A/N: Chapter 10 time woo! We're back with some more Nemona perspective. Sorry for being a bit late again, I'm almost sure that I can get back to my regular schedule from here on in. Of course, if I don't, you all will be the first to hear about it. Thanks again for reading and please enjoy the chapter!

The view from the top of Uva Academy was freeing enough to feel lonely. A sad effigy had replaced the city that teemed with life only one month ago, spread out for onlookers from the region's top educational facility to look down on and tut about how things should have gone differently. Under the sun and Nemona's watchful eye, people sequestered themselves in the shade of buildings or within their houses, as if simply being outside had become intolerable. To the people's credit, Juliana's message and the encroaching tera phenomenon at everyone's doorstep were fine motivators to be more reticent with outside activity. Nemona hated it, but more specifically she hated that she had to have a hand in it. Much as she wanted to complain that the tera phenomenon was harshing the vibes in her city, she wasn't blind or deaf. It was the Academy itself that had brought about this shift in Mesagoza's attitude, and she was standing right in the center of it.

Uva Academy's symbolic glass pokéball that dominated most of the advertising photos of the Academy was actually hollowed out. It made for a great observation deck to show visitors the splendor of Paldea so they'd be more willing to open their hearts and wallets to send their students to Uva Academy. There were plenty of other visually appealing academy landmarks, such as the battlefields out back or the massive staircase out front that could also be a battlefield in a pinch, but Nemona preferred this one. After all, it was the only observation deck big enough to have pokémon battles visible to the entire academy at once. She was banned from such competitions after a particular incident involving her and an overzealous challenger, but the thrill of the moment's energy recharged her every time she returned. It was one of the last times she could remember that she was doing exactly what she was supposed to be doing. "And now you're daydreaming again. This is why nothing is getting done, Nemona." Being the student council president had been a lot easier two months ago.

For its massive size and lack of consistent means of communication, Paldea reacted quickly to incoming threats. In just over a month, Juliana's treasure hunt challenge had spread to the entire region as her cause was taken up by her fellow students. Some civilians participated, though generally only because the Paldea League promised paltry rewards for those who brought in significant numbers of tera shards. Nemona herself had no idea why the League decided to openly endorse Juliana's treasure hunt. The network of conference rooms and laboratories under the Paldea League remained closed to her aside from when Geeta deigned to give her a direct command to put out one fire or another for her. Nemona also didn't really understand why she'd been put in charge of overseeing the hunt's progress on Uva Academy's end when there were plenty of qualified teachers to take the mantle. Her best guess was that this was her punishment for being associated with Juliana on top of still not being told anything. It was the same reason that Penny basically lived in the Paldea League building and Arven had chosen to disappear before he could share Nemona's fate. Aside from treasure hunting activities, she was the Academy's prisoner in all but name.

As the dour thought crossed her mind, Nemona's phone went off. Taking a look at the caller id, Nemona saw the director's name flashing in her face. Her jailor was tugging on the leash clasped around her neck. Though Nemona figured the Director probably didn't have anything to do with deciding what fires Nemona was to put out, she still had to bite back a rebellious instinct to ignore his call. If the director was so bad at interacting with the youth, he shouldn't have accepted a job as an academy director. Better yet, he should have taken Nemona's role from her and given it to someone like Ms. Tyme. But Nemona had no right to complain; that had been made very clear to her when she woke up and learned her best friend was some sort of international terrorist. At least she could still look out at this view, unlike Penny who was stuck underground or Arven who had to keep looking over his shoulder. The call demanding her answer sank to the back of her mind for just a moment as she remembered the last time that the three of them had been in the same place with Juliana an eon ago.

Some of the details of what was said eluded her, but the message that she wasn't good enough to be considered among Juliana's reliable friends when demand for them was at an all-time high was undeniable. Juliana had chosen to forsake the people she'd brought with her for the first phase of her journey, instead opting for former enemies that Nemona had proven repeatedly to be more capable then. It made no sense at all, to the point that Nemona had chosen to stop thinking about it. If she played along now, she'd eventually get her chance to clear everything up with her missing friend. Juliana would certainly pay with a loss in an upcoming pokémon battle, but that could wait until Nemona figured out who her real enemies were. No, she knew who they were. They were trying to call her right now, drag her into another problem she was uninformed of and advance someone else's interests in a game she didn't even know the name of. First it was Looker, then Juliana, and now the League itself was taking advantage of the plucky champion trainer who was apparently only good as a pawn as long as she remained blissfully ignorant of the world around her. It was infuriating enough that Nemona forgot what she was supposed to be doing.

As her ringtone went silent, Nemona returned to reality with a small gasp and went for her Rotom phone to see what her boss was complaining about. Much as she resented the way she'd come into the role, there was no denying that she could still help the people who continued to cower in Mesagoza's shade by performing it well. She'd missed several messages on top of the recent call, which gave Nemona an excuse to avoid returning Clavell's call for a few more seconds. Reading Clavell's text told her that there was some sort of commotion going on between the Team Star members and Academy students near the front gate. For how amazing the view from her current location was, Nemona couldn't actually see the Academy entrance from here because of how the building had been designed. Had she been in control, that would have been the first change she'd make besides making the glass more resistant to stray hyper beam attacks from obsessional pokémon trainers. "But that can wait. Just do your job, Nemona."

It was time to become the face of the Academy again for a few minutes. Even thinking that in her head as she gave Clavell a blunt text affirmation felt wrong in her head. Nemona's rise to the title of student council president was historic only in exactly three ways. First, her start date was in the middle of what was supposed to be another student's term. That student happened to be Giacomo, former and current Team Star admin. Her name had likely only come up because most of the student body was already familiar with Nemona by Nemona's design. It wouldn't do for Nemona to miss a good battle just because she wasn't friends with someone, after all. There was a conspiracy theory at the time that the student body had elected Nemona in order to keep her too busy to constantly challenge everyone to battles. If that was the case, it was safe to say that the student body had failed spectacularly.

Second, Nemona had been student council president longer than any other student in the school's history. This was because the three-term limit that normally applied to students didn't apply to her first half-term. Since she hadn't caused any explosions as a direct result of her work, Clavell had overlooked the potential discrepancy in time. Finally, she was the only student council president to successfully increase the length of the treasure hunt. This wasn't technically her doing, but the school had given her credit for Juliana's idea regardless, and Nemona must not have been thinking clearly enough to argue at the time. Arven must have agreed by the way he'd skipped town almost as soon as he woke up. Nemona had only more questions about what was going on and all she'd been given in terms of answers was a role she was wildly unqualified to play with one exception. That exception was currently threatening to tear her town apart, but this was what Nemona trained for. Nemona's reminiscence lasted until she reached the front doors and swung them opening, letting the bright afternoon light blind her to her worries for the moment.

Several Team Star members were standing across from a couple of Academy students. The sight was disappointingly familiar to Nemona. She hadn't been able to do much of anything about Team Star or the bullying problem outside of preventing the team from strong-arming students to join up against their will. It had again been Juliana that had helped to resolve this issue for her, leaving Nemona to take the credit for machinations that weren't hers. All the students turned their attention to Nemona as she arrived. She might not have been effective in breaking Team Star up, but they knew better than to mess with her on her home turf. "Feels like I'm watching an old movie right now," Nemona lightly accused as she stepped into the middle of the arguing students. "What's up? Did we eat something bad in the cafeteria or something?"

"Those jerks are hoarding tera shards!" One of the Team Star grunts accused, jabbing a finger angrily at one of the students.

Nemona raised an eyebrow. She would have expected that accusation to be hurled from the other direction. "W-we are not!" The student, a boy who looked to be a bit younger than Nemona protested. "We're donating everything to the city just like you are!"

"Yeah? Yeah?! Then how come Ruchbah Squad spent all day in Area Five today and not a single one of us saw either of you out there? Don't tell me you're hunting in closed off areas. Worse, are you making your pokémon fight to farm tera shards just to get a few extra slices of bread each night?"

Nemona turned her attention to the Team Star students. The only thing that distinguished them as Team Star other than their attitudes was a patch that Ms. Tyme had started distributing among official Team Star members a while ago to help tell them apart from others without breaking dress code. Supposedly, she'd been experiencing a high uptick in demand for them. The regular students cringed under this accusation and confused Nemona. "Hold on. The academy is not offering additional incentives for getting tera shards beyond saving the region. There's no reason to-"

"You haven't heard?" one of the regular students interrupted. "I thought you were one of the ones behind it. They just introduced a new point system to increase tera shard collection in all the major cities in addition to the cash rewards. You get bonuses if you bring in particular shards and bringing in a bunch lets you exchange them for extra cash."

This was news to Nemona. She might have heard something to the effect of a point system getting pushed at the last all-hands staff meeting that she was forced to attend, but she hadn't been paying much attention, as was her right as the youngest person in the room. Now that ignorance of youth was coming back to bite her a bit. The only way out of this situation was to feign ignorance. "Ah, yes, they really blindsided the academy with that one. However, I don't see what the problem here is. Sounds like you're just doing what the system allows you to do."

"It's not about the system allowing it, it's about the system encouraging students to circumvent the rules the Academy put in place! Seriously, why do I have to be the one to explain this to you?" The Team Star grunt sighed and made an exaggerated show of crossing his arms. "Wandering around in closed off areas is what causes wild tera and titan pokémon to start moving in on our turf! Lately it seems like only Team Star students are trying to take the future of this region seriously. Real shame."

The grunt's sentiment held merit on the surface, Nemona could give him that. Along with the worsening of weather conditions, tera dens and titan pokémon had started appearing at an alarming rate all over the region. Thus far, the League had dealt with the problem by cordoning off the largest hot spots, but there was no denying that it was easiest to find tera shards in these locations. Nemona herself never paid much heed to the areas, as she was considered strong enough to go where she pleased so long as her handlers okayed it. The Academy really should have taken her experiences into account when they gave her this role. Nobody failed to relate to students more than a student that couldn't be matched by any of her peers. The academy boy spoke up when Nemona failed to contradict the grunt's claims. "What are you talking about? I don't want to see my home destroyed either. Maybe you're the ones who don't care enough, since you're more obsessed with following your code than collecting as many shards as possible."

"You wanna say that again, brat?" The other team star grunt finally retorted. "We have to follow the damn rules because that's what the boss Juliana ordered. Unlike you straight-laced losers, we actually have something worth protecting besides ourselves in this region."

"Hold on. When did Juliana become the leader of Team Star?" Nemona cut in, feeling more lost by the second. It was hard enough keeping up with her education with classes being cancelled without having to follow the politics of her school.

"The second that she showed up on that video, she became the face of the Academy, and by extension of Team Star," one of the grunts responded, though the other didn't give any indication of his agreement. "We didn't see them, but we knew they were there. Cassiopeia is probably with her too. That means we've got to support her to the end, no matter what!"

Everyone in the academy respected Juliana. Nemona was one of those people as well, but the way that she was being spoken of was somehow off-putting. Juliana wasn't invincible. Of all people, Nemona probably knew that best. She didn't know why Penny's whereabouts needed to be a secret, but the "disappearance" only seemed to add credibility to Juliana's name somehow. The academy boy even nodded in surprising agreement with the grunt. "That's the truth. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who-"

Nemona couldn't take this anymore. Her rival was responsible for disbanding Team Star, not leading it. "Juliana doesn't run a gang of delinquents. She's trying to save the entire region, not a group of posers trying to fit in," Nemona spat much more harshly than she initially meant to. "I… look, it shouldn't matter whether you're in Team Star or not. At the end of the day, we're all trying to collect tera shards, right?"

"You're close, but a bit off. Half marks, Nemona," Ms. Tyme announced as she emerged from the same entrance Nemona had used a moment before. "Team Star is an extension of the Academy now, no matter who's in charge. And the Academy is going to dedicate itself to saving the region regardless of what the League says. If the League decided today that the treasure hunt were to end, then the Team Star members would be free to continue it as long as they attended classes as well. That is correct, isn't it Joseph?"

"Yes ma'am!" Joseph, one of the Team Star grunts, responded with a salute. "We found these two with a suspicious number of tera shards for their efforts today! We believe they may be illegally-"

"What did I tell you about confronting other students? If you have a problem with someone's behavior, report it to myself or your immediate superior. Don't cause confrontation. It's a very simple directive, Joseph."

Ms. Tyme's interruption had the exact desired effect on her victim. Joseph bowed instantly, his words fumbling out of his mouth as Ms. Tyme cowed him and his companion with her voice alone. "Y-yes ma'am! Sorry ma'am!"

Satisfied, Ms. Tyme gave the group a smile that betrayed knowledge of her authority and waved the grunts off. "Run along, then. There's always something that needs doing around here, isn't there?"

The question Ms. Tyme proposed wasn't answered in favor of the Team Star grunts scurrying away. Now that her troops were gone, Ms. Tyme apparently felt that she could live up to her reputation. Subtlety was discarded as she folded her arms and turned her full attention to the other side of the argument. Several students that had been walking by changed direction sharply, with one boy even turning full around to run away. Nemona remained, only because remaining motionless was safer than attracting Ms. Tyme's attention with movement. The smile hadn't left Ms. Tyme's face, but the two students staring at it shivered. "Now then, you two. Was what they were saying true? Were you doing anything that would bring shame to this Academy's name?"

"But Ms. Tyme, how are we supposed to be doing anything else? I don't want to associate with criminals, and-"

"Criminals?" Ms. Tyme cut them off with a shrill bark. "That's hardly a fair moniker to be using to describe your fellow students. I thought Uva Academy was producing more upstanding individuals than your ilk. Go report to your homeroom teacher that you're suspended for the next three days. IF I catch you breaking this suspension, you'll learn why the other students call me the academy witch."

The menacing look on Ms. Tyme's face unnerved even Nemona. She knew that the math teacher wasn't serious, probably, but her victims clearly didn't. If they did, they'd probably notice that Ms. Tyme hadn't actually requested that they turn over any tera shards in their possession. The students instead scrambled away after swearing up and down that they wouldn't do anything to disturb the beautiful harmony of the academy. With that matter resolved, Ms. Tyme finally turned her attention to Nemona. "I… how'd you do that?" Nemona asked, unable to describe how impressed she was with words alone.

Ms. Tyme gave her student a kind smile, the first one Nemona didn't feel uncomfortable looking at. "It's a combination of experience and working under incompetent superiors for decades," she explained with a weathered voice. "Stick around long enough and you'll see for yourself. It's the art of understanding how a person thinks. You could think of it as another kind of battle, if that helps you understand."

The math teacher had a way of speaking Nemona's language that had proven invaluable during Nemona's time as student council president. If she had learned to talk to people the way that Ms. Tyme did, then maybe she would have spoken to Juliana in a way that would have explained why the champion had abandoned her and her friends. It was a sobering thought that caused the smile to melt away from Nemona's face. Ms. Tyme noticed this change in demeanor but elected not to comment on it. Instead, she took a few steps forward and observed the landscape, as if looking for something. Any student foolishly curious enough to remain in the area fled when they realized that the academy witch was looking for a new subject. Nemona joined her teacher, stretching out on her tiptoes to see over the Mesagoza horizon. "I'm surprised you're still here," Ms. Tyme commented. "Weren't you supposed to be dealing with that commotion in front of the city?"

Nemona tilted her head. "I got a message saying I need to deal with the commotion in front of the Academy. Is there something going on in front of the city too? If so, shouldn't the police deal with it or something?"

Ms. Tyme sighed and shook her head. "Everything's been all mixed up since the mountain split. Maybe Clavell got his wires crossed, but it's more likely that he expected you to notice and take care of it. Apparently there was a titan pokémon sighted near the front gate and they want a champion rank trainer to go bring it down. I was supposed to gather some able-bodied students here, but it seems everyone else is too busy arguing to keep the city safe."

That made sense, but it didn't line up with what Nemona had read from Director Clavell's text. Checking her phone again confirmed this to be the case. Clavell had definitely only asked her to deal with the commotion in front of the school. Then again, the fact that he'd asked her to step in here instead of doing so himself was odd as well. There were too many weird happenings going on at once for Nemona to keep track of. She had no reason to doubt that she could be of use when it came to a pokémon battle, at least. "Alright. I'll investigate. See y-" Nemona's goodbye was interrupted by the sound of a distant pokémon cry.

Despite being so far away, both women heard the unmistakable roar of a massive pokémon coming from somewhere near the front of Mesagoza. If they were able to hear it, either the pokémon was extraordinarily large, or it was standing right at the entrance to the city. The latter option would explain why Nemona was unable to see it. Teacher and student exchanged a knowing look before Nemona turned on her heel and took off. Ms. Tyme would catch up. Right now, Nemona had a purpose that she couldn't afford to let slip from her grip. She didn't have her full normal team readily available, but she was an expert at making use of the tools currently at her disposal. A pokéball left her hand and was flying through the air as she approached the massive set of stairs leading to the Academy, nearly running down a student that was distracted staring in the direction of the roar. She leapt into the air as a pokémon materialized under her, intending to land on it by the time it finished forming. This would have been a perfect plan had her aim not been terrible. A gyarados appeared several meters to the right of where Nemona had been aiming. Fortunately for her, this partner of hers was acquainted with Nemona's ability to aim. Gyarados dove downward, getting between Nemona and the ground just in time for her to grab on to the horn on her partner's head. "Get to the front of the city!" Nemona ordered, ignoring the fact that she had almost broken several bones.

From her vantage point as gyarados swam through the air, Nemona could see the effects of the town's recent woes much more clearly. Only now had the alarm system warning civilians to shelter-in-place, and most citizens were ignoring it. Most of the academy students and even team star members were gone, and those that were out and about stuck to the shade under buildings or in alleyways as if that excluded them from their civic duty to the city. Someone else would deal with the problem if they waited long enough. The Paldean sun couldn't be beating down more oppressively by the day, watching the tera phenomenon spread so long as one ignored it. Despite this targeted decision to plead ignorance, nobody was able to completely ignore the cries of the pokémon that darkened the city's doorstep. This allowed Nemona to pass overhead without the normal protests that would accompany her low flying. Normal citizens were rare, most of them either waiting in their homes for all the problems of the outside world to disappear or already outside the region. Nemona didn't really blame them. Her own parents certainly wouldn't be charging headfirst into danger to see if their daughter was having a fine enough time surviving on her own. As she finally reached the front of the city, the source of the commotion revealed itself.

A small army of police officers, likely most of the city's force, were standing on one side of a gate while a massive dreadnaw stood on the other side. It wasn't physically different from a drednaw in any way except for size, though that distinguishing factor was enough for it to give the closed Mesagoza gate a run for its money. It was attempting to chew on the door, but was unable to find a purchase that let it leave anything but ominous gnawing marks. However, Nemona could tell it was only a matter of time. There was a smattering of League staff and students there as well, but nobody who would even come close to giving Nemona a difficult battle. If Drednaw decided that destroying a building or three was a good way to use its powers, there'd be no heroic last stand to stop it; she'd witness an unnecessary massacre. "Gyardos, get its attention!" Nemona ordered as she dropped off the side of her partner, this time intentionally.

Gyarado roared, unintimidated by the size of its foe. It opened its mouth and shot a hydro pump directly at the exposed blocky head of the bite pokémon. Nemona hadn't expected a water type attack to do much, but all she really needed was to get the big guy's attention. She succeeded with flying colors. As she plummeted downward, the attack caused drednaw to pause in its assault on the gate, looking up in irritation at the pokémon that had literally rained on its parade. Gyarados looked admittedly goofy, the fish out of water hovering in mid-air like a wriggling fishing lure for its fellow water type. Lures usually didn't launch high pressure streams of water, of course. Making a mental note to try using confusion tactics with gyarados in her next real battle, Nemona withdrew and threw another pokéball.

This time, her aim wasn't particularly important. Her partner would know what to do as soon as they landed on the other side of the gate. Out from the ball came a Goodra, appearing seconds before Nemona was to hit the ground. She wasn't panicking or anything; she'd done this at least three or four times before, and one other time intentionally. Goodra leapt into action, getting under Nemona and allowing her to crash into the gelatinous goo that made up the pokemon's body. If it was in combat, it might have hardened the slime around it into a defensive barrier, but in this situation it made an effective net to soften the blow from falls. Nemona wasn't fond of this method, as it guaranteed she'd be taking a long shower tonight, but the region's safety came first. "Good job Goodra. Let's see if we can't take this big guy down a peg or two."

A weaker trainer might have tried to stay in the air with their pokémon, taking pot shots at the titan while trying to lead it away from the city. Then, backup could follow up and use their overwhelming numbers to bring the pokémon down. Nemona had another idea in mind. She'd heard plenty of stories from Arven and Juliana about these so-called titan pokémon, but even then they'd only appeared sparsely around the region despite the worsening tera phenomenon. It was only after the mountain had fractured that they started getting so bold as to approach civilization. The reasoning for that didn't matter to Nemona right now. All she could think about was making sure this pokémon belonged to her.

To that end, gyarados was leading drednaw just far enough away from the gate that it wouldn't be in danger of destroying the town's wall, but not so far that she'd risk losing her prey to someone else. Whenever drednaw looked like it had decided gyarados was too much trouble to chase, another hydro pump hit it in the face, allowing Nemona and goodra to follow the two undetected. Once she and goodra were sure that she'd found a suitable location, Nemona waved to gyarados, which was still exchanging hydro pumps with its foe. Gyarados started making its way slowly toward its trainer, doing its best to avoid all of drednaw's attacks. To give it a hand, Nemona motioned goodra forward, having it fling some of the sticky liquid its body was drenched in at drednaw's feet. The substance didn't slow drednaw down much, but it was enough to draw the pokemon's attention away from the gnat buzzing around its head. "Let's say hello with power whip," Nemona suggested, backing up a few steps subconsciously as the massive size of the drednaw began to bear down on her.

Goodra jumped forward, whipping the horns on its head as they glowed with a bright green light. The attack was pitifully insignificant in scale compared to the target, but as soon as it made contact, drednaw reeled backward. Nemona frowned as she saw how effective the grass-type move was. She would have preferred that a massive drednaw be a bit stronger than this. It seemed that type effectiveness was an immutable law regardless of how big a pokémon got. Drednaw staggered back, crying in pain before it finally righted itself long enough to fire a hydro pump in response. Nemona had been so put off by drednaw's reaction that she hadn't thought to call for a dodge in time. The price she paid for this was that goodra was clipped by the edge of one of the hydro pumps. Just this much sent goodra flying backwards, knocked down but barely conscious. Nemona blinked. She wasn't taking this seriously enough. "Gyarados, ice beam!" Nemona ordered, pointing to gyarados as it soared over drednaw's head.

Gyarados looked down as drednaw looked up, getting a face full of ice beam for its trouble. The creature staggered back once more, causing Nemona to be puzzled in spite of herself. Drednaw weren't known as the bulkiest pokémon around, but they certainly should be sturdier than this. It seemed instead that every single attack was causing drednaw as much or more pain than it had inflicted on Goodra. Its neck was retracting into its shell, making Nemona wonder for a moment if the pokémon was about to try and run away. To deal with that, she had a few partners that were faster than a normal drednaw by some magnitudes, but scaling up to one of this size might pose a challenge. As she hesitated long enough to decide who to send out to help, Nemona made a fatal error in taking her eyes off of the battle. In that single instant when she looked back, her gyarados disappeared.

One second gyarados had been hovering there, observing the patches of ice that it had created on drednaw's face, and the next second it was gone, completely swallowed up as drednaw extended its head faster than Nemona's eyes could follow. All she managed to catch was the tip of gyarados' tail being crunched beneath drednaw's jaws before her pokémon disappeared completely. "Power whip!" Nemona frantically ordered, fumbling in her pocket now for gyarados' pokéball.

This had happened before, as recently as last month. She'd been overconfident in her abilities as a pokémon trainer, where rules and regulations were in place to determine what was supposed to happen, what was and wasn't allowed. As long as those rules bound her and her opponents, there was nothing that they could do that Nemona couldn't predict with enough battle experience. People couldn't get involved in the battle. There weren't any moves allowed that ran the risk of killing a pokémon. But wild pokémon didn't abide by those rules. She'd been so obsessed with getting stronger that the local wildlife hadn't posed a challenge to her in years. Drednaw had apparently come to give her a sobering reminder that the world she lived in was based on good faith alone. Fortunately, goodra's power whip inspired drednaw to open its mouth again. If it had used a move like jaw lock instead of what was probably a skull bash, Nemona might have lost her pokémon for good. Instead, she pointed the ball at drednaw's open mouth and prayed. A beam of red shot out, latched on to something, and returned to Nemona. There was no time to be relieved or even to check on gyarados' condition. She had to make sure her remaining pokémon would be alright. The best way to do that would be to give it some help. A new pokémon, pawmot, entered the fray just as drednaw attempted to reach down and bite goodra.

This was actually an excellent opportunity. "Give it a taste, goodra!" Nemona ordered, trying to sound confident as pawmot started building up electricity in order to get into the fray at its strongest.

Goodra, sensing Nemona's intent, waited until the last second to dodge, just like before. The difference this time was that Goodra wanted drednaw to put its face as close to danger as possible. Right at the last second, Goodra secreted more of its sticky slime all over drednaw's mouth. The titan pokémon instantly recoiled like it had been shot, which wasn't a totally inaccurate description of what had happened. Goodra's gunk hadn't done much to drednaw's feet, but an acid spray into a hungry mouth couldn't have felt pleasant. Unlike before, however, drednaw didn't waste any time staggering backwards. It screamed in fury as its whole body became engulfed in liquid. Goodra was standing too close to dodge properly and disappeared into the formation of drednaw's liquidation attack. Nemona and pawmot were forced to dive out of the way as drednaw charged forward without much consideration for what direction it was heading. Nemona's breath was caught in her throat until she saw goodra get flung aside as the attack ended, winded but far less damaged than Nemona would have expected.

Drednaw had more likely released that attack in order to get the acid out of its mouth rather than to do any actual damage. This indicated an intelligence that Nemona hadn't expected to witness from something this large. Titan pokémon were supposed to be the big and slow type according to Arven, but this thing wasn't anywhere close to the stereotype. It was in the moment she considered this that Nemona made what she thought would be her final mistake. The pokémon in its rampage had charged past Nemona and was now facing away from her. This made her safe from the pokémon's biting and hydro pump attacks, but it didn't consider the massive tail that was hovering only a few meters above her. That tail began to glow as Nemona recognized a dragon tail attack manifesting right above her. There was no way she'd be able to get out of the way, and even if she did move, drednaw would probably have time to change its own trajectory. All Nemona had time to do was wonder if her own pokémon would be okay. "Pawmot…" Nemona muttered, unable to do anything else. "You need to run..."

The end that Nemona didn't realize she was expecting never came. In one instant, she was about to be crushed, and in the next, she had been lifted off her feet and was being carried away. It was a wonderful feeling for all of three seconds before Nemona's body realized that she wanted to hurl. The jerking movements of her new mount mercifully prevented that from happening by force. Within a few seconds, Nemona and her pokémon had been placed down far out of reach of the titan pokémon, her savior pausing to reveal himself as the one person Nemona wouldn't have wanted to be saved by. "Arven?" Nemona muttered in disbelief.

Arven was riding miraidon like he'd been born to do so. Questions of where he'd obtained the pokémon, how he'd known to come here, what he thought he was doing trying to butt in on a situation that Nemona had complete control over all floated through Nemona's mind at once. She shouldn't have been surprised. Not by drednaw, not by Arven, not even by miraidon. After all, she'd been in this situation before. The questions she wanted to ask died on her lips as a mutual understanding passed between the two former companions. Arven knew how to win this battle, and Nemona didn't. Without rules to confine Nemona's opponent, she was significantly less useful. "Stay out of this. You're just putting yourself and your pokémon at risk." With that, miradon charged back into the fray.

Nemona had no intention of simply following this advice, but she couldn't immediately react to her old friend's sudden appearance. The drednaw wasn't quite as awed as Nemona was by the legendary pokémon that jumped down a ridge to challenge it. Drednaw instead cried out in rage at being snubbed from a kill that rightfully belonged to it, twisting its head back and forth as it prepared to charge again. Arven had no intention of giving it that chance. Miraidon's speed was comparable to a lightning bolt, the pokémon streaking across the ground so fast that Nemona had a tough time keeping up with it. Drednaw did its best to follow miraidon with its eyes, but it was unable to prevent Arven from getting behind it and preparing an attack. Realizing what Arven was trying to do, Nemona tried to call out in warning, but it was too late.

"NAW!" drednaw cried, its roar shaking the ground as it brought its tail down on the approaching annoyance buzzing behind it.

Nemona shut her eyes, but she didn't hear any reaction from either party. When she opened them again, drednaw had been sent reeling, the massive pokémon knocked aside like the very wind had blown it over. It was only as Arven appeared on the exposed side of drednaw that Nemona noticed the small team of pokémon standing near where drednaw's legs had been before it was pushed over. Arven must have made a distraction of himself in order to let the rest of his team unbalance the monster. Even Nemona hadn't noticed a full team of pokémon gathering over the distraction that was miraidon's charge. It was a cunning plan that Nemona wished she would have thought of, or rather that her pride would have allowed her to execute. When it came to pokémon battles, she preferred the straight-up direct confrontation even now, when it had been proven that such battles rarely occurred in the real world. Arven carried no such misgivings.

As drednaw struggled to pick itself up again, all six of his pokémon and drednaw launched a beam attack of some sort at the exposed side. Nemona could tell that their attack was effective because drednaw didn't even cry out. The flailing of the pokemon's limbs stopped long before the attacks did. When Arven finally saw fit to cease fire, drednaw was completely knocked out. Satisfied that his work was complete, Arven pulled out a pokéball that Nemona had never seen before and tossed it at the beast. The part of the ball that was normally red was grey and had several blue circles coloring the exterior. Drednaw's massive form was somehow contained within the ball, and in three shakes, Arven had obtained it.

Finally shaking herself out of her stupor, Nemona ran forward to meet Arven as he picked up the motionless ball. He'd made the fight the Nemona had been struggling with look like he was taking on a rattatta. "What do you think you're doing here?" Nemona asked more harshly than she intended, prompting Arven to turn and look at her distractedly.

"Apparently I'm doing your job. Can't you protect at least one city while the rest of us do the important work?" Arven scoffed, tossing the ball at Nemona.

Acting on instinct, Nemona caught the ball, the weight of the pokémon that was contained inside feeling heavier than a pokéball should in her hand. She threw a confused look at Arven, who continued to look at her with a mix of disappointment and anger that irritated Nemona. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you since Juliana."

"I've been thinking about what she said for a while," Arven answered as he gave miraidon a pat on the head, dodging the question. "About how things in the region would get really bad, that my dad was partially responsible. I just can't stomach it. It sat like a rock in my gut, aching every time I mulled over it. I've eaten a lot of terrible food, but this was the hardest thing I've had to swallow in a long time. I don't know if she was lying, or the AI she was talking to was, of if the League is the real enemy. All I know is that something caused her to stop trusting me, caused everyone to stop trusting me. So I've been working on figuring out why by myself. I didn't expect you to let things get so dangerous this quickly though."

Nemona wanted to say things might have proceeded more smoothly if Arven hadn't run off. Then maybe the scrutinizing eye of the law wouldn't have borne down so harshly on her and Penny. Maybe she'd have been allowed to investigate ways to get into Area Zero herself instead of being forced into this figurehead position. But instead, she folded her arms. "Well, it seems like you've got everything figured out if you're back. Are you ready to actually help keep this region together?"

Arven chuckled. "So demanding. Nobody would listen to or trust me now, so this region and I are even as far as I'm concerned. I can't tell all those students to get their acts together. Look, I don't have time to get into details, but the gist of it is that Geeta definitely had something to do with my Dad's death, and Dad… he was doing some messed up stuff with the teraite balance in this region. Now if you keep sitting on your hands, we'll be in a much worse position than we already are. I can't have the region collapsing before I get to Juliana."

"What do you mean by that? Why me?" Nemona asked, trying to formulate an accusation in her mind that appropriately asked why Arven thought he deserved to speak to Juliana more than her.

"What do you mean, why you? It has to be you. You're the student council president of the second most powerful organization in the region. You're the one who took down this threat that's plaguing the good people of Mesagoza. I haven't figured out exactly why, yet, but the treasure hunt is clearly going to decide this region's future. It can't be allowed to fall into chaos. Someone needs to keep the collection going strong, and who better than the person they see fighting on the front lines?"

Nemona realized what was happening as she turned her gaze back to the ball in her hand. Arven was trying to use her now too. At this point Nemona shouldn't have been surprised, but she still felt a stab of frustration as she saw the path being laid out for her. Looking for any other subject to talk about, Nemona nodded at miraidon. "That's the other one, right? The one that the professor used."

Arven nodded. "A gift, from Juliana. Not that I asked for it or anything. Thinking back on it, this is probably how her miraidon found me last month. It makes me wonder if she was planning that far ahead from the beginning, but I try not to think about it like that. I've burned too many bridges this month to start questioning the friends I have left."

As Arven explained himself, Nemona heard shouting on the horizon. She'd moved a fair distance away from Mesagoza, and the fight had taken them even further, leaving the city as a small dot behind them. This was why Nemona was only just now seeing several League staff, students, and even Ms. Tyme appearing from where she came from, charging to meet a foe that was no longer there. Arven, noticing that they were no longer alone, mounted miraidon again and recalled his pokémon. "Look, I know we don't get along, but I'm counting on you, alright? Keep the region together until we get back," the boy requested as he prepared to speed away.

"Wait! You can't just leave me to deal with this myself! Do you have any idea what they're trying to do? If I lead them into Area Zero, they'll-"

"You leave that to me. I can call us even if there's a region to let into Area Zero when the time comes, right?" Without waiting for an answer, Arven sped off.

Nemona wanted to chase after Arven, but she didn't have any pokémon that could come close to matching miraidon's speed while carrying her. This left her mostly frozen in place as she allowed the crowd of people to arrive. Ms. Tyme was at the head of the charge, a mixture of Team Star and normal academy students immediately behind her. Now that they were closer, Nemona could even see a few volunteer civilians in the mix. It was like everyone she'd passed on the way to confront drednaw had suddenly woken up to their civic duty and been dragged along, following the gyarados lure she'd left in the sky for them. "Where is it?" the teacher demanded, confused.

In response, Nemona held up the heavy ball she'd received from Arven and tossed it behind her. The ball arced awkwardly before popping open to reveal a drednaw that was two or three times larger than average. It was certainly a massive pokémon, but nowhere near the monster that it had been minutes ago. She vaguely recalled this being a side effect of a pokémon being captured in a ball. It was something about how the effects of herba mystica lost some of their strength as a result of the ball's compressive technology, but Nemona didn't bother to try understanding it. "I… I have defeated it," Nemona announced, making sure that there was no sign of Arvens in the area.

"Oh, good," Ms. Tyme sighed in relief. "For a minute there, it looked like we were going to be in trouble."

The crowd, so ready to act a moment ago, immediately began to disperse. Some of the students were already complaining about being dragged out for no reason. What had been a tight-knit group just seconds ago was now a massive conglomerate of individuals. Nemona's eyes lit up in recognition as Arven's words resonated with her. People didn't need her to lead them. They needed a crisis. "We are in trouble!" Nemona insisted, taking a step forward to hold everyone's attention. "Our region is being threatened by these beasts on a daily basis and all we can do is sit back and watch! Why are we fighting over who gets this and that when if we don't band together soon, the entire region might explode?!" Juliana's own threat echoed in Nemona's mind.

How much of her claim was actually true? Who would benefit from her taking command here? The second question didn't matter so long as Nemona remained confident that she was one of those people. In her selfish quest to pursue battle prowess, Nemona had nearly forgotten what it was like to desire any other kind of strength. Now, the tug of temptation that had lied dormant for so long was pulling her eyes beyond the gazes in front of her, out into the Paldean horizon and beyond. Was this the feeling of success that those around her were vying for as the ground she stood on was choked to death underfoot? If so, then the only way she'd understand why she was put in this position was to follow them, to start over from the beginning and take command right here.

Nemona's impassioned plea looked like it was going to fall on deaf ears for one harrowing second as she came to this new understanding. Then, slowly, a few of the students stopped walking away and returned, waiting to hear what Nemona had to say. It took some time, but the team star students joined in as well. Though they hadn't turned back yet, the adults in the group paused, waiting to see what Nemona would say next. Riding on the momentum, Nemona continued to pursue this new path opening before her. "It's high time we started getting much more organized about gathering tera shards. Paldea has just proven to us that it's too dangerous to leave this to our individual efforts. If we don't work as a team, we're going to die alone. I refuse to give up the home I've spent so many important years of my life in without a fight. What do you all say, are you with me?!"

It took one person. As soon as the first student raised their fist and cheered after Nemona's rousing cry, the rest of the audience felt like it was okay to join in. Ms. Tyme didn't cheer, but she nodded approvingly when Nemona looked her way with a rhythm that seemed to convey to Nemona that this was somehow her plan the whole time. This action, too, was a part of someone else's game. But Nemona was done playing only by the rules set out in front of her. As she started to describe to the group how she wanted their efforts to be reorganized, who to contact, what tasks to execute, she felt better than she had in months. If Juliana and Arven and the others were going to use her as a pawn, then she'd make sure she made it to the end of the chess board. Now that there were rules in place in front of her, nobody would beat Nemona in a fair competition, not even Geeta or Juliana herself. As she continued to rally the crowd to take action against the injustice that was the Paldea region's tera phenomenon, Nemona was exhilarated. Don't die on me, Juliana. I'll get to you first, and I'll do it my way.