Chapter Nine
Through the Looking Glass

Even in the light of the early morning summer sun, working her way through Viridian Forest proved both incredibly difficult and very taxing for Ivy. She never had been the best navigator, and the terrain was difficult for her to cross safely. It was impossible to see more than a few feet in front of her, and the ground was wet and riddled with branches and other unseen potential traps. She progressed slowly, terrified of getting lost, or tripping and falling. She was painfully aware of the fact that before being ushered through by Sebastian and Robert, Ivy had never even set so much as a foot in the dark depths of the imposing and intimidating mass of trees that separated Viridian from her hometown of Pewter. This fact only served to make her even more frightened and worried, putting a strain on her already tightly stretched nerves…

Despite the light from the sun, the trees of Viridian Forest were so thick in density and interlocked so tightly overhead that it blocked out any natural light, casting everything in a perpetual darkness. She crept through the inky black surroundings, feeling less than at home as the shadows danced across her vision, looking like morbid images of untold horrors reaching out to grab her. She tried to keep her breathing steady and calm, so not as to work herself into a panic, but despite her best efforts, she also entertained a surprisingly powerful notion that her heavy breathing could alert the attention of any sinister Pokemon lurking in the shadows, thus making her an easy target…

After some five minutes of walking, she found what she was looking for. A clearing. Even better, the clearing mercifully had a source of light coming through a rare gap in the trees, allowing her a better view of her surroundings. Stopping briefly to catch her breath, she drew herself up to her full height and began surveying the clearing. The place was empty. Not a single person or Pokemon to be seen. She couldn't even hear anything. No noises of Pokemon, no rustling of leaves… While she had originally thought she would have preferred Viridian Forest to have been empty, now she wasn't so sure…

The emptiness soon began to get the better of her, and as her nerves began to threaten to overwhelm her completely, she decided to release the Weedle. She slipped her hand into the pocket of her jeans and fished out the heavy Pokeball. Swallowing deeply, she clumsily tossed it forward.

It opened so suddenly and with such a bright light that it made Ivy shriek in fright and instinctively back away. As the silhouette of a Weedle appeared against the backdrop of brilliant white light, Ivy's heart inexplicably sunk a little. It became horrifically clear to her as her Weedle yawned sleepily and looked around. She couldn't go on denying this any more. This was her Pokemon. Her Weedle. And although it wasn't a Pokemon on her list, although it wasn't a Pokemon she wanted, although it wasn't a Pokemon she even liked, this was still her Pokemon. And she guessed she had to make the best of a bad situation.

A few moments passed, Ivy and her Weedle simply staring each other out for a few seconds. Then Ivy took a cautious step forward. So too did the Weedle. Both human and Pokemon then proceeded to stare at each other in mild bemusement for a few seconds. Then, testing the water, Ivy took a small step backwards. Once again, the Weedle echoed her movements. At this, Ivy had to fight to not immediately freak out.

"Weedle?" the Pokemon asked in confusion, tilting its head.

Ivy blinked in the face of her Pokemon, but didn't move. She didn't trust herself to move. She was suddenly entertaining violent scenarios of the Weedle suddenly going mental and attacking her with the poisonous barbs she knew Weedle were renowned for. Her panic slowly began to rise as she stared at the Weedle, wholly expecting it to suddenly throw itself at her. And then, the Weedle suddenly took a step forward. Ivy panicked. She let out a squeal, jumped backwards, pivoted around, turning her back on the Weedle and sinking her head into her hands. "Okay! Okay!" she said out loud, amid shaky breaths. "I can do this, I can do this… Come on, Ivy, if Lily-Mae and Michaela can do this, so can you! You actually have a brain in your head! Now man up and get on with it! It's just a Weedle! You can handle a Weedle! It can't do you that much damage. Right…? It's just a Weedle… That's right. Just a—"

"Weedle?"

Ivy suddenly became painfully aware of a slight weight upon her left shoulder. Her whole body immediately froze and became rigid. She suddenly became aware of a tiny face now invading her peripheral vision. As it sunk in, she let out a scream that could have shattered glass, grabbed the Weedle with one hand and flung the poor Pokemon as far as she could. Luckily for the Weedle, Ivy never had been gifted with much physical strength, so the Weedle barely flew a few solitary feet, before hitting the ground safely and harmlessly. Thankfully, the Pokemon didn't seem too worse for the wear after its flight and simply returned Ivy a rather bemused look. "Weedle?" It said quizzically, before looking slightly sad.

"W-well, don't do that!" Ivy shrieked, flailing her arms up and down. "You can't just frighten the life out of me like that and then not expect me to freak out!"

"Weedle…" the Pokemon said sadly, hanging its head.

Despite herself, Ivy found the sight of the despondent Pokemon a bit hard to look at, and an inexplicable stab of guilt hit her. She swallowed, wrung her hands together and dared to approach the Weedle, crouching down on her knees. She found herself wanting to reach out and touch the little Pokemon, but she couldn't quite bring herself to do it, and retracted her outstretched hand slowly. "S-sorry about that," she murmured.

"Weedle?" the Weedle perked up, tilting its head to look at the young woman.

"I didn't mean to throw you…" Ivy said sheepishly whilst idly tracing a pattern in the dusty ground. "I just panicked."

"Weedle… Weedle! Weedle!"

"I'm not too good with this Pokemon training stuff," Ivy murmured, staring at the ground. "I didn't want to have to do this, you know? But for some reason, Blue seems to think I can do this. So, I want to at least try. I have to, you know? I have to try and get all these Pokemon so I can pass this course. And as much as I don't like to admit it, you're the only one that can help me right now…"

"Weedle?"

The confused tone to the Weedle's voice made something inside Ivy fall on its side. She let out a long, exasperated sigh and whole-heartedly gave up. "Oh, who am I kidding?" she said, sitting heavily down on her backside, a wave of tiredness, both physical and mental, washing over her. "You probably don't even care. Heck, you probably can't even understand me…"

She collapsed her head onto her arms and let out another deep sigh. She stayed there in that position for quite some time, not moving and barely even registering the world going on around her, The darkness was somewhat soothing to her agitated spirit, and the only noises she was aware of were the rhythmic sound of her own breathing, the occasional rustle of leaves and the odd cry of a Pokemon, somewhere far away. Eventually, her eyes began to droop and her body fell limp and she lulled herself into a deep sleep.

Next thing she knew was the sound of a voice in her ear, loud, abrasive and accompanied by a vicious shake that seemed to rock the whole of her body, almost like she was in an earthquake zone. She jerked awake, blinked in the sudden harsh sunlight and glanced upwards. The first thing she noticed was the image of Jack's face pressed uncomfortably close to hers. As she blinked in confusion, she became aware of the figures of Sebastian and Robert towering above her at either side of her. And then finally, she became conscious of a warm presence in the crook of her arm. When she looked down in confusion she saw her little Weedle curled up, fast asleep, right there in her arms.

She didn't get a chance to take much of this in however, as Jack was suddenly talking., his voice thick with exasperation "Seriously, Ivy…? You have really got to stop doing this…"

"Doing what…?" she murmured sleepily.

"Oh, gee, I don't know!" Jack retorted. "Maybe disappearing in the middle of the night without telling us, running out to Arceus knows where on your own where anything could happen to you, and then to add insult to injury, falling asleep out here! Ivy, you fell asleep in the middle of Viridian Forest! You could have been eaten or something."

Despite herself, Ivy snorted with laughter.

"It's not funny!" Jack raged, and Ivy immediately shut up, realising her friend really was genuinely upset. "Ivy, this is the second time you've done this! You really need to start thinking!"

Ivy pushed herself up into a sitting position, trying not to disturb the sleeping Weedle. "Jack, I—"

"No, Ivy, seriously!" Jack interrupted. "You can't keep doing this! Come on, you're a smart girl! Underneath all that ditz, I know you have a brain in your head. So use it! Surely even you can't think that running off on your own into Viridian Forest in the middle of the night without telling anyone, with only a Weedle for protection is a good idea!"

Ivy felt tears prick at her eyes. Jack had always mocked Ivy for her dizziness and lack of common sense, always jokingly insulting her for what he deemed was her lack of intelligence, but this felt different. And it upset her.

"I'm sorry, I—"

"Sorry isn't going to help now!" Jack said, kneeling down to look her in the eyes. "Do you have any idea how worried I was? How worried Sebastian and Robert were?"

Unbeknownst to Jack and Ivy, Robert snorted loudly at the mention of his name. Sebastian immediately silenced his older cousin with a well aimed pebble flung at Robert's head.

"Why did you even do this?"

"I… I wanted to get out here and try some training…"

"And you couldn't have waited until the morning? Until Sebastian, Robert or I could come with you? You're basically out looking for trouble, Ivy!"

"I… I don't need you guys looking after me all the time!" Ivy protested weakly. "I'm not a child, you know…"

"Well maybe if you didn't act like one all the time, we wouldn't treat you like one!"

"Oh don't pull that primary school teacher crap with me!" Ivy suddenly snapped. "Jack, I'm nineteen years old! You're not my mother! You're my friend! You don't have control over me!" she let out a juddering sigh, before containing herself. "I just wanted to have a chance at trying out this Pokemon training thing without feeling like I was being judged!"

"Who's judging you?" Jack asked shrilly, his voice rising to such a high pitched tone it would ordinarily have made Ivy laugh had the circumstances not been so serious.

"I… I don't know!" Ivy said hysterically. "But it just seems that no matter what I do, it's never good enough! I know Robert thinks I'm hopeless at this! And Michaela too! And Sebastian is so good, how can I even compare to him? And you, too!"

"Me?"

"Yes! You! Jack, you've taken to Pokemon training so easily! It's like you've been doing it all your life! It's like you and everyone else in the world has this inbuilt manual that I don't have! Well, I want that! Where's my copy?"

"Ivy, don't be like that."

"Then how am I meant to be?" Ivy demanded. "You don't understand, Jack! Things are a lot harder for me than they are for you…"

"Harder for you…?" Jack said icily and immediately Ivy sensed she had crossed a line. "Why? Why would you say that? You know how hard I had things when I was younger. You know what I had to go through just because of who and what I am. You know that! So, why would you say that things are automatically easier for me? When you know they're really really not!"

"Jack, I'm sorry…" Ivy said softly, and she meant it. "This Pokemon training is just so difficult, that's all… I can't seem to get it…"

"Ivy, if you would stop talking and just begin doing then you'd get there a lot faster!"

Ivy lapsed into silence. While Jack simply stared her out, his own anger blinding him to the obvious danger signs right in front of him, Sebastian picked up on them and slowly sunk his head into his hands. He knew Jack had pushed Ivy too far. Even as he thought this, Ivy slowly pushed herself to her feet, clutching her Weedle, waking it up in the process, making it squeal slightly. She locked her eyes with Jack and let out a long, slow sigh.

"Then what do you say we start 'doing' right now?"

Jack blinked, flummoxed. "Huh?"

Kneeling down for a second to put her Weedle down in front of her, Ivy then straightened herself up, taking a firm stance. "A battle. You and I. Right now."

"Ivy, you cannot be serious…"

"I'm dead serious."

"You've never battled with that Weedle before! You don't know what you're doing!"

"Well, then, I guess I'll have to learn by doing, won't I?"

"Ivy, I'm not doing this," Jack said firmly, crossing his arms.

"Why not?" Ivy demanded of him. "You told me to start 'doing', so here I am. I'm doing it." She then paused. "What? Are you scared of battling me?"

"Certainly not!" Jack said primly.

"Then what's the problem, then?"

Jack let out a haughty sigh, realising Ivy had him caught between a proverbial rock and a hard place. He ran an impatient hand through his blonde hair, making it stand on end, and then gave in. "Fine. One battle."

Ivy nodded. "One battle."

Robert rolled his eyes as he stepped away to allow the two rookie trainers some room. This was going to prove embarrassing for everyone concerned, he privately felt. Sebastian on the other hand was worrying, wondering what would happen between the two friends in their first proper trainer battle…

"Phoenix, let's go!" Jack said, tossing his Pokeball down. The tiny Pidgey flapped sleepily out of the Pokeball and seemed initially a bit bemused at its surroundings and the Weedle standing only a mere few feet away.

"Come on, Weedle," Ivy said, turning to look at her Weedle. "Let's do this."

"Are you sure you still want to do this?" Jack asked slowly as the Weedle shuffled slowly into a better position.

"Yes." Ivy said with a nod. "I've never been more sure of anything in my life,"

"Even though you've got the type disadvantage?"

Ivy shrugged in an offhand manner. "What do type advantages matter? We're rookies, and our Pokemon are pretty weak… They're not going to affect this battle."

Jack was biting his lip by this stage, trying to bite down on the bubbling frustration flooding through his veins. "Well, if you're sure…"

"I'm certain,"

"All right then…" Jack said solemnly. "Then I guess I'll start. Phoenix, Sand Attack now!"

The battle began so quickly that it caught Ivy completely off-guard. Added to that, the use of Sand Attack wasn't the move Ivy had been anticipating. She immediately panicked as the Pidgey suddenly began kicking up great clouds of dust that swept towards the tiny Bug type. Flustered and without even thinking, she blurted out a command. "Weedle, Poison Sting!"

"Weedle!" The Pokemon complied all too eagerly, shooting out a barrage of thin stingers dripping with a potent poison. However, the Pokemon's aim was completely off, so blinded by the sand from Jack's Pidgey it was, and the stingers embedded themselves in a nearby tree, completely harmless.

"What a stupid move…" Robert said in exasperation from the sidelines.

"She just panicked," Sebastian looked at him reproachfully. "Give her a break."

"Panicking or not, that was a stupid move…" Robert then muttered traitorously.

"Just shut up and watch the battle, okay?"

"Why? I already know how it's going to end…"

Sebastian merely shook his head in exasperation at his older cousin before turning his attention back to the battle. Ivy's Weedle, still blinded, was helplessly struggling to see in the residue of the dust from Jack's Phoenix. Jack however was hesitating to order his Pidgey to attack, and Phoenix was merely floating above the dust cloud watching the proceedings.

Ivy however had no such hesitations. "Weedle, come on! Try another Poison Sting!"

This order met with the same result as before, the poison stingers travelling completely off target, almost piercing an innocent Caterpie slowly inching its way up a tree. As Ivy cursed, trying to encourage her Weedle into trying again, Jack still wasn't ordering his Pidgey to attack. While Ivy was too caught up in herself, this hadn't gone unnoticed by the Rhodes cousins standing at the sidelines…

"Why isn't he attacking…?" Robert muttered.

"I don't know…" Sebastian said slowly. "Maybe he just… can't bring himself to do it… He has the advantage, you know? He could easily take out Ivy's Weedle with one move if push came to shove…"

"Then he should just do it," Robert said with a casual shrug.

"It's not that easy. They're friends."

"They're soft,"

Robert and Sebastian continued their debate heatedly for a few more minutes, while Jack and Ivy focused on their battle. Very little was actually going on within the battle however. Ivy's Weedle still couldn't aim an attack correctly and Jack's Pidgey was still hovering above the battlefield, not moving. Now, Ivy couldn't fail to notice Jack's reluctance to attack and she was beginning to get harassed, with both Jack and her little Weedle.

"Jack! What the hell are you doing just standing there? I thought this was meant to be a battle!"

Jack said nothing in return.

"Jack! You big idiot, why aren't you taking this seriously? What, do you think I'm not good enough to be any kind of competition?"

"I didn't say that!" Jack barked.

"Then treat this like a real battle!"

Jack let out a frustrated growl. "What? You want this to be a real battle?"

"Yeah! I do!"

"Well, all right then!" Jack snapped. "Just don't say I didn't warn you. Come on, Phoenix, use Tackle! And give it everything you've got"

Phoenix dove into a powerful Tackle attack that completely took Ivy and her Weedle off-guard. The Pidgey slammed straight into Weedle, sending it flying backwards with a pained squeal. However, Ivy's Weedle righted itself almost immediately and while the Pidgey, still recovering from its dive flailed uselessly in the air trying to turn itself around, Ivy saw an opportunity. "Quickly, Weedle! Poison Sting!"

The attack was a direct hit. The pointed stingers embedded themselves straight in the plumage of Jack's Pidgey, making it cry out in pain. It staggered backwards, still squawking. It cries didn't stop even after the poison stingers fell uselessly to the ground. It began to teeter uncertainly on its feet, hardly able to stand.

Sebastian bit his lip. "Poisoned. This could change the whole outcome of the battle."

"She got lucky." Robert deadpanned.

Sebastian shot Robert another disapproving look, before turning back towards the battlefield. Jack's Pidgey was struggling to stand upright now, the effects of the Poison now evident on the Pokemon's tiny body. Ivy was looking shocked. After so many failed attempts, she was the most shocked out of anyone that her Pokemon had finally secured a hit. Even more amazing was the fact that Weedle had managed to poison the little Pidgey! Jack however looked horrified at the sight of his Pokemon in pain and his face was marred with worry as his Pokemon struggled to even stand let alone fly or attack.

"Phoenix? You okay?"

"Pidgey… Pidgey…" Phoenix cooed weakly.

"Come on, Weedle!" Ivy urged her Pokemon. "Try tying it up with a String Shot!"

Weedle complied, and within seconds, the weakened Pidgey was suddenly bound up in sticky white string, completely trapping it and hindering its movements. Its pained cries suddenly became panicked as it struggled against its binds.

"Phoenix!" Jack cried out in fear as his Pokemon's cries suddenly became weaker and weaker. "Are you okay?"

Seeing her opponent's Pokemon all tied up had rendered Ivy a little uncertain to her next move. "Do I finish it now?" she asked in confusion, turning to look at Sebastian and Robert.

"Isn't that the point of a Pokemon battle?" Robert asked, scathingly.

"Go ahead, if you want to." Sebastian said with a shrug.

"All right then…" Ivy murmured, looking down at her Weedle, who looked back up at her with confidence. "Weedle, finish it with a—"

"No!" Jack suddenly cried out, stepping out onto the battlefield. "Enough! I… I forfeit!"

Startled, Ivy looked dumbfounded at Jack's interruption. "You what…?"

"Forfeit, Ivy." Jack said matter-of-factly, before leaning down and scooping up his badly injured Pidgey into his arms. The Pokemon cooed softly as it became enveloped in its trainer's embrace. "I can't sit here and watch Phoenix be beaten like this. So I give up. You win." He then paused, stroking his now barely conscious Pidgey soothingly. "It was a good match…"

"Y-yeah," All the anger Ivy had previously felt at her best friend suddenly melted away to be replaced with a deep ingrained sadness and a horrible feeling of guilt. She couldn't be angry at him, not when she saw him looking so despondent at his Pokemon being in pain. She stepped forward and approached her friend slowly. As she drew in closer, she wondered what would be the best thing to say to offer him comfort and say she was sorry. But she found she could think of nothing to say. Instead, her arms seemed to take on a mind of their own, and before she knew what she was doing, she had reached out and was hugging him.

"Ivy… what are you doing?"

"Hugging you."

"Why?"

"I dunno. Cos it's what friends do?" she offered, letting out a deep sigh. "And cos I wanted to apologise…"

"Yes, but, I don't do hugging, remember? Unless it's a special occasion of course. Or when you throw yourself at me for no reason. And right I have no wish to have a girl who's slept outside all night, is probably all mucky and sweaty from lying on the ground practically rub herself all over me and—"

"Jack, for goodness sake, just accept the hug, you big idiot!"

Jack rolled his eyes, but shifted Phoenix to a more comfortable position in his arms, before embracing Ivy in what Sebastian felt was only a mildly awkward one-armed hug. As Ivy hugged her best friend, she whispered softly enough for only him to hear. "I really am sorry, you know?"

"I know," Jack said with a short smile. "I didn't mean to get so angry with you."

"It's okay." Ivy said with the tiniest of shrugs "I guess I kinda deserved it."

A smile tugged at Jack's lips. "Yeah, I guess you kinda did,"

This time, Ivy managed to giggle.

"Just don't do it again, okay?"

"I'll try not to, but I can't promise anything,"

Jack snorted. "You're worse than any number of five year old children I could ever have to put up with, you know?"

"I know. But that's why you love me."

"Hmm," Jack said in a teasing manner. "You just keep telling yourself that, dear. Whatever gets you through the night."

"Hey, come on." Ivy protested, aiming a weak punch at Jack's midsection. "At least I'm never boring."

"True, true…" Jack said, before smiling again. "Hey… you know what?"

"What…?" Ivy asked sceptically.

"I'm actually kinda proud of you, Ivy."

"Eh?" Ivy asked stupidly.

"I'll admit, I wasn't too optimistic about your battling skills," There was a broad grin on Jack's face now as he looked down at his friend. "But then you won. I'll admit it was probably a stroke of luck more than anything else, but you still won. And I was glad that you did win. I think you've had a bit of a breakthrough, my dear."

"Oh!" Ivy said, pleasantly surprised. "Thank you!"

While the two friends broke apart, exchanged a few more apologies and then began fussing over the injured Pidgey, Robert turned to Sebastian. "Was she even listening? She completely didn't even realise he said it was only by a 'stroke of luck' that she won. I don't care what he said about a breakthrough, she's still a complete ditz."

Sebastian shook his head, but managed to stop himself from saying anything.

As the two friends continued speaking in their odd little way and fussing over Jack's injured Pidgey, something occurred to Robert. It completely baffled him and he had little choice but to bring it up. "They have a very odd relationship, don't you think…?"

"Well, it's certainly… unique," Sebastian agreed.

"Hmm. It's certainly like nothing I've ever seen. Not a normal friendship anyway…" He then paused, looking quizzical. "Just out of interest, how would you define it?"

"I'm pretty sure I don't know." Sebastian said with a short chuckle. "I'm not even entirely sure it can be defined."

"It's strange…" Robert said haughtily, folding his arms. "It's like… they're more than friends… but less than lovers. Is that even possible?"

Sebastian looked at his cousin oddly. "You say the weirdest things, cousin, you know that?"

"Hey, I'm just trying to figure out the madness that's going on here. The madness that you got us into, after all." He jabbed an accusing finger in Sebastian's direction. He then let out a sigh before inclining his head and firmly pinching the bridge of his nose. "I think I'm the only sane one left around here…"

"Hey, most everyone's mad here," Sebastian said with a knowing smile.

Robert glared at his younger cousin. "Oh, shut up…"

"You're no fun," Sebastian shot back.

"Yeah, and you're a—"

They were suddenly distracted by Ivy shrieking and both cousins whipped their heads up to see Ivy gesturing madly at her Weedle, screaming something incoherently. As they watched, the Weedle suddenly became surrounded by a glowing white light…

"No." Robert said in disbelief.

Ivy's Weedle was evolving.

Within seconds, the tiny form of Weedle had begun to morph and change, growing taller and wider, eventually solidifying into the unmistakable figure of a Kakuna. No sooner had the light faded, Ivy began jumping up and down in excitement, shrieking at the top of her lungs again, before scooping up the Kakuna and smothering it in a massive hug.

"Well, that was unexpected…" Sebastian said, amused.

"What? The evolution or her reaction?" Robert asked, wrinkling his nose.

"A little of both,"

"Hmm." Robert said, now raising his eyebrows as Ivy began squeezing her new Kakuna uncomfortably tight. "I think she may be hurting it…"

"Aaaah!" Sebastian panicked, seeing Ivy's new Kakuna begin to wriggle in her arms, looking like it was now struggling to even breathe. "Uhh, Ivy!" he cried, breaking into a sprint towards the excitable young woman. "You might want to stop doing that!"

Robert shook his head as his cousin now attempted to intercept the over-enthusiastic girl and wrench the newly evolved, and rather vulnerable, Kakuna from her vice-like grip. "Honestly…" he muttered. "Am I really the only sane one here?"

His cousin's words returned to him. "Most everyone's mad here," he repeated out loud. "Never a truer word spoken, I guess…" he mused to himself, feeling very ironically like Alice as she stepped through the proverbial looking glass into a world of complete and utter surrealism. Sometimes when it came to his cousin and the people his cousin knew, he felt like he had slipped into a parallel universe or ended up on a different planet. Forever doomed to be an idle observer in a world too mad for him…

And as he walked back towards the Pokemon centre, the excited cries and protests of his cousin and the two others rose out into the early morning horizon, making him sigh in exhaustion and his eye twitch in mild irritation. He reflected over the events of the day. Ivy had gone missing again. Ivy and Jack had an argument. Ivy and Jack had then had a Pokemon battle. Ivy had, unbelievably, won said Pokemon battle. Ivy's Weedle had then evolved, just like that and everything went back to being hunky-dory between everyone, despite the earlier mad shouting match between the two friends. As he thought about this, he once again pondered the strange relationship between Jack and Ivy, a sort of strange and unique friendship he still couldn't define. He found himself yawning from tiredness, and it was with suddenness he realised that it was barely even eight in the morning. He sighed. All this stupidity and weirdness already and it was only eight in the morning.

"Madness." Robert said again with a firm shake of his head. "Just madness."


Author's Note

Hi guys :) Another chapter for you. I had fun writing this one.

Good news! I've officially planned out the whole fic so I know exactly what's happening, so the updates should be getting written and released as often as I can.

Another wee thing; check out the awesome story 'The Evolution of Finn' by my very good friend Nayfan_Dickson if you can. It's a great story, very unique and he's an awesome guy so READ IT! Thank you :D

Oh! To my forum members and wonderful boyfriend MasterFreezeman, I hope you appreciated the little inside joke I inserted here.

Thanks to my reviewers ShadowSerenity57, MasterFreezeman, Red421860, YoungDarkPegasus and The Neverending Meep. Thanks you guys, I'm really glad you keep reading and reviewing, it means a lot.

OceanSpiral out! Until next time!