Ray's POV

I understood now, I understood why the old coot stopped me from telling Emerald about the world dying, about how we needed to stop the court. Well, she had already known that, but we hadn't really done anything about it, and I got the feeling that that was because she was more afraid for her own life than she was concerned about the rest of the world or any other person. If she was really going to put her everything into saving the world, it needed to be personal for her, and also for me. The old man, he was a crafty one. He got both of us separately working for the good of the world, both for our own relatively selfish reasons.

It was honestly pretty genius of him. But I knew that was what he was up to. He managed to create a situation that was good for everyone, except the ones who had been poisoning this world in the first place. Emerald would go do what it took to get rid of the dark court to get rid of the darkness, because she was afraid of it. I would go because they had a way to get back to my world, get back to my love, get back to my kingdom. I wouldn't be able to do that with the court still around. They no doubt kept it very secret. And the rest of them were doing it because, well, this was their home, and it was being destroyed. That was a simple enough motive. And just like that, we were all on the same side. This seemed a little too set up, a little too orchestrated. But, I was going to see Mel… if I was going to see Mel, be with her again, I was willing to do just about anything. I was more than willing to go up against that court. Besides, I wanted to get back at that guy with the Rattatta.

Seemed the darkness or whatever it was… was too strong for Emerald. She was asleep in the medical bay now. Or something like that? The old coot mumbled some nonsense about that, I didn't really understand. He wasn't exactly coherent when he didn't want to be. I wasn't sure if it just took him a lot of effort to actually make sense, or if it was all a façade or, like… I didn't know, I guessed there were any number of possibilities. There was so much about this world I did not know, about people I did not know. This was the way of this world.

The darkness called me too. It seemed we did get a bit too close to it for Emerald and I. Everyone else on the ship had some immunity because this had been part of the backdrop of their lives. They likely built up some natural resistance, like one would to a sickness. For the two of us, however, this was the first time we had seen it, first time we had experienced it, and so we were very sensitive to it. We were called to the void at a further distance than others would have. I was fine now that I was inside, now that I couldn't see it anymore, couldn't feel it tugging at me. The captain said something about people getting sick with despair and throwing themselves in, that they had lost crew members to that fate. It must have been quite sad, but, having experienced the effects of that… entity… I could see how that might happen. At the time, I had wanted to go in myself, although, it wasn't so much because of despair of any sort. It was more… curiosity? I was fascinated by what might be on the other side. I had had the strongest urge to experience void, to embrace the vast nothingness, and become one with it. It felt like it would be peaceful.

But, that would be throwing away everything I ever cared about. Why would I do something like that… unless I was under some other influence, which I knew I was, but apparently I had not raised the alarm too high with that behavior, in terms of being dangerous. James had promised me he would beat me up and tie me up again if I ever became dangerous. That was oddly comforting, that if I wasn't in control, they would make it so some other entity could not use my body for its own purposes.

I looked out the window of the medical bay. The darkness wasn't there anymore, we had flown far away from it, because of our reaction to it. We would have to go near it to fight it off, but that could be later, when we had built up more of a resistance. It was alright, we would be able to do it, I would be able to get back home.

Whatever it was, the way that I could get home, the way they were planning to get out… Either the old coot legitimately didn't know how exactly they planned to get out, or he wasn't telling me. I frowned, looking out at the clouds. They were white and puffy… deceptively happy. That was what the castle, the capital was, it was deceptively happy. Why was it like that? Why did the citizens seem so… care free. Did they know? Did they know anything at all? Or were they just the benefactors of the carnage that was happening, and so they simply did not care. How selfish, their own people. Or… maybe they didn't know. That seemed more likely, when I thought about it. Such a large group of people… really, what was the likelihood they all were ok with what was happening? Surely, at least some of them would have their conscience disturbed, that was, assuming they knew what was going on. That was kind of just speculation and assumption. I had better evidence than that. Mainly, if the dark court was out in the open, if all the citizens knew of them and their doings, there would be no need for a secret meeting in the catacombs of the capital.

So, the people of the capital did not know, or at least, most of them did not know. Poor ignorant fools. I had been an ignorant fool, too. But, what counted was that I knew now. I would not be made a fool anymore, not this day. I wondered if we would ever have the chance to let those people know. Who knew, maybe if they knew, they would help us overthrow their own corrupt government, or maybe they just wouldn't believe us, and attack us for insulting their king… a puppet king. He was only a figurehead, wasn't he? That dark lord he was talking to, that was the guy that actually ran the kingdom. I wondered exactly how much power the apparent king actually had, how many decisions did he actually make about his kingdom? Or… was he really nothing more than a friendly face, dancing by the strings of the dark master.

I glanced over to Emerald, she was still asleep, although she had just turned over, so I thought maybe she had just woken up. She had not. I was not feeling sleepy, but I needed rest, too, so everyone else left it to me to watch over Emerald and wait until she woke up. When she did, we were going to have a meeting with the whole crew and our little band of travelers in order to come to a decision on what exactly to do next, what our next move was. Now that we were all on the same side with the same goal, we needed to be on the same page with our course of action. And that was what the meeting was for.

The room was absolutely empty otherwise. I was left alone with my thoughts. The medic was grabbing a bite to eat or something. He had said he would bring something back for me. Hopefully, he would bring meat or fish or something. I was feeling rather weak from the exposure to the darkness, more than I cared to admit. I didn't need sleep right now, but I did need protein, and I was counting on him to bring me some.

It was quiet, stale, like it had been on the deck… I wondered if I could open up the window a little bit, just so I could get some air while staying in here, watching over Emerald… I tugged a little at the window, but it would not budge. It wasn't actually the kind of window that opened, was it? It was just a piece of glass in the wall. Well, I couldn't exactly break it, though. That wouldn't be very good of me, as a guest. So, how could I get out in the air? I could always just leave Emerald behind. I could get far enough away from her. Speaking of that, wasn't the old coot supposed to be teaching Emerald magic? He had lengthened the tether between us, and then done nothing after that. I mean, I guessed we did kind of get distracted, but was he still going to do that, teach her? I supposed he sort of had to. He said that there wasn't enough of science to live up to magic, and she and I would most definitely need to be more powerful in order to even put a dent into the dark master's followers. I remembered the Rattatta again. That was the only experience we had had trying to fight any of the actual members of the court, and of course, Emerald's sisters were quite powerful, from what I had seen during the few days I spent in the castle with them. Hm… she wouldn't be the only one who had to fight people who had been close to her. I got to fight my fellow chosen ones, the guys I had spent years training with. I knew how strong they were, too, and unlike myself, they could have only gotten stronger.

"Ray…" I turned around, it was Emerald.

"Good, you're up." I replied.

"You were… watching over me?" She asked.

"Orders from the captain, don't get any ideas." I said, although I had been sort of worried about her, I wasn't about to tell her that. She just nodded in response. Sleepily, she looked around, as if to see if anyone else was around, if that force of darkness was still around, but it was not. Things were ok now, things were ok, uh, relatively. Things were relatively ok. We weren't in any immediate danger, anymore. We weren't about to be sucked into the void. We weren't about to die.

"Are we good?" Emerald asked. I was unsure if she meant if things were ok outside, or if things were ok between the two of us. Either way, the answer was the same.

"Yes." That was right, my reason for hating her, her selfishness, her unwillingness to send me home like I wanted… all of that was gone. I felt no particular malice towards her as a person, only towards her action, or, should I say, her lack of action. So now… I was free to just get to know her as a person, and not just see her as an obstacle. This could be a sort of new beginning. Although… I didn't really know where to begin. All I knew of her was filtered through nearly blinding frustration. But, thankfully, I didn't have to think of what to say just yet. Just then, the medic, I found out his last name was Joy, and that was all he usually went by.

"I'm back- Oh, hello, Emerald, you're up. I brought some food." He smiled and brought a pile of fish on a plate over to us, and set it down on the bed. Very good, very good, this was exactly what I needed. I picked up a fish and gobbled it down whole.

"Thank you." Emerald said, yawning and stretching. She looked at the fish. I just picked another one up and ate it whole, bones, skin, scales, I honestly didn't care. My stomach would take care of all of it, no problem. Emerald, on the other hand, stared at the fish like she had no idea what to do with it. Her stomach was a lot more picky, wasn't it, the human stomach was a lot more picky about what it could handle. "Do you have a knife or something?" She asked. Joy nodded quickly and whipped out a small blade, then handed it to Emerald. She carved up the fish with surprising speed and efficiency for a princess. I wasn't expecting her to be that good with a weapon, even if it was just used to eat a fish. Soon, she was eating the finest, cleanest cuts of her fish. She ate one, and then took another and carved that up too. She ate a lot for her size. I guessed she was just as exhausted as I was, and needed something to fulfill her, I mean, to um, to restore her, that was what I meant.

"You can really handle a knife." I said. She looked a little confused as she handed the knife back to the medic Joy. What an interesting name for a dark and burly tattooed man… but, a person's name was a part of their identity, and so it wasn't really something I had any right to judge.

"Well yeah, you gotta carve up meat and stuff, you know?" She said. Ah, this was a normal thing for her, she didn't get that this was something that was actually impressive. "I do this every night for dinner…" She looked at me and Joy, like she was asking us if we actually never did that with a fish or a cut of meat before.

"Skills like that could be transferred over to combat, you know?" I said. She looked at me funny.

"Thank you Ray. Is there any reason you are being particularly, uh, friendly?" Emerald said, popping more fish into her mouth. She talked as she chewed on it. "Not that I don't appreciate it, it just seems a little off, coming from you. I could have sworn you hated me."

"I found a way back home that doesn't involve severing our tether, so you could say I'm in a good mood." I laughed a little.

"Ah, really? What's that? I'm on board for that!" Emerald said.

"Old coot says there's something that can send you back physically, or some method that members of the dark court would use. We take them down, and we can use the method, or rather, I can use it, and you can stay here and help… to stop the spread of destruction or whatever it is you want to do here." I thought for a second, then asked her a question that had occurred to me. "What is it you want to do here? We save the world and I go back to my love and marry her, and inherit the kingdom. What are you going to do once we save the world, Emerald?" I asked. She seemed a little taken aback. I could understand. I had been very hostile up to this point, and now I was taking a genuine interest in her. Again, I didn't have anything against her personally. I just hated the situation she put me in, and now I was going to get out of the situation and back to where I belonged on my own. We were no longer adversaries… I was going to at least try reaching out to her, or, call it a genuine curiosity. She chewed the fish thoughtfully for a moment.

"I'm… not sure. I was counting on having a familiar to fly around on and explore the world… but I won't keep you from your wife. What is her name, again? I don't think you ever said."

"Meliae. She's a Shaymin." I smiled, thinking about her. I never thought I would be talking to Emerald about Mel in a good way.

"You and a Shaymin… good for you, Ray. And that's a really pretty name, too. I'm sure she's good to you, considering you want to get back to her so bad." Emerald said. I nodded, I couldn't keep a smile off my face when talking about her, imagining her, it would be incredible when I could spend time with her again.

"What if you stay with us? You could get your own tattoos, if you like." The medic piped up. I was slightly startled. I had forgotten for a second that he was actually still in the room with us. Emerald seemed slightly surprised too.

"Yeah, I was actually thinking about doing that." She said. "Although, I would still like a partner I could fly around with and go exploring on our own. I was kind of counting on that my entire childhood. I don't know it that's still possible… if there's anyone out there that would want to team up with me."

"Well, I guess you just play it by ear? That's what you have been doing so far, right?" Joy said. Emerald nodded and pounded her fist in her hand, as if she had just decided something, and then she quickly downed the rest of the fish.

"That was delicious. My compliments to the chef." Emerald said cheerily. Now that I thought about it, the fish did taste particularly good, it was cooked, and other flavoring was added to it in a very pleasing matter, pleasing to the senses. I probably swallowed it down too fast to fully appreciate it, but that was quite alright. I would have next time. We were going to be here for a while, it seemed.

"Well, the captain said to call a meeting once we were all up and fed. Time for a meeting?" I asked. Joy nodded and got up, going over to the box on the wall from before.

"Wait wait wait… let me do it, please let me do it. Show me how this thing works, please, I absolutely have to know what this thing is and how it works and stuff. I love it!" Emerald demanded. Joy relented, with a smile, and led Emerald over to the over to the box.

"Well, see, all you have to do is push this button here on the side and talk into it." Emerald pressed the button.

"Hello…" She talked, but she did not hear her own voice in the little echo thing. "What's wrong?

"You have to keep the button pressed down." Joy said. Emerald nodded, learning, understanding. She pressed the button down, and kept it pressed.

"Hello-" She heard her own voice in an echo this time. "Oh, wow, that sounds weird, this is so surreal. I sound so weirddd…." She listened to the echo, very pleased with herself. "Uh, anyways, I'm awake, now. We were gonna have a meeting or something, right, Captain Jesse? So, uh, let's do that right away, or, that is… whenever you are ready, captain!" Emerald then let go of the button and put it back on the wall, on the hook where it was stored.

"Alright, understood, Emerald. All crew members on deck. Thank you." There was a trace of a laugh in her voice. She was definitely enamored with Emerald, in a platonic sort of way. The captain had taken a shining to her, for sure. There was a chorus of 'yes, captain's, supposedly from around the ship, making sure the captain knew they had heard and understood.

"Well, time for us to go on deck." Joy said, and hurried us along. There was a decent amount of traffic in the hallways. There were a lot of pirates, all trying to get onto the deck quickly, so they could have this meeting and go to sleep. A plan to move forward, huh? We were actually going to move forward this time, right? I hoped that was the case. I was tired of feeling like we were going in circles. It was time to move forward.

Have a nice day