It is HERE.

Been stressing about this major chapter for a bit (and also, y'know, fending off the winter sads), but it's done now.

CW: PTSD, panic attack, death.

Looker was already pacing the lobby. He'd initially called us, but we were all in Snowpoint anyways. Dawn and Lucas arrived about twenty seconds after me and Thomas.

"Slight change of plans," Looker said, wasting no time. "The bomb dropped at Verity instead of Valor."

My churning emotions sank a little lower. "Because it's closer to Twinleaf?" I asked.

Looker gave me a grim look, confirming that Galactic had changed their plans as a "fuck you" to us. "Dawn can stay at Acuity. The rest of you can swap lakes, or we can move Thomas to Verity with Evelyn."

I cringed. I didn't want to return to Valor, but Thomas and I right now–

"Lucas, do you want to take Verity instead?" Thomas asked.

Bewilderment sputtered across Looker and Dawn's faces, but if Lucas felt any, he concealed it well.

"Sure."

"Since you're from Verity," Thomas said with a shrug. A piece of bitter rage flared in my chest at his fake reasoning.

Looker glanced my way. "Evelyn? Does that work for you?"

I nodded. To be fair, this was probably the best case scenario. I could avoid Valor, protect Lucas after all, and not have to work with Thomas.

"All right," Looker said. "Natu will take Dawn first, then Thomas. Call if you need anything at all. Pokemon healed, medicine stocked, warm clothing, et cetera?"

We all nodded. Lucas and I coordinated where we'd meet, and he and Dawn each teleported out. I grabbed Thomas's arm before he left.

"Stay safe out there," I said quietly.

"Of course," Thomas said, avoiding my eyes.

I let go. Looker's natu returned and teleported Thomas to the lake where the last boy I loved died.

Looker was frowning. "Did something happen?" he asked.

I pushed down a swell of despair. "Yeah."

"Do… did you… are you okay?"

I laughed, and my eyes grew damp. "No, but we don't have time to talk about it."

"Okay." A moment later, he added, "Call if you need me."

I nodded, blinking the moisture away.

Looker seemed like he wanted to say something else, but when he nodded brusquely and said, "Best of skill and best of luck," that didn't seem to be it.

"Thanks," I said, letting Def out of his ball and taking his hand.

Galactic lake event, take two.

Def and I landed on the path leading from Twinleaf to Lake Verity, right next to the route sign. Lucas was already there, waiting with his pokemon out.

"Alakazam is scouting," he said. "Tons of grunts. This is as close as teleport gets us."

I nodded, feeling sick. The woods were alight with action – starlies fleeing to the sky, psyducks bumbling about, bidoofs and bibarels scurrying through the underbrush away from the lake.

"Any idea which admin we're up against?" I asked Lucas.

"Not yet."

"Coeur? Can you see?" I asked, letting her and the rest of my pokemon out.

"Uhh… Not sure which admin. There's a lot of people and we're kinda far."

"Okay," I said out loud. "We gotta get to the middle as fast as possible – ideally, before Sat– or, whatever admin is there, before they defeat Az… um, Mesprit."

Lucas nodded, and we started to run. Almost immediately I had to stop, immobilized by a wave of nausea in my stomach.

Arceus ahhhh no Arceus no

Lucas kept going. My pokemon, though, noticed and stopped.

"You good?" Coeur asked.

I inhaled, pushing the feeling away. I didn't have time for this. "Yeah, it's fine."

We ran. My head buzzed with the surrealness of running through another bombed lake with Lucas. The landscape, the wreckage, even the wildlife of Valor then and Verity now were nearly the same. I distantly realized we should have been at the beach where Coeur evolved, but the shredded landscape was unrecognizable. Something like fear welled in my chest, but I did my best to repress it.

Somewhere in the back of my consciousness, the words please Arceus please Arceus please Arceus were running on loop.

As we ran, Prom filled puddles of beached magikarp and goldeen with water. Coeur deflected attacks with aura shields. Hope, high in the sky, shot shockwaves down at golbats. Most of Lucas's pokemon took an offensive role, engaging with and knocking out Galactic grunt pokemon left and right. His golduck helped Prom fill pools.

And then we had reached the island at the center of the dry lake. We stopped close to the mouth of the rock dome. Coeur swooped down to join us. Nausea washed through me again.

"Coeur, which admin?" I asked, feeling dizzy.

"Looks like Mars."

Coeur lent me her vision, and through the rock wall, I saw several figures standing and a small pokemon swooping through the air. A large feline darted around, trying to catch the pokemon in her jaws.

The psychic blocker was for the Lake Trio all along, I realized suddenly. Of course. They hadn't made it specifically to fuck with us. They'd made it to disable the incredibly powerful psychic pokemon of the lakes.

I whispered, "Okay, let's–"

Lucas was already going in.

"Wait–!" I ran after him. Shit fuck shit shit shit.

The cool damp air of the cave tunnel shot a bolt of terror through me. I gasped. My legs froze in place.

"Evelyn, are you okay?" Trust asked.

"It's fine," I said, which was neither true nor what he was asking.

Trust patted my arm, and a tiny piece of strength returned to my chest. I stumbled into a run to catch up with Lucas, my pokemon around me.

The tiny guardian of Lake Verity was restricted to dodging, her psychic powers nullified. Mars's luxray leaped at her, jaws snapping in midair.

The grunts in the room tensed when we entered; Mars turned. "Well, what have we here?" she said teasingly. "A lovey-dovey couple to the rescue?"

My face heated. We're not… He and Dawn… I don't even…

"It's a shame you won't be able to save the Lake Guardian," Mars said. "Purugly!"

Prom noticed first and dove behind us, putting up a Protect between us and the lunging purugly. Def swiped at Mars's porygon-Z, who flitted out of reach and blasted a thunderbolt at Lucas's golduck.

Chaos broke out. Galactic pokemon bombarded us from every direction; we were too clumped together to do anything but defend ourselves. In the corner of my vision, I saw lightning flash.

"Faith, go get the psychic blocker!" I shouted.

But Mesprit had already fallen to the ground, and Mars was kneeling over her. A flash of red across the cave – Mesprit floated, limp as a puppet, eyes glowing crimson.

Terror seeped bloodlike into every part of me, drenching my limbs and my head and my chest. I turned to Lucas, and his eyes met mine in the direct, open way I'd missed for so long. At last, I thought. Too late.

I had rewound the clock to give him a second chance, and in the end fate would take him anyways.

The nausea and fear and grief swelled into a feeling beyond any one. I buried my head in my hands as an ocean of panic bloomed and swallowed me whole.

"Evelyn."

"Evelyn, we're here."

A warm pair of arms circled me; something soft pressed against my leg. I tried to steady my breathing – my pokemon, my pokemon needed me–

"We've got you."

"Spruce."

I took my face out of my hands. Prom had surrounded the seven of us in a blue protect bubble. My pokemon had all gathered around me.

I am not in this alone.

My racing heart started to calm a little. Trust released me from his embrace, but kept a hand on my shoulder. As my mind returned, I surveyed the scene. Lucas was gone, and so were his pokemon… or, no, actually, I think I was gone, and my pokemon were gone. That is, we were all here, but "here" did not mean Lake Verity anymore.

Through the navy barrier, across the cave, stood Saturn and a floating, red-eyed Azelf. Saturn was screaming into a headset.

"What do you mean you can't find a trainer and six pokemon? They were just here!"

There was the Red Chain gem overlaid onto the organic gem on Azelf's forehead. A glove on Saturn's right hand. Three grunts in the room. All my pokemon in a bubble with me. Never mind why this had happened; we could figure that out once the Being of Willpower wasn't being mind controlled.

"Okay guys. Here's the plan."

Prom took down the shield but stayed in front. Coeur guarded the tunnel behind us. Hope perched on Faith's head for visibility; Trust and Def remained by me.

"You seem frustrated," I called to Saturn, my voice bouncing off the cave walls. "Didn't you see this coming?"

Saturn glared and opened his mouth to speak, but stopped. His face settled into a satisfied smirk.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "We have already achieved our goals here. At the end of the day, what's one trainer who escapes undefeated? Galactic wins today."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I guess it doesn't matter. We'll see you when it's time to break the Lake Trio out, anyways."

Saturn froze. His completely still expression masked the war inside him – to escape with the present spoils, or eliminate the future threat? In the end, his pride and his desire for complete victory won out. He jabbed at his poketch, then gestured forward with a gloved hand.

"Azelf! Defeat them!"

Prom and Coeur threw up shields before Azelf's eyes flashed red. Def was already gone; he reappeared behind Saturn and yanked the glove off his hand with psychic, pinning it to the rock wall before shattering the gem with his elbow.

A sigh of relief left my chest. That's how this should have gone.

The red light in Azelf's eyes flickered and dropped, revealing his natural gold eyes. Saturn's pale face turned visibly gray. "Grunts!" he yelled into his headset, fumbling for his poketch. "Return to the cave!"

Azelf swooped over to our side of the cave. I heard a sort of gratitude in my head, despite telepathy being blocked again. I reached over and removed the artificial crystal from his head. It came off easily; I think whatever had been holding it there had weakened when the glove was wrecked.

The grunts inside the cave threw pokeballs. Prom let down the shield in front of us, but Coeur kept the one in back. Def and Faith and Hope darted forward into the fray, quickly taking out golbats and bronzors.

"You can fight, too," I said to Trust. "I'll be okay."

He didn't leave my side. "I will, but only if I have to."

The two grunts didn't last long against my pokemon. The tunnel behind us started to fill with grunts arriving as backup, but Coeur's protect held them off. Saturn threw out five pokemon at once – his toxicroak, magmortar, bronzong, golbat, and rhyperior.

Fire and electricity lit up the dark cave to near-daylight. Hope perched behind Def, firing off shockwaves at the golbat and staying safe behind Def's non-psychic shields. Faith darted around underground, confusing Toxicroak and putting the magmortar to sleep. Prom easily knocked out Rhyperior with his dual water advantage, moving on to the magmortar without hesitation.

"Prom, I can't hold it!" I heard Coeur say. The purple aura shield protecting us from the grunts in the tunnel was cracking under the blows of their pokemon.

Prom made a sharp right turn and returned to us. He put up a navy blue shield over Coeur's, reinforcing the barrier.

"Will you be okay?" Trust asked me.

"Of course," I said, understanding what he meant to do.

Trust leaped into the fray, blasting Saturn's bronzong with fire. The giant steel type fell to the ground with a deep bell tone. Golbat was also down, thanks to Hope's sniping abilities.

At some point, Saturn jabbed a button on his poketch. "Retreat!" he hollered into his headset.

"Sir, we can join the fight–" I heard a grunt faintly through the shield.

"Do not question orders!" Saturn snarled. "Return to headquarters!"

His kadabra appeared suddenly, and as soon as Saturn had recalled his last pokemon, they were gone. The grunts behind us worried out loud – "What do we do now?" – "We can take her–" – but ultimately they followed the one who said, "You heard the commander's orders. Head out." The two grunts still in the cave were teleported out by an abra and a porygon.

And then we were alone. My pokemon gathered around. "Everyone okay?" I asked, dropping my backpack from my shoulders. "Any healing needed?"

There were a few scrapes, but nothing my medicine and Def's life dew couldn't handle. Coeur scanned the area outside the cave – it seemed the grunts truly had retreated. Azelf swooped around happily.

I called Looker. "Azelf is safe. Saturn's retreated from Valor."

"Valor?"

"Thomas and I got swapped. He's at Verity."

"How?"

"I don't…" I stopped and looked at Azelf. "Was it you?" I asked him.

In my head, through an azure blue channel that was neither telepathy nor aura comms – but was decidedly pokemon language – I heard a yes-and-no. I heard the memory of an outburst of desperation, a conversation with someone else, and a collective decision.

"Azelf and Mesprit swapped us," I said. "Our teams too."

Looker made a noise that sounded like pain. "I so badly want to know more, but if Valor is safe, then you should head up to Acuity. I'll lurk around Valor to make sure Saturn stays away."

"Are the boys okay at Verity?"

"I haven't heard from them."

I exhaled. "Okay." Glancing at Azelf, I said, "You wanna… come with us to Acuity? Or at least help us get there?"

Azelf smiled benevolently, but my team and I didn't disappear. I sighed.

"Okay, we'll figure out the rules another time," I said. To my pokemon, I added, "Well done on round one, guys… or, I guess round 1.5? But anyways, thank you for your support. I'm feeling much better now. I don't know if that'll change at Acuity or not, but given how this went, I think we'll be okay."

With that, I hung up, withdrew everyone but Def, said goodbye to the Lake Guardian who'd chosen me, and teleported north to the third lake.

We arrived in a full-on blizzard. Coeur searched for signs of life through the snow.

"There's a lot of pokemon underground, but I think Dawn and Jupiter are still at the center of the lake," she informed me.

Def was able to teleport me closer, which meant Uxie had already been defeated and taken by the Red Chain (the psychic block was down). Coeur showed me the inside of the cave – Dawn and her team were fighting Uxie, Jupiter's whole team, and the teams of several grunts. It looked rough – twice within a span of two seconds, Dawn dodged attacks meant for her, specifically.

"Def, the glove."

Def vanished from my side. I watched through the cave wall as Jupiter's noxious purple figure had the glove whipped off her hand, then shattered against the wall. A perfect execution.

I heard a distant yell from the direction of the cave mouth. Def teleported me in, and I let my pokemon out to join the fray. Prom ran to Dawn and put up a shield around them.

"You okay?" I asked her.

She nodded. Her lip was bloody and her weight was centered on one leg. "I'm all right. Good timing."

Jupiter was screaming obscenities at us. She hadn't reactivated the psychic blocker, so Uxie had already annihilated the golbats and croagunks in the room. Def teleported between Dawn's pokemon, healing wherever he could.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jupiter's sneasel lunge at my face. I whipped an arm up to block him – something cold and harsh slid across my forearm, taking a second to turn into pain. An aura sphere shot across the room, and Sneasel (no longer Jirra, although the two were functionally the same) diverted his attention towards fighting Coeur.

By the time Jupiter came to her senses and turned the psychic block back on, half of Galactic's pokemon were down (most of them were weak to psychic, after all). Coeur had finished off Jupiter's sneasel, and Hope and Trust had nearly taken down her skuntank.

"Skuntank, poison smokescreen!"

Skuntank released a grayish-violet mix of gases that flooded the cave. "Nobody breathe!" I shouted out loud, recalling Prom and shielding Dawn myself.

Smoke surrounded us as we held our breath. A flicker of purple enveloped us – Coeur had put up a shield. There was a scraping sound to our right, the sound of running, and then silence.

The clouds settled, revealing a cave with just our own pokemon – and Uxie – still there. Everyone was still standing.

Dawn and I let our held breaths loose at once. "Your arm," she said.

I glanced down – a pair of angry red gashes were leaking blood down my wrist. The wound had started throbbing at some point.

It would have been you, if not me, I thought.

I threw my good arm around her. "I'm glad you're okay," I said into her shoulder, voice turning thick suddenly. I hadn't realized til now, as the fears melted away, just how much I'd worried about Dawn making it through.

Dawn hugged me back. "I mean, I wish I'd been able to take care of myself," she laughed. "Thanks, though. I don't mean to be ungrateful. I am glad you came."

I shook my head, letting go of her. "You had it much worse than me. Saturn sent his grunts out to look for Thomas, so he was basically alone."

She looked confused. "Thomas?"

"Yeah, he– Oh."

I explained what had happened while also dialing Looker. "Update?" he said through my poketch.

"Acuity is clear."

"Oh, good." There was noticeable relief in Looker's voice. "Verity just called. Galactic is still present, but Mesprit's been freed."

Dawn and I high fived.

"Do you need us to come support?" I asked him.

"If you're up to it, yes."

So Dawn and I collected and healed our pokemon and teleported out to Lake Verity. It was more of a cleanup than anything – a few grunts hadn't yet retreated, and there were some wild pokemon to save from the rubble. Fighting outside was much less panic-inducing than fighting within the cave.

Thomas and Lucas finished up their fight against Mars, who'd had near-endless backup and stronger determination than her co-admins. In the end, though, she fled the scene. Both boys were alive and well. The wrong one was avoiding eye contact with me.

Maybe it seemed too easy. Looker did keep an eye on the other two lakes, just in case anyone returned. And we were on high alert for the rest of the day and through the night, and Galactic didn't show up. It all seemed kind of suspicious.

But we'd been prepared, and we'd outplayed them strategically, and we knew about the gloves and Red Chain and what could happen from last time, and besides, it hadn't really gone overwhelmingly in our favor, had it? This was our second try. Attempt one went horribly.

All in all, we'd stay on our guard, but this was a victory we deserved.

Now to deal with everything else.