It's been a terrifying few days for those in the know.

The entire region is living in fear, which is perfectly understandable for those who do not side with Team Plasma. Team Plasma had frozen Opelucid City, killed the Gym Leaders of three cities, conquered and occupied the headquarters of the Unova League and last but not least, proved themselves capable of commanding Reshiram in which their Champion suffered a defeat under.

Everyone believes that change is inevitable. It wouldn't be long before Team Plasma truly ruled over Unova and that is especially true for the big shots whose power and money allowed the cult to remain in existence for as long as they did until they finally achieved their goal.

So why are they the ones living in fear now? Forced into hiding or risk finding themselves dead without knowing how or why? Weren't they on the winning side?

It started on the day after Opelucid was frozen over. Important officials or powerful tycoons who were important supporters of Team Plasma and who provided them assistance in terms of political or financial aid were all suddenly found dead in their homes. While their circle isn't small it isn't very big either. People who achieved such societal status are not fools, it didn't take long to realise that all of these victims are people like them, people who play a pivotal role, and are still playing a pivotal role in allowing Team Plasma to be as bold as they are now.

They are being targeted. Someone, or someones, are blatantly out for their lives. Nobody knew who the killer was and certainly nobody knew how they did it, all they knew was that they know who is backing Team Plasma from behind the scenes and they are here to remove them from the picture.

Team Plasma was also equally swift in mobilising their soldiers to guard them. Things may seem one-sided now in Team Plasma's overwhelming favour but Ghetsis couldn't possibly do everything without the help of his most important supporters. These are people who hold positions in high places in various fields and industries. Large amounts of funds are needed to sustain the daily operations of the organisation at this critical juncture, Team Plasma are still reliant on these supporters for the societal influence and money which they provide to him. Ghetsis couldn't possibly rule over Unova alone without any form of assistance, these people are still needed for him to make a complete takeover of the region possible.

But it was hardly of any use. Day by day, one after the other, Ghetsis most important supporters were assassinated with deadly efficiency and were falling like dominoes. He even contemplated on the possibility of sending out his Shadow Triad but decided against it in the end. The triplets are the guarantee of his own personal safety. He doesn't feel safe without them around to guard him.

So he assisted his most important supporters by providing them with some of his best soldiers and the most secretive of places to lay low and hide. Was it of any use?

Not to one Callum Carrillo, who is shivering under his table as the sound of battle took place outside with his Plasma guards fending off the attacker for him. Screams punctuated the air and it gave him the chills just by hearing it but there was already no place to run. He had been running for four days and this was the very last place he could hide.

The screams eventually stopped and for a moment he believed that the bodyguards that Team Plasma provided had actually succeeded in stopping that crazy unknown assassin in his tracks. He slowly poked his head out from underneath the table, cautiously scanning his surroundings.

The soft sound of a slick blade cutting through his neck was the very last thing he heard, the metallic taste of blood the last thing he ever tasted as he drowned in it. He never did manage to comprehend or register the fact that he was dead even when he breathed his last. It was too swift and he saw nothing in his last moments.

Greninja took one last look at the fallen man to ensure that the target really was dead as it willed its water blade away. Once it was satisfied, it proceeded to jump through the opened window to reunite with the team outside. The last target for today had been neutralised, one more step closer to enacting vengeance for its former master whom it had nothing but love and gratitude for.

It landed silently on the ground outside, already invisible to the naked eye via Camouflage. This little gimmick wouldn't be able to fool its current master like how it did for Asher, which took out the fun of it all in greninja's opinion. Asher was so easy to spook whenever greninja was feeling mischievous and surprised him with its sudden appearances. Those were fond memories.

The other pokemon under the Dandolos family had asked him how it's like under its new master. It was inevitable that this topic would come up eventually in their conversations whenever they are resting at home with their trainers in the Dandolos mansion. To greninja, both are its masters that he will serve to its dying breath, albeit with different reasons.

In Asher's case, Asher was the master who raised him as a froakie that nobody wanted and it owed Asher everything for raising him to be a powerful greninja. A pokemon like it who was born with the rare medical condition of not possessing an ability at all will never be selected by trainers to be their companion. Asher not only took him in happily, but raised him to be a powerful battler. That is a debt that can never be repaid.

For his new master though…

At first, it started off as a request from Grimsley to help keep an eye on him in his stead. It did help that they bonded over Asher since Jayce was regretful for not being able to be there to save him. It later evolved to one of respect when Jayce easily proved that he is a Dark Specialist that outshone even Asher by far. Somehow or another, they bonded, and now Jayce is his new master which it wholeheartedly serves.

"Done?"

Greninja wasn't even surprised when Jayce turned to face in his direction even in his camouflaged state before he could announce his approach. Of course Jayce would sense him, zoroark always complained about the annoying dark-sensing abilities their trainer possesses. It was apparently how the two initially met and eventually cemented their relationship with each other.

Greninja gave a soft croak of confirmation as its reply. That was all the confirmation the team needed before they vanished under the guise of zoroark's illusions. It had been a hectic few days for them, from identifying Team Plasma's most powerful supporters and doing the actual assassinations, they barely had any rest at all since they were on a tight time limit.

"Can you not sneak up to me like that?!"

Greninja gave a very unremorseful croak, highly amused at the doctor's reaction when he and zoroark snuck up to him once again and gave him another scare. It's a bummer that they could never get the drop on Jayce, but the doctor's hilarious reactions to their sudden appearances more than made up for it.

Can Jayce keep him? They are starting to like the doctor more and more as the days go by.

"Keep your pokemon on a damn leash!" Dr Kolten Lott screamed at Jayce while pointing an accusing finger at the perpetrators, but neither trainer nor pokemon looked like they took his words to heart.

"How many left?" Jayce asked instead. Kolten understood what the Magician was referring to.

"You've finished your part," Kolten sat back down on his seat in the temporary hideout they had furnished for the purpose of this assassination. Many people do not realise, but a doctor as influential and as renowned as him has connections to all sorts of people and places. There is also much information he could dig on almost every Unovan through the Unova National Medical Archives. After Colress had provided a list of what he knew about the list of members within Team Plasma's inner circle it was child play's to him to use that list to further widen that search and identify even more of such members that even Colress didn't know about. Ghetsis may have his own circle of connections, but Dr Kolten Lott's own circle is in no way inferior to the leader of Team Plasma.

Couldn't possibly be a Card of Tarot without a unique trick or two up your sleeves.

Jayce and Kolten had very quickly agreed to assist each other in finishing their individual job for this operation. Together, they had been rapidly assassinating members of Team Plasma's inner circle and their efficiency had the effect they wanted. Team Plasma is starting to panic. If Ghetsis does not want to lose the trust of his most important supporters, he will have to start doing something to placate them.

It's impossible to embark on this endeavour alone with just the two of them for obvious reasons. Jayce had decided to use the connections and power of his family to help get the job done in this impossibly short timeframe. Doing the region's dirty work is what his family is known for anyway.

As for him, he does have quite a few "friends" he made in Tarot outside of the Cards. Tarot is an organisation spanning across nations with the true number of their members unknown. There is no lack of talents even in the outer circle of the organisation. Cashing in a few favours here and there, promising one or two more to other potential clients and bam! A temporary top-notch assassination squad is formed.

Even if said squad is merely a squad of two since there were only so many suitable candidates he could mobilise at a moment's notice… but hey, they get the job done so he's not going to complain. They are darn good at their job despite not being a Card.

"Cousin," Kolten released an unmanly shriek once again when a voice sounded out from behind him when he least expected it, "we are done with our targets."

"CAN YOU PEOPLE STOP- ahahaha… carry on… carry on…" Kolten quickly shuffled aside when the emotionless gaze of the infamous Rose of Dandolos swept across him. No sane person would ever want to be on her bad side.

Damn, today is just not his day. He knew that Jayce had enlisted the help of his family to assassinate such a huge number of targets in such a short span of time, but he certainly wasn't expecting him to enlist the help of Leticia Dandolos.

"Thank you," Jayce replied and Leticia's eyes narrowed slightly in a worried frown. Ever since the loss of three Gym Leaders, the destruction of Opelucid and Champion Alder's loss to Ghetsis, Jayce had decided to take matters into his own hands to fulfil his own duties as a Dandolos. He certainly lived up to and surpassed everyone's expectations as the next head of the family when he came back less than 24 hours later with highly accurate information of members of Team Plasma's inner circle and Ghetsis' most important supporters that the Unova League had never once managed to get their hands on. He said that he had gotten it from the underworld but everyone knew that it had to come at a cost. If such information was so easy to get ahold of, Team Plasma would have been obliterated by the Unova League a long time ago. Only a fool would believe that it came for free.

Just what price did her cousin pay to get his hands on this?

"What's your next plan?"

"We have a contact deep within Team Plasma. He will help us sneak into their flying ship and hopefully we are able to destroy the frigate from the inside out. Based on our intel that is the only way to destroy it, it's close to impossible to destroy it from the outside. Reports about Flannery trying and failing to do so during the battle at Opelucid had supported that notion."

She wanted to tell him to not go, that it's too dangerous to be embarking on this alone but she knew he would not listen. To be fair she would also do the same if she were in his shoes. The entire region is currently at stake and this is a great opportunity to take out such a huge threat to the region despite the inherent risks involved.

She wanted to ask him just what had he sacrificed for such an opportunity to come by, but she knew he wouldn't answer. Everyone has their secrets, especially for someone of his history and calibre. His experience and upbringing had made him a person who kept his cards close to his chest even if it's to the people closest to him. Whoever in the underworld was able to provide Jayce with what he needed so easily must be an existence that could easily rival their family. Jayce definitely understood this as clearly as she did and she knew that he would not endanger the family needlessly, but this is also why it would be difficult to leverage on their family's power to pull him out of whatever darkness he had sunk himself into to uproot Team Plasma once and for all.

The only thing she can do right now as his cousin and a Dandolos is to offer him her full support and unwavering trust. This is the man who will one day lead the family to greater heights and the man who she will follow. They are a family who deals with the region's darkness. They are Unova's dagger and they are duty bound to act the part. Now is the time that Unova needs her dagger to be unsheathed and to cut into their enemies without mercy.

Jayce is Unova's dagger, so she will be his dagger.

"Anything I can do to help?"

"I have Elesa's Bolt Badge on me. It also acts as a tracker so you can use it to try and determine the frigate's whereabouts in real time after I infiltrated it, assuming that there will be nothing to jam its signal. Assist the doc in figuring out a way to deal with the Resonance used by the pseudo Ability Holders. Once we neutralise those two threats Team Plasma will be much more manageable to take down." Jayce spoke, took a pause, before continuing. "There's also intel suggesting that it is highly likely that Team Plasma is holding hostages inside their castle. You know, the one that sprouted behind the League headquarters? We also need to find a way to rescue the hostages inside it or it will be too difficult to advance our plans if they start a hostage situation once they get desperate. The doc and I have already arranged people to undertake this job but it will ease my mind if you can assist on this. I will link you up with them before I go off."

"Understood," Leticia nodded but her lips were pressed together in a grim line. "But… Reshiram, do you have an idea how to deal with it? I know you are planning to go undercover but there's always a chance of running into Ghetsis. If your cover is blown and he sends out Reshiram…"

"I doubt I can ever beat that thing, but I have ways to escape," Jayce assured her before sighing. "Sorry Let, I cannot tell you anything more than this. I-"

She put a finger on his lips with a coy smile.

"Hush, it's okay, cousin. I trust you."

"... Are you two really cousins?" Kolten cannot help but blurt out his question. While he had heard of the rumours that the Dandolos are all nutcases and that one should never expect them to act in accordance with what is considered normal, aren't those two a little… too close?

"I'm not related to him by blood."

"Oh… I see, I see… So you two are…" He made a suggestive motion with the waggling of his eyebrows and Leticia smirked.

"Well, if he does see me that way I certainly am open to that idea."

What else can the doctor say?

"You and your mind games," Jayce sighed tiredly and she chuckled. There's a mixture of truths and lies in her words but the fact remains that there's some truth to it. The question to ask would be which part of her words are the truth and how close to the truth are they?

"Where's the fun without it?" She teased before handing him a handful of syringes with unknown concoctions stored within it. "Just in case you ever need it. No need to thank me."

"Thanks," Jayce gratefully accepted the gift. "What does this do anyway?"

"Those three are fast acting poison to kill, the other two have hallucinogenic properties and the last one is an antidote that can be used for both types of poison. The hallucinogen can be injected into your target or used as an air-borne poison. If it's the latter, being exposed to it for about two seconds will be enough for it to take effect, but the effective range is only about two metres. If you are using the airborne method, I would suggest you to take the antidote at least two minutes before using the hallucinogen to avoid being affected by it. Keep that in mind."

"Just what I need. Thanks, Leticia."

"If you really want to thank me…" The doctor watched as Leticia leaned in very close to his fellow Card until she was able to breathe into his ear and whisper something to Jayce that the doctor was unable to catch, but judging from how Jayce's eyebrow was twitching uncontrollably in annoyance it was probably not something that he should hear if he values his life.

The pair do look great together if he has to be honest with himself. Wait, they are cousins, this is wrong. No wait, they are not related by blood… Are they really not related by blood? Wait, just what is their relationship with each other? He's so confused right now.

"Wait, so are you guys cousins or not?" A very confused Kolten interrupted the pair and was promptly rewarded with a deathly sweet smile from the Rose of Dandolos.

He wisely held his peace.

"Remarkably punctual."

"It's not polite to be late to the party."

Colress allowed himself to release a soft huff at the sassy reply as he turned and led the way. Jayce was already playing the part as his assistant, decked out in the Team Plasma uniform.

"I'm warning you in advance, the Shadow Triad will most likely be present in the frigate. Thanks to that our chances are now a lot slimmer, so we only got one shot to make this right or we will all turn into popsicles."

"Splendid, I was mulling over how I could possibly find them and they offered themselves to me on a silver platter. How considerate of them."

"They are incredibly skilled."

"I know, faced them in battle once, remember?"

That reminder had Colress' full attention.

"Won't they recognise your face then?"

"My face was fully covered. I doubt they would recognise me."

"Good. Did you bring your backup plan over?"

"Be more specific. I'm not a mindreader."

Colress believed that he is a man of great virtue for his vast patience, but he still had to hold in his urge to smack his fellow Card for not understanding that one and only thing he could possibly be referring to.

Or maybe he's just too smart and everyone else is too stupid to understand. It could be a reason.

"The Master Ball Aline gave you. I don't know what pokemon it may be holding but it certainly must be a powerful one. Haven't you taken a look at it?"

"No."

Oh come on-

For a moment Colress could understand Dudley's tendency to tear out his hair in frustration. Wouldn't it be wiser to at least get to know what could certainly be an extremely powerful pokemon that Aline had loaned to Jayce on behalf of Tarot?

"I can tell that it's incredibly powerful the moment I held the Master Ball, but at the end of the day this pokemon is a loan, I'm not its trainer nor was I the one who tamed it. Forget about commanding it in battle, I don't have the confidence to ensure that it will not attack me on sight so I kept it in stasis in its pokeball the entire time. I don't fight a battle that I will lose."

All of those are valid points that Colress had to begrudgingly acknowledge, but his curiosity got the better of him anyway. Curiosity is a needed quality in their line of work.

"You have at least tried scanning it with a pokedex to see what it is, I hope?"

"I borrowed my cousin's pokedex and it came up with nothing."

"That's… intriguing," Colress blandly stated thanks to the lack of a better word to describe the whole situation. For a pokedex to come up with nothing would mean that either the pokemon is an entirely new species not yet known to the PWL or it's so incredibly rare that close to no data could be input into the global pokedex system, which would result in a matching failure when the pokedex attempted to scan at the pokeball.

Which category would this unknown pokemon fall under then? Interesting, interesting. Tarot is always so full of surprises.

The rest of their journey was filled with inane conversations until they reached the secret spot where the frigate was hidden. Allowing Jayce to pass off as his assistant to be gained entry into the frigate was easily done with the authority Colress has as one of the leading scientists of the organisation.

"What's your plan? How are we going to shut this down?" Colress heard Jayce whispering to him as they walked down the futuristic looking corridor of the Plasma Frigate.

"The ship runs on unconventional power sources. Solar power is one of them, but that alone wouldn't allow the ship to be functional. At best, solar power is a secondary power source so it's not important in the grand scheme of things. So we are going to mess with its main power source. Without it, the ship wouldn't be able to stay afloat, let alone fire the Kyurem Cannon."

"Kyurem Cannon? I came across that name before, that's the name of a forgotten legendary pokemon, isn't it?"

"You knew?" Colress pushed up his glasses out of habit. "Then again, your family had generationally lived at Lacunosa. I shouldn't be surprised."

"And you couldn't inform us sooner that Ghetsis already has another Legendary pokemon in his possession?" Jayce hissed in concealed fury.

"Would it have changed anything if I told you about Kyurem? We still have to risk our lives to embark on this job either way," Colress asked in return. "I don't know everything, but what I do know is that Ghetsis' findings led him to believe that Kyurem is merely a husk of its former self. He believed that its origins are from a meteor that fell to Lacunosa and from it came the powerful legendary dragon pokemon that the Twin Heroes would later come to use to create the Unova region. However, the difference in beliefs caused the dragon to split itself: Reshiram that sided with the older twin and Zekrom with the younger twin. What the legends omitted was that this split also gave birth to a third dragon, the husk of the original dragon's body, Kyurem. Team Plasma discovered its existence, tracked it down and captured it, and now it is the power source powering the frigate and the Kyurem Cannon."

"Was this why they instigated the Lacunosa Invasion?"

"Perhaps. I wasn't made aware of the specifics of Kyurem's capture or what led to it."

"Given that this cannon froze an entire city I'm guessing that it's an ice type."

"Absolutely right." Colress affirmed. "If we want to take down the frigate we will have to do something about Kyurem, no ifs and buts about that. If we can release Kyurem from Team Plasma's control or even just let its power overload and run wild, it certainly can destroy the frigate from the inside out."

"Okay, I get that, but how are we going to go about doing this exactly?"

"Luckily for us, I am one of the lead scientists involved in the creation of the Kyurem Cannon. Make a guess."

"So that's what you couldn't tell me back at the P2 lab?"

"How astute of you."

The snarky quips, the passive aggressive tone of their voices, oh how he loves their love-hate relationship with each other.

Name: Jayce Dandolos

Age: 23

Pokemon Team:

1. Ninetales, female

2. Exeggutor, male

3. Weavile, male

4. Honchkrow, female

5. Umbreon, male

6. Hydreigon, male

7. Drapion, female

8. Zoroark, male

9. Bisharp, male

10. Shiftry, male

11. Porygon-Z, (Nosy), genderless

12. Greninja, male

13. Spiritomb, male

14. Pikachu, (Grumpy), male