Ray's pov, in the google doc, chapter 23 was accidentally skipped, so it was put as a redacted. After much thought, I just decided to fix the issue from ere on out.

There was a cloud on me, all around me, and inside, too. It was a gray, stagnant cloud. I kept inhaling it and it consumed my vision. I felt like I was floating, but not of my own volition, I was… being floated? I wasn't in control of my feelings. Energy rushed through me, all emotions, seemingly at once, and Mel at the center of it. Infinitely close and infinitely unreachable.

Everything rushed through me, but nothing touched me directly. I was separate from it, my mind and body disconnected. A million thoughts, a million questions were racing through my head, but I couldn't hear any of them. I could only feel them, and they were overwhelming. I couldn't do anything about it, though. I just floated, and they washed through me, over me, like an adrenaline rush. My body moving purely by electrical shocks, nerves firing by themselves, no input from me. But I knew that wasn't really happening. What was happening? What was? Or was this the real place, and the other was some fantastic dream. All just a dream, what a joke, love, loss, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.

What was wrong with me? Something was wrong, I was coherent enough to realize that. I didn't usually think this way…my thoughts organized themselves in a logical order, not flitting from topic to topic, never really finishing anything, never accomplishing, never mattering. Never really living or mattering. Never. What a word, huh? Never. I could not imagine ever leaving this state. I would be stuck like this forever in an endless maze vortex… fog… thing.

I had to wake from this nightmare or go back to sleep or whatever, shift from this state of being to the other. The state of reality that had Emerald in it, the state of reality in which I had a body and could actually do something, have, um, what was the word? Agency. The world where I had agency. Whether that was real or fake or mattered, I wanted that one, where I could at least feel like I was doing something to affect the world around me. I wanted out, I wanted out.

But at the same time, I couldn't make myself care, and I didn't know why. I would scream if I could… just a floating consciousness in a sea of nothingness. Was this death, did the thing from the ocean kill me and this was the after-life? No, I had seen the world I knew after that and before this. It pulled me in, embraced me, and squeezed out everything I had.

I felt a thunk on my head. I blinked, and the world cleared. What? What was that?

I blinked a few more times. Whatever happened before immediately faded from my mind, and something told me that was a good thing. In front of me was some old guy, a human, with a pointy hat and a robe.

"Now why did you do that?! He was sleeping." Emerald said. Was she referring to the guy in the hat who I assume was the one that hit me on the head? Why did she care if he woke me up? Maintaining her prize so she could use him? I sighed. Something had me slightly on edge, I wasn't sure what. I groaned, waking up. I was real stiff, I must have slept for a very long time. Last thing I remembered, I was flying over an ocean, towards an island. Now we were… on that island? How long had I been out, and what knocked me out, exactly? My mind was a bit fuzzy, cloudy. I felt like that was important, for some reason. I shook my head clear of those thoughts and focused again on what was in front of me.

The old man's hat and robe were a light blue and kind of shimmery. He has some sort of glass thing on his face similar to Strider's, but clear, so I could see his tiny brown eyes. His hair was gray, and he held some sort of bulky club… staff… stick… thing. That was what had hit me on the head, I could tell.

"Poor guy is afflicted in pain. Anyways, what did you young whippersnappers want?" He said, his voice had obvious signs of age but was surprisingly strong and supported. He was right, I was afflicted, afflicted by him hitting me on the head! Was he trying to breeze over that fact? And whippersnappers?

"For the last time, quit calling us that, old man." Strider said, already somewhat frustrated. This guy must have been calling us that for quite a while, now.

"I didn't live to be my age to NOT be able to call people whippersnapper!" The old man retorted.

"What is that word, what does that mean?" Emerald asked.

"Means you're young, no good, cause trouble. Hoowee, you cause a whole mess of trouble, don't you?" He chuckled in a slightly off balance sort of way. I looked at Emerald, her gears were turning, and I could tell she was coming to the same conclusion I was. This guy was crazy. Not only was he crazy… this was the guy that was supposed to teach Emerald magic, wasn't it? This was the guy. THIS was the guy… this old fart. I could not believe something like that. But, it was the only conclusion I could make. Strider said he was bringing us to this island to find somebody to teach Emerald, and now here was that man. What kind of magic could he do? My own strength relied on hers, so I wanted her to at least have a competent teacher.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so…" Emerald trailed off, she looked hurt. I didn't really understand, but then the guy whacked Emerald with a stick.

"I was only kidding, lighten up." The old man said, Emerald flinched and rubbed her arm where she had been hit. It wasn't so much a comforting statement as a command. She would lighten up or she might get whacked again.

"Why did you hit me?!" Emerald's eye twitched a little, I think. I felt like something was a little bit wrong with my perception, maybe? No, it wasn't actually anything, but her eye had not twitched. I guess I had only imagined it.

"A hit from the magic stick does the trick!" The old man said, and then giggled profusely at his own rhyme, like it had been a big old joke to him, and he was amazingly pleased with himself.

"A hit from the magic… what? You are awful shady, old man." She said.

"Anyways…" Strider said, trying to derail the conversation from this weird roundabout, this weird talking circle that wasn't going to go anywhere. "This is your teacher, princess." Strider said, and let out a sigh. "I know what you're thinking, I know what you're thinking. This old guy? This crazy guy? Well, listen, I know he isn't exactly the most ideal situation, but nothing about your situation is going to be ideal. This guy won't turn you in, at least. No, this guy won't turn you in. So, pretty much any other teacher is going to turn on you. This guy, no offense to you, old man, doesn't have the presence of mind to do that. I don't know how good a teacher he's going to be, because of that, but he knows his stuff. He's the best you're gonna get." I stared at him. That was it, huh? We went from the most patient teacher in the entire kingdom, the lady who managed to take a failure, a dud like Emerald, and train her well enough to actually summon me… She was going from that teacher to an old fool who looked like he didn't know the sea from the sky, let alone how to teach magic. I had a lot of doubts about him, but it wasn't up to me to choose a teacher, to accept or deny this man. That was all on her. I didn't have to deal with him much.

"What's… his name?" Emerald asked. She seemed a little frazzled, I wondered why.

"He doesn't go by a name." Strider said, somewhat sheepishly, scratching his head.

"You can call me old coot!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. Did this guy have a volume switch, or rather, did he know how old he was?

…

I mean, did he know how loud he was? Could he hear himself talk? Could he even really understand what he was saying? I sort of had my doubts. This was… this was going to be Emerald's teacher, huh?

"Are there… any other choices?" Emerald frowned, she looked somewhat disgusted at the old man. She was used to Lilly and her Guardevoir. Hm, that reminded me. I wondered if those two were also part of this dark court. We had not seen them, but there had been so many people in hoods. She could have been one of them, and I would not know. I couldn't see them, and I didn't have excellent smell or anything. I could hear fairly well, but the hooded people on the edges of the court had not spoken, so that gave me no hint. I might have been able to sense her aura or something if Emerald's magic was stronger, but it was not, so I could not tell that way, either.

"Not good enough for yer highner?" The old coot asked. I raised an eyebrow. Was that some sort of accent, or did he just speak wrong? "I tell you I'm the best teacher a whippersnapper like you's ever gonna get."

"Where is the Pokemon you're bonded to?" I asked outright. I decided that would be the best policy, especially with a guy like that. He could be roundabout, if we were both roundabout, we would never get anywhere in a conversation. He would only answer my beating around the bush with more beating around the bush… That sounded like a real pain in the behind and I wanted no part of it. If he was going to teach magic, he should at least have a companion, I didn't see one around.

"Gone." The old coot said.

"Old man doesn't have a Pokemon companion. Never did as long as I've know him." Strider said.

"How are you supposed to teach me magic, then? If you aren't strong yourself?!" Emerald asked.

The old coot nodded with intense vigor. Strider said he knew his stuff. Could one know how to do magic without the ability to do it and teach someone like Emerald? Well there was only one way to find out, test him. Maybe he could teach her to… lengthen our tether? I sincerely hoped that was the case, because if it was, then I could get away from Emerald for an extended period of time, maybe forever. I wanted to go back home, but if I couldn't go home, I at least wanted to be further away from the person who made it impossible for me to go back. Was she really that selfish? She just refused, she outright refused to send me back, and I hated it. It was so incredibly frustrating.

"Can you teach us to lengthen the tether?" Emerald asked. Ok, good, she was on the same page as me with this, even if it wasn't for the same reason.

"Mhm. That and all the other things, that and all the other things, my dearies." The old coot put on a fake witch voice. Why was he doing this? It was stupid. Then again, he was old. But was that really a valid reason to act childish and stupid like this?

"Then demonstrate." I said. The old coot looked Emerald up and down, then placed a hand on her back between the shoulder blades, and pressed quickly. I heard a popping.

"Now run." The old coot said.

"Wha-?"

"DON'T QUESTION YOUR TEACHER, NOW GO!" The old man pushed her. She wasn't used to such a forceful command, and so she just obeyed, she ran through the field and to the flowers… she ran for a good while. And, as she ran… I realized I felt no pull. Not until she was as far as the woods on the far end of the field. Only then did I start to feel the tug, and so did she, and so she stopped. She slowly turned back as she realized what just happened. She just went ten times farther away from me than she had ever been able to. Ten times at least, it was probably actually more than that. She walked back to us, looking triumphant. It was my guess that this was the fastest she had unlocked any powers, ever.

Emerald looked between me, the old coot, and me. She frowned, and sighed, looking at the kind of guy this old coot was, but I knew she could not argue with the results she had just seen, and it wasn't like there was really any other choice for her, not right now, anyways.

"Alright. I'll have you as my teacher." Emerald said.

"Not so fast, young lady!" The old coot said, and banged his staff on the ground. "First you must complete…" And he paused here for dramatic effect… "THE TRIALS!"

Hope you enjoyed, and have an awesome day