Imagine a world that was trapped in solid lines black and white, and you would have placed yourself right into Amelda's perspective. An environment stripped of emotion, full of pale and blank surfaces that were even plastered on the doll faced children, who acted like puppets even off stage. Surreal was an understatement - before she was fighting a mutated giant monkey belonging to the circus, and now she had actually entered the backstage of the freak show.

Amelda sat before a white framed mirror, held up by the small hands of a small boy, whose hair was close to white. A girl, slightly older with the same hair colour, went about the business of cleaning the burn stains on her clothes, and would have done the same for Amelda's hair, but she did not let anyone touch it. She sighed at the charcoal black ends of her hair, with an expression almost as blank as the scenery around her. She had taken the plaits out to try and at least sort something out - if anything was certain, it was that the burnt-hair smell was going to stick. Her hair fell onto the dressing table beside her locket; the colours used to match completely, but now…

"Hmm… you know, if you dyed your hair like that, you could even become one of us!" He said. He had a point. Every child's hair was jet black or peroxide blonde, and Amelda could easily join the bandwagon of "People who looked like they just jumped out of the 1920's TV screen"

She learnt that the oldest one talking to her was called Cross. He was the one that looked the most like an artist's Marionette;- he had a pair of diamond tattoos down one side of his face, grey eyes, and a pair of star charms dangling from his ears. Oh, was that all? He also had a neck piercing, anklets, stylised eyebrows, a silver crucifix plaited into his hair at the back… you get the idea.

"I suppose," Amelda started politely as she could, trying to put the best face on amidst all of this whilst also seeming modest. "But would I be as good a performer as the other members? My talents are fairly limited. And some of the people here just look as if they're amazing."

"But you were pretty good fighting back there. Although, tell me, why did you stop?"

"Well, you were promoting a tournament for super strong pokemon trainers only, right? It'd look pretty bad if the pokemon you were using either got beaten up by a human, or ended up killing one because it couldn't handle it's powers correctly. Also, something told me that Simisear didn't have the talents as a performer, meaning that the outcome of the audience's reaction was pretty much down to me."

Cross said that he only wanted to ask a few questions, but five minutes in, it started to feel uncannily like an interrogation. Amelda had only came backstage because she thought there'd be a prize of some sort, but it hadn't seemed to be anything like that. Just more and more questions on her life, her past, more and more questions on topics she had no information of. And did Cross ever let her ask her own questions?

"So, who are you living with?"

Swear he asked a variant of that before.

"Well… there's my little brother Nate, Teresa, and the house Delcatty.""No parents?""Nope. Well, Teresa said they were good people. Very rich, very famous among some, complete strangers to others."

"The same as you then, huh, Princess?" Cross edged a little closer on a dark brown crater, seemingly eager to hang on to every word Amelda said. Sure, she was amazing, but wasn't this a little over the top? "I haven't even heard of you before, and yet everyone here treats you as a celebrity!"

Yeah, only when they want to see an unusual human fight a pokemon. And only then.

Amelda couldn't help but admit that she felt a certain feeling when she was near Cross. Probably the reason why she went up on the damned stage to begin with - it was a mix between doubt, thrill, and curiosity. Something like the feelings of walking through a haunted mansion, or drowning in the rainfall, or racing through Crazy Sue's backyard. No, this feeling didn't make any sense at all, and it shouldn't even be there.

"So, Teresa's your carer? What kind of person is she? Look like? Favourite clothing?"

"Well… she's… a Blaziken."

"A… Blaziken… talking…?" Amelda waited a while to let Cross sink the information in, and it was as if a light bulb went off in his head.

"You mean the same Teresa who single handedly defeated the Johto Elite Four?"

Bingo. "That's the on-"

"And the same Teresa that was blacklisted from 34 championships across the globe for personal safety reasons?"

That even fewer people knew about that one. "Yes, but she's-"

"And the same Teresa that was at the heart of the Red Mark Massacre?"

The what?

"I… think that might be another-"

"Oh right…" Cross seemed eager to change the topic of conversation, which still left Amelda's mind rather blank. What had he meant by that? "Look, princess, with a fighter like that by your side you can literally take over the world. Or at least live in luxury, definitely not working as a post woman." Amelda laughed a little, before replying; "Why, that's exactly why… Teresa doesn't want us to become to attached to an easy life. After all, she's already had it, and seen it all, and told us that riches were not always the key to happiness." Cross studied her for a split second, sceptical, clear that he didn't believe a word she just said. It was understandable - that you could yearn for something you've never had. This wasn't something that a total stranger could understand right away. As his answer, Cross put his palm to his face, while muttering something along the lines of "Kids…"

"It's not because I'm a kid!" Amelda retorted calmly. "In fact, wishing for the things you don't have is childish! That's the way Teresa put it!"

"I'll take it that's the same Teresa who told you that circus troupes are childish, and so you shouldn't join them?"

Amelda readily turned to the defensive, slightly blushing a little. "I… I didn't say that was the reason I'm not joining… I still have my family to take care of too, you know..."

He laughed, the same sort of laugh as if he was watching a comedy show. Amelda quickly learnt that he had a habit of doing that, laughing things off to completely change the mood. Maybe you needed a quality like that to be a ringleader. "We're in town for a few more days, that's plenty of time to change your mind. In the meantime, why don't you run along to your family and ask them to join too, huh?""I… thank you for your… well thought out advice?" Amelda stood up, even with the girl still sorting out her shorts with a needle and thread. She quickly stopped, cut the thread with her teeth, and began to pack up and leave. The boy sat stock still, as if unfazed by any action at all. "I'll… see you around, I guess." She began to leave the open air group gathering, while muttering a rather awkward 'thanks' to the siblings. The exit was going rather smoothly, until Amelda felt a rather smooth action against her backside. Just out of instinct, she spun round with an open palm to slap the nearest object to her ass. Bleach Blond Kid was expecting it, and leant backwards towards the grass to avoid the blow. In his hands was a photograph - all black, but with a gleaming white sinister smile across the front. It was that lovely postcard again, remerging it's ugly image back to the surface of Amelda's memories.

"Cassius, what is that?" Cross asked, but it was unsure whether he actually cared about the issue, or whether he was just trying to entertain his child. It was only when an Ambipom swung down from God knows what with a bright wide smile, the same as that on the postcard, that he gave his full attention. He seemed to hold a serious face for a few seconds, before breaking out into that familiar, uncontrollable laughter once more.

"Amelda! Looks like you've found yourself a lover too! All I'm saying, is to keep very alert on your way back home tonight, my princess."

- x -

"So, what was the prize?"

"Ah, it was nothing. Quite literally. The ring leader mentioned something about having the same postcard I got this morning, and that was about it. I didn't even get a 'thanks for your efforts' kind of thing. Total disappointment."

Jake and Amelda had reunited, with both of them riding on Zebstrika back to Jake's house. They had come to the agreement that Jake would ride at the front on this journey, seeing as Amelda was exhausted enough already, and she still had to make the trip home. In fact, her face was half planted in Jake's back, half asleep already.

"Princess, you did great. And all publicity is good publicity, even if you did get blasted half way across the stage.""Deliberate." Amelda sounded out, leaving little room for questioning. "Oi, Jake, why have we stopped? We've been here for quite some time now."

"Well… uhm. This is kind of my house."

Amelda looked up drowsily, and there it was. Jake's house, which she had only seen once or twice before. Nothing special, just a bungalow with a few flower pots hanging around outside, but it still emitted a warm, homely feel nonetheless. He got off her mount, and helped her move along closer to the reins. She grabbed them lazily, and Zebstrika even had to buck a few times to keep her upright. "Are you sure you don't want to stay here for the night? We could search around in my library and try to find what that picture was all about." It was a tempting offer, but Amelda knew she had to keep moving, otherwise she'd fall asleep in his house for real.

Zebstrika sent a mild jolt of electricity through Amelda - that woke her up. "I'm completely fine. Don't worry yourself, Jake." Her ride reared, and was soon off on a gallop towards the outskirts of May Day. "I'll see you tomorrow! Take care for me!" and soon her image was fading away in the distance. Jake on the other hand only sighed - it wasn't him that needed to worry about himself.

She took the safe route this time. No where near Crazy Sue's compound - trying to go from her front door backwards was even more of a nightmare. Even though this path took about an hour longer while walking, the scenery was still pretty nice. You could see the mountains to the right, the beach behind you, and there was even a hilly spot on the trail where it looked as if you could see the four corners of the Earth, like a map spreading out for miles around you. It was on that spot that the recurring nightmarish grin made it's reappearance, but Amelda knew that this time it was the real deal. It loomed over the tree branches like a shadow - sometimes there, sometimes not.

"Heh, finally," she said, grinning to herself. "Time to settle this once and for all. Zebstrika, Discharge!"