Amara and Penny sat still for a second, then Penny spoke, "I mean, I was wondering if that was the case, but I didn't know how to ask. What's your system's name?" Mr. Vaughn shifted uneasily, then just sighed.

"We're just Markus. We hadn't really thought of our team name, at least not until right now when you asked." Markus looked to Miriam, who smiled back at him. "My name is Blake." Amara nodded thoughtfully then smiled and told Blake how nice it was to meet him. "We've met before. Only once, in the hallway." Blake recounted. "You've met me, host Markus, Devon, and James."

"Do you know how many people live in your head?" Amara asked. Melody had slipped into the front alongside Amara and was watching through the left eye as Blake revealed there were six of them living in their head. Amara smiled. "We're sitting at five for the minute." She and Melody recounted. Blake smiled back, then fell unconscious for a moment and allowed someone else to take the front.

"Huh, he decided to tell you. Rad, I'm Devon. We met at Casseroya Lake." Amara and Penny said hello to Devon, then looked at each other for a moment, pondering their next move. Devon took notice and decided to speak. "Out with it." His tone was blunt, but not forceful, so Amara shrugged.

"We'd love to meet everyone, but I'm still a little fucked up and definitely need to sleep. We're checking out tomorrow and are going to find Allie in the morning, so we need rest. Can we do a meet and greet some other time?" Amara had started fidgeting at this point, so Devon shrugged and stood to leave.

"We're in room 408 if you need us. Good night, ladies." Devon and Miriam left the room without another word. As they left, Amara let out a tense breath and snuggled into Penny. After a few minutes, they were undressed and pressed against each other as Amara trembled.

"She called in the devil on me, babe." Amara said as she shook. "She gave me the gym badge, but if Mr. Vaughn hadn't showed up, I don't know if I'd be ok." Penny hugged her girlfriend tightly and promised she was right here next to her, causing a smile to form on Amara's face. "Thank you, my love. It's so nice not to be alone." Penny held her for the rest of the night until Amara found sleep.

When morning came, Amara and Penny each woke up incredibly groggily. "Baby, what the hell is going on? We weren't up too late, were we? What time did we leave the concert?" Penny groaned, looked at her phone, and announced it was 6:45 in the morning, and they should both sleep until 9:00, then rolled over and started snoring lightly. Amara kissed Penny's forehead and snuggled back up to her. She desperately tried to find sleep again, but it evaded her at every opportunity. After a while, she got up, threw on a uniform, and went to enjoy the free breakfast. She sat lightly munching on some scrambled eggs when Nurse Miriam and Mr. Vaughn walked in, hit the coffee bar, then sat on the other end of the breakfast hall.

"Well, good morning I guess." Amara muttered as she received a text message.

Y'all, we've checked out and are heading back to Mesagoza. Take care of yourselves.

-Vaughn

Amara grumbled and took another bite before texting back a thumbs-up emoji and putting her phone away. The term ended in four weeks, sure, but Amara still grumbled about the wasted time. If Vaughn was anything like her, he had a hard time keeping to a schedule as well, so she did her best to not display her grumpiness, and as Penny walked into the breakfast hall, made a plate, and sat across from Amara, all that grumpy energy melted away.

"Hey, the bed got cold." Penny said as she put her fried egg onto a biscuit and took a bite. Amara smiled and the two finished their breakfast in companionable silence. After they'd finished their food, Amara texted Allie.

Any luck with the stakes? She asked. Allie shot back her response shortly after,

Yeah, we've found seven. There's one more, then we can grab the last treasure and piss back off to Mesagoza. You coming back this way?

Allie sent Amara her location, to which Amara shot a thumbs-up emoji and relayed the information to Penny. "Shall we rejoin our lovers?" Amara asked. Penny stood, took Amara's hand, pulled her out of the chair, then the two were astride Miraidon heading down Glaseado Mountain.

"I'm just saying, Penny, baby, if this treasure is as strong as the others, then we need some more firepower." Amara said over her shoulder. Penny shook her head and told Amara they would be fine with the six of them working in tandem, especially if they brought water Pokémon. "We thought that about Ting-Lu. I worry this treasure is going to be even more destructive. Call it my intuition." They rode another twenty minutes before they met the rest of their lovers near a massive waterfall.

"The shrine's in that cave up top. Trish found the last stake, pulled it, and is now heading back." Allie relayed to Amara and Penny. "The fact that we haven't seen a big ecological disaster has me concerned. This treasure is supposed to be the strongest of the four." Amara suggested they take the small win, then Trish arrived. She and Nemona hopped on Koraidon, Allie climbed on Miraidon, then the two Pokémon climbed up the cliff to the waterfall cave where they found a small fish with glass beads around its eyes, just swimming in an airborne bubble of water.

"Yo, Allie, is this thing the treasure?" Amara asked. Allie affirmed that the beads on the Pokémon's eyes were the beads of ruin, then a split second later, the water retracted as the Pokémon let out a massive jet of flame with a commanding "Chi-Yu!". Amara tossed a Clodsire onto the battlefield as Allie sent out a Garganacl and Penny tossed out Vaporeon. Arven sent out his Coloyster, then Trish tossed out Pupitar and Nemona sent out Quaquaval. "Everyone be careful. We need to time our attacks as the water peels away from parts of this thing." Amara called as Clodsire readied a Mud Shot. As Chi-Yu pulled the water away from its mouth again, Clodsire let the Mud Shot loose. It struck home, knocked Chi-Yu out of the air and left it flopping on the ground. Everyone took the opportunity to unleash their Pokémon's attacks with fervor, but after they finished, Chi-Yu used the water pool on the cavern floor to surround itself with its shield again.

"It's working, everyone, but be careful with the water, it's got a bigger shield now." Allie called as Amara and Clodsire readied another Mud Shot. Amara thought for a moment, then called for Clodsire to hit the water shield with the Mud Shot he'd been charging. The attack hit perfectly, and like Amara had hoped, it cut the barrier in half, leaving some exposed weak points on Chi-Yu's body. Chi-Yu responded by launching a wide-reaching fire attack that struck all six Pokémon. Most of them were able to shake it off, but Quaquaval and Vaporeon suffered a burn, and the attack struck Clodsire square in the head, and Clodsire needed a second to right itself. Amara looked him over and swore. Clodsire can't take another hit like that. Rhys echoed through their brain.

"Let's finish this quick!" Arven yelled and called for Coloyster to clamp Chi-Yu between its shell and absorb the remains of its water barrier. Amara readied an Ultra Ball as Coloyster caught it in its shell and drank Chi-Yu's barrier dry as it writhed and wriggled in a vain attempt to free itself. Amara let her Ultra Ball fly, and Coloyster returned to Arven's side. After the third bump, the ball went still, and Allie let out a sigh of relief. "Why the hell did I pick the hardest quest?"

"I don't understand how or why you do anything, and I love you." Amara responded. Then Rotom leapt from her pocket and announced a phone call. "Go for Amara." Professor Turo's face appeared on the screen, then asked for Amara's aid.

"I need you to come to Area Zero. There's a huge problem. Hurry."