Wanderer

by Renaerys

Disgraced and ashamed, Alain drifts in self-imposed exile in the wake of a personal failure. But not all those who wander are lost, and those who listen may find something they never knew they were searching for. [Realistic Pokemon AU, post-Mega Evolution Specials]

2. Chapter 2

Wanderer
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon

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She didn't realize she was bleeding until it began to fill her mouth beyond capacity and dribbled down her chin. The taste had become so commonplace that she could hardly discern between the tangy, metallic blood and her saliva, the sweat that dribbled over her lips, the stale air energized with static that was more adrenaline than electric. Korrina spit a glob of blood and saliva on the floor to her right and wiped her mouth. Red stained the grooves in between her teeth as she panted.

Her opponent, up to her chest in height and covered in blue and black fur, watched her with steady, red eyes that nevertheless belied its compounding exhaustion. Lucario had nerves of steel, literally, but in a one-on-one spar with its master even it had to watch its back. Not wanting to give Korrina an opening, Lucario lunged and fisted its elongated paws, the wicked spikes embedded in the backs of its hands slashing the air as it flew.

Korrina grunted and jumped. She was fast—a blur of blonde and black as she reached out with a hand and pivoted on her left foot. Lucario saw her coming and tried to feint, but she caught it in the neck with her elbow just as it drove its fisted paw into her collarbone. Their momentum spun them around, and Korrina's leg bent at the last minute to knee Lucario in the stomach. Its weight toppled them both, and they fell to the mat in a heap, each scrambling to right themselves and resume the match.

"You're too reckless. If you continue to allow yourself to be hit, you'll fall."

Korrina spared the old man a scathing glance. "I'm fine, Grandpa. I can handle a little roughhousing."

Gurkinn, a rugose old man who'd lost all the hair on his head except for a pair of bushy, untrimmed eyebrows and two long, white mustachios that fell below his chin, shifted his weight. Even in his old age, his piercing, green eyes could detect what his headstrong granddaughter could not.

"Cry wolf enough and the wolf will come running," he cautioned.

Korrina righted herself and swatted her long, blonde ponytail out of her face. Sweat ran down her neck and under the low collar of her black tank top, soaking through, but she barely felt the heat. Lucario regained its stance just a few feet in front of her, waiting for her to make her next move.

Sweat dripped into her eyes, green like Gurkinn's, and she rubbed them furiously, an idea forming. This was child's play, and at twenty-six-years-old, she was far from being a child. The sweatband on her left wrist contained a small razor embedded in the folds for just such an occasion, and she peeled back the white cotton to expose it. Slashing her right palm was then a simple matter of applied pressure.

Gurkinn noticed her bleeding hand and stepped toward the training mats. "What are you doing?"

"Crying wolf," Korrina bit out.

She advanced on Lucario, whose pupils narrowed at the smell of her blood. But instead of lashing out, it kneeled down and bowed its head, understanding. Its long ears twitched, perhaps hearing the thunder of her heartbeat as she went through with her whimsical plan.

I can do it, she reassured herself. If I don't, then I'll never...

Korrina pressed her bloody hand to Lucario's broad forehead and jerked at the surge of power, like a violent static shock, that jumped between them.

"Korrina, stop!" Gurkinn shouted.

But she didn't stop, and it was already done. Her blood seeped into the fur on Lucario's forehead and took on a life of its own, enveloping the jackal in ribbons of red that engorged its muscles. Lucario's legs grew longer and it raised its head taller, to a height with Korrina. Its tail fluffed out, bushy and golden, and the thick feelers that hung from the back of its neck engorged to match its paws—muscled and raw.

Korrina stepped back, her skin abuzz with the energy that jumped from her to Lucario as it Mega Evolved. Hypersensitive, the air felt colder on her bare arms, the acrid taste of blood on her tongue more sour and biting. She clenched her fists, and the knuckles popped. Mega Lucario crouched and growled low in its throat.

"Korrina!" Gurkinn said more forcefully.

She ignored him and lunged, her body moving on instinct and muscle memory she'd been born with, fluid and deadly, and Mega Lucario moved to defend. They clashed, and Mega Lucario swatted her fist away with a paw and angled left for a kick. Korrina felt it coming and, not even bothering to waste time looking, twisted low and jabbed with her elbow to block. Spring boarding off her own momentum, she looped her leg around and struck Mega Lucario with all her strength in the ribs, her shin connecting at just the right angle. Mega Lucario grunted and tried to reposition just as pain exploded in Korrina's side—the same spot where she'd hit her Pokémon. Sucking in a breath through gritted teeth, she hit the mat with a hand and flipped as Mega Lucario recovered and came at her with a vengeful punch.

"Stop this at once!" Gurkinn shouted.

But he was barely heard over the flurry of kicks and punches and feints and double feints as Mega Lucario tangoed with its trainer almost too fast for the human eye to follow. It was going easy on her, she knew it. No human, not even a Bellatrix, a Fighting Tamer born with heightened senses that lent themselves to an unmatched fighting spirit, could match it. But she'd sure as hell give it her best shot.

"Haughh!"

Korrina spun on the mat and jabbed hard, but Mega Lucario grabbed her fist and pushed back with more strength than any number of years of hard training could ever hope to outclass. Korrina fell back to the mat, but not before using her own relative frailty to her advantage. Rolling her shoulder, she swung around and rammed Mega Lucario as hard as she could in the stomach. The jackal-headed Pokémon gagged and yipped in surprise, staggering a little, and Korrina saw stars. She rolled on the mat in a tumble of limbs and doubled over to clutch her stomach. Pain lanced through her body like someone had stuck her with some rusty hangers and electrocuted them.

Shuffling, then flowing, yellow pants in her line of sight—or was that just the stars dancing? She tried to stand, but strong arms grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and threw her back bodily. Tears blurred her vision and snot loosened from her nose as the pain flooded her consciousness anew. Warm hands fell upon her shoulders, but she jerked away and struggled to her hands and knees.

Each breath was a stab to the gut, and she let her head hang as she waited for the agony to pass. Her long, thick ponytail fell over her shoulder and pooled on the floor. Coughing, Korrina peered through her sweaty bangs and found Mega Lucario similarly thrown back and holding its middle, though it looked to be taking the beating with more dignity. Unlike her, its bones were plated with steel and could take a hit. Anger flushed through her body and heated her face. She was shaking, and Gurkinn once again laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Korrina," he said gently. His veiny Machamp, a beastly Pokémon with four arms and more raw power than any Fighter Korrina had ever handled, stood between Korrina and Lucario, daring them to get up and resume the fighting.

Swallowing the pain and deciding right then and there that she would wallow in it no longer, Korrina forced herself to stand up, swaying just a little.

"Damnit," she swore. "One hit. One fucking hit."

Mega Lucario watched her, cool as a cucumber and feeling none of the anger that coursed through her. It could probably take a thousand hits like that and still keep going. She took one, and she was writhing on the ground like a coward.

"One hit from a Bellatrix is not just one hit," Gurkinn said.

"That's not good enough!"

Silence stretched, and her shout echoed in the wide, indoor training arena. As quickly as it had come, Korrina's anger left her with each shallow, pathetic breath she took, and the flush on her cheeks burned with something far more insidious.

"Grandpa, I'm... I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

Mega Lucario took a knee, and like a tired sigh before hitting the pillow after a long day, the power that had transformed it ebbed from its body and flowed back to Korrina, light as a feather. Lucario looked up at her back in its normal state.

"That's your problem," Gurkinn said softly but not unkindly. "You don't know what you mean. Sometimes suffering is necessary to achieve victory, but the two are not one and the same."

Korrina wiped her forehead and tried to breathe. He meant well. He always had. Gurkinn was once a powerful Bellator in his own right, and he'd taught Korrina everything he knew. She knew the techniques, the moves, all of it. Their kind fought with a level of fortitude and grace and agility incomprehensible to plebs and other Tamers alike. But there was something weighing her down and pulling her punches. It was ugly and deceitful, and it had followed her since she was a girl.

"And sometimes we only suffer because we choose to."

Blinking, she fixed Gurkinn with a cold glare. "Why would I choose this?"

"To hold on to a target you do not want to admit you can no longer hit."

Whatever scathing rebuttal Korrina could come up with died in her throat. The shame followed the anger, gone with a shaky breath, and all that was left was the ugliness she'd carried around all these years. Without it, what would be left of her?

"I understand," Gurkinn said softly, almost sad, if someone so old could still have the energy to be sad.

Korrina's bright, green eyes watered with unshed tears. Not because he was right, though he always was, but because she just didn't know what to do about it.

"I'm sorry for lashing out," she said, meaning it.

He held out a hand to her, and she took it after a moment's hesitation. "We all fall victim to our passions, for better or for worse."

He trailed off, and she watched him carefully, searching for something that he always kept so well hidden. But as usual, it was gone too fast.

"Please think about what I said. What you seek... It won't come to you until you're ready to accept it without fear."

She nodded, not willing to argue with the one person who had always done what he could to help her, even if it came at a cost that cut from the soul a little more every day.

"I'm going to clean up. See you for dinner?" She managed a small smile for him.

"Of course, my dear."

Korrina waved to Lucario. "C'mon."

She felt Gurkinn's eyes on her back as she left the training arena and headed to the hallway. This arena was a private weight room and exercise floor in the basement separate from the Gym arena on the main floor, where locally employed trainers came to work out their Pokémon and take lessons from the Shalour Gym Leader, a job which until four years ago had belonged to Gurkinn. His old age had hit him like a stroke without the life-threatening attack—one morning, he woke up and he was half the man he'd once been. It was too much to carry on his responsibilities to the Gym and maintain his withering health, so Korrina took over the daily responsibilities in his place.

Lucario walked along beside her, perpetually hunched over with its front paws hanging limply and its bushy tail swishing, tickling the backs of her bare legs. She reached out a hand and scratched it behind one of its huge, fleshy ears. The affectionate gesture earned her a playful nudge in the shoulder.

"I'll get there," she whispered to her strongest Pokémon. "We both will."

They headed upstairs and bypassed the entrance to the Gym, instead using the stairs to climb up to the third floor. Korrina had the entire floor to herself, though there were three additional bedrooms down the hall for guests. Gurkinn's quarters were a floor above, the master's quarters. She didn't mind the privacy even if it meant a smaller room. She didn't have much to fill it with, anyway.

The bed was the only thing worth noticing, a queen with a bland, linen comforter. The walls were bare and off-white with hardly a picture or poster to decorate them, and even the desk in the corner was cleared of loose papers and books. She did have a balcony, though, and it overlooked the huge, wrap-around porch that covered the width of the back of the tower and offered the best view in town of the ocean with nothing to obstruct it. She opened the door and leaned over the balcony, breathing deeply.

Lucario jumped up on the railing and gazed out over the edge. Below, past the reach of the wooden porch where the grass gave way to the golden sands that had enchanted poets and mariners alike for centuries, a large, rotund Pokémon sat on its rear. It had picked a spot in the shade of the palm trees and munched on spindly, leafy sticks of bamboo one of the gardeners had brought out for its meal earlier. Pangoro moved slowly, its dark eyes droopy and its temperament lackadaisical, but stoke its hidden furor and the panda was a bulldozer on steroids. As a Pancham, Pangoro had been Korrina's first Pokémon, raised from her childhood when her mother was still alive.

Snoozing on the beach and sunning lay Korrina's Blaziken, a seven-foot, leggy Fighter parrot that looked like a child had glued together parts of other Pokémon and scribbled them over with red. Legs like a hairy Vigaroth covered in fur, talon-tipped fists reminiscent of Lucario's cruel hands, a severe, curved beak set between two sunken, blue eyes, and a feathered head bushy as a headdress gave Blaziken the look of some evil spirit sent to devour the livers of strong men chained to rocks in penance for their greed. It probably would, too. Blaziken, unlike its smaller cousin hovering just out of reach, preferred to roast and rip its meat, large or small, innards or flesh.

Hawlucha, four feet from its bushy talons to the magnificent crest on its wide head, kept a wary eye on Blaziken as it cleaned its brilliantly colored feathers in the sun. Blaziken's phlegmatic disposition as it sunbathed and stretched its long legs in the sand could shift at any moment. Hawlucha was Korrina's most recent Pokémon, having been around only a few months and still learning the pecking order. Fighters kept a strict hierarchy among themselves, bowing to one another to show deference and settling any perceived slights or threats with punches, much like their human Bellator counterparts. Where most Pokémon were territorial, clan-oriented, or otherwise formed groups to ensure survival, Fighters functioned on the peripheries of their kind, working together only when required, deferring to strength and prowess always to divide territories. Blaziken would not move against Hawlucha, out of boredom and respect for Korrina. But mostly because Pangoro would have started bulldozing—the hefty panda had taken a strange liking to the flamboyant bird—and Blaziken was never in the mood to deal with the bear's temper.

"Go ahead," Korrina said to Lucario. "I'll be down after a shower."

Lucario leaped off the edge of the balcony and landed with a graceful whoosh in the sand. Blaziken's eyes flew open, its mood as mercurial as a teenaged girl's, and Hawlucha's keen observation paid off. It hopped back a safe distance, kept its head low, and spread its enormous red, white, and green wings for balance in an awkward kowtow. Lucario, generally placid but possessed of unmatched perspicacity, calmly eyed its fellow Fighters and loped to the shore to wet its paws. Pangoro barely noticed the jackal and went back to its eating, but Blaziken kept an eye on it—Lucario was the strongest of them. Best not to let it out of sight.

Korrina watched her four Pokémon on the beach, thoughtful. They got along as well as Pokémon of different species could be expected to, though Fighters tended to keep themselves to themselves more than others. A good Bellatrix could teach them to trust and depend on each other, as Gurkinn constantly reminded her. Still so much to learn, she thought begrudgingly. But she was getting there, and so were her young Pokémon willing to sit together on the beach without supervision.

Stripping mechanically, Korrina tossed her soiled workout clothes in the hamper next to the toilet and turned on the shower full blast. The little blood she'd spilled swirled on the white tile and disappeared down the silver drain, leaving only the bruises she would feel in the morning. She hung her head under the spigot and let the hot water soak her waist-length blonde hair, turning it dark.

She had hardly any scars on her body. Bellators fought with their fists and feet, elbows and knees, the heels of their palms, sometimes their heads—metaphorically and physically. Nothing like a head butt to the stomach of a guy twice your size at a running start to cut him down a notch or two. In the course of her twenty-six years, Korrina had been bruised over every inch of her body, but they had faded and healed in time, replaced with fresh ones in the next fight. She'd broken more bones before the age of fifteen than most people break in their entire lives.

As she washed, her fingers brushed one of the few scars she did have—wide and wrinkled, perpetually a shade of pink noticeably darker than her skin and as long as her forefinger—over her left patella. The kneecap bone, bent out of shape and shattered, reassembled with twine and two metal screws thanks to three surgeries (the Hyper Potions alone couldn't put that jigsaw puzzle back together), the last falling on her twelfth birthday. Gurkinn had been there when she woke from the anesthesia.

"You're safe now."

Gurkinn's promise hurt more than the pain waking up from surgery, the worst pain of her life. Six months in a wheelchair, and another two months in crutches. A year of physical therapy as much for her atrophied leg as for her confidence and the fear that plagued her child's body. It had taken months, maybe years off her physical and emotional advancement—Hyper Potions were lethal to children in large and continuous doses, so the old fashioned cure of time and patience was her only real option. And there was Gurkinn's guilt about the matter...

Korrina pushed the thought out of her mind before it could drift too far and scrubbed herself clean. She switched off the shower spigot and wrung out her hair, toweled off, and changed into clean clothes. A white T-shirt and jeans rolled up to the knees, flip-flops she could kick off to dip her feet in the ocean. Her damp hair hung loose about her shoulders. No reason to worry about it once it was brushed smooth.

Korrina headed outside to join her Pokémon. The still-skittish Hawlucha squawked at her arrival and hopped toward her, enjoying a scratch behind its head. Korrina smiled and walked past the bird toward Blaziken, who watched her with its keen eyes.

"Catching up on your tan, huh?" Korrina said.

Blaziken sat up and crossed its long legs to peer at her better. Whatever hierarchical system her Pokémon had established for themselves, Korrina walked among them easily with the assurance that they would defer to her, even if it meant cooperating among themselves. She walked around Blaziken and ran her fingers through its gold-feathered headdress, which earned her a surprisingly gentle purr.

"Someone's in a good mood," she teased.

Pangoro, having plowed through its daily bushel of bamboo, shook the scraps from its belly and rolled over onto its back. Korrina grinned and threw her arms around the heavyset panda's chest, running her fingers over its belly. Pangoro grumbled happily and rolled her onto its stomach, holding her in place with its massive paws and spraying sand everywhere.

Korrina laughed through the ache in her belly where her strong kick had smacked Mega Lucario and injured her as a result. "Goro goro," she said playfully as she tickled Pangoro's belly.

The salty air was already caking her bare arms and face in a fine layer of crystalline mist, but she didn't mind. Pangoro let her slip free and got up to shake out the sand from its black and white fur. Hawlucha ambled close, its wings half spread and the thick, finger-like claws at the joints curled into fists that could punch through solid rock.

Korrina was about to get herself something cold to drink from the mini fridge on the porch and join her Pokémon to sunbathe, but something caught her eye to the south beyond the Tower of Mastery toward Shalour City proper.

"What is that?"

She squinted and shielded her eyes with a hand to block out the sun. Something was floating toward her in the sky, a black dot that grew steadily larger. Hawlucha squawked, an irritating caw reminiscent of the low timber of Murkrow and Honchkrow. Its keen eyes had picked up on the encroaching figure, too.

The dark spot grew wings, and the shadows swathing it bled to orange as it neared. Blaziken got to its feet and turned its wicked beak to the air, sniffing, eyes narrowed.

"I think... Is that a person on that Pokémon?"

Hawlucha squawked again and teetered on its bushy feet, debating whether or not to fly off. Lucario remained near the shore, watching and waiting with palpable aplomb. Korrina's damp, loose hair blew in the sea breeze about her shoulders, platinum sun-kissed ribbons. The approaching figure slowly came into view.

"That's a Charizard," she said, taking a step back.

Blaziken was at her back, its talon-tipped fingers clicking as it cracked its knuckles. Charizard were rare, non-native to Kalos except under the tutelage of a skilled trainer.

Or Tamer, Korrina thought.

Charizard swooped toward the beach, having noticed Korrina and her Pokémon, and its rider guided it into a smooth landing on the sand. A magnificent creature towering about nine feet, Charizard folded its leathery blue wings and hunched over to let its rider dismount. The young man shouldered a travel-weary rucksack and wore Brigandine caliber chaps over his pants, the new lightweight alternative to a bulky saddle. His violet jacket was rolled up at the sleeves and exposed the light dusting of hair on his muscular forearms, which matched the mop of windblown hair on his head. He lowered his flight goggles around his neck and revealed a pair of sparkling blue eyes as clear and placid as the sea on a cloudless afternoon. The set of his jaw was square-cut and hard, the frown he wore as natural as if he'd been born with it. But the moment he laid eyes on Korrina, another human after whatever lengthy, lonely trip he'd made all the way here, he smiled easily in that boy-next-door way Korrina would often overhear other girls giggling about when she was a teenager. This was no dreamy teenager in front of her now.

"Hey," he said. "Sorry, but do you live here?"

Korrina, salt-kissed and barefoot and her blonde hair wild and loose in the wind must have looked a sight to this handsome stranger surrounded by her four beefy Pokémon, the Nereid caught bathing by the peeping youth, her guardians rallied about her ready to defend her honor. But Korrina needed no help in the matter.

"You better be sorry," she said. "Who the hell do you think you are flying in here unannounced? This is private property."

In case the message wasn't clear enough, Blaziken stepped around her and fixed its blazing gaze on Charizard, daring it to take another step closer. The two Fire-types sized each other up, and Charizard bared its teeth in a low warning growl.

The young man put up his hands. "I'm not looking for trouble, okay?"

"Answer the question."

He regarded her, blue eyes catching the afternoon sunlight in a way that made it hard to swallow. Calm and easy, like he was so sure of himself. She already disliked him.

"Take it easy," he said in as calm a tone as he could. "The name's Alain. I didn't mean to intrude."

"Well, you are intruding, Alain. This is private property."

"Yeah, I heard you the first time."

He shrugged off his rucksack and let it drop in the sand next to Charizard. She watched his eyes as they took in the sight of the coast, its gold-speckled shore glittering in the sinking afternoon sun. He'd never been here before, she surmised. They always marveled at the Gold Coast actually being golden.

"This is the Tower of Mastery," Korrina said. "If you're looking for lodgings, the Pokémon Center in Shalour City just across the bay usually has vacancy."

"That's what I'm here for, the Tower of Mastery."

"Why?" Korrina blurted out.

He gave her a coy look. "I was hoping you could tell me that."

What the fuck is this guy's problem?

"Look, unless you have business with the Gym Leader, then you don't have any reason to be here."

His mouth twitched. The sparkle was gone from his eyes. "Tell me what this Tower of Mastery is all about."

Korrina glared at him. "You waltz in here like you own the place and you don't even know a thing about it? Have you been living under a rock?"

"Humor me," he said softly. Dangerously. There was an edge there that hadn't been there before.

Whatever, I could kick this guy's ass with my eyes closed.

It wasn't arrogance (entirely). Korrina could ground plebs that had devoted their lives to the martial arts, the normally insurmountable Atlas, and even steel-nerved Adamantines in hand-to-hand combat.

"The Tower of Mastery is sacred ground. Show a little humility. You're standing on the spot where a wise and powerful Bellator first discovered the secret of Mega Evolution generations ago."

Alain's expression morphed from quiet disdain to bewildered interest. He took a few steps toward Korrina, and Blaziken shot out a knife-tipped hand in warning. Embers flared at the tips of its feathers. Alain stopped short, but his Charizard towered behind him, eyes narrowed and jaws bared as it stared down Blaziken, daring it to try anything.

"Mega Evolution," Alain said. "Are there people here who know the secret?"

Pangoro lumbered behind Korrina, its dark eyes alert as its thick paws sank into the soft sand. Lucario silently appeared at Korrina's side, sharp eyes watchful. She put a hand on its shoulder.

"That depends on who is asking," Gurkinn called from the porch's sliding glass door.

"I've got this, Grandpa," Korrina said.

Gurkinn frowned. "Yes, that's what I'm afraid of. Young man, please forgive Korrina. She doesn't like anyone she meets at first."

Alain caught her eye again, and a spark of anger electrified her spine. He knew her name now. It felt like an absurd defeat.

"You seem interested in Mega Evolution," Gurkinn went on. "I'm sure you can understand our...caution when we meet someone like you out of the blue."

"You make it sound like it's something that needs protecting," Alain said.

Korrina and Gurkinn remained silent, and he got the message.

"Then that's why I'm here. I saw this place, the search light at the top of the tower," Alain went on.

Korrina swallowed hard, but she forced herself not to look toward the top of the tower. That was no searchlight, but she wasn't about to tell Alain that.

"It was like it was calling to me. Look, I can't really explain it, but if you're in charge here and you know about Mega Evolution, then I'm not leaving until I get some answers."

"Do not speak to my Grandpa that way. We don't owe you anything," Korrina said.

Alain looked between Korrina and Gurkinn, weighing his options. She hoped that for his sake he was contemplating the fastest route out of Shalour. He rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Lemme start over. It's been a rough few months, and my manners're a little rusty."

His beard was coarse and growing in scraggly, like he'd forgotten to shave for a week. There were bags under his bleary eyes, purple and mottled as though he'd recently stumbled out of a bar fight. The breeze was blowing the wrong way, but Korrina was sure she caught a stench of something sweetly foul, dank like a cheap motel room where the cigarette smoke and vomit and sweat had bonded to the walls like a second layer of paint.

"I don't really know why I'm here," Alain went on before Korrina could comment on his shabby appearance. "But I think you can help me figure that out."

He drew a serrated hunting knife from a leather sheaf strapped to his thigh and dragged the blade across his bare palm. Blood dribbled onto the pristine sands, thick and red and slow to fall, almost sticky. Before anyone could stop him, he turned to face Charizard and touched his bloody palm to the beast's scaly chest. Blood dropped from Alain's wrist down Charizard's belly and dyed the orange scales a glossy black that spread like an oil spill. Charizard threw back its head as the black venom spread over its body, lengthening its talons and engorging its muscles. Its great wings stretched, black as pitch, and when it roared, the flames that licked its elongated teeth were as blue as the morning seascape. Sharper, leaner, undoubtedly faster—those bat-like wings could have propelled it through the night air unseen and at speeds nearly double that of a normal Charizard.

"Holy shit." Korrina gaped up at Mega Charizard—she'd never seen one turn black before.

Alain let his hand fall and turned back to face Korrina and Gurkinn over his shoulder. "How am I doing so far?"

Gurkinn walked slowly over the porch with a slight limp, his feeble hands clasped behind his back over his billowing, yellow gi. "Why don't you join us for dinner, young man?"

---

Korrina stacked three plates and three sets of forks and knives and brought them to the dining table. The second floor communal quarters she shared with Gurkinn consisted of a large, marble-tiled kitchen, dining room, and sitting room that was really just one large room segmented by jutting half-walls that created artificial corridors. Two wide balconies sandwiched the floor on the north and south ends, overlooking the ocean and the bay, respectively.

When she was a little girl, Korrina had affectionately dubbed the floor the 'wind tunnel' because it was precisely that. Hurricane shutters, folded back and stored for the time being, rattled with the northerly gales that swept through the narrow corridors and out over the southern balcony. Leaving a balcony door partially open created a spooky whistling, like the sound of blowing over the top of a glass bottle, and could be heard all the way on the ground floor Gym. The layout of the jutting half walls spared the kitchen, living, and dining rooms the briny breezes, leaving just the right amount of churn and flutter to air out the space. The floor was never dusty, and it was always cool even in the sweltering summer months.

Dinner was simple and casual, as it usually was. Korrina liked to work with her hands and didn't mind cooking for Gurkinn and herself, as she usually did. Tonight, however, her usually cathartic process of boiling the water, chopping the vegetables, and taste-testing the sauce was a prickly affair. Alain had washed up for dinner and stored his rucksack in the living room in a discreet corner, but he needed a shower and a shave and probably a swift kick in the ass, though the latter was more for Korrina's benefit than his. She snickered at the thought, and Gurkinn, as though reading her mischievous thoughts, gave her that look that said 'behave'. The same one he'd given her when she was a child and reckless. The child in her was long grown up, but the woman she'd become respected Gurkinn's wisdom despite that reckless streak she'd stubbornly held onto. Whatever had piqued his interest in Alain, whatever had moved him to invite the man into their private home merited a baseline of deference and respect. To a point.

And then there was that black Mega Charizard. That could mean only one thing, and it was enough to push Korrina to seriously question her grandfather's judgment in this matter. Anyone with an inkling of Mega Evolution knew what a black Mega Charizard meant.

Korrina brought two bowls to the table, and Gurkinn began serving himself, while Alain politely waited for Korrina to take her share. Once they were all served, they began to eat. Korrina kept an eye on Alain, noting how he wolfed down his food like it might get up and walk off the plate.

"Hungry?" she said pointedly.

Alain chewed and managed to swallow the fistful of food he'd shoveled into his mouth before wiping it with a napkin.

Classy.

"That obvious, huh? It's been a long time since I had a home cooked meal this good."

It's probably been a long time since you had anything to eat that didn't come in a greasy wrapper.

"Korrina is gifted in the kitchen. I count that blessing every day, considering I hardly know how to boil water for tea," Gurkinn joked politely.

Korrina decided not to comment even as she felt Alain's gaze alight on her. The more she thought about that black Mega Charizard, the more she couldn't ignore the elephant in the room. Gurkinn had said nothing about it, but he had to know. Of course he knew, and yet he'd invited Alain into their home. She was going to get to the bottom of this, one way or another.

"So, Alain," Gurkinn went on. "We get the curious scientist or the ambitious trainer around here every so often, but they usually come seeking the power of Mega Evolution. It's not often we see someone who has already discovered it."

"Charizard and I have been using Mega Evolution for a couple years now," Alain said vaguely.

Korrina had heard enough. "Speaking of your Charizard, I've never seen one turn black when it Mega Evolved before. What's a Titan doing all the way out here alone?"

Gurkinn eyed her askance, his look reproving, but he said nothing.

Alain rubbed the stubble over his mouth and chin, taking a moment to collect his thoughts. "I guess there's no point in hiding it. I never intended to try. Yeah, I'm a Titan and a vanither. I've been on my own since I was fourteen."

Korrina shivered at his casual use of that curse. Vanither. She had no ties to Titans or their ways, but everyone knew their reputation for duplicity. After the downfall of Lance the Dragon Master, Kanto and Johto's former Champion-turned-terrorist, public and private opinion of Titans had plummeted beyond the existing skepticism and mistrust that already poisoned their reputations. Lance had used his Titan powers to summon the sea monster Lugia with plans to wipe out all Tamers and those who opposed him. Even his clan in Blackthorn scrambled to distance themselves from him in the wake of his defeat. The worst of the Titans, the vanithers, were cast out from their clan and doomed to wander alone, ostracized, not to be trusted. Not that any Titans could be trusted.

Alain looked between Korrina and Gurkinn as though daring them to question what he'd just revealed.

"So you have chosen the life of a vander and learned the secrets of Mega Evolution along the way." Gurkinn used the politically correct term for one in Alain's shoes who had cut off all ties with other Dragon Tamers, hiding the momentary surprise he'd felt at hearing such an ugly curse at his simple dinner table. "Intriguing. And how did you and Charizard reach this level?"

Korrina watched Alain carefully, looking for the lies all Titans told. They couldn't help it, it was said. It was in their blood to control and manipulate, to lie and betray and even to turn on their own. There had to be more to the story. No way he just up and left his clan one day out of righteous indignation or moral superiority. Titans were all the same.

To his credit, Alain retained a façade of calm composure and took a casual sip of his water. He'd declined a glass of wine Gurkinn had offered him just before they all sat down for dinner. "Someone showed me the way. Charizard and I had to do the work, but I had a guide. I don't want to sound ungrateful after you've opened your home to me, but I'd rather not talk about it if it's all right with you."

I bet you wouldn't, Korrina thought.

As though hearing her thoughts, Alain locked gazes with her and held her glare in challenge. Try it, he seemed to communicate. Korrina bit her tongue to keep it from licking her lips. Oh, but she would just love to try it right here, right now, one on one, her fists in his tired face until that precious Dragonsblood all Titans treasured more than silver and gold ran into his sparkling, blue eyes.

"Of course," Gurkinn said. "We all must face our demons in our own time, alone. But I would ask you, what's brought you here? Why did you leave this mentor of yours?"

The composure Alain had retained well enough chipped away and he shifted in his seat, breaking the staring contest with Korrina. "Someone I'd promised to keep safe ended up getting hurt because of me. I couldn't stay. I... I can't go back."

Gurkinn tugged on the ends of his long, limp mustachios, a habit when he was ruminating. "I see. I'm sorry to hear that."

Korrina did a good enough job containing her incredulity, having learned to swallow pain and turn it into a source of strength over the years. But inside she was boiling. This guy, Alain, if that was even his real name, was dangerous. Not just because he was a Titan, but because even his own kind had turned their backs on him. She had no idea if he was telling the truth (unlikely), and he'd given her no reason to trust him. For all she knew, he could be looking for a quick fix, or he could be a criminal on the run, or he could have maliciously hurt that person he claimed to care about, maybe irreversibly. He wouldn't be the first to show up here with nefarious motives.

"I understand Korrina spoke to you a little about this place," Gurkinn said. "What do you think about what she said?"

"Truthfully, I wasn't aware this place was the site of the first Mega Evolution. But now that I know, I can't help but feel like I was meant to be here. I know how that must sound." He put up his hands to preempt any kind of rebuke, but none came. "But I don't know how else to explain it. I was just going through the motions for so long, and all of a sudden, I found this place."

"I understand," Gurkinn reassured him in that voice he used to reassure Korrina. "This land is sacred. It calls to us, to the ones who know to listen. The fact that you're here now is not a coincidence."

Korrina could not stand it any longer. "Grandpa, please, you can't be serious. With all due respect, we don't know this guy. He wouldn't be the first traveler to come sniffing around for something he has no right to possess."

"Hey, I'm not sniffing around anything," Alain defended.

Gurkinn put his hands up. "What my granddaughter means to say is that this place has a way of tempting the darkness in people's hearts. Many come here looking for power, but few have the wisdom and patience to understand it. It consumes those who are not ready or worthy.

"You've come here searching for something," Gurkinn went on. "If it's power you seek, you'll find it here, but not as you are now. As long as you're running from the past, you will never have the courage to face it. You and Charizard may have the mechanics down, and yet you've come here lost and afraid, guilty about the past you are not able to face. It isn't simply that you do not understand, but that you will not let yourself understand."

Alain stared at Gurkinn but could not muster any words.

Korrina rolled her eyes. "Forget it, Grandpa. He said himself he doesn't even know why he's here."

"Korrina, my dear, you should know very well that not all of us who wander are lost."

"I'm sorry, baby," her mother's voice, a hollow whisper she barely remembered anymore, echoed in the fog of her memory. "I'm just so tired."

Korrina blinked and averted her gaze, thrown by the unbidden memory and angry that it affected her more than it should have in front of this stranger. That old, gnawing loneliness turned her fingers and toes cold, and the scar on her knee ached. Alain noticed the sudden change in her and watched her carefully.

"No, she's right, I don't know what brought me here or what I thought I'd find coming here," Alain admitted. "But you're right about me, all of it. If there's a way..." He trailed off as though the words pained him. "If there's a way to make it right, however I can, I have to find it. Please..."

He looked at Gurkinn like a starving man looks at the ones with more than they can consume, wondering why, why, and please just help, help in any way you can, I don't know how, just please, anything will do, anything to hold onto...

"The only one you need to ask to change your life is yourself," Gurkinn said. "Until you have the courage to do that, I'll give you permission to train here. But...I'll need the Gym Leader's approval. She is the keeper of this tower, and it is her decision."

Alain blinked, slowly understanding his meaning, and dragged his eyes back to Korrina, mouth slightly parted. It should have felt good, that shock of recognition when he looked at her now in a different light. She was the Gym Leader, one recognized not only by the people of Shalour City, but by Diantha, the Champion of Kalos herself, to keep her peace and uphold her justice. It should have felt good, but Korrina still heard her mother's tinny whispers in her ears, sad and selfish and still raw after so many years of convincing herself that she should have been enough of a reason for her mother to stay and that it wasn't her fault that her mother was too much of a coward to believe in that.

"Please," Alain repeated, this time to Korrina.

"Please," a young Korrina sobbed as she clutched her shattered leg, the pain too demonic to fight back, and stared in horror at the monster she'd once loved.

It took everything she had just to return Alain's gaze, her green eyes reflected in his. Where were these memories coming from all of a sudden? Why did it all come back when she looked at him?

"I'll do whatever it takes," Alain said in a tone that transported Korrina, as though they were the only people in the room, on the entire island.

She'd made a similar promise to Gurkinn all those years ago, a promise to herself, to the mother that had chosen the coward's way out and left her to fend for herself against the monster in the shadows, still alive and real in her memories as he'd been in her past.

Korrina clenched her fists in her lap until they hurt. "Approval granted," she said, hardly recognizing her own voice.

Alain spared her a glimpse of a smile that could have dazzled if he'd let it. It was there, buried under the years of running, searching, the nights spent alone, the failures that clung to his shoulders and sank their claws into him, and for a moment, Korrina forgot that she did not like this man, that she didn't trust him, that whatever the magic in his blood, she would not be seduced like so many others before her by his kind. Just for a moment, just a whisper of a smile and the memories it evoked, and she was undone.

"Then it's settled," Gurkinn said. "When we finish with dinner, Korrina will show you to one of the spare bedrooms upstairs. But I warn you. This will not be easy. Do not forget what I said."

The moment was gone, and Alain nodded at Gurkinn. "I won't. Thank you. Both of you."

He turned back to Korrina, but she regained herself and frowned at him, the natural resentment for him swelling her veins, strangely invigorating. She pushed out of her chair and stood.

"I'm finished. If you don't want to get lost, I suggest you follow me."

Alain wiped his mouth with a napkin, his dinner long finished, and hastily got up after her.

"Grandpa, please excuse me. I'll be back to clean up in a bit."

Gurkinn took her hand gently in his weathered one. "It's all right. I'll take care of it."

He held her gaze. There was gratitude there, as well as a silent understanding of what tormented her. Fine. If this was what he thought was right, she would not oppose him. Not after everything he'd done for her.

Alain grabbed his rucksack from the living room and held up his hand to the strong breeze blowing through the wind tunnel. Korrina pulled away from Gurkinn and gestured for Alain to follow her to the stairs, not bothering to call out to him.

She headed up the stairs to the third floor living quarters, her footsteps echoing on the marble steps, and Alain's soon joined hers in a percussive parade upwards. The sounds of the wind tunnel died down as they rounded the turn in the stairs and emerged on the third floor hallway. She passed her own door and the two just past it, finally stopping at the room farthest away from hers at the end of the corridor.

"This is your room. We have housekeepers, but they're not here to clean up after you. You're a guest here, so don't forget it," she said as she opened the door and led him inside.

The room was not much different from her own, sparsely furnished and lacking in ornaments or decorations. The layout was the inverse of hers, with the queen-sized bed on the right side of the room and the connecting bathroom on the left. A balcony overlooked the beach, and Korrina knew that if she went outside, she would easily see her own balcony to the left.

Alain set his rucksack down on the bed, and Korrina turned just in time to see three Pokéballs clipped to his belt when his jacket rode up. She wondered what Pokémon he had with him besides Charizard and made a mental note to find out sooner rather than later to be prepared. Just in case. Gurkinn may trust Alain enough to invite him to stay at the Tower of Mastery and train, but that didn't mean Korrina had to.

"I won't forget," Alain said.

He wasn't looking at her, distracted as he opened up his rucksack and rummaged around for something. Korrina narrowed her eyes, irritated at his blasé attitude. He really did not know where he was and who he was dealing with.

Faster than he could possibly hope to follow, Korrina closed the distance to Alain, grabbed him roughly by the throat, and shoved him bodily against the nearest wall. Alain's sparkling eyes widened in surprise as he found it much harder to breathe all of a sudden. His hands went to Korrina's wrist on instinct, but her grip was sure and ironclad, and her body was positioned sideways, her free hand showing the heel of her palm and ready to strike if he tried anything. He tried to remain calm and limp in her hold, but she was squeezing like she meant business.

"I'd say take me to dinner before we jump to the foreplay, but I guess we already did that," he rasped.

Korrina glared green fury at him and squeezed harder. "Shut up," she hissed. "You may be able to convince my grandpa that you're no threat, but I don't buy your bullshit for a second. I know all about you Titans."

His grip was cool on her bare wrist, but he tried his best not to struggle. "Oh, yeah? What do you think you know?"

She narrowed her eyes and leaned in to intimidate him. "I know you lie. So I'm only gonna tell you this once, vanither." To his credit, he didn't flinch at the curse. "If I sense anything out of line about you, anything at all to suggest you're not sincere about why you're really here, I'll break every bone in your body and spill every last drop of that precious Dragonsblood you're so proud of. Am I clear?"

Alain's thoughts raced in the span of a couple seconds. "I'd be suicidal to say no to a Bellatrix who's got me by the throat," he managed.

Good, she thought. Let him wallow in his newfound knowledge of what she was, what she could do. Titan or not, he was as vulnerable to her nimble fingers as the next person who crossed her.

After another couple of seconds watching him struggle to breathe and to let her message sink in, Korrina released him roughly and he slumped against the wall. She swallowed the bitter disgust in her throat at the sight of him. He wouldn't reveal what he'd been up to until he wandered here to Shalour, but it was obvious to anyone with eyes that he'd let himself go. Pathetic. Well, they would all find out very soon if he was blowing smoke or if he actually had a mind to make a change. She would flush it out of him the best way she knew how.

When Korrina made it to the door and was about to let herself out, his voice stopped her, strained from her earlier assault.

"You're not wrong about Titans," he said.

Korrina spared him a scathing glance over her shoulder.

"But you're wrong about me. I left because I didn't want to be like them."

He held her gaze, entreating and steady, and for a moment of insanity, she almost believed him. "We'll see."

Korrina shut the door behind her.

---

The next morning, Alain emerged from his room and headed back to the second floor to find some breakfast. He'd showered thoroughly, a little embarrassed by his shabby appearance and the sweaty-sweet stench that had coated him after the long flight here. The bathroom was stocked with all the necessary amenities, including a razor. Shaving took a while with the triple-bladed handheld after years of relying on an electric shaver, and he cut himself so many times he nearly threw the thing in the toilet. But eventually, clean and somewhat presentable once he'd removed all the little wads of toilet paper he'd stuck to the tiny cuts on his face, he was ready to start the day.

It was early, but he hadn't been able to sleep, wishing he'd gone ahead and bought that extra bottle of Jack like he'd dreamed about back on Route Eleven. But Korrina was practically salivating for an excuse to dislike him even more and possibly throw him out, and while Gurkinn was friendly enough, Alain wasn't about give either of them a reason to question his motives. He'd just have to deal with the shaking in his hands, the sweating at night, the insomnia until it passed naturally.

Yeah, good fucking luck, dude.

Alain had no idea what Gurkinn had in store for him, so he'd dressed casually in green cargo pants and a black T-shirt. He'd have to ask about where he could do a load of laundry, as well as where he could let his Pokémon run around. Tyrantrum was not going to like being confined to the island, and Shalour City itself was not exactly the Dragon dino's typical running grounds.

"Good morning," a portly woman in a grey uniform and white apron greeted Alain in the kitchen. "Can I help you with something?"

Alain faltered and scratched at his still-damp hair. "Oh, um, good morning. Sorry, I was looking for Gurkinn. I thought he might be here having breakfast...?"

The matron smiled. "No, I'm afraid Master Gurkinn takes his breakfast," she paused to check her wristwatch, "at ten thirty, so not for another couple hours or so."

That sounded oddly late for an old man, and Alain voiced as much.

"Not at all. He rises at dawn for tea, then meditates until breakfast if he isn't training with Lady Korrina. They usually dine together afterwards. Would you like me to show you where they're training now?"

The hunger wasn't bad—he would've preferred a drink, anyway. Maybe some spectating would take his mind off the itch, he decided. Korrina was a Bellatrix, after all. There was no one better to watch in a fight.

"Sure, that'd be great. Thanks."

The woman smiled. "This way."

Alain followed her downstairs to the main floor, the Shalour City Gym, which was nothing more than a huge training arena. The center, which opened directly onto the sandy ground and was peppered with boulders of various sizes, stretched about seventy feet on all sides. It was surrounded by glass-walled training rooms for people, complete with mats and weights and various exercise equipment. There were people sparring in one of the rooms, and still others working out their muscles with dumbbells or yoga or cardio training. But Alain paid them no mind, his gaze drawn ineluctably to the sandy center arena were Korrina and her Blaziken were running through a drill with a pair of fearsome Sawk and Throh while Gurkinn looked on. From the looks of it, Korrina and Blaziken were tag teaming Sawk and Throh.

"Best view is over there," the maid whispered to Alain when she saw him staring.

He followed her pointed finger to the small stack of bleachers on the left-hand side of the arena, where a few people taking a break from their workout were spectating. "Thanks, sorry to drag you from work."

The maid left him to it, and Alain made his way around the arena toward the bleachers. He found a seat in the second row separate from the other onlookers, who ignored him completely in favor of watching Korrina and her Blaziken. Alain soon became absorbed in the scene himself, a little star struck. He'd never seen a Bellatrix in action this close before.

Korrina and her Blaziken moved in sync, and he didn't hear her give it orders at all. The short, heavyset Throh moved faster than its body betrayed, lunging at Blaziken with a nasty Dynamicpunch. But Korrina dove in out of nowhere and rammed the burly, red Fighter in the side like she wasn't tackling a three-hundred-pound mass of raw muscle and instinct. Throh grunted and missed its attack, falling under Korrina's well-aimed tackle, but Sawk was right there and ready with a Vital Throw.

The tall, blue Fighter snatched up Korrina by the arms, swung her around at a harsh angle, and hurled her into the air toward the nearest boulder. Alain bit his tongue by accident as his body jerked. This was supposed to be a spar, not a fight to the death!

Blaziken, however, was even faster than Korrina had been and lunged into the air on its powerful hind legs like some kind of super-powered pogo stick. Its talon-tipped hands wrapped around Korrina's waist, pulled her close, and then it spun in midair to land sideways against the boulder that would have crushed Korrina. There was a split second of tension as Blaziken's knees bent, coiled, and then it spring boarded back at Sawk with Korrina in its arms. She was already wrapping her arm around its feathered headdress and positioning herself for a follow-up.

"Go!" she barked.

Blaziken brought its right leg around, trailing embers, just as Korrina leaped from its back. Sawk prepared to defend, too slow to attempt a dodge, and glowed red with Endure just as Blaziken slammed into its chest with a fiery whoosh. Meanwhile, Korrina flipped in midair just as she was about to fall and extended her leg. Throh was ready and had begun pumping up its muscles with the beginnings of Superpower, bulging as though injected with a severe overdose of steroids.

"Sky Uppercut!" Korrina shouted as gravity plummeted her to the ground.

Blaziken rebounded off the dazed Sawk, hardly slowing down at all, and lunged at Throh fists first. The engorged Fighter never saw it coming in time. Blaziken rammed Throh with a glowing fist in the back, stalling its Superpower, just as Korrina's leg crash landed over Throh's left shoulder in a move that would have shattered every bone from neck to pelvis on a regular person.

Alain covered his mouth before he could do something ridiculous like gasp or cry out. He was tempted, but his fellow spectators continued to whisper amongst themselves, hardly cheering at all. That made him wonder just how often they got the chance to watch a five-six blonde Barbie doll beat the daylights out of Pokémon that could crush stone with their bare hands.

Korrina and Blaziken regrouped, while Gurkinn recalled Sawk and Throh and motioned to an attendant standing by. He handed the young man the two Pokéballs, perhaps to be taken to the Pokémon Center for medical attention, then turned back to Korrina and her Blaziken. The Fighter parrot towered over Korrina, proud and pompous, but its blue eyes were alert and searching, its talon-fists clacking as it cracked its knuckles.

"You and Blaziken are improving your coordination," Gurkinn appraised. "You've made decent progress."

Korrina wiped the sweat from her brow. Her pink tank top was darkened at the neck with moisture, and Alain wondered just how long she'd been at it this morning. "I still got hit."

Gurkinn didn't even try to make her feel better. "Yes, you did. Imagine if this had been a Mega Evolution battle. That hit could have crippled Blaziken and it would not have saved you in time."

Korrina's eyes flashed with a wave of anger, but Grukinn nipped it in the bud before she could get a word in edgewise.

"You must be more vigilant, Korrina. Control your temper, or it will be your and your Pokémon's undoing."

Blaziken looked down at Korrina and cocked its beaked head, red and gold feathers ruffling. Korrina balled her fists and breathed deeply, willing the momentary flush to subside.

"Yes, Grandpa. You're right."

She palmed her right fist and bowed respectfully. Gurkinn acknowledged her efforts with a nod, then turned to the stands.

"And you," he called to the few people that had been watching the match. "Please take note of your Gym Leader's example. If you want to fight like a Bellator, you must learn to move with your Pokémon, feel as they feel, just as Korrina does. Please use the arena to practice now."

The gathered people, Gym trainers from the looks of it, scrambled to their feet and jogged toward the sandy arena. They released their Pokémon, everything from tiny Machop to hulking Hariyama, and took up positions to practice.

Gurkinn's eyes alighted on Alain in the corner, and he stood up to meet the old man down in the sand. Korrina was busy ruffling Blaziken's feathers and whispering to it, and the lanky Pokémon clucked its satisfaction as it leaned into her touch. She had a soft smile on her lips as she spoke to Blaziken.

"Alain, good morning," Gurkinn greeted. He had his hands behind his back and wore black and white today, like a temple monk straight out of the Celestic Shrine in Sinnoh.

"Good morning, sir," Alain said politely.

Korrina heard them speaking and turned on Alain, all traces of that soft smile gone. "Nice of you to join us sometime today."

"It's all right," Gurkinn said. "You didn't know. Korrina and I usually start the Gym workouts at seven in the morning. We do value punctuality, so perhaps now that you're aware of our schedule, we can start with everyone else, yes?"

Yikes.

No wonder Korrina watched her tongue around this old man. Alain could practically feel the threat underneath the friendly warning in Gurkinn's tone. This was not a man you crossed lightly, and respect was earned, not expected. That was fine. Alain could swallow his pride when the stakes were this high and the payout almost palpable under his fingertips.

"Yes, of course. I'll be ready to begin tomorrow."

Korrina smirked. "Tomorrow? What's wrong with today?"

Blaziken eyed Alain like it was calculating the most tender part of him to tear its wicked beak into first, and despite himself he swallowed a lump of fear in his throat. That thing looked a lot bigger and meaner without Charizard here to back him up.

"Yes, quite right. I believe Training Room Eight is reserved for us today," Gurkinn said.

"I'll lead the way." Korrina recalled Blaziken and headed for the glass-walled training rooms on the far side of the Gym.

With no choice, Alain trudged after her through the sand while Gurkinn followed at a more leisurely pace as he watched the Gym trainers practice.

Stay cool, dude. Just stay cool.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets to keep them from jittering and tried to ignore the tickle in his throat that reminded him of how thirsty he was. Korrina led him to one of the empty training rooms, and the door swung closed behind them on its own. Immediately, all sound from the main arena died down as the two of them were plunged into eerie silence. The walls were soundproofed, he realized. There was a sound system with a couple speakers spread out in the corners of the ceiling, but no music played at the moment. The floor was completely covered in training mats, and Alain followed Korrina's lead by kicking off his shoes and storing them in a small rack against the wall by the door. It smelled stale in here, old sweat, a little coppery, a little bleached, and the ever-present sour taste of salt in the air from the ocean depressed it all like a blanket.

"If you're late again tomorrow, you'll be running laps around the island the rest of the day with the other late risers, standard procedure," Korrina said as she stretched her muscles. "Even if you forfeit time to train with others, there's always time to train yourself. Consider it a friendly warning."

Yeah, right.

"I won't be late again."

He watched as she stretched her legs, knees bent as she counted in her head. Her long ponytail skimmed her lower back, a sliver of which was exposed when she moved and her tank top rode up an inch over her grey workout capris. Even to his untrained eye, it was obvious to Alain that Korrina was in peak physical condition—rippling muscle bulging in all the right places, skin smooth and taut where only the leanest layers of body fat filled her out and made her distinctly feminine. He wondered what it took to get so fit. Even at his best when he was running around the globe for Lysandre, he was sure he wasn't anywhere near her level. And now, well, he had a long way to go.

Without thinking, he tapped his belly under his T-shirt, fingers poking at the flabby skin where once he'd been flat and toned and able to keep up with his Pokémon's exuberance. And now he was thirsting for a drink when he should have been just a little envious of Korrina's physical accomplishment.

"This space is a little small for most of my Pokémon," Alain commented.

"That's because this room isn't meant for Pokémon's use," Korrina explained, not bothering to look at him as she continued to stretch.

"Then what're we doing in here?"

She straightened and fixed him with a pointed stare. "What do you think?"

She crossed the room to the sound system and punched a few buttons. A jarring, angry tune filtered through the speakers, not exactly loud but not easily tuned out in the small space. The beat was fast, the lyrics faster, and Korrina was light on her feet as she pulled open the small fridge next to the sound system and pulled out a bottle of water. She gulped down a third of it and returned it to the fridge, then she turned back to Alain.

"Lesson Number One," she said. "Stay on your feet."

"What—"

He barely got the word out when Korrina flew at him—yeah, flew like a goddamned raptor with its talons outstretched for the kill—and wound up a mean uppercut. Alain reacted on instinct and threw up his arms just in time to catch her punch on his forearms, but the force of her attack was unreal. Pain erupted in his left forearm and he stumbled, barely catching himself. She didn't let up for a second, and before he knew what had hit him, Korrina slashed around with her foot, stole his legs from under him, and sent him crashing to the floor in a sad heap on his back.

The air left Alain's lungs when he landed on the floor, and he sucked in a ragged breath, trying to calm his electrified synapses firing off red alerts in his brain that this chick was going to kill him and he was on his ass like a loser after what, three seconds in the ring with her? It was a small blessing that he was in too much shock to feel embarrassed.

Korrina towered over him and kneeled down next to him. She folded her arms over her bent knees and peered down at his face, hovering just a foot above him. This close, he could make out a small scar on her upper lip in the right corner.

"I said, stay on your feet," she said softly.

A flash of anger clouded his vision and he glared up at her. "Like hell," he spat.

She'd done it on purpose, and worse, there was nothing he could've done about it. They both knew it.

To Alain's surprise, she reached down and brushed his bangs out of his face. Her hand was cool on his flushed forehead, but she withdrew before he could really process it.

"First rule of Mega Evolution training? Your Pokémon's only as good as you are. If your Pokémon goes down, you go down with it. But the opposite's also true." She gave him a once over that would have felt strangely lascivious coming from anyone else at any other time. "I'm guessing you forgot about that part."

The door opened then, and Gurkinn found them like that, Alain sprawled on the floor clutching his throbbing left arm and Korrina hunched over him.

"I see Korrina is eager to get started," he said, noting the music and glancing at the speakers.

Alain sat up and Korrina leaned back but didn't give him his space. What was it with this girl? Did she really despise Titans so much? He supposed he couldn't blame her there, given his own low opinion of his blood relations. But she didn't even know him.

Yeah, like that's ever stopped anyone before.

Swallowing his earlier frustration and clutching his throbbing arm to his chest, Alain looked up at Gurkinn. "Look, I don't wanna sound ungrateful to either of you, but I'm honestly not much of a fighter, not like you or your Gym trainers. I'm willing to learn, but I'm having a hard time seeing how beating the crap outta me is going to get me there."

Korrina pushed him back on his back with a strong hand to his chest. "Did you even listen to a word I just said?"

Gurkinn said nothing, and Korrina got up with a roll of her eyes. Alain pushed up on his elbows again and slowly got to his feet.

"The best way to learn is to experience," Gurkinn said. "Korrina is a Master Bellatrix who has personally trained both Tamers and plebs in the martial arts. You are in good hands."

If I can live through it.

He kept that thought to himself and watched as Korrina circled him. She wasn't looking at him, but at his feet.

"Widen your stance," she said mechanically. "I knocked you over so easy because you were too rigid. You have to be limber to stay on your feet."

Alain blinked and looked down at his feet. They looked fine to him, but deciding not to argue, he did as he was told and spread his stance. It felt awkward, his feet at shoulder width, and he tried bending his knees a little to balance out the strange sensation.

A blur of blonde was his only warning when Korrina lunged at him again. Swearing, Alain threw up his hands again, catching her jab by pure luck. There was power behind that attack, a kind of elemental strength he'd never felt before in another person, and it rocked him where he stood. But his left leg supported his weight and he maintained his balance.

Korrina flipped her ponytail and fixed him with a cold stare. She nodded as an afterthought. "Better."

"How about a little warning next time?"

Korrina ducked swept out with her leg all of a sudden, buckling his knees and sending him falling again. One moment he was feeling marginally less pathetic, and the next he was flat on his back again, head spinning. Korrina looked down at him over her nose.

"Look for the warnings yourself. You have eyes, Titan. Use them."

Gurkinn watched, the silent spectator, and offered no words of encouragement or protest. If he'd known this was what training at the Tower of Mastery was like, perhaps Alain would not have bothered coming out here. But here he was, and he'd promised both of them last night that he would do whatever it took.

When has a promise made any difference? A cruel voice taunted him from the dark part of his heart that was still screaming in vain for a drink.

And just like that, the anger was back and cleared his head. No way was he going to let this girl, Bellatrix or not, kick him around like an old chew toy without doing anything about it.

"Your Pokémon's only as good as you are."

Okay, he could listen. He had to get in shape if he wanted to keep up with Mega Charizard. Okay.

Okay.

This was going to hurt.

He got up again, knees a bit wobbly from where Korrina had knocked them out from under him, but he managed. He took a moment to check his stance—that had helped last time. She'd been right about him standing too rigidly.

Korrina watched him, expression impassive if not a little sour, but she was all business. "Keep your elbows in close to your sides. Yeah, like that. Shoulders loose. The minute you tense up, that's when you'll be too slow to move."

Listen, he willed himself through the knee-jerk reaction to snap at her.

He loosened his shoulders and tightened up his elbows. It felt weird, like something was pushing down on his shoulders and making him heavy. Unnatural. He tried to scrutinize Korrina's pose, but she looked so fluid and natural that there was no point in comparing. She circled.

"No, don't ball your fists," she said not unkindly. "Keep them loose. If someone comes at you with a knife, you'll be too slow to grab it."

"Who would come at me with a knife?"

In lieu of answering, she lunged. Alain had kept an eye on her deadly fists and saw her coming, and he attempted a dodge. Her fist aimed at the empty air where his head had been, and he almost smiled, but then her other hand hit the side of his neck hard and messed with his breathing. Before he realized she'd feinted, Korrina brought her knee up and rammed him in the stomach. Choking and gasping for air, Alain reacted on instinct. He wrapped his hands around her leg and pulled with everything he had.

In the split second before they went down, he locked gazes with Korrina just inches away. Tempestuous jade constantly simmering with barely concealed disdain brightened with surprise and a rush of adrenaline, almost sparkling, and threw him for a loop. His weight pushed them both down, but the almost-victory was short lived when Korrina used his grip on her leg to thrust herself over and on top of him, swinging her free leg around to lock him in a chokehold between her thighs.

This time, Alain hit the mat on his stomach, his chin smacking the floor with a skull-shattering thud that made him see stars. Korrina rolled with him until he was on his back—again—and she had him pinned with her legs, his arms flapping haplessly. When his vision began to clear, he found her looking down at him upside-down, her long ponytail tickling his right temple.

"Someone who isn't as good with their arms and legs as me," she answered his earlier question.

He was tempted to make a crude joke about the fact that she had him quite literally between her legs, but decided against it with Gurkinn in the room. Plus, you know, she could have snapped his neck with those ultra-toned thighs faster than you could say 'Kegel'.

Shut the fuck up, brain.

Korrina released him and got up again, went to the fridge, and took another swig of her water. Alain did his best to swallow a groan and sit up, one hand on his head as the ache slowly subsided.

"Catch."

Korrina tossed Alain a fresh water bottle from the mini fridge, and he caught it, saving what little was left of his dignity. The water was cold and felt good on his raw throat, easing the hot thickness in his tongue over having gone this long without a proper drink. It wasn't his old pal Jack, but it would have to do for now.

"I'm sure you know already that only Tamers can help their Pokémon achieve Mega Evolution," Gurkinn said, breaking his silence. "They lend the chosen Pokémon their aura, and it awakens a power that has long been lost to the Pokémon, dormant in their blood."

Alain swallowed the water but remained seated on the mat. He looked up at Gurkinn and blinked. "Yeah, I know. That's why Charizard regains his Dragonsblood when we Mega Evolve. Only a Titan can do that."

Gurkinn nodded. "What I want you to think about now is the truth behind the science and mechanics of the process. What does it mean to join two souls? Mega Evolution is not a one-way street, as you can see from the fact you feel what your Charizard feels. Charizard fights for you, so you in turn must make sure that you can fight for it, that you can support it."

"Of course I support Charizard. We've been together for more than half my life."

"Is this not listening thing something all you Titans do?" Korrina interrupted. "Or is this you trying not to be like them?"

The way she threw his words from the previous night back at him, words he'd whispered in confidence in a sincere effort to make her see the good in him, made his blood boil.

"'Cause I gotta say," Korrina went on. "You're really doing spectacularly."

"Think about what I said, Alain," Gurkinn said. "There is no room for ego in Mega Evolution."

Alain got up and set down his half-empty water bottle at the edge of the mat near the wall. His T-shirt was starting to stick to his collar. Even the small exertion this morning was wearing on his out-of-shape body, he realized with no small degree of shame. How had he let things get this bad?

"Okay, but—"

"My grandpa said think, not talk," Korrina interrupted. "Fix your stance. We have another forty-five minutes before breakfast."

Fuck me.

She ran at him again, and Alain prayed he'd be able to walk out of here on his own two legs to enjoy that breakfast.

---

Deep in the mountains west of Snowbelle City, the snowstorm had not deterred one soul from his tireless work. His life's work, to be precise. He wouldn't be here otherwise in this frozen shithole, his ass freezing even under layers of Sawsbuck skin slacks and the heat on at full blast. He was convinced no one was ever warm in this godforsaken purgatory.

"Snowbelle, more like Snow-hell."

A round, red furred Darumaka grunted from its perch on his desk, its little mouth stretched in a perpetual grin and its small hands clasped around its smaller feet. He liked to think it found him funny. There was no one else here to laugh at his lame jokes or commiserate. No one else in their right mind would be in this frozen desert, case in point.

Unless they had access to a secret, subterranean lab wholly financed by Team Flare but with Lysandre none the wiser. Unless they had all the time in the world to find the answer to a problem that had plagued humanity since it surfaced generations ago. Unless they were as smart as him, and let's face it—no one was as fucking smart as him. They could have everything else on him, but they would never have that.

Laevus the scientist got up out of his chair and yawned, stretching his stubby arms over his head. His Mareep wool sweater was warmer than it looked, thin as it was, but his pale flesh was sensitive to extremes. The extra girth around his middle, padding his buttocks and thighs and arms, did little to insulate him. Thirty-five years old and victim to a creeping hairline that thinned his naturally brown hair, the self-made scientist had a good gig going here, if he ignored the fact that he was in the middle of fucking nowhere. Still, people were distractions. No one would look for him out here, especially not Lysandre. It all evened out in the end.

Holding out a meaty hand for Darumaka, Laevus palmed the round little Pokémon and helped it onto his shoulder over his lab coat. The little ball of fur was slightly smaller than a bowling ball and it radiated heat, a mobile furnace that Laevus was all too happy to keep close by. The little Pokémon was also his only companion out here in the desolate winter wasteland. They had been together since Laevus was a child, when his younger sister had caught Darumaka and gifted it to him for his fifteenth birthday. Twenty years, he mused, and Darumaka was always at his side.

"Time to check on the stones, Maru," Laevus used the nickname he'd bestowed upon Darumaka all those years ago.

The red Pokémon grunted like a piglet and kneaded his shoulder, just as eager as he was. Laevus twisted his flabby, pink lips in a grin and headed out of his office toward the lab proper. It was a stone structure, the entire lab, cut directly into the mountainside and furnished with its own generators for light and heating. Unlike his office, the main lab was not swathed in Beartic skins for insulation, and despite the roaring heaters, the space retained an insidious chill. How he hated the cold, always had. It was the only thing he'd inherited from his parents, and it was too little too late in their eyes. A repugnant skuff, one born to Tamer parents but who had never manifested the Tamer abilities himself, Laevus registered the freezing temperatures more with emotional acuity than any sense of physical discomfort. If his parents could see him now, what he'd accomplished, what he was about to embark on, they would have been proud, he was sure of it. Even them, those supercilious blue bloods, would have cowered at the fruits of his awesome mind, his only consolation from their coupling. His sister got the rest, the name and the blood and the skills and their parents' love, all of it. But Laevus felt his time was near. He was smart like that, always had been.

"Let's see then," he cooed as he approached the glass case where he kept the specimens—seven in total. It was all he'd been able to pilfer without attracting attention.

Seven stones, crystalline and shimmering with the light of a thousand rainbows even in the dark, dingy cold underground, like they would shine no matter how deeply they were buried. Seven stones he'd pried off that monolith Lysandre had brought back with him from Hoenn and the clash of colossi once relegated to myth, now lying in wait for another calling. They were worth holing up in this frigid prison all alone. They had to be.

"Only Tamers can activate Mega Evolution," Laevus mused aloud.

Darumaka grunted and shifted on his shoulder as he leaned over the glass case and admired the stones.

"But not for long."

The answer was here, he just had to find it. These stones, the ones the mythical Pokémon of Hoenn, the masters of sea, earth, and sky had fought over, had to hold the answer. Even a skuff like Laevus could feel the power they emanated, and he had a mind to harness it. Mega Stones, Lysandre had called them when his people had successfully retrieved the giant crystal and he had assigned Laevus as head of the project to harness their power. This was where the secrets of Mega Evolution started, with these ancient rocks. So how had the Tamers figured out another way? How could it be that ordinary people could induce evolution at exponential rates with a few drops of blood? And more importantly, how could he take that power for himself? The answer was staring him in the face as he gazed at these ancient tools, he was sure of it. But how?

"Knock, knock."

Darumaka squealed and hopped off Laevus's shoulder and landed with a soft thud on the floor. It rolled, arms and legs tucked into its fleshy body, toward the new presence that had appeared at the door to the lab.

"You're late," Laevus said. "I've been waiting for four days. What the hell was the hold up, Malva?"

Malva bent down to pet Darumaka, who was overjoyed to see her. The fur ball had always loved Malva, drawn to her natural heat that Laevus had never possessed. She was slim where Laevus was fat, smooth and libidinous where Laevus was gruff and impatient. She had a way about her, a seductive sway that even worked on shrewd bastards like Lysandre when she really tried. Laevus had always had to prove himself to get what he wanted, then prove he could do better. Malva was the golden child, the favorite, and Laevus was the brother only she had ever had eyes for.

Malva picked up Darumaka and cradled it in her arms. She wore a white parka to blend in with the snowy environment above ground, but her dyed magenta hair stood out against it, loud and obnoxious. Laevus wondered what the hell was even the point, but decided not to ask. Malva had her ways, and he honestly could not give less of a shit as long as she delivered. She always delivered.

Red eyes found hers, the same shade of crimson as hers but possessing none of her firepower, no pun intended. "You know me, big brother," she said in that tone like melted chocolate and nitro glycerin. "I'm always fashionably late."

Malva had grown up with everything Laevus had always wanted: the love of their parents, the adoration of her teachers and mentors, and the ability so whimsically denied to him by whatever powers had decided their fates. She was Ignifera, a Fire Tamer just like their parents, and perhaps the best Kalos had ever seen. Her powers were so advanced that she could even siphon heat from open flames to heal mortal wounds. He'd seen her do it before. There was currently only one other Ignifer in the world known to possess such a power, and he was far away in the distant Unova region, no threat to Malva's supremacy here in Kalos.

"Did you bring it?" he asked, impatient as ever to move forward with his delicate research. He was doing something important here, you know. One day they would write about him, about his research and whatever discoveries he was on the brink of making. He would be famous, infamous even, and Malva would be humbled to be the baby sister of Laevus, the great man of science who had dissected the secrets of Mega Evolution and generously shared them with the world—for a handsome price.

"Of course. I said I would."

Malva stepped aside and revealed the body of a slumped figure, bound and gagged, on the floor behind her. He was just a kid, a teenager maybe sixteen or seventeen, and he was passed out where he sat. His face was smudged with soot and his hair, a rusty brown, was burned and charred in places. His clothes were barely warm enough for the harsh weather out here, and it showed. The tip of his nose was blue with the beginnings of frostbite, and his light jacket and jeans were ripped and burned in places. He was damp where the snow he'd accumulated on the journey here had melted once inside.

"Is he even alive?" Laevus snapped.

Malva removed her red tinted sunglasses and folded them in a breast pocket of her parka, which was unzipped down the middle. "I kept him warm, don't worry so much."

Darumaka pawed at her chest, and Malva scratched the yellow tuft of hair on its head to appease it.

"Hmph. Bring him here. I'll need to have him back to full health before I begin the trial tests."

Malva pursed her lips. "How long is this going to take?"

She let go of Darumaka and reached for a Pokéball at her belt. In a flash of bright light, a Delphox about Malva's height materialized. Its bushy, gold and crimson fur bristled in the slight chill, and it twirled the long stick it always toted around in between dexterous fingers. Sharp, dark eyes alighted on Malva, but it remained silent.

"Put him on the table," Malva commanded.

Delphox eyed the slumped teenager and swished its bushy tail. Its fur needled with sapphire light that migrated toward the unconscious teen and engulfed him in a similar blue aura. Delphox's telekinetic powers lifted him off the floor like magic and floated him through the air toward a stainless steel gurney in the center of the lab, laying him flat on his back still bound and gagged.

Laevus averted his gaze as Delphox worked, repressing a shiver. He remembered when Delphox was a tiny Fennekin. Now it was a monster that could immolate its enemies with a passing thought if it so desired—if Malva so desired. All she had to do was utter the words, and he'd be nothing but a charbroiled husk in a matter of seconds. Laevus wrung his hands where she could not see, trying to get the sudden tidal wave of malicious fear and jealousy under control. After years of practice, it was a rather simple feat.

"He's a thrall, just like you wanted," Malva went on, walking around the gurney and inspecting her prize like a lioness eyes a fresh kill.

Laevus frowned at her use of that filthy word. Thrall, the derogatory word for a pleb, for one born without the powers of a Tamer to non-Tamer parents. Someone with no chance of inheriting the ability. Normal. Not quite like Laevus, whose parents had both been Ignifer. His sensitivity to heat and cold was a constant reminder of that, though he'd reaped none of the benefits. Just looking at this nameless teenager boiled his blood. How was it that someone with zero chance of having the ability could be held in such higher regard in society than someone who had been denied it outright? Oh, he would change all that, mark his words. Soon, the distinctions would not matter. Perhaps he could thank his parents for that much. He was doing this for them, after all, to show them what they'd squandered.

"Good," Laevus said, revealing nothing of his inner thoughts.

Malva eyed him carefully in that sidelong way she had that she knew he hated. He hated how she watched him like he watched his little science projects. What had she done, anyway? He was the one who'd told Lysandre about her, said she had potential, said she could go all the way. She was Ignifera, you know, she had the ability. She could go places. Oh boy, did she go places. Laevus didn't know the whole story, didn't know the details, but with a face and body like his sister's and the powers of a god, he had no doubt that she'd whored and lied and cheated her way to the top. That was how women got ahead in anything, he reasoned. The prettier they were, the wider they could spread their legs and get away with it. They knew only one thing. Malva was his sister and she'd defended him as a kid, okay, he'd look the other way for that. She was all he had left, anyway, so if he turned her away then where would he be?

Malva gave little away as she studied her older brother. "How long until it works?"

How long, not if. Yeah, she was his baby sister, all right, and no matter what she did, what she became, he would hold on to her until the end. That was what good big brothers did, and fuck everybody else.

"That depends on one crucial detail I didn't have the last time you were here," Laevus admitted.

Malva laid her hands flat on the gurney and peered at Laevus over her straight nose, eyes narrowed. "Oh? And what detail is that?"

Once, Malva had been angry with him. Downright furious. He'd sabotaged her in Lysandre's eyes by exposing some renegade missions she'd taken for personal reasons with Team Flare funds, having gotten approval from one of Lysandre's right hand men. The man, another scientist in Lysandre's employ, had been Laevus's rival in Lysandre's labs, so really, it was nothing personal, Sis. Unfortunately, Malva reacted emotionally.

The rival scientist had disappeared under mysterious circumstances thereafter and Malva was demoted to ranger duty for three months while Laevus was promoted. She'd paid him a visit after her suspension was up, even brought a nice bottle of wine to celebrate—she hadn't known it was Laevus who'd exposed her. It wasn't until halfway through dinner that Laevus found out she did know, had known the whole time. Her Pyroar was happy to share her feelings with him on the matter. He still had the third degree burn scars on his ass, ironically losing all nerve feeling in the area and thus exposing him to odd bouts of numbness and cold in extreme conditions, such as here west of Snowbelle. Every time he sat down he remembered her wrath. Crazy bitch had planned it that way.

But the past was in the past, sort of. In any case, blood was thicker than water or chocolate or whatever the fuck that saying is, he couldn't be bothered to remember now. He needed Malva, and she sure as hell needed him, he told himself. Lysandre had long run his course. Laevus was the future, Laevus was the new hope. He was her big brother, and despite their past differences, they were in this together.

Laevus scratched his flat, bulbous nose and sniffled in that repulsive way men sitting alone on trains tend to do, loud and wet and always right next to you. "I need a control, call it a perfect reversal, if you like. There're only two ways this could work, no in betweens. I need to test both."

Malva licked her lips, and he had to fight the urge to cross his legs. "Meaning?"

"I need a counter to that." He indicated the passed out teen.

"A Tamer," Malva divined his meaning.

"Not just any Tamer. I need someone who used to be a pleb and was made a Tamer. Someone with a body that could stand the stress of having the ability forced upon them. Then I'll be able to test whether it's the power or the husk that matters."

"A made to order Tamer."

"I realize they're hard to come by," Laevus said carefully, not wanting to anger his fiery sister.

Malva shook her head. "Mediums are out of the question. There's only one born in a generation. Too much attention if one disappears."

"What about a Reaper?"

Malva's eyes flickered. "Possibly. They're hard to track down, though. Too afraid of their own kind to advertise themselves. You know how they like to cannibalize each other's powers to extend their own lives."

Demented, all of them, Laevus thought. Reaper or Medium or Ignifer, the distinctions mattered little. They were all abominations in his mind.

"Well, who else? Those're the only ones that are made instead of born, right? I need one, Malva. This is critical."

She waved him off, deep in thought, and fell silent for a few moments. Delphox lingered on the other side of the table, eerily silent, and Laevus avoided its ghastly gaze.

"There might be someone," Malva said finally.

"Someone? Can you be more specific?"

"I heard about her when I was in Lumiose some years ago. It was just a rumor, something like that couldn't possibly be substantiated. But I wonder..."

Laevus was about to go on an apoplectic rampage. "Yes, and? Who is this girl?"

Malva blinked and looked up at him as though she'd only just noticed he was there. When she smiled, all the anger left Laevus like a deflating balloon as he silently wished he could be miles from here, away from her.

"Assuming the rumors are true and a certain eccentric professor has the hard evidence to back up his research claims, then I might be able to secure you a living Magus."

Laevus stared. "A...Magus? You mean the myth?"

"Oh, dear brother." Malva walked around the table, Darumaka still in her arms, and approached Laevus. He dared not move, dared not show weakness in front of her. She loved it when people revealed their fear. She ran a manicured finger down his chest, smiling softly. "Don't tell me you don't believe in Fairy tales?"

Laevus swallowed hard and said nothing. Malva lost interest after what seemed like eons and pulled away, and only then did he allow himself to breathe.

"Get started on your tests or whatever you need to do," Malva said, approaching the door and signaling Delphox to follow. She let Darumaka jump from her arms back to the floor. "I'll have your Magus soon enough."

Laevus watched her go, all voluptuous cruelty wrapped up in a tight little body and a puffy white parka. She took the heat in the room with her, and his buttocks began to ache from the numbness again. Darumaka rolled across the floor and bumped his sneakers. It poked its arms and legs out and blinked up at him.

"What're you looking at?" Laevus said.

Darumaka grunted and batted his foot with its stubby fingers. Laevus rubbed his stubbly chin, a nervous habit.

"Let's get started."

Malva would be back, she always was. Until then, he could prepare alone, just as he wanted it. This place was a frozen hell on earth, but it was his. And now he had something to work with. His fingers already itched to get started. Where had he put his scalpels and screwdrivers? Preoccupied with this newest little worry and excited to be busy again, Laevus bustled about the lab, Darumaka rolling behind him.