets were weapons that fired metal slugs in rounds of six from a revolving chamber, and this weapon had no such rotating clip, only a single bolted stock inserted below the grip. But perhaps the most important detail were the two fang-like metal rods splitting out of the firearm's mouth. That could mean only one thing: RAIL technology. No projectiles, just pure energy. An instant death sentence even for Edge. Psyonics could not touch a man without emotions, nor could they belittle a RAIL energy beam.

Don't fight him, he warned Sana. Feyera looked at her to see that she was indeed complying by steadily watching Ein with her cherry eyes as he circled. The man's stride began to wane as he fought a smile, bringing both his eyes to Edge's chest in amusement.

"But Chris…!" Sana said through closed lips.

"Ah so the young man does have more than a pebble for a brain after all!" Ein said with a smirk.

"W—what have you been up to since we last met?" Feyera fretted over his words.

Ein sharply answered, "I'm in charge of preserving this island's natural ecology. You've made a large mess already, and I'm afraid there needs to be intervention." He raised a hand and signaled to his Pokemon to approach.

Edge looked to his side and saw that there were four of them. A cluster of three Magnemite bunched together, their silver bodies revolving around an invisible central point as they levitated off the ground occasionally releasing bright yellow sparks. Their magnets spun in unison, while their three sharp eyes honed in on Sana and Chris. As they did so, dim red beams traced the pair's narrow forms. Next to the constellation of Pokemon working in tandem with one another, was a large Pokemon defined by its numerous edges and slants. The polygons comprising the Pokemon's body alternated between red and dodger blue as it hovered off the ground on its two bent in tetrahedron prism legs, occasionally whipping its pointed tail as if it were an overactive antenna.

"Ein," Feyera tapped his foot anxiously, "you make me laugh. You're no ecologist!"

Ein shook his head, "Why don't you tell that to the government?"

"The government?!" blasted Edge.

"Miss Lorelei Carese, I willingly gave you a complete tour of our facility here did I not?"

"Yes." Lorelei nodded, "It was clean and mentioned in the report I submitted."

"Good," Ein said with a smirk. "I can't have that –oh-so…important– detail overlooked by anyone wanting to smear my good name."

"Lorelei!" Feyera said worriedly, but she continued to glare at him with icicles in her eyes.

"Chris. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Feyera pointed at the tall scientist at her side. He hollered confusion, "What do you think you're doing in cahoots with Ein!?"

"That does not concern you, young man," Ein sternly said.

"Mister Feyera, you've eluded justice long enough," she hissed as her soft fingers gently caressed the Poké Ball in her hand.

"What?!" Edge shouted. Feyera again dramatically pointed at Ein with a stiff finger saying, "He's the guy you want! He's the one who's running his own private testing facility here on Chrono Island! They're doing terrible things here to innocent Pokemon! I've seen it."

"Psyonics…" Ein muttered under his breath. "When not curtailed properly, they deconstruct the subject's precious mental stability, Miss Carese. This causes wild and convoluted stories to emerge…*Sigh*…in addition to a heightened teenage invincibility complex."

"So they do," Lorelei agreed, recalling with distrust how she had lost her memory and forced to accompany Feyera to Chrono Island. Her expensive yacht was damaged, and she was left alone in a storm unsure of anything. If Ein and his fellow scientists had not rescued her then she would have been in serious trouble, for at the time she only carried on her person a single Pokemon. Her closest friend and partner since the days of her youth.

"Mister Feyera now sees himself as some type of god; unfortunately for him, the reality his mind has chosen to accept and the one we dwell in are vastly different," Ein smoothly said as he slicked his hair back with a bony hand.

"NO!" Edge defiantly retorted, "Lorelei, he's lying to you! Ein has been running a sick operation here on Chrono Island all along. Harming Pokemon, using them for testing! Remember how I told you about 'Evercrest' in Pallet?!"

"Chris, Gideon's faithfully defending this ecological reservation from the members of Team Rocket who came here as per your orders," she said whilst shaking her head. The Elite Four member removed a small personal digital assistant from her snug fitting attire. "You're the criminal. I was told…shown…everything. Having psyonics does not warrant the…cruel things you've done."

"Cruel things?!" Edge said as he began to perspire. Everything had been turned on its head.

Sana rocked her head to the side and crossed her slender legs, uttering softly, "Veh Feyera, it's going to be okay right? We're going to be okay…?"

I…I hope… Edge projected, causing Lorelei to slightly recoil seeing his lips not move yet hearing his voice.

Lorelei tried to speak gently, but it was evident that she remained very afraid of Edge's psyonics. "Chris…You need professional help," she insisted. "I cannot believe you kidnapped me and crashed my yacht. What were you thinking…?"

"He needs to be realigned, Miss Carese. His mental stability is just not there," Ein said to Lorelei. Then he menacingly glared at Feyera's Gardevoir heart, "Humph, at least not anymore."

"I'm not some crazy!" Edge pleaded to her. "You remember meeting me in Pallet Town when I received my first Pokemon from Oak! You even read part of my dissertation…"

"—Which was shamelessly stolen from me!" Ein interjected.

"W—what?" Edge asked the coldhearted scientist.

"Do you even know what a Pro-Ionic Psy-Amp is 'Doctor' Feyera?" Ein asked beaming wildly. "From your research. You know…the research you came up on your own; the research you did not snip from me."

"I didn't snip anything…!" Edge argued. But in Ein's eyes, the young man had taken more than he accused him of: the Mercury Relic was far more valuable. It was a one of a kind artifact capable of bending the very foundation of all rationality, much like his psyonics.

Ein brushed his foot in a semicircle on the floor saying, "Care to tell us in layman's terms about how PI-PA coefficient pertains to a subject's mental variance?"

"I…I…" Feyera muttered, clearly unable to recall these rapports.

"Aw come now, you researched that didn't you? Wasn't that your project young man?" Ein said lightheartedly.

"M—my project…?" he said as he looked at Sana. The Gardevoir wore a face of distress, and her eyelids involuntarily fluttered with every motion in the room.

Ein watched as Feyera sought comfort from the Gardevoir next to him. His grin only widened, "What's the matter Feyera?"

"N—No…you're just…"

"—I'm just exceptionally good at reading what you researched," Ein smartly responded.

"No!" Edge shouted as his fevered passion pitched. He could feel the burning heart warming his essence.

"Feeling a little expressive?" Ein said, nudging Edge further along with his crafty words. "Feeling things a little bit more heartily than usual?"

"W—why…? Why are you…?" Feyera stammered. His head drooped down to make sure that his Gardevoir heart was not on fire. Despite its tame appearance, the physiological effects were already taking place at a molecular level. Edge had no idea, he just felt it. Through this building of deep internal pressure, he continued to babble, "You can't expect…"

But Ein swiftly broke him off, "Let's try something easier: *Ahem!* referring back to page seventy-six of your dissertation: 'Concerning the Paranormal', and I quote, 'By constructing a geometric Möbius band of refined Mercurius around the deoxyribonucleic acid's double helix, one can in fact utilize rapidly alternating alpha waves to manipulate the subject's natural coding through the famed 'Island of Stability' only found in Mercurium's heavier processed isotope, causing peripheral cellular transmission."

"What…?" asked Feyera, still trying to decode what Ein was even talking about. It had something to do with genetics and possibly the Reilken Mercurius. Or at least the radioactive element Mercurium in general. He thought about the Mercury Relic. "Mercurius? Stability?"

"Ah yes, the 'Isle of Stability' keeps Mercurium from degrading itself in the typical half-life cycle many radioactive elements are prone to, allowing for lasting permanency when the isotope's nucleic shell structure is just right," Ein said.

"So you are telling me Mercurius…Mercurium is radioactive…?" Edge asked.

"Radioactive?! Feyera, have you just graduated grade school?" Ein raised his head as his glasses reflected the fluorescents. "Pah! Your infantile terms amuse me greatly."

"Answer my question!" Feyera yelled.

"Oh Mercurium is quite notorious I'm afraid," Ein smirked, "but as a living organism, 'radiation' is the least of your concerns when dealing with processed three-hundred-thirty-seven Mercurium isotopes."

"Then this…this is all…" Feyera whispered.

"Though it takes a painstakingly long method to process—so that the radiation does not outright kill the cells, nor allow the super heavy Ununseptium nucleus undergo spontaneous fission—it has been shown to be synthesized by prior generations…as you are undoubtedly aware, Mister Feyera."

Lorelei raised a brow as Ein's greedy eyes gazed upon Feyera's torso with complete fascination. "Gideon?" she asked in a hushed tone.

"—And through such a process of refinement, it can cause living matter to mesh together by cleaving membranes, breaking apart barriers and generating a localized stem cell effect—thereby allowing for future growth to take place by any means mandated by all present genetic encoding," said Ein, ignoring Lorelei completely.

"Wait," Feyera blurted out the most emotionally charged statement since he had entered the facility and perhaps since he learned about the true nature of his predicament, "is it—can it be—revisable?"

Ein exposed his porcelain teeth asking, "Now why on earth would that even be an issue, Mister Feyera? You never mentioned such a thing in your dissertation!"

Feyera fought the strain of potential imprisonment, "Because I…"

Ein interjected with a jeer, "—That would be going backwards. Akin to us reverting back to living in caves as glorified two legged apes."

"But there needs to be a way to undo…" Edge said to Ein, as the two researchers gracefully danced about an oblivious Lorelei with their words.

"Humph! Rare as it is, naturally occurring Mercurius was key to the very first life organisms on this planet, fusing the first true living cell together from various individual components," Ein pointed at his body saying, "do we look like simple amoebas anymore? No, we have many different complex parts."

"B—but if there was a problem with the result…?" Chris stammered as Ein waved his arm.

Ein completely disregarded Feyera's angst and droned on, "How else would mitochondria have joined together with a nucleus? Beyond the first breath of life, simple single celled organisms needed to advance…they needed to grow…they needed to merge, and form a greater whole."

"Merge…?" Edge asked as he looked at Sanaria through Progenitor tainted eyes.

"Feyera you're…you have Seph's…"

"—Every instance of this has happened through a random slew of inexplicable epochs, all of which fuel life's desperate evolution. However, what happens when the furnace's flame begins to waver? What occurs when natural order stalls?"

Feyera quietly stood facing Ein and his threatening pose.

"'When change stops, life stops progressing; and consequently, it needs to be rebooted by force.' Don't you recall writing that key footnote on page forty-two of your text?" Ein hissed.

"Huh?" Feyera quavered, "I…"

"My, oh my, such brilliance. In awe, I simply cannot comprehend your lofty intellect," mocked Ein, "come now, would you care to explain the final, most recent chapter's title: 'The Process of Geometric Gene Sequencing' to us? Surely you recall something that contemporary!"

"I…you're making things up," Feyera said dazed and confused.

"The writing is a bit choppy here and there, but it was you who wrote it no?" Ein's reflective glasses mirrored Lorelei's as he tilted his head. "It is your work right? 'Concerning the Paranormal: A Thesis on Psychic Pokemon and Genetic Quandaries' was written by you, am I right?"

Edge gasped. Lorelei studied the trainer's worried face from behind her frameless glasses. "I had amnesia!" he retorted.

Ein lit up, "You did!? How awful! And simultaneously convenient for your brilliant scientist charade."

"Chris?" asked Lorelei. "You lied about yourself? Did you honestly think I wouldn't catch on?"

"N—no! You don't understand, it wasn't like that…Sana…I mean my psyonics robbed me of my memories!" Edge said, catching his slipup that wanted to blame Sanaria for his predicament.

"Psyonics eh?" Ein saw that Edge now lay against the brink of panic and decided to twist the knife further in saying, "Oh wait…let us consider a much more likely rational…maybe it was you who stole my dissertation! It coincides with your history as a revolting thief."

"I'm not a crook!" Edge retorted.

Ein's single strand of diverging hair wobbled with his delighted expression, "Ah ha, now that is something you like to do don't you? Heh, you have plenty of experience right? Must've been just like when you robbed the Pokemon Sanctum two years ago! You rotten criminal; how you evaded the authorities for so long is quite the impressive stunt."

Edge looked back at Lorelei, whose face was frozen in anxiety. She still held out her Pokemon's Poké Ball, unsure of whether or not confrontation would be necessary. The Elite Four member hoped Feyera would go quietly. Her lip twisted as she bit nervously on her worn-down cerise lipstick, "Justice…needs to be served Feyera."

"You can't believe him, Lorelei," Feyera said, all but defeated. "You just can't…"

"There's only one thing here I cannot believe, and that's you Mister Feyera." Lorelei straightened her posture asking, "Why?! Why did you do all of these terrible things?!"

"I didn't do any of those things!" Feyera shouted. "Ein's deceiving you!"

"Likely story," said Ein proudly. "Continue to lie Feyera; your fear simply oozes off you. You're so dreadfully afraid…not because of what you've done, but because you've been finally caught. It sickens me. Where's your conscience?!"

"Lorelei, he's…he's…" Edge stammered out in confusion. Ein was the last man to expect integrity.

"What is he Feyera?" Lorelei demanded whilst straightening her glasses. "What is he?! His story has no inconsistencies. Yours is as stable as your shaking hands!"

Feyera looked down to find that his hands were not only shaking, but his entire body also quivered uncontrollably thanks to his Gardevoir heart augmenting the fear and weaving it into a physical manifestation, making the emotions as real as a pitching fever. He hated it. It was crippling him and he knew it. Yet there was nothing to do to stop it.

"I'll tell you exactly what I am Mister Feyera," Ein said looking at Edge's face, now swollen with primal fear. "I am a guardian angel of sorts. I run a sanctuary for the precious indigenous Pokemon here. I help to protect them from filth like yourself, and what do you do?"

"N—nuhh—no…I…" Feyera could hardly take the compulsory fear from Ein's twisted rational. The way Ein exploited his emotions burned. He felt the psychic synapse of his heart shard begin to converge deeper into his mind, like a driving rail. Drilling deeper and deeper into unfathomable annexes.

"Humph!" Ein said holding his breath, "You waltz into this secure complex wearing your Team Rocket uniform, ready to prey on all the good things we do here! Awful. Pah! Simply awful. Why don't you tell us how many more rockets are on the island killing the endangered Pokemon no thanks to you?"

"I'm…I'm not…" Edge said speechlessly. Ein was beyond conniving. How had he convinced Lorelei? The rockets were right there in the Evercrest facility. Perhaps she was the reason for the mandate that Will and Terry were talking about outside the complex. He still could not think of a reason to convince Lorelei of his innocence. He was bound to emotion, and that emotion pulled him into a dark pit of uncertainty and doubt. It tugged, engrossed, and commandeered his heart as it would a Gardevoir's, leaving no room for reason. How he hated it.

Ein saw the trainer's Progenitor rimmed eyes dart about frantically in stress. "So let's 'cut to the chase' as they say: why are you here Mister Feyera? Have you come to try and steal some more from me?"

Edge shook his head, "No…I…I need your help Ein…"

Sana looked at Feyera skeptically. She raised a brow, but remained completely silent.

Ein smiled, aware the trainer's predicament all too well. "Oh do you now? 'I—I need your help Ein'," he mimicked. "Pah! After all the trouble you've caused, now you need my help Chris?"

He did. Edge looked down at his heart shard. He dared not reveal the Reilken Mercurius he wore yet, nor did he want to show Ein the altered skin patch surrounding it. But it was more than obvious that he shared the same type of anatomical emotional beacon as the one on Sana's chest.

"With what I wonder…?" Ein asked as sarcastically as possible. "Seems unlikely you would need help with anything. You're overflowing with resourcefulness! But go on, tell me, it sounds like you have something important you want to get off your chest!"

Feyera tapped the metal shard protruding from his chest and sighed.

"What could you possibly need my help with?" Ein continued to slavishly ape.

"I—I didn't always have psyonics," Feyera said in a hushed tone.

Ein's eyes snapped open wide in pleasure, as he looked back and forth from Edge to Sana and then back to Edge again. Exactly the same projecting chest shard. His apparent scheming was palatable. The scientist glanced at Lorelei with his shifty and squinting dark eyes behind thin glasses.

"Hmmm…" Oddly, the scientist decided not to address the blatant similarities between Feyera and the Gardevoir at his side. Nor did he call any attention to the replicated heart shard. He only made one association, "You would even taint your own…hurm…your own Pokemon with that filthy Team Rocket criminal attire, which borders Pokemon abuse!"

Lorelei looked at Sana, and her rage built, "What is the meaning of doing this Feyera?" She quickly glanced down at a small PDA and scrolled with a thin finger. "…Charmeleon, Gyarados, Gloom…There's no record of a Gardevoir on your trainer card."

"Chris…" Sana whispered worriedly. "You can't let them…"

"Listen, I found this Gardevoir here on Chrono Island." Feyera uncomfortably looked over at Sana, who still looked quite out of place in a Team Rocket uniform. Nevertheless, her dark appearance haunted Edge to a certain degree.

"That doesn't explain the abuse you have been giving it!" Ein shouted. "You honestly think that you can justify your dressing up of a Pokemon in criminal attire…?"

"She's not…!" Edge looked over and the incriminating evidence against him was all too clear.

"What have you done, Chris?" Lorelei asked.

"I promise that it isn't what you think…if you would just hear out my story…!" Edge fussed.

But Ein took no time in between further accusations, "Hell, you even attempt to charade as one of them—wearing an imitation Gardevoir horn upon your chest! Who are you trying to fool? Her? You think she wouldn't know the difference between one of her own and an imposter!? What other vile things have you done to that female Gardevoir Chris?"

Sana rocked her head back and forth, "No…!"

Feyera shivered at Ein's final sentence, knowing that he was in fact dangerously bordering pokephilia. He gained the courage to address the initial questioning, passionately saying, "Your guards wore the same ones Ein! How do you think I got ahold of these Team Rocket uniforms on the island?"

"Guards?" Ein asked with a devilish grin, "What guards?"

"Guards. YOUR idiot guards all too eager to take their break! The ones by the entranceway we just came through!" Edge said flustered by the innocence portrayed by Ein. He pointed back towards the door, feeling able to logically prove his innocence. "They're back there!"

"Mister Feyera…I am afraid you are terribly mistaken. That or highly delusional no thanks to being a rouge psyonic. There is only one type of guard I have on premise—" he nodded at his Porygon.

The synthetic Pokemon's eyes flashed and projected a choppy image onto to the empty warehouse's steel floor panels. The image quality, although fuzzy and hazy, showed all of them beyond a doubt Chris Feyera's face as he ran towards the Evercrest facility's open door. No details were lost, from his green haloed eyes to the way he carried himself in a quick dash. Sana followed him close behind in the image, but the focus remained on him. It must have been the motion sensing cameras they passed on the way in; Feyera felt like a fool for thinking his plan to bum rush the facility would actually work. Ein was ready for him in every possible way. Why didn't he rationally think his plan through? Did he even have the capability to any longer? Why was everything based on emotion?

"…I would never trust people to do what my machines do best day and night. Porygon's custom-built 'Security-Network-Triad' Software or 'SN-Tri' for short, monitors the entire facility day and night. Its eyes are as much on you right now as they are on the harbor," claimed Ein.

As the tall dark haired scientist said this, Porygon's eyes flickered twice in bursts of white and the image displayed then showed the Island's bay from the nearby berths. The soft waves lapping against the metal docks over a few hundred feet away were right here in this projected screen originating from the Porygon's radiant eyes. With another "Click!" the image changed to the various points of entry and internal corridors including the one Sana and he had just run through to get here. Eventually after scrolling through the various scenes, the image became an aerial view of them standing in a circle. Feyera's jaw dropped at the sight, he quickly looked up to see a large camera eye bearing down on all of them. He had walked right into a hornet's nest, and they were watching him every step of the way.

"…!" the trainer gasped.

"Nothing like a good security system, eh Feyera? Something that covers all the potential variables, always adapting accounting for your…heh…eh heh," Ein began to chuckle softly, as if he had thought of something incredibly clever, "Ahem!…unexpected variable change."

"We saw you enter the compound, Chris," Lorelei confessed. "You were trying to sneak in. Ein and I watched the SN-Tri."

"Good then Lorelei, you must have seen the other two Rockets then," Edge said.

"No," Lorelei sighed, "you are delusional. There was only you that the cameras detected."

"The only Rocket in my base is you, Feyera!"

"I can show you where the Rocket grunts went. I promise you, they are real! We passed them on the way to this room!" Edge said in a panic. "They're back in the Break Room!"

Lorelei kept a cool demeanor and refused to address the wild claims being made by Feyera. Why would she believe a word he said? He was psychotic. Proven to be so by Ein's carefully spun words. Sigh sighed, "I'm sorry Chris Feyera. There is no excusing your actions. I'm afraid you need to be taken into custody."

"Oh well now…I'm not so sure…" began Ein, but he quickly sealed his lips.

Lorelei paused and looked over at Ein. The lean scientist held himself off from saying anything more, pressing the side of his index finger to his sharp chin.

He heard a faint telepathic noise. "Chris? What do we do?" Sana asked. "He has no emotion to possess. There isn't anything we can do."

Feyera turned to face her. The Gardevoir's scarlet eyes showed bottomless concern, for not only herself but also Feyera. He had protected her from pain. Or at least some desirable part of him had. I'll cooperate… "Just please put the gun down," he said after mulling over his potential options.

"Not a chance," Ein said, dashing the firearm's glowing mouth from Sana to Edge and then back to Sana, keen to see which worried the trainer more.

"He's right Chris," Lorelei admitted. "We're not going to risk your escape."

Ein began to laugh, "Neh heh heh! Now isn't this an interesting turn of events for you Feyera? But I bet you're filled to the brim with…interesting things inside you."

"You'll never get away with what you're doing!" Feyera strained to say to Ein, gripping his holster.

"Get away? Ho ho ho," Ein snapped. "Who are you? You're a psycho. A nobody. Your life as a criminal running free ends today. Make one move for your Poké Balls and I swear this M—RAIL will smear particle bits of your unique cellular amalgamation all over the place!"

"I'm not a criminal! You cannot prove anything!" Edge denied wildly, as his hand moved away from the belt holster in fear.

"Chris, you take this very important young lady—a member of Kanto's Elite Four and the Judge's daughter—on a mind controlled cruise to a precarious island filled with carnivorous Pokemon, leave her for dead by running her luxurious ship aground, *huff!* then you barrage into my research facility wearing a Team Rocket uniform expecting to somehow arrest me in some sick idea of role reversal?…Like you always loved to say: 'there's stupidity and then there's you'," Ein chuckled.

Lorelei felt like Ein may have been overstepping his boundaries, "Gideon, the Pokemon League will handle the proper actions to be taken against Mister Chris Feyera."

"Oh will they?" Ein scathingly asked. "I have reason to believe he has brought to you more trouble than you and the League can possibly handle on your own."

"I understand that," Lorelei nodded, and lowered her Poké Ball, still unwilling to release its contents, "Yet I have already sent a report in detailing his crimes, so he's set for prosecution. I want to thank you for the footage depicting his destruction of Cerulean's Golden Bridge, that will prove useful to the investigation."

"That wasn't me!" Feyera argued futilely.

As he said this, Ein clicked a small pen shaped object and the footage provided by Ein's Porygon altered. Now rather then sentry, it was clearly showing an auburn haired man with the same body type and posture causing the mayhem on the Cerulean Cape. As he watched himself helplessly tearing apart the bridge's support beams in a spurt of psyonic meltdown, his eyes began to water. He was done for.

Ein ignored Feyera's senseless denial, "Didn't forget the S. S. Anne catastrophe either now did you?"

Edge snapped his focus back and fought through the swelling tears in a last ditch effort to remain logical, "Lorelei, that was a rocket attack on a ship! How would Ein know?!"

"Feyera raises a fair point Gideon, there isn't anything tying him to that event."

Ein looked a little uneasy for a fraction of a second before saying, "I read the papers my boy, and it would seem that your name did come up as being on board the ship. What a sneaky Rocket we have on our hands here. Lorelei, you ought to at least mention his crimes at sea considering what he did to you!"

"N—no," said Lorelei as she tapped her PDA. The device's tiny screen went black before she stowed it into the tight pants she had changed into upon arrival on the island. "Of course not. That was documented as a possibility, but we'll need solid evidence to convict him."

"The evidence is there in front of you isn't it? Look at him, a struggling psyonic," Ein went on to say. "He's not able to control himself. There's no time to feel bad for him, only ways to correct him."

"Gideon," Lorelei looked Edge over, "Feyera's been marked by the IPF. That's for sure. Though I am unsure of how he was flagged without a recorded inquiry."

Ein seemed to be distracted by something. His mind gave the impression that it was elsewhere as he slowly asked, "You do carry a lot of weight as the Supreme Judge's daughter. So you will comply by sending a report to the Pokemon League authorizing his immediate capture?"

"Gideon, I already sent my report via your facility's secure channel. The docs should take one or two days to process and released to the general public, but we're going to have him under stringent watch till then."

"Wait what?" Edge said in shock. Did this make him a convict?

"Oh how delightfully marvelous," said Ein politely. "So his warrant for arrest is guaranteed? Under your unique signature?"

"Yes," Lorelei nodded, "I'll be assuming control of the litigation as an official member of the Pokemon League."

"You will…assume control?" Ein's voice pitched.

Lorelei scratched at her forehead where her deep wine red hair emerged from her scalp. She then glanced from Edge to the scientist skeptically saying, "Directly, yes, that is proper procedure. I'll escort him off this island back to the mainland with the help of those psyonic dampeners you mentioned earlier."

"Oh wonderful! I thought those would never see any practical use," Ein rolled his eyes for Edge to see.

"Lorelei, you have to believe me, this guy is a psychopath. He was the one behind Progenitor!" Edge pleaded.

"Progenitor?" asked Lorelei.

"Senseless babbles of a man gone mad, Lorelei," Ein insisted as his face stiffened defensively.

Lorelei rocked her head, "Wait I've heard that name before. Gideon, why does that word keep getting brought up? What does it have to do with Mister Feyera and this facility?"

Ein quickly changed the subject, "Miss Carese, you can assure me that the Pokemon League has received a warrant for Mister Feyera's arrest as per your approval?"

The Elite Four member began to feel as though something was amiss. She answered Ein warily, "Yes. But I don't see what that insignificant detail has to do with anything, Gideon. He's right here in our clutches."

Ein began to shift his posture, walking silently towards Lorelei. "Oh. Well I guess I should educate you my dear princess. Chris Feyera is under my direct jurisdiction as a criminal on this reservation of mine."

"What?" shouted Feyera. "The hell are you talking about?"

"Chris don't let him take you!"

"You wanted my help didn't you Mister Feyera?" Ein snidely asked, as he palmed the handle of his RAIL weapon.

"You have no jurisdiction here Gideon," Lorelei smoothly said as she palmed her hair's natural part. "Chrono Island is a part of the Federal Circuit overseen by my father."

Ein revealed his teeth. "Miss Lorelei, section eighty-four of the DBC's outline for ecological reservations reads as follows: 'should a Pokemon, native or otherwise fostered, cause any disruption—acute or chronic—to the natural balance of the ecosystem ordained by this sanction, it is deemed de facto the sole responsibility of reservation caretakers to capture such a Pokemon and insure that it is arrested in all attempts to further damage the ecological system in question as well as all other environments ordained as 'at risk' by the Pokemon's disruptive behavior by the judgment of the ecological caretaker'. *Sigh!* *Huff!* How I just love legal loops like this precious one."

Lorelei shook her head, "Nonsense, that legal statute does not apply to him! He's going to be taken back to Kanto for further prosecution. He's not a Pokemon; Kanto Common Law applies to him!"

"Hrm…" Ein pushed his frameless glasses higher up on his narrow nose bridge, "Indecently, it was your father, Justice Robert that passed such legislation."

"I don't see the connection," Lorelei admitted. "Chris is a person like you and me."

"Ah well allow me to explain. Psyonics are typically associated with Psychic Pokemon. The correlation is always under heavy research, creating rather equipollent arguments." Ein brushed his lab coat's lapel before continuing, "However, ever since the Darkened Ages, society has neglected to officially change the status of 'psyonics', rendering the legalistic term synonymous with actual Pokemon. *Sigh…* You'd think the courts would be more careful after all the persecution!"

"It can't be, you're mistaken," said Lorelei.

"It's a relatively small detail, but those are always the ones that matter the most no? Ha! If you look at the precedent set forth, he's just as much a Pokemon as the Gardevoir he's standing next to," Ein said as his glance stabbed Edge.

Feyera's jaw dropped in disbelief. Not only were his so-called human psyonics considered on par with Pokemon, but they actually were seen as one and the same as Pokemon. Feyera did not even know whether or not Ein knew about how Sephiteos' powers had physically imparted onto him. Or did he? What nefarious plan could the mad scientist have been fostering?

"You…you're talking about subordination. He's a person Gideon," Lorelei said.

"Is he? Not in the eyes of the law your father seems to adore. Besides, you and I both know that he cannot be transported safely without the help of my psyonic dampeners, so why fight my demands?" Ein said airily.

"I oppose your demands because they are unconstitutional. Psyonics or not, convict or not, he's still got natural rights as a human being. He's not staying with you. He'll have his due process, Gideon!" Lorelei quipped.

"Why do you propose your methods are better than mine Miss Carese?"

"Because he's going to be dealt with legally and face the full extent of the law as a Kanto citizen," Lorelei said coldly. "Don't overstep your boundaries."

Ein whispered, "How positive are you in your plan achieving results?"

"Results? RESULTS?!" Lorelei said in disbelief, "I'm not concerned with results! My only concern is making sure that no one else gets hurt in all this madness."

"No one else…getting hurt?" asked Ein as his stiff lip broke into a smile sensing her compassion.

"Correct. And my way is the only way to assure that. You both need to cooperate. Feyera's coming along with me, aren't you Mister Feyera?"

Sana eagerly watched Feyera, awaiting his decision, understanding nearly everything through Feyera's emotions, which were exposed like raw flesh.

Edge nodded, still confused as to what exactly was happening. Perhaps Lorelei was attempting to help get him off the island. Maybe this was all just a ruse to usurp Ein's plans. Maybe deep down inside she knew that Ein was no good. He had to retain hope. His heart was defenselessly binding itself—himself—to hope.

"Good," Lorelei said looking over at Sana's frightened expression.

"Chris?" Sana asked nudging him.

Sana… Edge exhaled.

"Your trainer is going to be fine," she assured the Gardevoir.

Sana echoed a faint hum.

"Tsk tsk. Miss Carese, I expected you to be more cooperative. After all the hard work we did... Humph! Moving your precious yacht to our harbor and readying it for your safe and speedy departure was no picnic," blurted Ein.

"You did what?!" Lorelei shouted, turning her entire body to face the scientist. "Where did you move my boat?"

"Oh, slip of the mind! Ke he," Ein chortled. "So many things are underfoot it's getting very, very hard to keep track!"

Lorelei cried out, "Just cut the BS, what the hell are your intentions Gideon?"

Ein smiled darkly, "Well, fine, the plan originally was to send you off on your merry way after you informed the rest of the mainland that Mister Feyera is a wanted criminal—which you did."

"What?"

"Huh!?"

"…Ah and as an added bonus, you also informed the rest of the world that I am conducting a nice little Pokemon sanctuary here on this island. How kind of you, it makes for one less headache in my master plan," Ein began to stroke his extended lab jacket's sleeve.

"I don't understand! What are you talking about?" Lorelei shouted.

"I told you he was no good!" Feyera chimed in.

Sana softly moved closer to Edge, sensing growing hostility. "Chris…we need to get out of here soon. Things are looking bad."

I know, thought Feyera.

"Tsk, allow me to finish!" Ein barked. "This was the original plan. PAH! However, there are too many—shall we say—loose ends in the initial plan, which had you going free. So now like a good scientist, I have to account for changing variables!"

"What are you trying to say Gideon? You want to hold me captive too? Hah that's a laugh!" she said seriously as her face began to lose color.

"Hold you captive? You? A member of the Kanto Elite Four? The Queen of Ice? The Supreme Judge's precious gem of a baby girl? Ha! Only if I wanted Kanto's army knocking on the door to my experimental facility!" Ein rebuked whilst calling attention to Lorelei's status.

"Experimental facility?" Lorelei asked, not addressing the hidden threat on her life.

Feyera twitched restlessly, "He's a nut Lorelei!"

"Feyera…!"

"Shut up!" Ein shouted short and fast as he aimed his gun at Edge's torso.

Lorelei timidly grasped her Poké Ball saying, "Gideon, what are you talking about? Experimental facility? Speak quickly and tell me right now!"

Ein put his hand up into the air and spun it around saying, "Yes, you see my dear, this whole place is really just a warehouse for stocking rare imprisoned Pokemon before we cart them off to the Orre facility to be 'processed' for imposed genetic grafting. Evercrest used to be a fine little facility where good old 'Doctor' Feyera and I would experiment on various Pokemon, splicing their genes and giving them new—albeit rather short—lives."

"You did what?!" Lorelei's shout echoed throughout the massive empty room. "You were both a part of this?!"

"Yes…called ourselves angels even, as per Feyera's humorous suggestion." Ein smoothly continued, groping at his white lab wear, "Alas, like a pair of old shoes, eventually we grew out of such an archaic system of crossing Pokemon with Pokemon. Now we're on to other things going far beyond mere Pokemon Pokemon splicing; isn't that right Chris?"

Feyera looked down shamefully at his Gardevoir heart shard. He had no idea what Ein was up to now that he knew this was all possible. Had he figured everything out in this short of an amount of time? What was his plan?

"Chris?" Lorelei asked the young man who stood defensively next to Sana. "You're….you are involved in all this madness…? Is that how you…?"

"It…it's possible to cross more than Pokemon," Feyera slowly admitted. "Doctor Fuji told me that."

"—Fuji? That worthless pile of dirt?" Ein interjected.

"He was involved in Evercrest too!" Feyera retorted. "He was one of you—us."

"No, he was not like you or me for that matter. He was weak. And you fell to his level as well."

"Fell?"

"He's lying to you, you didn't fall Chris."

"Look at yourself. A shell of the brilliant man you used to be."

Feyera tried to contain all of the feelings running rampant through his system as Ein rebuked his predicament. It was awful. Edge had no one to blame save circumstance, but even that was becoming a stretch. He tried to contain all of the empty space but it began to break. In turn, it begun to break him down.

"Regardless, your particular 'condition' was bound to surface once I extended my arms to find out more about your seemingly mysterious loss of the Mercury Relic two years back."

"Why would you need the Mercury Relic? You can graft without it!"

"What is he talking about Chris?" Lorelei asked.

"Oh no, no, no! Mercurius can be synthesized. We no longer require the accomplishments of prior civilizations like the one you stole from the Pokemon Sanctum as a Rocket under Cipher's command," Ein grinned. "Science has shown us the way. Although we still need large quantities of the hard-to-come-by substance…perhaps that is what I miss most about the Reilken Mercurius."

"That still does not explain…"

"Unfortunately Feyera, many of our recent tests involving processed Mercurium have failed, so I need you in the flesh to accomplish the next stage."

"Next stage?!" Edge and Lorelei asked simultaneously.

Ein shrugged, "Yes. Phase two. Adult trials. Here I was thinking we'd never make a break through with the youngsters. Pheh, we had plenty of numbers just no results."

"What?! Youngsters?!"

"Ah yes…delightfully youthful specimens. I would like to say that they felt little pain but their anatomy does tend to make it rather obvious that they suffer." Ein gave Edge a shallow nod, "Isn't that right?"

"You monster!" shouted Feyera.

"Ah so says the real monster in the room."

"I'm not a monster!" Edge said unsure as to what Ein was referring to: his dark deeds at Evercrest or his Pokemon attributes.

"Let's play a little game. I'm going to ask you some simple questions, and your mind is going to do the rest."

"I'm not going to play your sick games!" Feyera said.

"Chris, don't let him hurt you!"

"Gideon, you're under arrest!"

"Humph!" Ein laughed, "Just watch Lorelei, You wouldn't want to miss this."

Sana grasped Feyera's arm tightly as the advancing scientist danced his RAIL gun about his perspective targets. His synthetic Pokemon slowly glided beside him in a defensive orbit.

"I want to ask you something: How does it feel to know you were a part of this all along Feyera? If not for you, then none of this would have happened. All that death would have been avoided. And more importantly," Ein paused to look at Feyera's Gardevoir heart, "you would still be fully human…unadulterated by your sins. Tell me, how does it feel Feyera?!"

"No!" Feyera felt his chest clench up as Ein inadvertently triggered a wave of emotion to surge through his body. Overpowering sensations of remorse and guilt bathed him, making his body feel as though it were a conduit for negativity. His frame shuddered and he violently fell against Sana, who tried to steady him to little avail since his emotion bled out into hers, causing her to undergo a similar rush of sympathy.

"Veh Feyera!" Sana shouted as she caught him in her slender arms.

"Have I struck a chord?" Ein asked. "Do you feel a certain way now?"

"I…can't…take it," Feyera stammered. Sana continued to grasp his arm as he began to lose composure and fall to his knees. He coughed as warmth radiated from his core, flushing his face in an ill balm.

"FEEL IT!" ordered Ein.

"Gideon! Enough, what are you doing to him?!" Lorelei screamed, "STOP!" She was beyond horrified.

But the scientist ignored her, only focusing on the hunched over man in front of him. "Feyera, you worked out so well with Mercurius. And here I was struggling to figure out what else it could have been besides isotopic Mercurium. Now as I look upon you and your…humph…'protector Pokemon', the similarities are far too numerous. Gardevoir. The link between human and Pokemon. That's only thing it could have been. That's why it happened the way that it did. That is why I'm going to continue my testing on humans and Ralts line evolutions. And it's all because you showed test subject delta-two a pinch of sympathy."

"*Gasp* *pant* What are you trying to say?" Feyera asked anxiously. "This is all so wrong, you have no idea how this feels…!"

"How it feels?"

Sana tightened her grip on Feyera's shuddering right arm. She said telepathically, "Veh Feyera…try and relax."

"Ein, what did you do to him?! I command you to stop!" Lorelei ordered.

"Command me?" The scientist looked over at her with his peripheral vision. He murmured, "Miss Carese, if I want to, I can send this man into an emotional oblivion. Imprisoning his psyches into a state of perpetual limbo. I would still your tongue so that doesn't need to happen."

Lorelei closed her eyes with indecisiveness. She watched as Sana continued to grapple with her trainer's wilted body as they both shook from imposed emotion.

"Please…no…"

"You can't do that to me," Edge argued. But Ein's manipulation had proved to him a variety of things, and its limits were not one of them.

"All this comes with the territory Feyera," Ein said nodding suggestively at Feyera's Gardevoir heart. "YOUR new territory."

"NO! ACK! *gasp* it isn't mine…!"

"Humph! Typical denial of the facts associated with a psychological splice. Especially with a creature that represents the epitome of emotion."

Edge gurgled as Sana padded his back; the rapid breaths he took in made his whole body move.

"See Feyera? You're completely in my control. I know what things will trigger emotional responses. I can send you to a very real hell should I but only say a word. That is power; and to think, you used to know what it felt like to be on my side of things."

"*Huff* Arghh…ugh…*cough* Is that what you want, Ein? *Wheeze*…Power?" asked Edge.

"Pah, only mortals look for power as it is conventionally defined."

"Guhh…what?!"

"True power is not defined in equations simulating force and influence. I seek the dawn of a new epoch. My epoch. It was the same mentality that brought us both to Evercrest Chris, we saw ourselves as angels ushering in a new formula for life as we know it."

"You're insane!"

"I'm productive in my methodology. For phase two, the only thing we need now is more bodies. Just think about how efficient we can become by using you as a model Chris! You'll save so much time and maybe test subjects as well!" Ein said with glee.

"No!" said Sana.

"I'll never let you do that!" Edge defiantly belted.

"After all you've been given, you wouldn't lend a hand? Not even to possibly save the lives of countless others? My, you truly are just as selfish as me," Ein's smile narrowed.

"No, I'm nothing like you!" Edge argued as a wave of uncontrollable nausea overtook him. He held his stomach in revulsion.

"Correct yet again Mister Feyera!" Ein said happily. "What you've been given is a direct influx of psyonics, imbued with an exploitable mechanism, capable of this unquenchable might!"

The Porygon by Ein's side flashed its eyes and soon they were all looking at the footage of Feyera's gravitational field of dark swirling lavender spirals, drawing in metal and crushing it to bits on the Golden Bridge. Feyera felt as if he were back in the Team Rocket headquarters watching the same scene over again at Ein's request.

"Ein, it isn't like that, there are consequences! I need for this to be undone!" Edge bleated, "The forced influence of it…is too unstable! It…it…"

"—It's incredible that such a lovely fusion can take place between such radically different cells. And it was only possible with the help of Mercurius' marvelous catalytic grafting! But this is only the beginning!" Ein surmised, completing Feyera's sentence as he saw fit.

"NO!" Feyera had it; he pulled his Team Rocket uniform's sleeve up revealing the ebony wristlet, the Reilken Mercurius. "This is what did it!" He shouted in agony as he looked at the green skin bordering the relic.

Ein and Lorelei both gasped. Sana looked at his wrist longingly, secretly wishing that he had not shown it to anyone else.

"That…!" exclaimed Lorelei.

"Wait that…?" Ein chided.

Feyera nodded at the seemingly dormant power wrapped around his wrist. "This is it. This is what caused it."

"You're joking!" Ein exclaimed, "That's not possible! It was Mercurius!"

Feyera nodded in agreement, "Yes Mercurius. THE Reilken Mercurius."

"But how did that change your…?!" Ein gasped mid-sentence as the relic began to slightly grow a faint green line along its perimeter. "That's not possible, that is the inverse of what should have happened, how is its control allowing for augmented cellular variance?!"

"What?" Feyera asked, confused by Ein's scientific rant.

"Hrmmm…" Ein grappled with his hand at invisible equations in midair, "The apparent subatomic rejection of host? Structural psynapse triggered by your cerebral immunological defense? Neurologically conflicting pathways binding tighter under the strain of being suppressed? He he he, this is unbelievable! Mister Feyera, you may have just made this entire miracle a lot more feasible for us to achieve!"

"What are you talking about?! It's not a miracle," Feyera shouted. "You can't call…this…a miracle!"

Sana glared disapprovingly at Edge as he disgracefully felt the horn projecting from his chest with his rigid hands.

"Oh but it is. The fact that you are still even capable of cognition is a testimony in and of itself, when you think of all the failures!" said Ein to Edge. The trainer continued to visibly struggle with the psychological rut he was enveloped within. Ein seemed fond of his condition. Ein knew how to bend him. If Ein wouldn't help him then no one would. Feyera began to go into panic. Sana looked back at Ein's weapon as he rocked it back and forth.

"Please Ein; you can't let me stay like this! I'll do anything! ANYTHING!" Feyera cried out at the top of his lungs as tears began to well in his eyes. "It's destroying me!"

Sana quickly took her eyes off Ein's gun and looked at Feyera in alarm. "HE CAN'T HELP YOU!"

Feyera shook his head at the Gardevoir as she slowly pulled away. Sana…you don't understand what this is like for me as a human being…

"I might not, I've been bound to emotion my entire life, but you still can't trust him! You're going to be okay if you just—"

Lorelei was on the brink of fear by everything coming to the surface unexpectedly. "Gideon! What's going on here?! You owe me and the rest of Kanto an explanation."

Ein turned to Lorelei saying, "Pah, you uncultured legalistic swine, I owe you nothing."

"How dare you call me…!"

"I'll call you whatever I damn well please, you're a pawn in my world now. This is your new reality!" Ein shouted at her as she spun on her heel to release her Pokemon.

"LAPRAS!" she cried out as a brilliant light filled the room. The large sea creature was easily the height of Desperado. The Pokemon's grey shell was pronged and sharpened, and its muscular aquamarine body left little to the imagination concerning the creature's strength. The Pokemon flexed its fins and neck, its thick skin bulging from tense muscles. As it reared its head back, it opened its gaping maw, spreading forth a mist of cloudy ice, and let out a deafening "Rapurasuuuuuu!"

"SANA, now!" Feyera howled as he jumped into the air.

Ein pulled the trigger to his magnum, still pointed at where Sana was once standing. The Gardevoir deftly leapt to the side, falling against Feyera as the room filled with a piercing ultraviolet light. The earsplitting sound following the beam of violet light emerging from Ein's M-RAIL caused her to holler in fear as the blast narrowly missed her, fraying some of the Team Rocket uniform she wore.

"Ahh!" Sana screamed in fear. She tightly adhered to his body with frightened arms longing for comfort.

"Chris!" Lorelei hollered, as the particle beam dissipated into flecks of fractured colorless light.

Feyera looked up, to see Sana panting and laying against him. Beyond her panic-stricken face, Edge saw Ein turn to face his new adversity. Angered by his apparent miss, the scientist snapped the gun back with a loud "Chi-click!" signaling a cell battery reload his as the cooling mechanism began to expel searing steam from the extended barrel. The oversized handgun dropped an empty container, clattering against the steel floor as Ein's gaze faced Lorelei's Pokemon.

"Lapras, Hydro Pump!" Lorelei yelled from above the two of them.

Edge could see the Lapras was still in shock from seeing Ein's M-RAIL expel enough energy to equate to a Hyper Beam. It recoiled slightly and began to arch its neck back ferociously in order to overcome fear, screeching as its curled ears perked and fierce gaze returned.

"Magneton! ZAP CANNON!" Ein cried out as his RAIL gun continued to vent wicked heat. The Pokemon trinity buzzed and spun in response.

As Lapras' neck reached the apex of its stretch and began to open its wide mouth swirling with water, a thunderous crackle was heard from Ein's Magnet Pokemon as it discharged a massive orb of pitch-black energy. The black globe, so ripe with voltage that it produced countless yellow volatile sparks running along its surface, flew through the air at Lapras.

"Lapras, evasive counter!"

The Elite Four's Pokemon spun its fins onto the ground lifting off and up into a jump. The black orb of immeasurable electrical energy narrowly missed Lapras. However, as the electric ball flew off to the side, it detonated in a flash of crepuscular lights. The field of rays shone in all directions, followed by a loud explosion that knocked Lorelei down to her knees.

Edge tried to watch, but the light from the Zap Cannon had partially blinded him. Colors slowly zoomed back into focus; he could see the tremendous column of pure blue water fly forth from Lapras' mouth. As this insatiable focused deluge flew at blinding speed towards Ein's group of Magnemite, they instinctually flew apart in three different directions as the shaft of water split through their center. Pure water poured through the empty space, punching a dent in the wall behind Magneton.

Ein called out, "THUNDER!"

All three of the Magnemite began to glow and their side magnets expelled terribly bright light, culminating in the center. The white bolts of light connected with Lapras' forceful Hydro Pump and arched along the sea beast's attack, following it straight into the mouth. Wicked blue sparks ripped into Lapras' mouth, they seared the Pokemon's flesh and quelled the Hydro Pump attack immediately. The Pokemon bent its head back in disgust and tumbled to the earth with a loud crash. The metal floor buckled and bent under its weight.

"NO!" Lorelei screamed. Her first Pokemon and closest friend did not stand a chance against the electrical bolt conducted through a Water type attack.

Ein continued to fondle his gun, as he waited for the recharge taunting, "She's dead just like you Lorelei. You know too much. And so you see the final caveat of my plan: I need to make it appear as if Feyera killed you."

Lorelei looked at Ein's cold eyes. "You wouldn't dare!"

Ein glared at Lorelei as she stroked her fallen Pokemon' body, "You should've seen what happened to the last person who said those very same words to me. I assure you, there is hardly anything recognizable left of him. Such a shame…he had such promise, such resources…In fact, he reminded me of you Chris."

Feyera thought about Fredrick's helicopter. He began to connect the dots. Fredrick flies in on his black copter, the rocket guards talk about a man crossing Ein. It must have been Fredrick Ein was talking about. It must have been Fredrick that the rockets were talking about as being executed for crossing Ein. Rage filled Edge heart with ever expanding heat.

Ein peered over at Edge, who possessively had Sana around his shoulder. With a quick rattle the scientist asked, "Oh but Feyera, why such animosity all of a sudden? Is it becoming too warm in here for you?"

"YOU BASTARD!" Feyera screamed at the top of his lungs as he and Sana continued to lay against him on the side. Ein's glance lashed over to where the two of them interlocked hands.

"You don't have a father, Chris. You're the one who's a bastard," Ein said with a grin. "Those are the facts."

How did Ein know that his surrogate father was Fredrick Irving? Did he make the IPF agent suffer? Did Ein force Fredrick to give away information before killing him in cold blood? Edge didn't even know what had happened, his mind simply constructed theorems to coincide with all the emotions on its own. Ein might have known about Feyera's actual father from working with him here at Evercrest, but who was to say that was the "father" Ein was referring to?

Submerged in the possessive vice of rage, Feyera got to his knees extending an open palm. He channeled all of his hatred, all of his anger; every last ounce of odium at making sure Ein would die no matter what. Edge saw his vision grow crimson, as the soft red shields of psychic energy embraced his eyeballs. He shook as the potential psychic meltdown stalled into viscous waves of anguish as he held onto Sana. The Reilken Mercurius brightly glowed green against his wrist. The light green skin there burned with increasing intensity.

"N—Not yet…" Sana whispered as she caressed his heart shard with her wounded hand. Edge gasped. He wanted to use everything, all of his powers, to crush Ein, no matter what the consequences might turn out to be. The recklessness had to be curtailed by Sana's vigorous palliative strokes.

"FINE! July! Brucie!" he called out, whipping out two of his Poké Balls. He knew Des couldn't handle the absurdly powerful electric attacks Ein's Pokemon possessed. The two young Pokemon materialized and shot their glances around the room to rapidly orient themselves to the situation.

[Whatcha need boss?] Brucie asked.

"Everything…" Edge panted. "I need your help."

Sana tried to get herself up, but found that her body was much less stable than she anticipated. She stumbled back down to the ground.

"Sana, don't worry," Edge said, "stay still."

"No…Chris…I need to help them!" she insisted.

[We got this Miss!] said Brucie with a growl, seeing his target.

[Yeah!] July said faithfully.

"Oh, you want me to kill your other Pokemon off too Feyera?!" Ein screamed manically. "I'd be happy to do that!"

"Brucie, use Fire Fang!" Feyera ordered. "July, Mega Drain!"

Charmeleon began to rush at Magneton, but a dark wave of indigo light pelted him mid-charge. The converging rays pierced him in the chest and knocked the wind straight out of him. It was Ein's Porygon.

"Brucie!" Edge and Sana yelled simultaneously.

But it was too late. The synthetic creature launched a barrage of Psybeams to follow the initial attack, firing from its eyes. The S-NTri camera above assured it perfect accuracy, pelting him repeatedly until he put both his paws over his eyes in surrender.

As July ran over to Brucie to help him up, a direct hit from Psybeam knocked her clear away with a crippling thump, and incapacitated her immediately.

"Veh Feyera! July's really hurt."

Edge looked at where she landed to see that her flower was torn to shreds, and her root legs frantically wiggled in a last effort to find life.

"JULY return!" he shouted at his gravely wounded Gloom, extending the Poké Ball and bringing her back to its precious stasis inducing confides.

[Boss!] Brucie hollered at Feyera. Edge looked back to where he was knocked down. The Magneton joined Porygon and closed in on Edge's Charmeleon. They both floated magically on electromagnetic power, menacingly orbiting Ein's slender figure like a pair of moons, discharging bits of electricity that reflected off the scientist's mirrored glasses.

"NO!" Edge shouted as an increasing number of sparks began to eject from the Magnemite's spinning side magnets.

"Thunderbolt Magneton, Porygon, use Discharge!" Ein ordered. "Turn his Pokemon to black ashes!"

A blue bolt launched from the tips of Porygon's prism legs conjoined with the yellow ray of plasma shot out of Magneton's center. As the powers mixed, the electricity jumped and sparked, crackling and building tremendously fast. Conjoined, the jolt launched with a deafening pulse, and ripped through the room, charring the metal floorboards as its mighty volts approached the fallen Charmeleon.

"BRUCIE!" screamed Feyera as the lighting shot at his first friend's paralyzed body. "NOOOOO!"

Feyera felt Sana brush against his heart and she extended her hand towards Brucie's body. A rich blonde sphere of crystal lattice surrounded Brucie. As the wicked bolt connected with the Light Screen, the wondrous wall of light refracted the focused bolt, and it split into millions of directions. Spherical light arched and curved, electricity belted about the room, burning ambiguous black patterns into the floor and walls.

Bolts jumped back and singed Ein's coat, but his Pokemon's electrical attraction absorbed most of the stray energy, serving as a crude lightning rod.

In spite of this, Ein made little exposition of pain. He dropped his glasses to the floor as sparks seared their metal arms, burning his fingers as he did so. And yet he said nothing, his cold expression was unlike anything Edge had ever witnessed. There was no emotion left in it. Something in Ein had definitely snapped, Feyera could feel the lack of any emotional heat radiating off the scientist. It was as if he were not looking at anything save for a shell. A shell that pulled all things into it and left nothing.

Sanaria collapsed from the recent strain into Feyera's arms unexpectedly. Her light body was soft and no longer tense from exertion. "Sana?!" he asked as his arms clutched her delicate physique.

"Veh Feyera…thanks," she said quietly. "Thanks for everything. You…you did good after all."

"Sana, what are you talking about?" Feyera asked her in rage. How could she be giving up this easily? After everything they had fought for it seemed impossible for her to have lost faith this struggle so quickly.

Ein raised his M-RAIL. The mechanism had recharged, deep indigo light poured out of its cold construction. "Feyera, I know how much you used to love a good verse of methodology. Here's mine: first, I'm going to erase everything you care about, I will give you nothing left to live for, yet cruelly you'll be forced to go on living, servicing me as I see fit. After I take apart everything you hold dear, I will begin to take you apart: piece by piece, bone by bone, cell by cell. I'll insure that you are conscious for all of it. I will make sure that the final fragment of your consciousness begs for death!"

"N—No!" Edge said as Sana stirred in his arms. In a burst of Psychic strength, she pushed away from him and spread both her arms out separating Feyera from Ein. Not expecting this, Edge fell to the floor with a "Thud!" as his rear hit metal. "Sana! No! What are you doing!?"

Sana communicated to him through the clearest form of telepathy, as she went on, it blossomed into vocalized sounds and human speech, "This is what I was talking about. He's not going to get through my shield."

"How adorable." Ein smiled, "Say farewell to your Gardevoir, Chris."

"Sana don't!" Edge ordered, trying to raise himself up off the ground.

But he was too late.

Ein brushed a boney finger against the RAIL's trigger, and the gun unleashed a blast of violet light.

Everything slowed down to a dreadful crawl. Edge could not see; his eyes filled with tears as the bright beam blinded him, leaving him behind in the Gardevoir's shielding shadow. The earsplitting blast followed, and then a long drawn out hiss. His eyes lost their scarlet aura, and all colors scrambled behind closed lids.

"Sana…" Edge whispered, too afraid to admit that she sacrificed herself. There was no defense against the particle beam. Not even psyonics could dampen its cruel ruin. Nothing, not even a Gardevoir, could stand up to it.

As the ringing in his ears dissipated, he opened his eyes and saw that Sana was still standing in front of him, her arms defiantly outstretched.

Lorelei had leapt onto Ein and sent his shot off course. The Elite Four member wrestled with the scientist while his Pokemon watched in confusion, unable to attack Lorelei without harming their master.

Edge leapt up and ran past Sana, charging at the struggle. He raised his hand outwards and felt the tight pull of power as his the small vortex formed in his palm, eager to consume. As he ran forth, his body drew to a slow procession of steady leaps keeping him partially lagged in the air.

Ein continued to tussle with Lorelei, and was unable to get her off him. She continuously hit him, slugging his face with her enraged punches, drawing blood. As her bare knuckles broke flesh, the scientist flailed his arms in attempt to control her.

Ein saw Edge rushing at him from the corner of his eye. He grabbed Lorelei's fist and shouted, "Porygon, blind him! Flash Cannon!"

The Porgon's eyes began to glow and Feyera felt a surge of heat coming from above. He looked up in the nick of time before a ray of light came from the SN-Tri camera. Its white beam split into the floor alongside him and radiated throughout the already bright room, burning the floor with heat.

Edge slipped and began to fall, but was able to regain his balance just as vision began to return. And sight came back right in time. Another beam of light came from Porygon. This time it came from the creature's actual eyes.

Edge dodged the creature's focused blast of light, but was knocked to the ground by a swift Psybeam that followed. Once more, it was too bright to see anything, and Feyera raised a hand over his eyes. Yet another bolt of force energy pelted him in the ribcage, knocking the wind clear out of him. Dizzily, he began to panic in psychic strain.

Sana hurried over to Edge's side and tried to confront Porygon, but Magneton's timely Thundershock separated the two of them from making contact. Falling backwards, he looked up at the warehouse's ceiling to see Porygon's camera eyes aglow as it fired off bolts of Psybeam at Sana next, unimpeded by Flash Cannon's dazzling light. Amid all this chaos, she danced around their projectiles, spinning and twirling as her body gracefully maneuvered.

Ein, face bloody from Lorelei's repeated punches, ordered, "Stop their hearts! Zap Cannon!"

"NO!" Lorelei shouted, she held off from beating Ein for a brief moment in order to warn Feyera, "Chris, watch out!"

Edge looked over just in time to see Ein kick Lorelei off his wounded body.

"Lorelei!" Feyera yelled at her as she fell off Ein and onto the ground.

Ein reeled his neck, twisting it back in disgust as fresh blood oozed from his nose. "Magneton, ZAP CANNON HER!"

In a sudden unprecedented gliding motion, Magneton's charging attack changed directions as its three calculating eyes turned and faced Lorelei. She struggled to get to her knees, by kicking off with her toned body. However, even as she sprung off the ground it was not enough of an escape. Their focused red beams honed in upon her in under a millisecond. Together, they launched the black surge of energy straight at Lorelei's chest.

Feyera heard himself scream but was strangely absent for the entire scene, he was a mere puppet watching his body yell in horror as he saw her frightened face look upon the black orb of countless volts as it connected with her body directly. It exploded into millions of sparks as it shattered in her heart. The earsplitting crackle resonated throughout the room, deafening and stunning all.

He heard his voice echo throughout the entire chamber, but did not feel a single breath of air leave his lips. Sana was fully against his body sobbing in tears, but he could not feel anything. Everything had been lost to ambiguity.

As faint discharges from the black globe transformed from fiery blasts into tiny fireflies, they shimmered softly, gently even; flickering far away, as they sapped precious life. Lorelei's body floated off, cloudy and indistinct, as she settled on the bottom of an inky lake of unconsciousness, her pristine eyes enveloped in a permanent darkness.

"LORELEI!" Edge hollered. His true empathy broke to the surface, gasping in a long, hard breath. His head exploded in pain as he not only saw, but also felt every emotion press against him.

Coldness. Desolation. Solitude. Each steadily plucked a string of his heart, in a haunting clocklike fashion; chilling, emptying, inflecting his essence with remarkable cadence. It was surreal.

Her halted body fell limply to the ground, clutching desperately at her frozen heart. Feyera could not believe it. He didn't want to believe that this was all happening. Was she really dead? It couldn't have been real. How? He wanted to wake up from this dream—this nightmare. His nightmare.

"NO!"

"…!"

There was no more action, only feeling. It was all so wrong.

Sana fell against him and began to cry. The emotions were too much for either of them to handle alone. Feyera continued to stare at the scene in horror. All of the Pokemon save Sana watched him while his face flawlessly revealed every expression he felt. Sana held fastly onto his irregularly beating heart. Her soft hand caressed him.

He could no longer speak. Words were no longer even a possibility. They had seemingly disappeared from existence whilst pain overtook him.

She was dead and there was nothing left, like a candle at the end of its wick, he knew he could do nothing.

Nothing but cold barren emptiness remained. A serene snowy calm.

She was gone.

And he had failed.

They had all failed.

As purpose left his mind, weakness filled his heart.

Prior to this moment, he had never felt more attached to anything so daunting. The very world he lived in was rapidly slipping out beyond his gasp. And it all had become so real. Every effort he made, every reach he took; all his life, all his purpose, every bit of him ended in utter failure.

Drowning in depression, Feyera tugged upon his Gardevoir heart. It stung at first, the dull reverberations becoming increasingly more prominent as his grip tightened around the sleek material. He desperately tried to rip it out. Taking blank breaths he struggled desperately with it.

His determination triumphed over the Pokemon physicality in such a way that he no longer cared about the searing heat it produced. The awful piece of foreign anatomy could channel all of the heat of the sun, turning feelings into reality, it could scald his skin, it could show him the world in a swirl of hues, and it could drive him to insanity, but it would not stop his desperate plight to rid his body of emotion.

She was dead. He had nothing left. After all the feeling she had instilled into his life, he wanted nothing more than to be rid of emotion. He desired nothing more than to live in a world without feeling. A world without pain.

Feyera knew his weakness was that he cared. Compassion shattered his essence. The sympathy took upon a new life of its own, growing with each and every second, using his body as a conduit. Compassion enveloped his nature, tugging upon him and ripping his stability apart. A beast he could no longer tame was undermining all that he knew, all that he relied upon in his systematic approach.

And yet denying and tugging at this part of himself served to do little beside solidify that emotions were now of his essence. They were as much a part of him as mentality. He realized, with whatever logic was left in his degrading mind, that his life was as out of his hands as Lorelei's.

Feyera screamed in pain, as the sensitive piece recoiled in his palm, pressing forth a violent surge of energy into his body that mirrored the recent wrenching.

Despite all of this discomfort, he managed to stay conscious, even as colors swirl around his vision and his eyes forcefully dilated in response to waves of unrequited emotion.

"…This is only the beginning Feyera. The beginning of your new life."

Edge looked up at Ein. He screamed at a pitch unimaginable, "ARRRGHHHHHHHH! DAMN YOU!"

"Show me your power. Show me emotion, you helpless creature," Ein taunted as blood dripped from his crooked face.

Feyera didn't even feel himself question the action as his consciousness grappled onto his nearby Pokemon and directed the body. Feyera felt the metal tendrils take command of Brucie's physical body, pulling the lizard like a puppet. Using a combination of will and psyonics, Feyera launched the fire Pokemon up into the air, giving him brief levitation. Feyera spun his hand in an exaggerated motion as the crimson wall against his eyes grew thick and murky.

"L—lock on!" ordered Ein. The Magneton tried to hone in on Brucie. Its three separate eyes glowed rubicund as targeting lasers desperately searched for a focal point all three Magnemite could agree upon. The psychically tossed Pokemon soared upwards into the air. This invisible force of propulsion greatly confused the synthetic creature. The various beams split and darted all about the room, trying to follow the sporadic motion of Brucie. However, there was not enough time for even the mechanized Pokemon to come up with a proper search algorithm. Feyera's impromptu tossing of Brucie's body had defied all their prior programing, completely debilitating them.

"STUN THEM!" Ein bellowed. Porygon's SN-Tri camera began to glow as it readied a Flash Cannon to drench the room.

"FLAMETHROWER!" Feyera echoed as Brucie did exactly that. His telepathic thoughts were mere statements of what was occurring. Blue hot flames fled from the Pokemon's mouth as Feyera twisted his wrist and spun the Pokemon so that his body faced the overhead camera. The searing heat shot straight into Porygon's overhead eye flooding the SN-Tri with enough heat to melt the glass lens. He watched through Brucie's perspective the massive overhead eye squirm, trapped in the fiery vortex. It flickered a few times as the encased machinery melted, dripping molten metal on the floor beside Magneton.

An ear-splitting mechanical cry, sounding like it had been sent numerous times through a tape delay, brought his attention back to earth. The trainer saw the actual Porygon begin to spasm uncontrollably as one of its corporeal eyes filled with fire and issued sparks before detonating, leaving a single gapping eye socket. Its various polygons began to separate and fall apart. The antenna tail wavered once or twice before completely detaching itself from the crumbling cybernetic Pokemon.

Ein swore. "Thunder!" he hollered.

Magneton then rushed forward, and split apart into three Magnemite, each releasing a bolt of Thunder. Edge tried to control Brucie, but his mind began to slip and falter. He felt as though he was looking through a long tunnel connecting his consciousness to Brucie's. He guided the fire lizard away from the bolts, but was unable to protect him from the stray electricity. As threads of Psychic energy snapped, he felt his heart produce a faint whirling noise. He looked down in horror to see it was glowing and swirling with a ruby energy that could not only be seen but felt.

As Edge started to fall down, Sana caught him in her arms and tried to support him. He tried and order Brucie, but the lizard was closed off to his psyonic commands. It was as if the Pokemon had disappeared. Frantically, he looked over and saw that Magneton was desperately attempting to dodge the Flamethrower still vigorously spewing from Brucie's maw.

"…!" Feyera jolted as he felt Sana's body against his, causing an unprecedented rush of heated sensation. He looked at her focused face and as she extended a palm and fired a Confusion attack to diminish Magneton's accuracy. The lavender rays of mental energy emerging from her palm seemed to work by slightly knocking two of the Magnemite off course. The blue bolts bent and refracted with the waves of Confusion, creating a distorted area, bending the fabric of reality.

"Veh Feyera…we need to get out of here, we can't win."

"…" Edge tried to say Sana's name but his lips would not move, his jaw was locked closed from exertion.

She prodded her glance at his frozen expression, bending her neck to move towards him. "Recall Brucie. Trust me."

Feyera nodded, unsure of what was going to happen. He looked over at his valiant Charmeleon. Even if Sana had a skewed rationality as a Gardevoir, there was nothing logic to do to help him now. He was outmatched and drained of psyonic capabilities. And perhaps seeing this was itself a form of logic. Edge took his Poké Ball out and mutely recalled the Pokemon.

"GIVEN UP ALREADY FEYERA?!" screamed Ein, bloody in the face. The man's contorted jawline, bruised and off kilter was stained dark red from his bleeding lips.

Feyera weakly raised a fist at the scientist, wanting to employ gravitational psyonics. He desperately craved to show Ein how much he hated his predicament and the cruel reality he had been cast into. He wanted Ein to suffer and to struggle for an eternity. There would be nothing better than to equalize. Nothing better than to be able to balance the pain he was given. Edge lost track of why he was even angry. It became who he was. Everything about him became structured around anger, agony, and finally vengeance. He had lost Lorelei, lost his human life. He needed a catharsis; he needed to kill no matter what the risks were. His vision narrowed and an array of scarlet blanketed his sight as he looked out at his outstretched hand in total single-mindedness.

Sana shook her head adamantly. "No…" she chided. "Use your emotion and focus it on what we want…escape."

Feyera bit his lip, still unable to say anything. As her hand graced his heart, he felt a soft tingle from far off reminding him of something his mind had been too eager to forget. He was still alive. Even in this haunting predicament, he still had the gift of life. The world around him began to slow, and his panicked thoughts extended to Sana, How can we get away?

She looked deep into his large green eyes, trapped within two slim rings of light. In their reflection, she could see the small harbor far away, beyond Ein and his approaching Pokemon. "Together…we're going to do this together," she insisted as she quickly stroked his palm with both her hands. Her clothed palm stroking his hand gave him an eerie sensation that he could not describe. It was brief, but it was exciting.

Together? asked Feyera, still outstretching an arm at Ein.

But rather than respond, she pressed her entire frame against his, tightening her arms around his body and drawing close. Edge gasped as their hearts met and kissed along the edges. He threw his head back in saturated emotion overflowing from Sana into him and back to her. He felt himself changing somehow. Everything he now felt had gone through a cascade of sensation, amplifying the vigor and passion of things as simple as breathing. It was impossible, potential psyonic energy greatly exceeded the amount he was used to after expending so much.

Her consciousness began to enter his and his vision began to change, taking new forms and figures into account as saturated bright colors drenched the pallet of his—now their—world. In an instance of passionate connection with Sana's mind, he saw his outstretched fist begin to turn. As it rotated palm-up, a single finger slowly extended up at Ein.

In a blinding flash of light, everything went completely haywire. His thoughts scrambled into Sana's and everything become primordial and indistinct. Colors, sounds, feelings, they were all the same. But one sense stood out as being more prominent: touch. He felt everything as Sana did; he was holding himself in a bizarre way, and also holding her back in unified consciousness. The closeness of their bond allowed for little to pass through between them. If there was even any space left separating them at this point was debatable.

It was so tremendous that he could not contain the imposed blending of essence. He tried to shout, but had no lips to do so. He vigorously squirmed, but found he was locked and cramped in every possible way. As his potential actions began to waver as far as initiative went, his eyes snapped open and shut numerous times revealing a sight as overwhelming as it was beautiful.

Sanaria was still pressed against him in a tight hug, and he was looking down at the closed space between them. Where their chests met, he saw the swirling ruby aura pulsate in utter wholesomeness. The spectacular feeling was quelled when Sana forcefully pulled back. When she did so, everything clicked and Edge felt somewhat normal once more. He looked down and around to find that they were no longer squaring off with Ein. Oddly they were at the other end of the roofed warehouse next to the water. As it lapped against the anti-slip docks, Feyera saw a collection of watercraft lined against the boards they stood on.

Feyera gasped in disbelief. How could they have gotten away from Ein so quickly? It baffled him to no end.

Sana looked over at him and smiled gently as her cheeks involuntarily flushed, causing his to unknowingly do the very same. The after-effects of unison caused their normal functions to be totally synchronized. As Feyera tilted his head slightly in confusion, Sanaria did the very same.

However, this moment of shared experience and mental-corporal bonding was short lived by the two.

For at the sides of the roofed harbor, there were two windowed rooms, each containing members of Team Rocket, now beyond question employed by Cipher's Ein. One of the taller rockets peered over at Sana and Edge and tapped his partner on the shoulder and pointed at the oddity. Feyera could only imagine what they were thinking about as the taller one pointing began to laugh impulsively from confusion. Suddenly having a Gardevoir and trainer both dressed in Rocket uniforms appear out of nowhere on the docks must have been quite the sight. The first two seemed to be relatively amused, but a third rocket in the first room wore a very worried expression.

Sana's hand brushed against the uniform she wore as Feyera made a similar nervous gesture against his own. "You think we spooked them?" he heard her say to him softly in both of their voices.

Edge just continued to stare at her, completely at a loss for words. His eyes, glossy and dilated from the experience, mirrored her hauntingly beautiful nebulous red irises in all ways save color. It was all too perfect. He had never felt anything so tying, so divine. Soon enough though, he heard a voice that pulled him down from the lofty heights they had flown to and back to earth.

"CAPTURE THEM!" screamed Ein's raspy voice from afar, as he and his Magneton began to run towards the two escapees. The distance was great from one side of the room to the other, but not great enough. Even with the injuries Ein sustained and his slight limp, he could still sprint to catch them.

Feyera looked over at Sana. "Uh oh," she said aloud, replicating exactly what he had wanted to say.

Edge laughed at the same time as her, duplicating her motions, and thoughts. The surge of endorphins from whatever they had done as a single unit was all but gone.

He opened his mouth to comment, but found that Sana spoke with him, psychically, aloud, through him, and with him, "Guess we shouldn't have given him that little sendoff gesture, huh?"

Feyera didn't know what to be more confused about, the fact that he was still speechless from their apparent Teleport, the total integration of their bodies during the Teleport, or that Sana was acting more and more like him.

As the rockets responded by swiftly exiting their guardrooms, Feyera and Sana simultaneously looked at the group of powerful personal watercrafts at their side. They both knew exactly what to do as their minds shared the last remaining fragments of snug psychic unification.