Interceptor's Wish

by Masterdude21

What started as a young man's search for his abducted mother spirals out of control. Soon, he is fighting a desperate war for survival against greater odds than a more generous God would have allowed. The enemy is everywhere and allies are far too few. With the entire region at stake, who can prevail when fate itself seems set against you? - Novelization of Pokemon Rejuvenation.

42. Guardian's Heart

AN: Mistake on my part in Chapter 34; when Will and Geara fought together, I accidentally wrote "lips" when I should have written "ribs". Big difference when it comes to sticking a knife somewhere. I went ahead and fixed that, but yeesh.

With that out of the way, this is Chapter 42, Guardian's Heart, or "Odessa's Wild Ride".

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Chapter 10– Stopped In Our Tracks

Guardian's Heart

~~~~~~~(I)~~~~~~~

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I screwed up

Will reconsidered.

I really screwed up.

Much more accurate.

Went to Goldenleaf Town to talk to Narcissa about Geara. Stupid idea. She wasn't home, so I visited her Gym. She wasn't there either. What was there, was this pink, floaty Pokemon that emerged from a mirror. It wanted me to follow, so I did. Somehow I ended up in Narcissa's bedroom. Walked straight through her mirror (doesn't count as teleporting! :( ) and the Pokemon was there. It kinda resembled Dranna the Mewtwo, but smaller, pinker. I think it was Mew? It led me to the castle up north.

Everything kinda went to hell there.

In hindsight, ignoring the blood-colored letters of "KEEP OUT KEEP OUT KEEP OUT KEEP OUT KEEP OUT" on the Lost Castle's sign hadn't been his most brilliant idea.

But else was I supposed to do? Mew led me inside. Had to file away the stuff I read in some of those books in their own folder. Griselda, Tiempa and Spacea. Bad stuff. Solved the puzzle, recited the details and the ghosts led me through. Almost as if they WANTED me to pass through.

Will recalled the humanoid spectre he'd faced. The spitting image of Narcissa, but…off. Different. She'd been clad in garbs that wouldn't be out of place in the decadent court of an executioner king. Long, bloodsoaked sleeves, a black form-fitting dress…an actual black, smokey diadem had rested atop her head.

Can't get her expression out of my mind. Cold. All authority. Judgement. So many Ghost Pokemon. No respite. No rest. No mercy. Guardian Spectre Narcissa would have killed me if I had lost that battle, I know that with clinical certainty.

I miss Mightyena. I miss Houndoom.

I didn't know. Mew led me to that bubble at the castle's zenith. Surging with energy. Something was trying to escape.

I just wanted to help.

It calls itself Dufaux. Mew was never there. This thing tricked me. I took the bait hook, line and sinker.

Dufaux was the one who killed Narcissa's Chandelure and now, it's free.

…Narcissa doesn't hold me completely accountable. She created the trials as a barrier. The bubble wouldn't have held Dufaux forever, she said. Only a matter of time, she said.

I accidentally set a demon? Ghost? SOMETHING that calls itself Dufaux loose. Narcissa has sprung into action to deal with the matter. I am going to clean up this mess. Seems only right. Another mess I've caused by myself.

Satisfied that he'd summed up the enormity of his screw-up, Will slammed his journal shut and placed it back in his backpack. He had work to do.

Mere hours after his screw-up in Goldenleaf, Erick had called. Something in his generator complex was causing immense power fluctuations. His people had gone in to investigate, reported that an army of ghostly Electric-types had invaded the generator rooms to suck up all the electricity and then promptly went silent. Since Erick himself wasn't present to deal with it, he'd called in his companion-buddy.

If this was Narcissa's demon, it really hadn't been kidding when it said it was going to gather enough power to destroy her.

No time to inform Melia or Venam. Besides; he'd caused this mess. If things got dangerous, it was only right he was the one to take the heat.

Time to head out. "Narcissa!" He called out a minute later, knocking on her front door. "Narcissa, I have a lead!"

But Narcissa didn't respond.

"Narcissa, I think we found him! He's in West Gearen!" Will continued. "Let's get him!"

Still nothing.

Will spat a curse. "Fine," he grumbled. "I'll go hunting by myself."

Hunting by himself involved flying back towards Erick's complex with Pidgeot. He wasn't sure where Narcissa had disappeared to in such a short window of time, but knowing her, she was likely hatching some sort of enigmatic, brilliant plan to combat Dufaux.

Dufaux.

That thing wasn't a Pokemon. The image of Mew…had that been an actual illusion? One that others could have seen as well? Or had Dufaux somehow transplanted images into his mind?

Will didn't mind having to face illusions. He could find a way to handle those. But hallucinations…if Dufaux could make him see things, that meant it could worm its way into his mind.

Kirlia handed him the knife.

If he went his entire life without ever suffering another person inside of his mind, it would be too soon. At least he had a powerful Psychic-type to help ward off any unwelcome intruders in his head…

Though the flight to West Gearen was as peaceful as they came, Will's mind kept playing back the events that led him to that castle. It wasn't bad enough that he'd released the monster that Narcissa's Chandelure had given its life to defeat - the same Chandelure he'd narrowly managed to ward off back in Amethyst Cave - but the stuff he'd read in there about Spacea and Tiempa didn't inspire much confidence, either.

Griselda. That was the name from the crypt below Goldenleaf. Was this a part of history after the Garufan civilization? If so, how were those Space Idiots still around now?

"Stupid thing to ask," he muttered to himself. Obviously those women had a limited control over reality, since they had traveled forwards into time - from their perspective - frozen said time and then taken Melia back into time - from Melia's perspective, but also from their perspective, but not the same way - before doing the same thing with Kanon but then opposite, throwing him forwards in time from both their perspectives.

It made perfect sense.

Sometime later, when he reached West Gearen again, one of Erick's head researchers was waiting for him at the entrance. "Ah, there you are, Will! It it good to meet you. I'm Gabriel, I believe we met before?"

"Hi Gabriel," Will said, shaking the man's hand. "What's the situation?"

"Better if I show you," Gabriel said grimly. He opened the door again and took Will inside…

…where the Power Plant's entire lobby had descended into chaos and anarchy. People ran to and fro, running and taking shelter from strange, glowing Pokemon that resembled the mythical Rotom. Papers flew through the rooms as people tried to whack the blue creatures with anything from their laptops to their briefcases.

"Get these things off of meeee!" The clerk shrieked as two particularly brazen creatures flew around her head.

"Oh dear," Gabriel sighed.

That earned him the undivided attention of the two Rotom, as they stopped laughing at the clerk's misery and turned their unwelcome attention towards him instead.

"Looks like t-they want to cause trouble," Gabriel stammered. "But I won't let them!"

The two Pokemon shot towards Gabriel, zipping around his body as if looking for something.

"Why are they surrounding me?" Gabriel cried out.

Then, to Will's absolute and utter horror, the two Rotom and Gabriel disappeared together in a flash of light. They'd…they'd teleported him.

You have got to be freaking kidding me! He thought.

Mere seconds later, a furious Gabriel stormed back inside through the main entrance. "Those nasty pranksters!" He spat. "If they catch us they'll send us back out the Power Plant! If we travel together, it will give them an easier time to catch us. You go on ahead and I'll wait here until things clear up!"

"What do you suggest I do?" Will said.

"How familiar are you with the main principles of stealth?" Gabriel said with the utmost seriousness.

Not ten minutes later Will, a newly-dubbed master of stealth, slowly closed the door to the west wing behind him and began creeping through its dark halls.

The entire west wing of the Power Plant - the part containing the generator rooms and all the sophisticated engineering that would have gotten Saki all giddy - was infested with these blue Rotom. Their forms emitted bright bursts of light, casting long, foreboding shadows all around. There was little way but straight ahead, and already one of those things was in his way.

Will stopped moving. Like Gabriel had suggested, he took a closer look at the Rotom, trying to discern a pattern in its seemingly-random movements.

It didn't take him long to realize that these things didn't move randomly at all. There was a regularity to the way it fluttered around, as if the intelligence driving it couldn't be bothered to have it actually patrol around. The Rotom snapped around in bursts of ninety degrees each time, like a needle on a compass that only knew of the existence of the four points.

Maybe that was the thing? Electricity, magnetism, something something compass?

Will didn't know. All he knew was that his compass had more than four points and he was going to exploit the hell out of that.

As the Rotom rotated towards the north again, Will quietly snuck past the little guy, tip-toeing around the Pokemon as quietly as he could. The faint humming of the flickering lights and the steady vibrations of the Power Plant's immense machines masked the creaking of his shoes and the rustling of his clothes, and Will made it past the Rotom without getting another unwelcome teleportation session.

He made it into the relevant room, the one with six Electrodes working overtime to absorb the huge energy fluctuations coming from the generator. It had plenty of bookshelves, tables and screens to work with, but there were plenty of Rotom patrolling the room as well, which meant that he had to get more creative in his approach.

Will reached into his pocket, grabbing a handful of the silvery coins Gabriel had given him. He hid himself behind one of the bookshelves, put his back to it and then slowly peeked around the edge with his right eye.

Two of the things were right there, patrolling in regular intervals that saw them overlapping each other's section. No way he would be sneaking past them, unless…

Smiling to himself, Will flicked one of the coins overhead, towards the section with the Electrodes.

The coin clipped the upper part of his bookshelf and clattered noisily to the ground again, half a meter away from his feet.

Seriously - !

One of the Rotom made an alarmed noise and began fluttering towards him.

"Crap," Will whispered. Nowhere else to go than up…

When the Rotom rounded the corner with an alarmed noise, it only spotted the little coin lying on the ground. What if failed to notice was the human who had awkwardly and painfully scurried up atop the bookshelf, lying flat atop its surface and quietly wishing he'd thought of a clever plan that didn't bank on him having depth perception.

Slowly, he reached into his pocket again. He took another coin between his index and middle finger, slowly eased it out of his pocket and flung it in an arc across the room.

The Rotom made another sound of alarm and zipped off.

Will sighed in relief, waited until the other Rotom had focused its attention towards the west, then eased himself down the bookshelf and hurried through the second entrance.

This was the generator room itself, lined with row after row of massive, advanced turbines. At one of the complexes with three pairs of Raichu working overtime to keep the plant from blowing up or something, Will spotted him.

Dufaux.

There it was. It looked more like a Froslass than anything, with the head of a Rotom slapped on top of it. A dark, icy blue body and a tattered cloak further contrasted it from the usual Froslass line.

"Do my blurry eyes deceive me?" Dufaux said as Will stepped into the generator room. "Is that them?"

Something about Dufaux's voice was off. Will heard multiple voices talking at the same time. Vaguely, he could discern a girl, an older girl and something with an inhuman growl.

Dufaux turned its - her? - hateful glare towards him. "Yes, yes…What are you doing here?" She hissed. "What's the point in following me? Leave now, or a terrible fate shall befall you!"

"You're going back in that bubble," Will said.

"Foolish boy! Leave at once, or you shall pay horribly!"

Hasty footsteps echoed through the chamber before Gabriel came sprinting inside. He'd made it after all. "L-Listen here demon! You need to leave this place immediately! Your body is generating too much electricity! If this continues, this place will explode!"

"Perhaps that may happen," Dufaux said quietly. "But I care not. All I need is to regenerate the energy I've lost after all these years."

Gabriel scanned the room with wary eyes. "W-Wait! Where are my colleagues?!"

The creature gave him a toothy grin. "You mean the other people here? Hm…I'm very sorry…I just couldn't help myself! They were too tasty!"

"T-Tasty?" Gabriel repeated.

"I drained their life force!" Dufaux cackled. "And left them for dead! They should be feeling really lethargic somewhere in this factory. And you two will share the same fate!"

Lethargic? Left for dead? Was that the horrible fate Dufaux had in mind? That was basically Venam after a day of hard work.

Yet Gabriel had gasped as if Dufaux had just threatened to murder his entire family. "How dare - ! Will, you're going to have to fight this thing! If not, West Gearen - no, the entire region will be without power!"

Will had figured as much already. He squared off against Dufaux, who watched his movements with an almost child-like interest, and -

"You fools! Don't even think about it!" A stern, female voice rang out.

Startled, Will and Gabriel glanced back at the entrance to the complex.

It was Narcissa. Her Chandelure was by her side.

"I can't allow this to continue," she solemnly spoke, striding towards Dufaux in a way that reminded Will very much of the spectre he'd seen in that castle. "Just what do you think you're doing?" She demanded of Will. "You have no idea what this thing is capable of."

"I'm sorry, who is this now?" Gabriel murmured.

"Tch, tch, tch…Narcissa, you just don't know when to give up!" Dufaux sneered in that flanged voice of hers.

"The same could be said about you too, you horrible creature," Narcissa coldly replied. "Everyone, stand back. Let me take care of this."

The two guys quickly backed away from the scene, realizing that things were about to get violent,

"Chandelure! Let's go!" Narcissa ordered.

What happened next wasn't so much a fight as it was a vicious beatdown. Together with Chandelure, Narcissa rained down blow after blow on Dufaux, moving with a speed and grace that seemed befitting for an actress of her calibre.

Dufaux didn't even fight back. It howled in fury and pain as Chandelure struck it time and time again. It became very obvious to Will that, had Narcissa truly wanted to win that Gym Battle all these weeks back, she would have laid him out in no time at all.

"What is the matter? Can't keep up?" Narcissa taunted in a cold voice.

"I'm…still far too weak…I cannot continue like this…" Dufaux said.

"You've made the mistake of underestimating me," Narcissa told her. "I've been training all these years. I've become the trainer I've always dreamed of becoming. Now that I'm at my prime, I can destroy you once and for all!"

"Prime…" Dufaux muttered. "I see…if that's the case then I'll just have to bring you back to your novice self!"

"What?" Narcissa said.

Dufaux laughed. It was a horrible, grinding noise, and the echoes of the little girl laughing lasted far longer than that of the demon. "Time for the 'ol switcheroo!"

A flash of green light, an echo of something massive screeching. Will thought he saw the air around Narcissa grow blurry and vague. The outlines of multiple people came into view and disappeared just as quickly. When it faded away, it wasn't the Narcissa he knew who stood there.

No, in her place stood a girl who couldn't have been much older than him. The girl looked around with wide, uncertain eyes. That uncertainty turned into outrage and terror when she saw Dufaux.

Was this…Narcissa? A younger Narcissa?

Well. Fuck.

Again, Dufaux laughed. "This suits you more! We must part ways now, but we'll meet again. That, I'm sure of!"

With that, the demon teleported away.

Chandelure made a noise that sounded like equal parts annoyance, equal parts sadness, and then it turned its ghostly eyes to its…its trainer?

"I'm sorry, but I'm very confused," Gabriel said, staring at the teenage Narcissa.

"Gabriel, I'm never not confused," Will replied.

Scowling, young Narcissa turned an angry look their way. "Not anymore confused than me, pal. Where am I? I was just having a nice bowl of pumpkin soup and all of a sudden I'm here."

"What's your name?" Gabriel asked.

"It's Narcissa," the girl said. "I'm from Goldenleaf Town."

"Narcissa!" The man exclaimed. "How is that possible? Wait! Perhaps what that being said can be applied here."

"A novice," Will grimly said,

Gabriel nodded. "Could it be that you're Narcissa from a previous time?"

Narcissa gave the man a very sceptical look. "You mean I traveled across time? That's…uh…" Her expression fell. "That's not possible. It can't be possible!"

"That's the only explanation. Tell me, do you recognize that Chandelure?" Gabriel continued.

Narcissa turned to look at her ghostly companion. "I can't say that I do. I do have a Chandelure just like this one, though."

Uh…uh-oh.

"My Chandelure's flames are much brighter, though," Narcissa continued a bit smugly.

Her expression hit poor Chandelure like a Dark-type attack.

"I think you hurt its feelings…" Gabriel said.

With a very sad noise, Chandelure faded away.

"I don't care if I hurt its feelings!" Narcissa exclaimed in sudden fury. "What's going to happen to me?! I can't be in another time, that's insane! I…I need time…time to think for myself!"

Narcissa stormed off again, leaving behind two thoroughly confused men and, Will suspected, one heartbroken Pokemon.

"This is all taking a unique turn," Gabriel muttered.

"I'm going after her," Will decided.

"Right! I have a feeling that thing will come back, so if I get news on its location, I'll send you a note!" Gabriel yelled after him.

"Thanks!"

Narcissa hadn't gone very far when he caught up to her again. She was standing right outside the Power Plant, gazing out across the skyline of West Gearen City.

"Narcissa, wait!" Will urged her.

"This…is the future?" The girl stammered in disbelief. "This can't be. Everything's so…dark and gloomy…why is this happening to me? What did I do to deserve this?"

Will approached the poor girl. "Hey, come on, let's take things easy - "

She whirled on him with fury. "What am I supposed to do now? This…this is all your fault!"

No arguing there. "I know, Narcissa, I know. Look, we can make things right. We - "

"I have…I have to find Goldenleaf Town!" She yelled.

"Okay," Will said, holding his hands up in a placating gesture, holding Narcissa's tight glare all the while. "I just flew here from Goldenleaf. I can take you back there."

"Are you crazy? I don't even know who you are!" Narcissa snapped.

Which meant that, retroactively, older Narcissa had already known Will for decades before he ever wandered into Goldenleaf with Aelita. Was he literally shaping her history here, as he talked, or was everything already put into stone? Did history know what he'd told Narcissa or was he changing the future by messing with the past?

Freaking time travel. It was almost as bad as teleporting.

"You knew that this was my fault regardless," Will said, taking deep, steadying breaths. "Narcissa, you do know me. You know that I'm here to help."

"I…that thing, it…" With a furious groan, Narcissa shook her head. "I don't get it! Who are you!? What's going on here?"

"I'm Will," he said, mulling over what he could and couldn't reveal. "I'm friends with the adult you. I'm here to help."

"Lot of help you were," she muttered.

He decided to ignore that. "Look…I agree. Let's get back to Goldenleaf, I can show you where you live - "

"I know where I live!" She snapped.

"And I can prove that you can trust me," Will continued. "Unless you want to walk all the way to Goldenleaf?"

Judging by the look on her face, she was considering doing just that. "How do I know you're not some creep? Or worse, in cahoots with that weird thing?"

"If I were in cahoots, it wouldn't have fled. We could have just handled you then and there," Will replied. "You're a trainer, right? If I do anything untrustworthy, you can just shove me off Pidgeot."

"...fine," Narcissa grumbled. "But no funny business! I'll have you know that I'm a very strong trainer!"

"I don't doubt that for a moment," he said. "Come on."

Fortunately for Will, somewhere during their journey back to Goldenleaf, Narcissa decided for herself that she didn't have to distrust him. She began pelting him with questions. What year was it? What was that blue demon thing? Why had it swapped her and old Narcissa around? How old was old Narcissa? Did "The Lady in Red" ever get a sequel?

Will wasn't able to answer the most important questions - he'd never seen Lady in Red after all - but he tried to give her a coherent picture of the present without actually telling her anything crucial. If this Narcissa ended up back in her own time, knowledge of certain events could prove disastrous. He had to be really careful with what he actually told her.

"Wait, is that Goldenleaf there?" Narcissa cried out when they came within range of her hometown again. "That's not Goldenleaf Town!"

"Ah, shoot, I accidentally brought us to Goldentown Leaf!" Will yelled over the wind.

Narcissa was not amused. "You must think you are so funny. No! This place is better than Goldento - argh! Just drop me off in front of my house!"

He did. Pidgeot performed admirably as always. Narcissa hopped off and made a break for her home. "The Goldenleaf Town I'm familiar with is just an empty lot with a few houses," she explained. "This place looks so developed! I guess I really am in the future." She rummaged around with the front door. "Which means that no one here knows who I am. I'm just a regular trainer wandering around. This sign says "my" house. I'm excited to see where this goes."

They headed inside. There, little Narcissa took a moment to appreciate the interior designer skills of big Narcissa. "Wow…I've done pretty well for myself, haven't I?" She nodded with appreciation. "I mean, that's to be expected," she added with a little smirk. "I am a star, after all. A star that always burns brightest! Never fading, never waning~!"

Uh…great?

"I wonder how grandiose my room is?" Narcissa continued. "I bet it's exquisite."

"I haven't actually been inside of your room," Will admitted.

"Well, then you're welcome to come along, too. I bet you're just dying to see what my room looks like," Narcissa replied.

Spoken like a true star…

Nevertheless, at least Narcissa didn't think he was a random creep anymore, so…yay.

He followed her upstairs, towards the locked door to her bedroom.

"My door has a pin lock on it?" Narcissa exclaimed. "How elaborate and wonderful!" To the clueless Will, she explained, "It's a metaphor, I just know it. For a closed heart! My heart is in this room somewhere! Hopefully I have the pin to this door somewhere in my heart, too…" She gasped. "I bet I know the code. It's a code I basically use for everything. I have no clue as to why, but it's a number that's stuck with me for a long time. Let's punch the numbers in…three…nine…eight…four."

The lock clicked open.

"That's it! That should do it!" Narcissa breathed. "Delightful. I knew it would work." She paused, then reconsidered. "I really should tell myself to pick other combinations."

Without further ado, Narcissa headed into her room, keeping the door open long enough for Will to follow.

For such a well-known star, Narcissa's room was suspiciously austere. Will didn't spot any decorations or posters, nor any other memoranda from her time as an actress.

"Yes, this would definitely be a room I would use," Narcissa said as she scanned the bedroom. "Good to know that I still have delightful tastes in furniture and appliances. But also…there's gotta be something spicy about me somewhere in here."

"Something spicy?"

"Something interesting about me," Narcissa continued shamelessly. "Don't worry, you may go through my things as well. Technically, I am giving you permission to do so. Not sure if older me would appreciate it, but she can't get mad at herself, so hah!"

Will wasn't sure about that. Narcissa struck him as the type who would give her younger self more than just a verbal smackdown if it came down to it. He could think of at least three moments where he would have given himself a good wallop if he could.

…was that an old journal he spotted?

As young Narcissa began ransacking her old…new…her room, Will decided to give that journal a peek.

It had a photo attached to the first page. A whole bunch of people gathered in front of the theatre. There, he saw Narcissa standing in the very same dress and diadem her guardian spirit had worn when she confronted him. That blond man next to her would be…what was his name again? Sirius. Sirius. Geara's father.

He hadn't even begun talking to Narcissa about Geara.

"Huh? What's that?" Narcissa asked. She shuffled over to him and glanced over his shoulder. "Ah, is that a photograph? How marvelous – Shall I take a look at it?"

At least someone was eager…

He moved over so that Narcissa could get a closer look at the picture.

"That woman with the purple hair must be me! I'm absolutely beautiful," Narcissa beamed. She picked up the photo and held it up in the air. "Oh? Looks like there's writing on the back of the image. The Wispy Tower family. Huh…the Wispy Tower family…My, I must say…this photograph is quite interesting. I would like to know more about it."

Will started talking, trying to tell Narcissa that she really didn't want to know, but he stopped himself before he could speak more than a few words. If he told her that, she would likely put two and two together herself.

"Do you not agree this is a dream, then?" A very enthusiastic Narcissa asked of him. She studied him with those bright, sparkling eyes of hers. "Um…I suppose I'm not supposed to know all of this yet."

Will shook his head.

"And I'm not supposed to be here," Narcissa continued on a more subdued note. "I love the new Goldenlead Town, but…I need to go back home, too. My people need a leader! If I am not there, who will lead them?"

"...the older you, I suppose?" Will said.

"Semantics!" Narcissa cried out. She sighed. "Will…your name was Will, right? Yeah? Would you accompany me to Phasial Cave? That is where I first awoke after the Calamity. Perhaps we can find something there."

Phasial Cave. An underground network sprawling throughout Route Three. Narcissa knew the way, and heading out there was simply a matter of following her towards one of the more seclusive entrances and then making their way down.

Once there, however…

"This way," Narcissa told him as they made their way down a hewn stone staircase. The stones down there on that level were completely different. It was like he stepped into a world of black and white monochrome. As Narcissa chatted away about old Goldenleaf Town, Will trailed a pattern of odd symbols across a starch white rock, watching the glittering symbols take on an almost crystalline hue. The rocks seemed to emit a faint illumination on their own.

"This is the place!" Narcissa gasped. "This is exactly it! It was dark…and cold…" She wrapped her arms around her chest, shivering. "It feels like nothing's changed since that day. It's further up here, now. Come."

"The Calamity?" He said, hurrying to follow along.

"I thought this place was the same, but there is indeed something different after all," she muttered. It didn't seem like she'd heard him. He followed her into a new chamber. It was a corridor of sorts, just barely rough enough to seem like a natural formation. It was easily ten meters tall, large enough for a Legendary to stride through and large enough for Team Xen to build another one of their labs inside.

"My stuff is gone," Narcissa said after a few minutes of carefully searching the cave. "But I supposed the older me did it. And in turn, there's nothing to be done here."

"So this is it?" Will said, frustrated. "A dead end?"

Narcissa cast him a tired look. "Will, before the Calamity…I can't remember any of it."

Will felt his heartrate spike at that. "Memory loss?"

"That's a common trait people had back then," Narcissa told him. "A result of trauma, perhaps? That being said, mine felt different than the others. A lot of people who do eventually remember do so without…complications."

Will swallowed a lump in his throat. "Complications?"

"I suffer from headaches whenever I try to dabble in that sort of thing," Narcissa explained. "I've seen doctors and specialists about this condition, but no one can diagnose me with anything."

Memory loss then? Could it be that Narcissa had dealt with Indriad Theolia in the past, too? But…he rarely had any headaches. When he did, it was usually because the situation was a mindscrew in general.

The Calamity left people with memory loss too? That had to be significant.

"So why me?" Narcissa wondered. "Why am I the only one experiencing this…"

…he didn't know. He just didn't know enough about the Calamity.

Storm-9.

Memory loss, then?

"How…troublesome," Narcissa sighed. "Will, do forgive me, but I wish to stay here in the meantime. But I have a request. Please find my older self. Wherever she may be."

That would be the past. Time to find another timesplicer crystal, then.

"Perhaps…she's already remembered everything," Narcissa replied. "If you happen to come across her, please make your way back here."

"There's nothing else I can do?" Will replied.

"I believe my older self has the missing piece to this puzzle," Narcissa said. "Together, we could find a way to send me home. I'm sure of it." She gave him a weak smile. "Don't concern yourself with me, Will. Some mysteries require time to solve."

"...I caused this," he said. "I will set this right, Narcissa."

"I have no doubts you shall," Narcissa said. "In the meantime, I shall be taking care of things here, I suppose."

With a heavy heart, Will left Narcissa alone in Phasial Cave.

Dufaux…what was that thing, really? What was it after? Narcissa must have been ridiculously powerful to be able to literally seal away a demon like that. And those trials she had placed, the many Ghost-type Pokemon who had casually followed their orders with ruthless efficiency…

Why hadn't she destroyed Dufaux? Clearly, as she was today, Narcissa was powerful enough to do so. She could have gotten another strong leader involved to aid her. She could have asked Keta, before Team Xen got their claws in his soul. She could have even asked him. He would have gladly helped.

He didn't get it. Likely, he didn't have enough information to be able to get it. Young Narcissa hadn't experienced any of this yet and old Narcissa was keeping a lot of details to herself. That was her right, of course, but that made handling this situation very tricky.

Nothing else he could do about it. He would find and take care of Dufaux whenever she showed herself again. Until then, he had one more thing he needed to ascertain before he could leave Terajuma behind.

He'd accidentally set free one monster. Now, he needed to make sure that someone else hadn't done the same thing. Time to visit Kristiline Town one more time.

The flight back to Terajuma from Goldenleaf was one of the longer ones, but it was all the same to Pidgeot. He flew with a practiced ease, allowing the wind to carry him for large stretches, only having to beat his majestic wings occasionally to maintain his altitude.

After ninety minutes of flight and a quick pit stop on a small atoll to eat, drink and warm up again, Kristiline Town came into view.

No storm surrounding it.

No blizzard warding off unwelcome visitors. Things looked fine from a distance. Nevertheless, looks could be deceiving, and he needed to be sure.

As far as he could see, Kristiline Town wasn't some iced-over frozen hellscape. It was a bit colder than the other population centers on Terajuma, but all things considered, things looked peaceful and quiet enough. Angie would be certain to herald her return with as much fanfare, drama and fireworks…iceworks as possible.

All was well.

As Will wandered the town, his patrol took him past that estate at the top of the waterfall. If he remembered correctly, a pair of rangers had fought for their lives right at this place's doorsteps.

An uneasy-looking man with short, black hair and suspicious eyes stood in the building's front yard, eying the various people wandering by. He saw Will looking and something in the man's body snapped to attention upon recognizing him.

"You there!" The man commanded. "You are the one who saved us from Angie! Hrn…yes, you will do. Come closer! I have a proposition for you!"

Will wasn't a fan of the way the man ordered him around. "Can I help you?"

"I've been looking for someone to escort the Princess out and about Kristiline," the man quickly explained. His eyes narrowed with even more suspicion. "You do know about the Princess, don't you?"

"Princess?" Will asked. He hadn't even known Kristiline had a princess.

"Bah!" The man spat. "No one your age remembers anymore!"

Will really didn't think the man should take that personally.

"My family is royalty! We have been the caretakers of the oceans for millennia! My daughter is set to become Queen after her sister abandoned us!" The man clenched his jaw, as if the mere act of talking about this sister set his blood on fire. "I can go on all day about our culture, but that's not what this is about. My daughter has been locked in for so long after being taken prisoner by Angie. I need someone to watch her as she takes a walk around town."

Will could imagine that leaving a young princess unattended wouldn't fill her father with joy. He still needed to inspect this town for any signs of Angie's return, so what was the harm in taking a princess along for the patrol? It could be fun. "Sure."

"Ah, excellent!" The man said. "Show her around. Talk to her. The whole works. You will do this?"

"I will."

"Very well! Then I shall introduce you to her! Follow me inside, young man. Wipe your feet. Leave your shoes on the mat over there. Do not forget to bow to the statue of the Prince of the Sea! It is he who saw us through these tumultuous times. No, not like that. When was the last time you bowed? Regardless! Continue to follow me!"

Finally, the Princess's father took him to a large, regal room in the back of the mansion. A series of paper-thin partitions divided the outer layer of the room from the center. Wasn't that what walls were for? Had to be some royal design he was too plebian to understand…

Will passed the statue of what he was certain was a Manaphy, then waited patiently as the water shoved open one of those partitions to reveal a young woman in an elegant blue dress sitting with her back to the entrance. She did not stir as her father opened her sanctum, though she did raise her head somewhat. Her long, long pink hair cascaded down her back in a loosely tied tail, reaching well past her hips.

With the utmost gravitas, the man gestured at the young woman and said, "I present to you, the maiden of Kristiline Town…Princess Odessa!"

Princess Odessa rose to her feet, casting a complicated expression her father's way. She was absolutely beautiful. Stunning in a regal manner that Will hadn't been prepared for. Princess Odessa wasn't just a girl born with a royal title, she was royalty. Everything about her screamed grace and elegance and…

Except for her eyes, Will noted. Something about those bright, sapphire eyes were dull. They reminded him of Keta's.

"Father, you mustn't carry on like this," Odessa spoke with a prim and proper tone. She even had her hands folded in front of her. Like a servant. "Our lineage, while royal, has faded into history just as we all do one day. But nevertheless…" She turned her stern expression his way. Her eyes, like many before her, lingered on his left eye for a moment. "Welcome, famous Will. The savior of Kristiline Town. Are you the one who will be escorting me around town today?"

Right. How did royalty work again? Manners. Royalty appreciated manners. He'd already taken off his shoes, so he was presenting a scarred, flabbergasted picture on socks. Perfect. Did he…man, Melia would know. What he wouldn't give for someone to whisper wisdom into his ear. Was he supposed to take Odessa's hand and kiss it? Was he meant to bow? Bowing to a living, breathing princess made more sense than bowing to a statue.

"But of course!" Her father supplied instead. "There's no one else fit to do the job."

Odessa looked him over, her eyes critical. "I see…I have been shut in for so long, Will. Angie has caused us great stress and anxiety. But now she is gone…as you have thwarted her."

Temporarily. It was the entire reason he was there, actually.

"If it is no issue, would you please protect me as I stroll on about Kristiline Town?" She asked.

Something about her choice of words bothered him.

No, it wasn't her words. It was the way she uttered them. Dull. Emotionless. Lifeless.

"They have already accepted, my dear Princess," her father said, as if he couldn't even see his daughter's unhappiness.

My dear Princess…

Will could imagine Jenner doting on his girl, affectionately calling Melia his princess as he took her Hapi on their first trip to GDC. Tesla put more love into a casual "good morning" than this man did when calling his daughter his deer princess. It was like it was just her title to him and nothing else. "The rest is up to you."

"Very well then." Odessa inclined her head towards him. "Shall we depart at once?"

"Of course," Will said. He smiled, in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. "Odessa? Let's - "

"Princess Odessa!" The man hissed at him, his eyes blazing like Will had just insulted his entire family lineage and then stolen his shoes.

Much to his surprise, he caught Odessa flicking her eyes upwards in annoyance. It happened so fast that he barely had the time to process it before she had her usual, reserved and dull expression on her face again, but he'd seen it nonetheless.

"Let us depart, Will," Odessa said. With another small bow, this time to her father, she vacated her room. Will hurried after her, took a moment to put his shoes back on and then held the door open for her.

Unlike a certain Stormchaser, Odessa did appreciate that, as she gave him a stiff, if thankful nod.

Once outside though, things changed.

"Hi, Will? I am so sorry for all that formality stuff. It's such a drag," Odessa said, her tone completely different from the formal, regal one she'd used before. "It's true that our blood holds royalty. But we hold about as much political power as a stray Tynamo in Chargestone Cave. That is, none."

"Does your father know that?" Will asked.

The corners of her mouth rose in the ghost of a smile. "The people of Kristiline behave as if we are of high standing lineage. So please do well to keep me safe, and I will do the same for you."

Will couldn't imagine how Odessa would keep him safe out here. She didn't have any Pokemon on her and she didn't strike him as the warrior kind of princess. Nevertheless, it was the thought that counted, and he always appreciated it when someone said they wished to keep him safe. "We'll be fine. You could say I have some experience with protecting princesses," he quipped.

Odessa regarded him with a serious expression. "Quite? Have you safeguarded royalty before?"

"Okay, they weren't actual royalty," Will replied. "It was more of a manner of speaking. My closest friends are girls, and I have been fighting tooth and nail to keep them safe from our various enemies, so…"

He let his voice drift off tactfully to make his point; he knew how to fight, he had some experience doing so, and at times Venam was more of a princess than Odessa could ever hope to be. Which was a compliment to Odessa, but she didn't have to know that.

"So?" Odessa said, looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to finish.

"So I will stop at nothing to keep you safe as well," Will said.

"Ah." Odessa nodded in understanding. "I see. Shall we?"

She reached her hand out.

Will stared at it for a moment. Did she…want to hold his hand?

"Will you not escort me properly?" Odessa then asked.

The coin dropped. "Right, sorry." He looped his arm around hers and Odessa stepped closer towards him, almost standing pressed to his side. "Oh, before I forget!" He then said. He swiftly pulled out Froslass' Pokeball and sent her out.

Odessa gasped, but Will reached out and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "It's okay," he told her. "Don't be scared. This is Froslass. You could see her as my guardian angel. Froslass, say hi to Odessa?"

Froslass brought her masked face closer towards Odessa, who seemed to shrink somewhat as the Ice-type peered at her face.

"I need you to keep an eye out," Will said. "Odessa and I are going to escort each other around the island. Angie's murdermaids could be nearby, or some leftover Xen element."

"I'm sorry, Angie's who?" Odessa questioned. "A Xen element? Do you mean the crime organization?"

Whatever Froslass was looking for, she didn't find it. She faded away without any further antics, turning intangible and invisible.

"That's a long story," Will said. "And not at all pleasant. I'm not sure - "

"Please," Odessa said, putting more force into her voice. "All I hear around the estate are pleasantries. This island can be so dreadfully boring. Please. If you have stories…indulge me."

Will did. He told her about their assault in Kristiline Island, explaining in vivid detail about their plan of attack and the strange way Angie's Servants had behaved. Their disregard for pain, suffering and injuries, their single-minded devotion to obeying Angie's every whim and their cold, empty eyes.

"I believe they're not human, not really," Will continued as they leisurely strolled across the island, following the northern ridge along the coast. "Angie made them, somehow. Dolls, or effigies, or something."

"These maids…they tried to take your life? And those of your friends?" Odessa asked.

He nodded.

"Did thinking them inhuman make it easier to fight them? Easier to take their lives in defense?"

Her question was genuine to the point of disarming, and it took Will by surprise. Had he hesitated when faced with those things when compared to the likes of Team Xen? Had Aelita or Adam? The abuse Aelita alone had heaped on one of those maids could have killed any normal human.

"I think it did," he admitted. "Knowing that they weren't human meant we didn't have to hold back. Not holding back meant doing everything in our power to get our loved ones out alive."

Odessa looked at him. "Why was it that you came to Kristiline Town? You are not from here. You are not even from Terajuma."

"I'm not," Will said, surprised that Odessa was able to see that at a glance. "How did you - ?"

"Then why?" She urged him. "Your tale speaks of suffering. Why did you and your friends seek that out?"

"...Angie had something we needed," Will found himself admitting. "When she attacked Kakori Village, she proved to be too dangerous, as well. So we had to stop her."

"Would you have left her be if she had not? If she had not possessed what you sought, would you have left Kristiline Town alone?" Odessa asked. There was no judgement in her voice as far as Will could tell - which admittedly wasn't far at all - just naked curiosity. She genuinely wanted to know.

"No," Will said without hesitation. "We would have sought her out eventually. It's just…we had more pressing matters to attend to."

Odessa was quiet for a few moments. A flock of Beautifly fluttered overhead. Will craned his head up to stare at them. Not quite Butterflies of Fate. Hard to imagine that was how everything had started.

"You mentioned protecting your princesses," Odessa then said. "Am I right to assume that this more pressing matter was the threat you were protecting them from?"

He'd expected her to get upset that he had deemed rescuing Kristiline less important than protecting the people he loved. Odessa was insightful. Far more insightful than he'd expected. "It was," he replied. "They ah, I mentioned they weren't actually princesses, right?"

"You did," Odessa said solemnly. "But you were the one who made the connection. I am merely following suit." A beat. "How did this start? How did you and yours come to Terajuma to fight a battle not your own? What drove you to seek out Angie and put yourself in mortal peril?" She inched a smidge closer, eyes shining with curiosity as she looked up at him. "What could possibly be more urgent than the life-threatening danger Angie and her Servants put you all through?"

"...I think it started with Melia," Will said.

"Melia?"

"When I came to this region a few months ago, the ship that carried me got attacked and then sunk. The people who did it called themselves Team Xen."

"The criminal organization? The Xen Initiative?" Odessa asked.

Criminal organization…it was only now that he knew how naive that was. How naive they'd all been. At best, Team Xen was a terrorist organization with the work ethics of a death cult. At worst…at worst, Team Xen was an organization filled with people who had nothing to lose but everything to gain. People who genuinely believed they were doing right. "Yeah. I narrowly escaped and washed ashore on East Gearen City with a name, a trainer card and a dream."

The joke came as easily as breathing, an expression of his subconscious desire to distance himself from the facts, he suspected. That dream had been to find his mother. These days, the shadows of her loss left only nightmares behind.

"Melia was my first friend," Will continued, choosing to leave Ren out of this story entirely. "She and Venam, the Poison-type Gym Leader and her childhood friend, helped me back on my feet. They took me in. They didn't have to. But they became my friends. The next day, Team Xen came for Melia. They wanted to abduct her, and were ready to burn and kill everything in their path. I objected."

"You protected Melia against them?" Odessa asked, wincing as the wind picked up.

Everything changed that day. His decision to go against Team Xen for Melia's sake had led him to Nim, to Aelita, to Akuwa Town and then Terajuma. It had led him to Angie, to Valor Mountain and eventually, the mysterious Stormchasers organized by the sisters Tiempa and Spacea. "Of course I did. With a handful of Pokemon and some quick thinking, I managed to keep her safe."

"The very next day after you escaped your enemy, you defied them for the sake of a girl," Odessa said thoughtfully. "If you had failed, would they have killed you?"

"In a heartbeat," Will said, and the ease with which he admitted that part surprised him. When had the prospect of facing death become something he discussed so easily? Like talking about the weather? "But I got her out."

Odessa remained silent for a few moments. They crossed a wooden bridge and the woman standing there spotted them. She did a double take, her eyes widening with recognition. "Princess Odessa?! It's a pleasure to see you again! It feels like it's been decades since you've been out!"

Something like annoyance flickered across Odessa's eyes. When she spoke however, her voice was pleasant and light. "Yes, it has been quite a while, hasn't it?" She responded. "Forgive me, Will and I are on a strict schedule so we must be going. But it's been nice seeing you again! Thank you for the chat!"

"...how long has it been since your last outing here?" Will asked once they were outside the woman's earshot.

"Too long," Odessa replied distantly. "Father does not let me go often."

"Why not?"

Odessa regarded him with a cold gaze. "I am the Princess of this island. It is unbecoming, he says."

"And what do you say?" Will urged her softly.

Odessa's pinkish eyebrows furrowed. She averted her eyes. "Your story, please."

His time with Amber and Venam had taught him when to push, and when to relent. His gut told him something was wrong here, but that Odessa would clam up tightly if he tried to follow that train of conversation - and she might just resent him for it. "Okay."

So instead, he began telling her about his journey so far. He left out the more volatile details, such as the actual circumstances behind Melia's faked death and Zetta's Rift Pokemon. He also didn't tell her about the relation between Keta and Aelita, nor did he tell her about the Rift Volcanion whose life he'd been forced to take. The ambush at Akuwa Town was the hardest one to explain, so he omitted it entirely, glossing over the particulars of how Team Xen had captured them.

Odessa hung onto his every word as he told her how Aelita and him had spearheaded the prisonbreak from Blacksteeple Island, together with Val, Adam and Saki. He told her about the Xen battleship and how the captain had sailed it all the way to Terajuma, leaving out every last detail of Melia's interference, Madame X's involvement and the death of his mother. There was an existing story that said Melia had only reappeared in Terajuma and he would stick to those details. If he deviated from that story, it could come back to bite him.

"It was only on Terajuma where we learned that Melia was still alive," he explained. "She was alive and the enemy kept her on Valor Mountain."

"Valor Mountain…hence, the three Trials and their Relics," Odessa mused. "Then, when you came for Angie, you did so for the Ocean Relic?"

"Very astute," Will said.

They headed down the stairs towards the docks, where Tesla's yacht had parked itself. One of the workers there saw them coming and he dropped what he was doing. "Well, looky here!" He said. "The Princess is out for a stroll! We're not worthy!" He threw his head back and uttered a long, barking laugh that left little to the imagination regarding his feelings on the matter.

Again, Will studied Odessa for a moment and again, something like emotion shone through her mask of impassiveness. A glimmer of genuine anger shone in her eyes, the type of look he'd come to associate with a deep longing for violence.

Knowing that Froslass was likely lining up a shot at that very moment, Will didn't feel very threatened. He simply tugged gently at Odessa's arm and that seemed to shake her out of it. Her expression became neutral and guarded once again, and they passed by the worker.

"Getting the Relics meant meeting Amber von Brandt, the Fire-type Gym Leader, and her mother, Tesla," Will continued.

Uncertainty etched onto Odessa's face. Her lips, tinged a delicate shade of blue with the lightest touch of lipstick, formed a straight line as she said, "I know madame Von Brandt. She is famous even outside Terajuma. One could consider her legendary, a celebrity even. Your…familiarity in speaking her name is strange."

Uh-oh.

"And you speak the same of the von Brandts as you do your prin - your Melia, Aelita and Venam," Odessa continued. "Fondly. Warmly."

Will saw no reason to lie. He was starting to realize that behind those aloof and distant eyes, Odessa hid a mind that was as sharp as a razor. She wasn't just intelligent, she was insightful. "That's right."

"Then…they helped you out on your mission?"

"Amber, Tesla's daughter, was the guardian of the Trial of Dragons. Team Xen, still operating from Mount Valor, harassed and assaulted us on every turn and front. Eventually they wound up abducting Amber, too. Tesla went to save her right before we got around to hitting Kristiline, but Team Xen captured her as well."

Odessa looked at him sharply. "The Xen Initiative managed to bring down Tesla von Brandt?" She said, her elegant brows furrowed in a mixture of concern and horror alike.

"They did," Will replied. "Which meant freeing Melia would also mean saving Amber and Tesla."

Odessa chewed on her bottom lip. She took a breath before asking, "Did you do it?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you save them?" She asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

Will wanted to offer her a reassuring smile, but he just couldn't manage. "We did."

And it showed. "What did it cost?"

Dozens of Xen Grunts dead, wounded or missing. Two lethal opponents in the form of Zetta and Geara, gone. An entire armada smashed and Giratina finally freed from Xen's clutches.

It wasn't worth losing Nim. Or Jenner. Or any of the rangers who had given their life to ensure this victory.

"Melia's father died in the process," Will said. "So did…and so did several of the rangers who helped us. Many more wounded."

Odessa looked at him with large, searching eyes. "Where is Melia now?"

"Safe, back in East Gearen."

Her endlessly curious eyes ran all over his face as the crying of wild Pokemon filled the air. "Forgive me for overstepping any boundaries, but…why are you not with her?"

Once more, Will found himself impressed with Odessa's insightfulness. He'd struggled to keep the story vague, leaving behind so many details about what they'd all gone through that he doubted anyone would have picked up how much they all meant to each other. How close they'd come to crumbling without being there for one another.

How close Melia had gotten to giving up.

Will wondered if he was that bad at hiding his affection for his friends, or if Odessa was just that sharp. As with many things, the truth was likely a mixture of both. He had referred to them as his princesses, after all. "Because we're planning our next move, and I wanted to make sure Kristiline was safe."

"Then…when my father asked you to spend your time with me…" Odessa haltingly said.

"I know," Will replied evenly. "Now I get to enjoy company instead of patrolling on my own."

For the first time since he met her, something that wanted to be a smile tugged at Odessa's mouth. It was shy and subtle and she wiped it off her expression within moments, but Will had seen it.

A nervous little smile from Princess Odessa. That was a victory in his book.

Some minutes later when they wandered past the dock, Odessa spotted Tesla's yacht. "Is that your ship docked there? I've never seen such an exquisite model before…how does it work?"

He told her.

Odessa's face lit up with surprise. "...you don't have to pilot that thing?! You just put in coordinates and it pilots itself?"

"The wonders of modern technology," he said.

She ran her eyes across the yacht, likely contemplating the possibilities. "My goodness…I've never heard of such a contraption. I mean…how could I?" She shook her head. "I've never even left the island before." On a more quiet note, she continued, "I've always been trapped here."

Trapped….

Will wasn't sure if he'd been meant to hear that. Regardless, "Do you want a ride?" He offered.

Odessa turned to look at him. Again, her eyes searched his face, but something told Will that she was looking for deceit this time. "You would do that for me?"

"You're not the first girl I've met who wanted to venture out of her home," Will offered.

"...I'm flattered, Will, but I couldn't possibly put you through the trouble. I've never left the island, like I said. Father would never let me leave. Not after…" She instantly stopped talking, as if she'd said something she really wasn't supposed to.

Will pretended not to notice. "If you don't want me telling him, I won't."

Still staring at the ship, she murmured. "That's in the past now…maybe…"

"One day has to be the first day you leave," Will said. "Might as well be today."

"One day…one day…" Odessa repeated quietly. He noticed her hands tightening into fists. "One day I will leave and never return…" She took a deep breath, seemed to realize what was happening and promptly wiped her face clean of emotions again. Her fists unclenched, and when she turned back to him, her expression was calm again. "I would like to continue, please."

They continued on their stroll. Odessa wanted to avoid the southern part of the island, citing something about bad memories. Instead, Will decided to take Odessa to the eatery, guessing that a good lunch and some relaxing would go over well.

It was around the moment that the clerk shouted, "PRINCESS ODESSA!" And everybody in the eatery turned their heads around to gawk that Will realized his mistake.

One eyebrow twitching, Odessa regarded the man with a polite bow. "Hello. You have a wonderful establishment here."

As they headed to the counter, Will made a point of glaring around the eatery's interior, making sure that everybody recognized him. He wouldn't tolerate anyone disturbing Odessa on the one day she got to leave her home.

"Please allow me to prepare a wonderful meal for you, my Princess!" The clerk continued.

"That will not be necessary," Odessa replied evenly. "We will dine like any other."

"But you are not like any other, my Princess! Allow me to show you to a secret room we keep just for wonderful guests such as yourself."

"Come on," Will said. "A cozy spot in the corner will be just fine."

"Oh, but I insist - "

"I insist harder," Will growled. He never liked having to repeat himself anyway.

The clerk swallowed a lump in his throat. "Uh, I am sure you can, Will. Then…let me show you our most best-kept corner!"

He did. And in his defense, it really was a nice corner. It had two walls and everything.

Things quieted down a bit. The people seemed to have gotten his hint to leave the Princess alone. Nobody bothered them, and it looked like Odessa noticed that, because soon she started skimming through the menu in earnest.

They ordered drinks and food. Yet, every now and then, she would stare. At his eye. Her expression was inscrutable as always, but it bothered him. He didn't like having it, didn't like how he got it and he detested what it had done to him. Unlike normal cuts and scrapes and even broken bones, the complex nature of the eye made it difficult for Pokemon to heal. Knitting together the damage in Amber's leg was one thing. Putting together all the complex tissues and components of an eye was a completely different matter. It couldn't be done, not by a non-Legendary Pokemon and Tapu Lele hadn't cared to show up again.

Just when Will was about to ask Odessa if something bothered her, she blurted out, "Does it hurt?"

"I…what?"

"The scar. Across your eye. It is my assumption that you got it in battle, correct?"

Silently, he nodded.

"It does not look old to me. It looks recent, even. Does it hurt?"

"...sometimes," Will admitted in a whisper. He took a breath. Slapped away the memory of his blood dripping on his arms as he howled in broken, burning anguish at Nim's death. He cleared his throat. "When I use too much soap to wash my face, or, you know, when I read."

"Do you like reading?" Odessa asked, going very still in her seat.

"I used to," he said.

The admission let a moment of silence fall between them. It was long enough for the waiter to bring them their stew. It looked delicious and it smelled amazing, too. Will couldn't wait to dig in.

"Do other people know you are here?" Odessa spoke up after a few minutes of silence.

Huh. Sharp though she was, Odessa likely didn't hear how ominous she made that sound. He wouldn't hold that against her; even the brightest mind needed day-to-day interaction to stay sharp. It was very likely Odessa simply hadn't talked to other people in a long while. "They know I'm busy," he replied. "We're all preparing in our own way, and they understand that sometimes, I need to suddenly go somewhere for a while."

"But they are waiting for your return?" She pressed.

"Melia and Venam are," he replied.

After that, Odessa became silent again. They ate their dinner - the chef really had made an exquisite dinner worthy of royalty - and when they went to pay their tabs, the clerk merely said that it was on the house.

Since the money he could have earned from house-sitting for Saki was still sorely missed, Will didn't complain about that one.

"That was quite delicious," Odessa politely said. "Thank you." She turned towards Will again, seeming a bit nervous all of a sudden. "Um…let's leave now, okay?" She silently bid him.

"Sure."

"Do you…do you think the people of Team Xen are still hunting you? Is that why you sent out your Froslass before?" She spoke up as they trekked towards the northern part of the island again.

Guessing that she was starting to get a bit nervous because of the sheer size of the target painted across his face, Will took another shot at easing her concerns. "I think most of their contingent on Terajuma either died, or was taken prisoner."

"So…on Terajuma…you can walk freely?" She asked.

"I can."

She nodded. "I see…"

The poor girl had to be paranoid. He couldn't blame her; he might have told her too many of the more alarming details.

"Can you…I would like to go to the Isle of Angels," Odessa then asked.

He could. He knew where it was, after all.

On their way there, he asked, "Why do they call it that?"

"Hmm?"

"The Isle of Angels?"

"Oh," Odessa said, "The Isle of Angels was named that because of the legendary sea angel Pokemon that gathers there. Every year in January we have a festival to celebrate their presence."

She said we. So at least she had that going on for her. Good!

"That's where I met…My best friend…" Odessa shyly added.

Will looked at her, silently inviting her to continue. Odessa though kept her gaze trained on the Church of Theolia and didn't see him. If she had anything else to tell him, she seemed to prefer keeping it to herself.

He could understand that. He wouldn't push.

They continued on in silence again, treading the path where all those days ago, Will had regrouped with Melia, Venam and Crawli. The entire rest of the assault force had either gotten bogged down or had dug in to keep Angie's reinforcements from pouring in after them.

Will eyed the treeline. Back then, it had been crowded with Angie's dead-eyed, soulless Servants.

"Wait one moment, Will," Odessa said, shaking him from his thoughts. "Can we go to that bridge over there?"

She pointed to the crossing towards the east, where the path to Angie's church split off across a river.

"Sure."

He took her there. Something in Odessa's eyes softened as she gazed over the well-carved, wooden bridge. She cast her gaze about slowly, with longing, and Will wondered what it was that she saw.

"This bridge…" She started, placing her hands on the wooden handguard. "It is my favorite spot in the entire world. Well…considering I have never left Kristiline…I suppose this is my entire world."

Her statement, meant to clarify what she meant, started to make things clear.

Aelita had loved Sheridan Village. She'd been surrounded by good people who loved her and wanted to care for her. She had a maternal figure in the Eldest, an actual leader and father in Keta, and a legacy she wanted to uphold.

What did Odessa have? Who did Odessa have?

"I used to come here as a child," she continued, staring off into the distance with glassy eyes. "WIth my entire family. My sister, my father, and my mother. All together. One day, my mother got up and said she needed to return to the temple beneath the sea. And with that, she disappeared. I haven't seen her since."

She spoke with a calm, measured voice, as if recalling a distant tale instead of her own life.

Will tried to imagine what it would be like, for his mother to one day get up, declare that she was going to abandon her entire family and then just…do it. Disappear without a trace. Would he resent her for that?

He could imagine doing so, yeah,

"God, Odessa - "

"We never came here after that," Odessa continued. "And our entire family became unhappy. So unhappy that my sister…" Her grip on the wood tightened. Her gaze darkened. "She's nothing but a traitor too," she softly continued. She was as still as a rock. "Just like mother. Now it's just me and my father, alone in Kristiline."

Will moved towards her, bringing his arm up to drape around her shoulders. She didn't react. She kept her gaze trained on the river, her gaze so forlorn and dull that for a moment, Will feared she was going to do something drastic.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Life has never been the same," she said after a minute of silence. Her voice was hollow. "Never…ever."

"Odessa…I really think you should take me up on that offer," Will told her. "I…I really think you shouldn't be on this island for much longer."

Slowly, she turned her head to stare at him. "...I think I would like to go back home now," she whispered.

Will dropped his gaze. He wished Melia were here. He wished Aelita were here. She'd know what to say. She would know how to help Odessa.

He made a mental note to inform Crawli about Odessa's circumstances. The Head Ranger would know the right people. And if not…Will was sure his opinion carried some weight around this place. Maybe he could be of some help, now that he was still around.

When they made it back to the mainland of Kristiline Island, Odessa uttered a weary sigh. "I suppose that will do for the day out. While short, it was satisfying and…heartfelt?"

"Odessa…"

She ignored him. "Yes, let us go with that. Thank you for your amazing story, Will. You may bring me home now."

Not knowing what else to say or do, Will obeyed. He brought Odessa back home. Before he entered, he called Froslass back again, promised her a frozen treat later and then recalled her.

Odessa's father was ecstatic to see them again."Ah! You have returned!" He said, turning a curious gaze towards Odessa.

"Yes, and it was a very relaxing and fulfilling time," Odessa droned out. "Thank you father, for looking out for me. This was definitely what I needed after being cooped up inside for so long."

Her father smiled at her, then stepped aside, silently beckoning her to return to her quarters. Odessa silently obeyed. Then, at the last moment, she hesitated.

"I…" She began.

Her father shot her a wary look. "Odessa?"

Odessa spun around and approached Will with rapid steps.

"Princess Odessa!" The man snapped at her. Will flinched at the hardness in his voice.

Odessa wrapped her arms around Will's waist and then pressed her head against his chest. Instinctively, Will brought his arms up to hug her back, and he caught her father leering at them.

"I just want to give Will a hug for what he has done for me," Odessa muttered. "And perhaps even…" She cupped his face in her hands, wrapped her slender fingers around his jaw and then gently pulled his head down. Will caught a glimpse of her eyes - far, far too haunted and pained to fit with the situation, he dimly noted - and then she pressed her lips on his forehead. "A kiss."

"Odessa!" The man howled. "This is completely out of line!"

But something was wrong. After a brief moment of dizziness and a sudden headache, Will was left staring at his own body. He saw himself as if staring into a mirror, except this wasn't a mirror, and his current body suddenly felt completely different. The center of balance. The stature. The distribution of weight, the sight - he could see! The world was big and sharp again! How -

A pair of strong hands roughly seized his right arm, digging painfully into his now-soft bicep as he got jerked back.

His body gasped. Its hand shot up towards its scarred eye.

Will didn't do that. He didn't do any of that!

"Have you completely beguiled my daughter?" Odessa's father yelled from right behind him. Will watched with mounting confusion as the man then stepped towards him, his body, got real close to his face and shouted, "How dare you! Get out! Leave my estate!"

The man then shoved his body and it stumbled back.

"GET OUT!"

He did. That was, his body did. His body hurried to leave the house and flung the door shut with enough force to cause the paintings to shake.

The man then seized him by the back of his dress - his long, elegant, feminine dress - and began dragging him back towards Odessa's room. Will struggled, but the fingers that clutched the man's wrist were slender and thin. The feet that tried to gain purchase on the ground were clad in high-heeled shoes. His body that struggled against Odessa's father was shorter, thinner, weaker.

"You always do this, Odessa! Always have to do something at the end that will piss me off!" The man sternly told him. "At this point, I think you're doing it just to get under my skin, and guess what? It's working!"

Will cocked his left fist. It was small, pale and unscarred.

It wasn't his fist.

This wasn't his body.

"Why can't you just behave for once?"

It was Odessa's dress that garbed his body. Odessa's hands that struggled against her father's grip. Odessa's hair falling in front of his eyes.

…Odessa's horrible father standing between him and freedom.

Will stared at the man. Odessa's father. The sole member of her family…and apparently, the person who had ended up ruining her life.

"Now suddenly you just have nothing to say?" The man snapped. "Very well then, Odessa. You can sit there and reflect on what you've done. I don't want you moving from that spot. Hear me, Odessa?"

Now he saw why.

Sit there and reflect on what he'd done…what he'd done?

…what had Odessa done? Not just for "her" to deserve this, but to…to swap bodies? Was that what had happened? Did the region now have a princess running amok with his body?

He couldn't stay here, he had to confront her!

The second he got to his feet, Odessa's father shot him a glare. "Odessa, I'm warning you. Don't."

Will shot the man an annoyed look and started heading out of that odd room.

"Odessa!" Her father's voice snapped out like a whip. "I won't ask you again!"

He could deal with this fallout later. Odessa knew the yacht, knew how it worked. She could get out and then -

"That's it!" Her father shouted. He stormed towards Will. "Your disobedience is unbecoming of a princess! You may be the Princess of Kristiline, but you certainly do not act like it! Maybe this will help teach you how to act properly!"

Odessa's father raised his hand in a flash. Will saw it coming. His arm was halfway up to defend himself - and he hesitated. Surely not? This was her father. Odessa's dad. He wasn't going to -

Heat exploded across his face as Odessa's dad slapped her. Him. Her.

He'd struck her.

Will was just along for the ride.

Anger exploded across his chest. Odessa's body, but his mind. His soul. He didn't have the familiarity, the relation, the love. This strange man struck him across his face and his mind screamed at him for retaliation, for escalation. Lash out. Enough abuse. Enough pain, enough violence -

But the ingrained, physical response of Odessa's body wasn't to lash out and search for a weapon. It didn't dive for the nearest chair to break it across the man's chest. Odessa's instincts didn't tell her to start pick up the heavy potted plants and throw them at his head to get some distance between them.

Odessa's body didn't even tell him to cower. It went rigid. It jerked upright. It went slack, awaiting further instructions.

Odessa obeyed. She was used to obeying.

And he was along for the ride.

~~~~~~~(1I)~~~~~~~

---

Heavens above. This body. His body. It was so much stronger than hers. Her chest rose and fell with alarming calmness and ease as she ran across the docks, faster than she had run in years. Her muscles didn't just support her, they clamored for her to go harder still, that they could take more, that they needed more. They were powerful yet flexible, the spring in her steps light, yet also capable of sudden and explosive movement.

The wind tugged at her short hair as she ran like she had never ran before. The body was built for endurance, unbound by fate. She could go anywhere, meet anyone, do anything. Freedom was within reach!

So why was his body broken?

Her legs were strong and muscular yet her right calf was stiff and painful, and every time her sole struck the ground the vibrations twinged through sore and abused muscles.

Her senses were sharp and attuned to her surroundings yet she was all but blind in one eye. Her depth perception was non-existent.

Her lungs packed so much air and could go for so much longer than she was used to yet a pang of discomfort shot through her chest with every running step she took.

What had he put his body through? No, rather, what had the world put him through?

…but this couldn't stop her. She couldn't allow it to stop her! Will…her body was intact. It was healthy. Will wasn't bound like she was. He would find a way to thrive.

She couldn't think about him. She wouldn't think about him. She could not go back. If she did…if she had to return to that…that shallow, wretched state of being…it would be her undoing. It would destroy her, now that she knew this awaited her. Now that she knew this was out there waiting for her, she couldn't ever go back.

I'm so sorry, Will, she thought as she hurried towards the yacht. But I want to live

~~~~~~~(1II)~~~~~~~

---

It was time to break out.

Unlike many of his other plans, this one called for subtlety and subterfuge. Breaking out, leveling everything in his path and leaving Odessa's father unconscious on the floor wouldn't do him much good if she was to have any chance at a better life.

No violence, no huffing and puffing and blowing up someone's house. Odessa needed something stable to return to, something better.

If only you were like your mother…

Who said something like that to their own daughter? A daughter whose mother had walked off to drown in the ocean.

It wasn't right.

Order of business for the day: break out. Easier said than done, but he still had his Pokemon. When Odessa had hugged him, she must have taken his Pokeballs and stashed them on her person. She'd seen where he had them when he sent out Froslass, after all.

After breaking out, he'd find Odessa, ask her politely to undo whatever this was supposed to be and then he'd take her back to Kristiline.

There, he'd have words with her father.

Then he would get Odessa the hell away from that man and…and…

Tesla. The girl needed a mom, Tesla was the best mom left on Aevium. She'd know what to do.

While he waited for the changing of the guard in front of Odessa's room, Will started flicking through her diary. It wasn't the nicest thing to do to a girl, but she had taken his body for a joyride and left him with an asshole. She'd find it in herself to forgive him.

He needed information, stat.

"I disobeyed my father again. He was upset with me. I told him that I didn't want to do what he thought made a good Princess…I said that I wanted to travel the world with my best friend. After words were thrown and emotions were set loose, he grabbed me and threw me in this dungeon to "reflect". So now it's just been me and my friend. Alone down here as usual. I tried to escape, but the dungeon is layered with surveillance statues. The moment I try to walk past them an alarm sounds and the guards escort me back to my quarters. I suppose this…is life now."

Holy shit.

A dungeon. Odessa's father had a dungeon for her.

If Will had a daughter, and he'd somehow lost his wife and another daughter had run away from home, he would have spent every single second he could with the girl he still had left.

…a dungeon.

He kept reading.

"My father is hell-bent on trying to bring forth out "former" glory. Once our people used to live in the ocean with our prince. We were tasked with keeping him safe. But times have changed and we have long been exiled. The Prince no longer needs our protection. Though his power still runs through our veins. It is unknown why we were exiled, but I choose to believe that it's because he didn't want to confine us anymore. Imagine, how I am now…locked away in this dungeon. That's how our people lived. Voluntarily. That's no way to live. It's not how I WANT to live."

Tossing her in a dungeon…

Madame X pulled her sword free.

Mom fell to the ground.

What was the damn point? Why make his daughter suffer like that?

Entry three.

"Why did mother have to leave us…? It's her fault that this family went to hell. Father was distraught by her leaving. He takes it out on us. I bet all this work to make us seem royal has nothing to do with actual royalty. He wants us to be like mother. Well, I guess it's no longer us anymore. When my sister ran away, it became even worse. I'm always being thrown down here. I'm put through rigorous etiquette lessons. I have no human friends. I have no one to look up to. I have no freedom. I have no mother. I have no…sister. I have no sister. It's only me. And if I don't do something I'll be here forever. I'll never see the outside world again."

Will tried to imagine a world like that. No mom, but an overbearing dad who didn't love him. No Melia. No Venam or Amber or Tesla. No friends. No Pokemon.

He'd have run away the literal second his father looked away.

But then he'd have drowned. Because he was stuck on an island and said father wouldn't even let him practice swimming, no doubt.

His groans of pain morphed into a scream of defiance as he pushed back against Mewtwo with everything he had.

Putting himself in Odessa's shoes was useless because it was far worse than he could even imagine. Odessa was a girl. She couldn't physically fight back against her dad, who was stronger and larger than she was. She couldn't run, because she had no Pokemon or friends, nobody to take her in. Where would she even run to? She'd die alone of exposure.

Entry four.

"Father says a strange woman named Angie appeared. She's terrorizing the town with abnormal power. And so I've been thrown down here again, but this time it's with my father and his workers. Laying low in shelter is one thing, but…why am I being blamed for this? Father said that if I became a noteworthy Princess then I would have been able to ward off her evil. What is that even supposed to mean?"

It meant her father would have sent her to her death. Death by impalement, if Angie didn't just turn into a frozen statue and shattered her into a million pieces.

"What am I even supposed to do? Show her how to fold napkins the proper way? May the wonderful Prince of the Sea forgive me, but…Fuck you?"

Fuck yeah.

"I'm going mad. I need to leave this island. I'll do anything. I'll do whatever I need to. Just let me leave…Please…"

Okay. That settled it. He'd find Odessa, get his body back, tell her his plan, and then take her back to this island to share his choice words with her father.

A world where parents died for their children was wrong.

A world where parents didn't allow their children to live was unacceptable.

He was getting out now.

Odessa's body didn't have much in the way of muscle strength or core stability. Physically stacking every object he could find to clamber over the walls and plop down outside of the dungeon was a challenge that would leave Odessa feeling very grumpy the next morning.

What was she even doing now with his body? She would enjoy the anonymity only to a certain extent. Every person on Terajuma knew his face. So what was her plan? Celebrate freedom and get drunk? Flee Terajuma and head somewhere else?

Odessa's smaller frame made sneaking around easier, as she was lighter and smaller than his own body. Those statues would be a problem though. Covering them up or outright destroying them was a bad call, as internal sabotage would stir up one hell of a storm.

That being said…

Will flopped down on the ground and crawled along on his stomach. He stuck to the base of those statues, where the angle of their cameras wouldn't be able to spot him.

Odessa's body wasn't built for army crawling. After just two statues, his arms burned, his lungs screamed, his knees were sore and bumpy and he was pretty sure he'd broken a nail.

It wasn't an excuse to avoid doing the dishes, then. Girls could actually, genuinely break their nails. He owed Venam an apology. Although he did end up doing those dishes by himself…

…Odessa's chest got in the way. He couldn't properly hug the ground like that.

After three more statues, he was gasping for air. Odessa needed to get out more often. Pick up swimming. Start doing the Ranger Obstacle Course. Her father was letting her waste away in here.

At least the ground was spotless. If he ran around the town with a filthy dress as well, people would start asking some very uncomfortable questions.

The long, winding corridor with its many statues was no match for Wil's superior sneaking skills. After what Gabriel had taught him, he was a certified master of stealth. Finally, after he'd passed by the final statue, he climbed back to his feet, ascended the ladder he found and emerged back into the main hall of the estate. He wasted no time fleeing out the front door, which he closed behind him very quietly.

Next came the very awkward part.

Will released Kirlia from her Pokeball. His little Psychic-type glanced around, then turned to look at him next. He didn't see a hint of confusion or puzzlement on her stoic features.

"Uh, hi," he said.

Kirlia blinked.

"It's me."

She continued staring.

"...you know it's me, right?"

Kirlia blinked again.

Right. Telepathy. Kirlia was mute, not deaf. She could probably see his thoughts and emotions just fine. Odessa's body, Will behind the wheel.

"Princess Odessa swapped our minds and now I'm stuck in her body. I need to find her, before she does something stupid with mine," he explained. "That means we have to be social and talk to people."

Kirlia heaved a sigh.

Will bend down to pat her head. "I know. It's horrible, but we have to do this."

Kirlia lowered her gaze to the ground. She looked so much like a kid who'd been told to eat their veggies that Will couldn't help but smile.

…and Odessa had been doing this without any Pokemon of her own?

He was going to fix this as soon as humanly possible.

As it turned out, being the Princess of Kristiline made it very easy to approach people. Now that he had a girl's body, he could ask himself "what would Melia and Aelita do" and then actually act out what they would do. He simply had to talk like they talked and everything would be alright.

"Hello. It is me. My Will has gotten lost. I have been told he does that a lot. I would like to find him."

'Greetings. I am looking for my escort, Will. He has wandered off and I would like to retrieve him again, at the earliest convenience."

"Good pleasantries. I have been told Will got lost around the docks and that he cannot get out again. Where did he go?"

Freaking nailed it.

"Will?" One burly sailor said, scratching underneath his saily hat. "Yeah, they just sailed off towards the resort. Nothin' out of the ordinary."

"I would like you to take me to the resort with post haste…speed…fast!"

"Wh-What?" The man sputtered. "I-I can't just do that! Especially without your father's permission!"

Who was the Princess here? Odessa or her father? "It is my decree," Will said with finality. He made a point of looking at Kirlia, who stared menacingly at the sailor. She nodded solemnly.

"D-Decree?" The sailor sputtered. "I-I can't just refuse the decree of the monarchy. O-Okay. I'll get you there faster than a Sharpedo on rollerskates!"

Now Will had never seen a Sharpedo on rollerskates, but the sailor got him back to Teila Resort relatively fast, so he had a clearer image of that now.

The air in Teila Resort was as crisp and warm and clean as ever. The sun beamed down on him with a pleasurable warmth, the sea bobbed up and down like it always did and somewhere, a desperate princess was running around with his body. Where could she have gone without a Pokemon of her own? She'd get lost in Aquamarine Cave or, or she would run into Tesla and then what? Tesla was a mom in heart and soul. Would she know that the Will standing in front of her wasn't her Will?

…and then what? Would people think he was possessed or something? That he had a heatstroke, or that he was a Ditto running amok? What would they even do when faced with a Will who wasn't Will?

Shit, he hoped Odessa knew how to Will.

A cursory search around the Resort showed him no signs of trouble or a struggle. What he did spot was Amber stepping out of the main lobby, looking sweaty and tired but very happy.

Amber would know what to do! Maybe she had seen him? She'd definitely be able to help him.

"Amber!" He said with Odessa's voice, hurrying towards the redhead.

Amber regarded him with a cold look. "Yo. Watcha want?"

"Amber, did you see my body? I mean, Will. Did you see my Will's body, which is mine?" He blurted out.

"Aye, slow down!" Amber, predictably, replied. "I can't understand what you're trying to say."

Slow down. Take a breath. Use your words. Try again.

"Amber, it's me, Will," he started anew. "Something happened, and now I'm stuck in this body. I need you to - "

Amber held up her hand, bidding him to shut up. "Listen, girly. You're not Will. Stop impersonating my friend." She levelled a rather angry glare his way, her crimson eyes promising swift violence. "Or else you're gonna get burned, got it?"

He groaned. "Amber, I'm serious, and I can prove it. Do - "

"LOOK!" Amber shouted, forcefully cutting him off. "Not only do I know that you're not Will by just looking at you, but also because Will and I just had our own mosh pit session."

The first thought going through Will's head was a satisfied found you. The second was: what the hell is a mosh pit session?

"And it was fucking awesome!" Amber grinned.

"Oookay, I'm ready to go!" A very, very familiar voice rang from behind the door. That was when his body came running out, a big grin plastered on its face.

Hello there, Odessa, Will thought.

"Oh," Odessa said upon spotting him, her expression dropping.

"How's the body, Odessa?" Will growled. His voice now lacked the usual grit and gravitas he used when pissed off, but it would have to do. "Noticed something off?"

"Listen to this, Will!" Amber said. "This girl is impersonating you! Going on about stolen identity and all that." She snorted. "How fuckin' ironic."

The hint of fear in his - her? - Odessa's eyes brought him a grim sense of satisfaction. She brought a hand towards the scarred side of his body's face, running a finger across the scarring. "Y-Yes, so very ironic indeed! Sorry ma'am. There must be some mistake here. But that's okay!"

Was that really what he sounded like? He'd thought his voice was a bit lower-pitched than that. Nevertheless…"Stop this, Odessa! I need my body back. I have shit to do."

"My name is Will, not Odessa," Odessa shamelessly continued. "Please do not call me that. A-And this isn't your body, it's mine." She swallowed nervously. "I-If you leave now, then I won't make a scene."

Amber got closer to Odessa. She narrowed her eyes at Will. "You're kinder than me, Will. Anyway, get lost!" She bit at him.

"Did you tell Amber where you got those scars?" He continued, forcing himself to ignore the rising tension in Amber's body.

His words got a rise out of Odessa, but that was nothing compared to the flame they sparked within Amber's head. She took a furious step forwards, her slender frame trembling with anger. "Who do you think you are?" She hissed. The sheer outrage in her voice made him feel a fierce sense of pride - which quickly ebbed away when he realized he was currently at the wrong end of said outrage. "I don't know where you learned my name and I don't give a crap! You have a lot of nerve talking shit about him!"

"Y-Yeah!" Odessa said. "You tell her!"

"Amber - "

"Will got those scars saving all of Terajuma!" Amber snarled. "Of all the people to talk shit to…you better get the fuck out of my sight before I knock your teeth out!"

My friend.

The viciousness and simple ease with which Amber mouthed off against a literal princess - for him - left him feeling shaken. Was she willing to risk her own lifehood on Terajuma just for him? "Amber, look - "

He started walking towards them and three steps were as far as he got before Amber moved in between the two of them, physically putting herself in front of Odessa and him. "Don't," she said in a low voice, "Take another step near him."

There was a tension in her body, a rigidity in her shoulders. Will knew with absolute certainty that, if he began approaching again, Amber would hurt the princess. She would physically assault the royalty of the island, be it with her Pokemon or even simply with her own two hands, to protect her friend.

It was almost enough to make him forget that, right now, he was the princess.

…if Melia learned about this, she was going to have a field day. She would never let him live this down. Though, if he wasn't careful right now, there was every chance that Amber wouldn't let him live at all.

"Okay," he said, slowly nodding. "Amber, you know I didn't have those scars when I came to get you from Kyogre, right?"

Amber's eyes widened. "How - "

"Stories like those spread easily," Odessa said with his voice. "Tales of heroism and bravery."

More proof that Odessa didn't understand. Heroism didn't have a thing to do with it. A drug and adrenaline-fueled mad dash for victory was more like it. Fire and desperation and violence. That there hadn't been more bloodshed or casualties was nothing short of a miracle. "I didn't have Blaziken carry you because that cost me once in the past already. Every scar carries its own story, down to the bruise on my right calf. Feels a bit stiff, doesn't it, Odessa?"

Odessa, in his body, nervously rubbed her elbow. She refused to meet his eyes.

"How did you…Will, how does she know this?" Amber said, turning her attention back to the person standing next to her. "Did…did Venam tell her?"

"Yeah, she must have!"

Will sighed. The wind picked up, blowing a whole lot of hair in front of his eyes. He brushed it out of his face. It was time to do something he really, really didn't want to do. "Then I guess Venam also told me about the first night at Tesla's home, after the Battle for Valor Mountain concluded? You know the one. Delirious, scared, puking across the floor. Do you remember how ashamed I was? How often I apologized? You suppose I told Venam about that, too? You think Venam would hurt me by telling that to a stranger?"

Which, in a way, he was now doing for her. Well, if it made Odessa uncomfortable, then all the better. She'd slip up and make mistakes.

Slowly, Amber turned to face Odessa. "Will, what the fuck?"

"A-Amber, darling, I don't know - "

"What did you just call me?" Amber hissed.

Oh.

Oooooh.

That sounded like checkmate.

Darling…stupid nickname. Who even called people that?

"Uh, just Amber?" Odessa tried. "L-Look, I was j-just trying to - "

"Will would know never to call me something as stupid as "darling"," Amber said, sounding like the penny was about to drop. "And he would definitely never share that personal crap with anyone else. So, Will, why don't you tell me precisely how you pulled me from Valor Mountain? While we're at it, why don't you tell me how you ended up beating me in our Gym match?"

Will whistled. "Amber you fucking rule."

"Damn right I do," she said. She shot him a sideways look. He flashed her a grin.

Amber grinned right back.

And Odessa took that moment to bolt. "Sorry, but I guess I'll just have to go now!" She snapped, before breaking into a full sprint across the beach.

"Wait!" Amber shouted. She began running after Odessa, but it took her only a few meters to realize that she wasn't going to catch up. "GOD!"

"...mosh pit session?" Will asked.

Sheepishly, Amber said, "Welp, this is kind of awkward for me now. I just outed that I'm a bad friend."

"Huh?"

Amber sighed and kicked at the sand. "I knew you were being way more talkative than usual. But I just chalked that up to you being more comfortable with me now that…" She sighed. "I should have been suspicious the moment you said you wanted to hang out with me alone…"

"Amber, come on," Will said. He wrapped his arms around her midsection and gently pulled her in for a hug. "You're a great friend. You put me back together, remember?"

Amber relaxed in his arms for something like a split-second before she jumped back. "Gah, dude, don't hug me with Odessa's body! It's all soft and you have boobs now! This is weird…what the hell happened!"

"Eh, long story short, I escorted the Princess of Kristiline around, she wanted to leave the island, then switched our bodies with a kiss," he explained.

"A kiss?" Amber exclaimed. "How - "

"On my forehead, chill," Will said. "How? I dunno. Magic."

Amber shook her head in disbelief. "Man…wait, does that mean I was about to hit royalty?" She winced. "Cause that would've been bad. Uh, but if you're royalty right now, that means it's not safe for you!" She snatched his hand - her grip was so hard compared to usual - and began pulling him along. "C'mon follow me."

She quickly took him to the resort. Tesla wasn't home at the moment, for which Will was very grateful. The less people caught him out and about in a girl's body, the better.

Amber pulled him into his room, sat him down on his bed and then told him to stay put. She was out the door in seconds again, rummaging around in the fridge downstairs.

…this was still super weird. He missed something very, very important down there. Having normal vision again was dope, but he knew how his body worked. He didn't have a clue about Odessa's body. Once they swapped them back, Odessa would want it to be in pristine condition. He wanted his body in an okay condition, too. How was he supposed to-?

Amber flung the door open without warning, hauling several grocery bags inside. "Okay, I fixed you up with snacks and drinks. This should hold you over for a little while." She set the bags down, then peered out the blinds covering the window. "I bet people from Kristiline are looking for you now. So it's not safe outside. Just leave this to me."

"You're leaving?" Will exclaimed.

"No!" Amber shot back. "I'm helping you, moron! You saved me from Team Xen, you saved mom from Team Xen, and I'm gonna help repay that debt. Right now." She began leaving again. "I'm gonna look for Will - er, I mean Odessa. I'll be back later with info. Don't do anything weird while I'm gone!"

"Wait!" Will said. "Wait, wait! I'm a girl's body! What if I need to go to the toilet!"

"Uh, fuck, right, uh, then you hold it in!" Amber ordered.

"For how long!"

But Amber was already out the door.

…what was he supposed to do in the meantime?

~~~~~~~(1V)~~~~~~~

---

Prince of the Sea, grant me strength…

Panting, Odessa came to an unsteady halt in an alley of Kakori Village. Pushing the limits of Will's body had allowed her to gain much-needed distance between herself and any would-be pursuers, but it had left her exhausted. Her side hurt, her legs burned.

When was the last time she had felt pain such as this? The throes of seeking her limits, the shudders of a body approaching its edge…it was glorious. It was horrifying.

How? How had Will escaped father's dungeon? Had he used his Pokemon to break out? When she pickpocketed them for his use, she had hoped he would have them keep him company while she…but he had broken out!

A part of her felt grim satisfaction at the idea of a person like Will ripping his way out of that cursed estate, ruining every component of its damnable prison. The rest of her felt dread at what was coming her way now. She had lit a flame too hot.

The amount of times people stopped her on her way to the headquarters…she had initially believed the stories about the fighting against this Team Xen to be somewhat hyperbolic, but Terajuma's rangers greeted him as if he were one of them. Even their more grizzled, frightening-looking members lit up when they saw him.

…he was not just a hero of Kristiline Town, then.

But she could not give up now! Distance, she needed distance! Yes, if she could just escape Terajuma, she could lay low and disappear. Then, she could finally travel the world with her best friend!

More frantic now, Odessa began searching Kakori Village. Being half blind was agony, and her mind struggled to translate what she saw into a coherent picture. Once she did, however, she spotted the Ranger HQ.

Will had stormed Angie's church with the leader of the Pokemon Rangers. They saw him as one of their own. Perhaps she could get help there if she asked for it? It could be worth a shot.

~~~~~~~(V)~~~~~~~

---

Once again, Amber burst into his room unannounced. "Okay, I got the scoop - "

The rest of her sentence died in her throat when she saw what he was doing. Her mouth fell open, as if she wasn't sure what to say. Then, she sprang towards him, furious. "Are you playing video games? right now?"

Will stepped away from the arcade. "Uh…maybe?"

Glaring suspiciously, Amber took a closer look at the screen. "Wait, did you beat my high score?!" She exclaimed, clutching the machine with both hands and taking an even closer look. She gasped in dismay. "You totally did! You beat my high score! What the fuck?"

"Oops?" Will said.

"It took me three weeks to get that score and I haven't even come close since!" Amber said, sounding less angry and more impressed with every word she uttered.

Not sure what else to do, Will could only look at Amber sheepishly, hoping that Odessa's puppy eyes were of the same quality as his own. They had to be, considering her face was unblemished and whole.

Amber took a look at his Princessy peepers and seemed to realize her error. "Uh, that's not important right now! I asked around and apparently you were last seen on Route Six."

The strait. An ocean littered with wrecks and bodies and blood.

"The only place that's still safe there is Valor Mountain," Amber continued on a more subdued note. "So…I'm willing to bet that you're staying there for some reason?"

"I told her about Team Xen," Will said. And somehow, Odessa must have gotten entirely the wrong message from it. That was on him. "Odessa is waiting for us, there."

"God, this prissy princess has a lot of fucking nerve doesn't she?" Amber hissed through clenched teeth. "She steals your body and then makes you jump through hoops to see her? Well, you know what I say? Let's go meet her if she's suspecting us. Still got your Pokemon?"

He nodded.

Amber grinned dangerously. "Then let's kick her ass!" She realized her mistake a second later, quickly amending, "Or…Damn, I guess it's your ass. Let's lightly pound that ass!"

Will cocked an eyebrow at that. Amber had some…interesting views on having a good time. He wasn't entirely sure if he was up for that, though. It was still his body. "Only if you're gentle…"

"Wait!" Amber gasped a second later. "That sounds really wrong!" Her face began turning the same color as her hair when she saw staring at her. "Goddamnit, you know what I mean! And don't tell Melia I said that!"

Now it was his turn to blush.

With a frustrated groan, Amber pulled at her hair and brusquely walked away. "I'm driving!" She cried. "Come!"

And drive she did.

"Rock!" Will cried out.

"I see it," Amber mumbled, throwing the wheel around and narrowly avoiding crashing the yacht.

He pointed. "Bigger rock!"

"Fuck where'd that one come from?"

Somehow, they made it across Route Six unscathed. Will didn't look at the immense damage the fighting had done, there. He tried not to see the mountain of steel that was the front bow of a capsized Xen battleship. Tried very hard not to see the exact place where he'd sent Blaziken to rip apart those speedboats, or the spot on the mountain where Crescent had shoved Sharon to her "death".

"Okay, we're finally here," Amber said as they hopped out of Tesla's yacht. "It's been a while since I've driven that thing."

Will opened his mouth.

"YES I know I could've just put it on autopilot," Amber quickly said. "But where's the fun in that?"

Okay, he couldn't argue there.

Her expression grew serious again. Her eyes flicked upwards, towards the summit. Her lips tightened. "You go on ahead. I'll make sure nobody tries to sneak up on us," she told him calmly. Warmly. "And if any creeps try it anyway, I'll burn them to nothing but ash."

Even though the circumstances were weird as hell, that didn't change the fact that he'd been lost, again, and that Amber had been there to guide him along once more. "Amber…" He met her eyes. "Thank you,"

She turned away with a little huff, but not before he saw the way her eyes glistened. "It's nothin'," she said fiercely. "Just a lookout. But…you can count on me. Cuz we're friends, right? That's what friends do?"

They were. And it was.

Slowly, with some difficulty, Will managed to turn his back to Route Six…and he stepped onto the plateau in front of Valor Mountain for the first time Tesla took him home, bleeding and broken.

It was almost surreal to be here again. It was even more surreal to step up on the Trial site and see not just himself, but also Crawli with his parents accompanying him. Holly and Rorim B, together.

Though she was destined to be the Queen of Kristiline Island, Odessa was, at her heart, a scared, hurt girl who needed help. Even with his body wrapped around her heart, it couldn't take away the things she had endured.

Even Princesses knew where to run when they needed help, it seemed. And she'd gotten the the strongest Rangers around to help her.

"Well, look who decided to join us today!" Odessa yelled when she saw him step onto the plateau. Her face twisted in a nervous kind of satisfaction and she looked over at Crawli, as if seeking confirmation. "See? I told you."

"Your Majesty," Crawli said, taking a meaningful step towards Will. His expression was solemn, but his body was tense. Ready for anything. What exactly had Odessa told him?"I'm sorry, but it's too dangerous for you out here on your own."

"You guys have this wrong," Will started.

Apparently Odessa's body just had the kind of face that people loved to interrupt, because just like Amber before her, Holly rudely interrupted. "The only thing we HAVE is a naive runaway girl who needs to be sent back home!"

Odessa screwed her eyes shut. She looked pained.

"Forgive me for saying this, but you're helpless on your own," Holly continued.

"...I'm not naive," Odessa said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Eh? I was talking to Princess Odessa, Will," Holly said, a bit confused. "We already know you're quite capable."

"After Angie, this is the weirdness where you're drawing the line?" Will said. "I pulled you out of a burning cocoon, man."

"Just give up, Princess Odessa," Odessa quickly said before Crawli could reply. "Run back to home."

"Wait…what?" Crawli murmured.

Holly lost her patience. Wearing her heaviest, scariest scowl, she angrily stopped towards Will. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," she growled.

Wordlessly, Will stepped towards her, meeting her challenge.

Before anyone could do something, admittedly, very stupid, Amber came to the rescue again. "Stop!" She shouted, running up the slope as she waved at Crawli and Holly to hold it.

"Von Brandt?!" Holly exclaimed. "Just what are you doing here?"

"That person you're standing next to isn't Will!" Amber shouted, pointing. "That's Princess Odessa!"

"What? Uh, are you feeling okay, Amber?" Crawli said.

"Enough with the games, Von Brandt!" Holly snapped. "Keep this up and we'll have you arrested!"

"Holly, come on," Will began.

"Not another word out of you, young lady!" Holly bellowed.

"But we're telling the truth!" Amber groaned. "UGH! This is so frustrating! We don't know how it happened, but at some point Will and Odessa switched bodies! Will has been trapped in her body ever since, and Odessa has been goofing around in Will's body! If you're gonna arrest anyone, arrest this bitch for identity theft!"

After a moment of stunned silence, Rorom began laughing. "Okay! I think someone needs a little siesta, noh?"

Odessa crossed her arms. "The games you two are playing? It's really amusing!" She said, smirking. Did he really look like that when he smirked? "But you guys are trying too hard. Really? Body switching? That's sooo….dumb."

Will wondered about letting out his Pokemon. Showing Crawli Froslass and Blaziken after the shit they'd been through at Angie's hands would be enough to convince him, wouldn't it? Then again, they might see him grabbing his Pokeballs as a sign of aggression. If things escalated to violence, he might never get this chance again.

"And just look at your faces!" Odessa continued, her smirk growing into a grin. "You can't take something like that seriously!"

A grin, yes, but it wasn't. It had something manic. Something desperate. It didn't even look all that out of place on his expression. This was Odessa, at the apex of her freedom, surrounded by "friends" who could protect her from her father. Protect her from her duties, her loneliness.

Protect her from her fate.

And she was about to lose it all.

"Aww, and Odessa looks like she's about to tear up!" She yelled. "So let's wrap this up and get on with our lives, yes?"

The desperation in her voice was painful to hear.

He wasn't the only one to hear it. "Alright, let me put it this way, then," Amber said, her expression thoughtful. She put a finger to her lips, then cocked an eyebrow at Crawli. "You two went through some heavy shit with Team Xen and Angie, right? Have you EVER heard Will talk like this?"

Odessa's expression fell. "Eh?"

"Who here has ever even heard Will talk this much?" Amber continued.

"...I haven't," Crawli muttered.

"You know? She has a point!" Rorim agreed.

Even Holly seemed taken aback by that. "There's no arguing against that…"

"I just thought Will was finally relaxed again, and wanted to hang out with us," Crawli laughed nervously.

Rorim put his hands on his hips in the most disapproving manner. "So the Will before us is really…"

Odessa looked around, seeing her friends suddenly grow suspicious, turning against her one by one. Will saw the moment she realized things were lost, saw the exact moment the desperation took over that sharp, intelligent mind of hers and drove her over the edge. Something in her snapped.

Desperation could do weird things to people.

"Get back!" Odessa screamed. Her right hand went into her pocket and produced a kitchen knife. Its sharp edge gleamed in the sunlight as she took several hurried paces backwards. Pale fingers plucked at her left sleeve, exposing her wrist. Holly and Crawli froze mid-sprint as Odessa pressed the edge of the knife against her - Will's - exposed wrist. "I said GET BACK!" She screamed. "Right now!"

Everybody froze at that. Even Holly, who had seen enough bad shit to last a lifetime, went rigid.

"You ruined everything, Will!" Odessa cried out, her hands trembling as she kept the edge pressed up against his exposed skin.

She was freaking out. The way her entire body shook, she might just slip by accident. Maybe it would be better if she did. A moment of distraction was all that the rangers would need to disarm and restrain her.

How long would they have to stop the bleeding if that happened? A minute? Two? Crawli could fix him. He was a trained medic.

People began talking to her. Crawli and Holly, both at once, breaking into hushed reassuring tones, telling her not to be rash, not to do anything she might regret, to put down the knife before anyone got hurt.

Will glanced at Amber. She had her hands pressed against her mouth. Her eyes were wide and horrified. She'd frozen up.

Shit.

"Odessa," he said, and though his voice was quiet, all the rangers instantly went silent when they heard him. "What's the point? What are you doing?"

"If…if I go - " She stammered.

"Come on. These are the people who stapled me back together when I was bleeding to death in the first place," he said. He took a slow step towards her. "Opening up my wrists isn't going to matter."

"If it wasn't for you, I would have escaped," she snapped. "Why couldn't you let me go?"

Quietly, Will shook his head. "You know I can't. I have princesses of my own, remember?" He offered her a weak, and hopefully reassuring smile, just like the first time. "It'll hurt you too. You don't want to feel that."

"I will hurt regardless," she said, her voice growing steady again. "What is one more?" Her fingers tightened around the hilt.

His pulse quickened. "But at the same time, you don't want others to hurt, do you?" Will said.

She stared ar him.

"Because that's not who you are," he continued, confident that he was on the right track. Every time he'd seen a hint of the true depth of her loathing and her frustration and her anger, she'd bitten it back. She'd kept it inside. She remained polite and reserved even when, at times, it had seemed like she wanted to lash out at everything around her. Her diary had all but confirmed that for him. "Even after everything your father put you through, you never hurt anyone. You could have. You didn't."

"You don't know me," she said, her expression contorting in rage.

"You could have hurt people so many times before and you never did. It's not too late," Will insisted. His next step carried him past Crawli, past Holly. "Not by a long shot."

"Will, back up, come on, don't risk it," Crawli whispered at him, his mouth barely moving.

Will ignored him. "We can change things. I can help you."

Odessa heaved a sigh. The trembling stopped. That frantic mania in her eyes dimmed. "Persistent. I guess I can see it for myself, now."

"Odessa - "

He was too close. By the time she burst into motion, the princess' slower, inexperienced body didn't do what Will wanted it to fast enough. It would likely not have helped him either way. The knife clattered to the ground as Odessa, using his own body, lunged for him. He got a closer look of his own face, twisted into angry determination, before Odessa seized him by the hem of his dress and spun him around. She flung him away from Amber, away from Crawli and Holly, with surprising strength and he staggered back. He tripped over the long garments of the dress and fell backwards.

"Heart Swap!" Odessa yelled.

Will felt the sensation of something pulling at his chest, the faintest whisper in his ear before suddenly, he found himself staring down at Odessa's fallen body. He stood where she had "parked" him, between Crawli and Holly, in-between Amber and the Princess herself.

Furious, Odessa climbed back to her feet. "I guess the tables have turned," she murmured.

"It really was her," Crawli gasped.

Will reached out to Amber. His hand found the base of her fiery ponytail. "Hey," he said. "I'm back. It's me."

"As it should be," Holly scoffed.

"You're not the only one willing to fight for what they believe in," Odessa said, something like steel braiding into her voice. She produced a Pokeball of her own. "Allow me to introduce you to a friend."

Will knew what it would be before the Pokemon materialized in front of them.

Hello, Prince of the Seas.

"What is that!" Holly said as the floating, blue-skinned Pokemon with short, stubby feet, club-like arms and a pair of long antennae. It was small, but it emanated an aura of strength and certainty. A certain air of power that said, in no uncertain terms, that this was not a regular Pokemon and that it should not be underestimated.

"This is my best friend," Manaphy. The Prince of the Sea." The certainty in Odessa's voice brought calmness. Calmness brought serenity. They could not solve this with words. They would have to fight. "After my sister left me, I've been alone. Manaphy appeared one day and wanted to be my friend…" Odessa wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. "All those days locked up in a dungeon…all those days kept away from the outside world…" Her expression twisted into naked fury. "I would've gone MAD if it weren't for Manaphy…so that's why…that's why we're going to escape." She inhaled sharply. Gathered courage for what would be, in her eyes, her last fight. The one that would determine her fate. "Manaphy and I are going to see the world together and NO ONE can stop us!" She shouted. "Take Heart!"

"Amber!" Will snapped. "Amber, I need you!"

Her words jostled her out of her daze. She gasped, while something like a bright light erupted from the base of Manaphy's antennae. Holly. Crawli and Rorim stiffened. Then, their bodies went slack. One by one, they turned to face Amber and Will, their eyes dull, empty and distant.

"Wh-What's going on?" Amber snapped, still trembling.

"You see, Manaphy has the ability to control hearts," Odessa explained as she antsily paced back and forth. "With Heart Swap, it can switch the heart and soul of living things. But we've been practicing a new method recently…using Manaphy's entire self, Manaphy can control hearts. It puts a strain on poor Manaphy, so we don't like using it unless we absolutely have to." She shot Will another forlorn look. "Your friends are now my puppets to play with. You are not going to stop me. Will!"

"Get Crawli," Will muttered to Amber. "I'll handle the rest."

"R-Right!" Amber stammered. "Right. You handle Holly and Rorim!"

They came at Amber and him together, three skilled Pokemon Trainers. Behind them, Odessa, with control over their hearts and souls, had them send out their Pokemon to simply overwhelm the two of them.

Before, he'd reasoned that Odessa didn't fully understand why he fought. Maybe now, that she'd gotten this desperate, this frantic, that had changed.

But there was still a line between knowing why to fight, and knowing how to fight.

She had control over their hearts and souls. Or rather, Manaphy did. But whatever it was that drove Rorim, Holly and Crawli, it didn't seem like Manaphy could get its antennae wrapped around that.

Amber's Magmortar and Will's Blaziken paired up together. Holly and Rorim were forced to counter with Bellossom and Excavelier. A difficult matchup even if their hearts were fully into it.

As it was, with Will not being able to afford holding back and Amber clearly too shaken to even think about holding back, it wasn't so much a matter of defending against three hostile trainers as it was clearing the way to get to Manaphy.

The Prince of the Seas he might be. However, just like Odessa herself, all royalty needed their guards. Will had defied the embodiment of the sea itself already.

With Blaziken and Amber's Pokemon wrecking shop, Will sent out Froslass. Within seconds, the trial grounds erupted in elemental violence as Manaphy called several pillars of water to itself to defend against the barrage of Shadow Balls coming its way. Thousands of liters of water snaked through the air in seconds and the ghostly orbs smashed into them, producing thick geysers of steam.

Froslass flew up into the air and blasted Manaphy with another Shadow Ball, but her projectiles simply didn't have the force to smash their way through those walls of water.

Water Pulses erupted from one of the watery pillars. Fast-moving circles of water blasted at incredible velocity.

Knowing that he couldn't match that output of waterpower, Will eyed Manaphy's tiny body protected behind several crisscrossing, overlapping swirls of water and went for a different approach. "Froslass, freeze the water around Manaphy! Just like with Kyogre!"

Froslass emitted a shockwave of immensely cold air, which snap-froze the Water Pulses in mid-air and turned them into a storm of frozen shrapnel instead. Shards of ice buffeted the Pokemon fighting there, which turned into a bigger problem for the likes of the rangers, since most of their Pokemon didn't exactly appreciate the sudden hail coming down on their heads.

"M-Mana!" The Manaphy cried out in surprise. It shifted its attention, directing those it had taken over with its powers to seek cover. In doing so, it didn't realize Froslass wasn't stopping at freezing its weapons.

Her absolute authority over ice bled through Manaphy's defenses. The outer layers of its protective bubble began freezing solid.

With a flicker of its power, Manaphy shattered the semi-frozen sphere of water, shed the frozen fragments and began pulling more water from the strait to renew its offensive.

Again, Froslass began spreading her frigid cold across Manaphy's protective layer of water. An endless game of tug-of-war that would last until one party ran out of energy. Manaphy was the Prince of the Sea. Chances were, it knew how to pace itself better than Froslass did.

But that wasn't the only area it was fighting its battles. In controlling the rangers, Manaphy was expending a large amount of energy just keeping them on its side. Odessa had admitted that doing so put a large strain on Manaphy.

"Amber!" Will shouted. "Don't knock them out yet!"

"What?" Amber yelled back. "Did you lose your mind? Again?"

"Manaphy's bleeding energy keeping them fighting! We have to keep the pressure up! Keep attacking the rangers, but start attacking Manaphy too!"

Amber's Magmortar blasted Crawli's Golisopod with a jet of flames, forcing the hulking Bug-type back again.

"Fine! Alright Toxtricity, you're up!"

It was the strangest thing, escalating a battle by broadening the front and reducing the intensity. Fighting a defensive and offensive battle was something he'd started to get a better grip on these days, but it was still as massive undertaking.

Together, Amber and him began juggling their attacks, combining their efforts to put as much pressure on Manaphy while also forcing it to expend a considerable effort keeping his mind-controlled rangers around. Manaphy even pulled Crawli back towards Odessa, as if expecting she'd need a bodyguard to physically protect her.

Will wasn't going to go that far, but damn if Manaphy didn't make them work for it,

A constant barrage of flames erupted into large clouds of steam whenever they struck Manaphy's protective walls of water. Will recalled Blaziken and sent out Fraxure instead, banking on the innate resilience of the Dragon-type to thrive better against Manaphy's own assault. Amber's Aevium Toxtricity picked up the slack, putting an immense amount of pressure on the ranger squad while also providing covering fire for Fraxure.

As they paired up to methodically slice and blast away at Manaphy, Froslass began freezing the water around her starting at the pier. She began intercepting the torrents of water that Manaphy called to itself, freezing them as they surged upwards every time Manaphy tried to resupply itself with more water.

Slowly but steadily, the protective sphere of water around the Prince of the Sea grew smaller.

"Now Tox! Use Fever Pitch!" Amber shouted.

"Fraxure, Dragon Rage!" Will joined in.

There was a flash as the orb of draconic power split the air and then detonated against Manaphy's defenses in an explosion of blue light. At the same time, Amber's ace Pokemon struck the Prince with her signature move and the resulting blast of heat and energy that washed over Manaphy, blasting apart its final layer of defenses.

"No!" Odessa said.

"Froslass!" Will yelled.

This was the moment she'd been waiting for. With impeccable timing, Froslass spun away from the frozen winterscape she'd created and flung a Shadow Ball Manaphy's way. Before the Prince of the Sea could react, the orb of ghostly energy slammed into its body and flung it to the ground.

M-Mana!" The Pokemon cried out. It rose from the ground with a weak, unsteady flutter, then nearly fell again.

"M-Manaphy!" Odessa gasped.

Will heard the faintest echo of glass breaking. Wind rustled through his hair as Crawli, Holly and Rorim all sagged, then promptly straightened and scattered again, putting some distance between themselves and Manaphy.

"Hey, we're free!" Crawli yelled at Will.

Even in times like these, Rorim found the time to dance. He did a pirouette, jabbed his finger in the air and said, "Honey, I feel like myself again! It's good to be back!"

"Your majesty, you're in a lot of trouble," Holly snapped at Odessa, who only had eyes for her hurt and struggling friend.

"What the fuck!" Amber shouted. "You little bitch, I'll - "

Before she could storm towards the fallen Prince and Princess and do something everybody would regret, Will reached out and snatched her wrist in a vice grip. When she leveled a furious look his way, Will leaned in closer and whispered, "Her mom's dead. Her father is abusive."

She pursed her lips in a show of thought. "Goddamnit," she hissed.

"I suppose…this has gone far enough anyways," Odessa spoke up. "I pushed Manaphy too far. All for my selfish wishes. I knew it was suffering and…" Her expression twisted into agony as she struggled with the words. "I still let it fight."

"Mana, Mana!" Manaphy said, as if in protest.

Odessa turned away. "Manaphy and I…we didn't mean to cause this much trouble." Odessa said. Will wasn't sure if something in her voice was breaking, or if she was managing to salvage it. "We just wanted to be free, that's all."

Will wanted to tell her that it was okay, that nothing irreparable had been done, that she had a right to be free. He couldn't muster the words, couldn't put them together in a meaningful way. Something in his mind was disconnected from his words and he didn't have them.

That meant a moment of silence fell as Odessa recalled Manaphy. Then…"We'll be returning home now."

Holly, without context, without the knowledge to know why Odessa did what she did, merely scoffed and said, "And do you just expect us to believe that?"

Odessa closed her eyes. "All I have is my word, and I understand I tarnished my integrity already with all of this. If being free means that Manaphy will get hurt again like this, then…I don't think freedom is worth it for me."

"Let Will and I take her home then," Amber said. "We'll make sure she's safe."

Will glanced her way. The way she spat that last word…what was she planning?

"Alright, I trust you guys," Crawli sighed. "Please make sure the princess gets home safe. "

"Yeah, leave it to us."

Odessa moved towards him with the air of someone mustering the dignity of facing their own demise. That forlorn look in her eyes…it wasn't right with him. It wasn't right at all.

It wasn't so much the phases of a plan that fell together in his mind as a series of actions he would undertake. Nothing to analyze for chances of success, just the certainty of knowing that this was something he would do.

They returned to the yacht. As Amber went nuts driving them back to Kristiline, nobody spoke. Odessa had holded her hands together and kept her eyes cast downwards at the floor. She didn't cry. He almost would have preferred she did.

"Well," Amber broke the silence as she docked the yacht. "Now you're home again, princess. You caused Will a lot of trouble today. What the f-freak were you thinking, trying to bluff your way out of that situation like you did?"

Odessa didn't immediately respond. She stared into the distance, her expression back to being unreadable. "I know I'm in no position to ask for favors, but can we visit my favorite spot before I return home?" She asked quietly. She looked at him. "Will should know the one?"

"I do," he said. "We can."

"Alright, I guess we can make one stop," Amber sighed. "But no funny business!"

"No funny business," Odessa promised.

No funny business.

They returned to the bridge near Angie's church. As they walked, Will tried to find a way to tell Odessa what he was planning to do, but he couldn't. He wasn't even sure what it was he would do. Obviously Odessa loved her father too much to simply break out together with Manaphy using violence. She could have used Take Heart on him, and nobody would have ever known. She could have used Manaphy's significant power to lay waste to everything in her way and just walk away forever, but she hadn't.

If she didn't want to do that, then Will wouldn't take it upon it himself and force the matter by doing it himself. This situation called for something more subtle than that, and Will hadn't pieced that together yet.

"It is said that the source of all life comes from the water," Odessa began, leaning her arms on the bridge just like before and gazing into the river. "And that us Kristilians return to the sea, instead of the dirt. But that's a lie. We are no less human than everyone else. From dust we are born, and to dust we shall return. That's what my mother told us. Before she left us. I don't think there was anything bad with that. To be human, that is. To be just like everyone else."

Will turned a pleading look towards Amber. Help me..

"Of course there's nothing wrong with being just like everyone else," Amber spoke up.

Odessa cast her a troubled look. "That's the thing…my family isn't like everyone else. For generations, we were given the task of protecting the Prince of the Sea. My sister was next in line to become Queen of the Ocean…" Her expression tightened, becoming more guarded. "But she abandoned me with father, all for some boy. I was never supposed to be a princess." Her hands clenched into fists again."This wasn't my life." Slowly, she turned back to face the river. "When my mother left, life was hard. When my sister left, life was hell."

Amber nodded to herself.

"And when I thought life couldn't get worse, Angie took over," Odessa spat. "Everything was my fault, somehow. Kristiline fell because of me, somehow." She took a shuddering breath. "All these expectations, all these people yelling at me?!" Her voice steadily picked up until she was yelling. "I couldn't take it anymore!"

"You don't have to take it anymore," Will told her. "I've seen the dungeon. I've seen your father. Odessa I would burn that house to the ground before I abandoned you there."

"Then why!" She screamed, whirling on him with newfound fury. "Why did you bring me back? Why am I here again? Why must I suffer? I don't want this!"

Amber crossed her arms and leaned against one of the bridge's support beams much more casually than Will thought possible. "Listen toots," she said all easily, and it was enough to get both Odessa and Will to look at her. "You are the Princess of Kristiline, right? It's your right to live the way you want to. Usually when people hurt princesses, a bunch of knights in shining armor show up to do very violent things to those people."

"It's not that simple!" Odessa implored her. "I don't have the power to stop father, I don't have the people to protect me!"

Amber looked at her like Odessa had just claimed that the sky was purple. "Are you kidding me?" She laughed. "What was all that ruckus then? You are way stronger than you think Odessa. You had a shitty life and you made the move to get out of it. Not the right move, but I can respect it. And do you honestly think Will and I are here to just dump you in that shithole and leave? That's not why we're here!"

"You…you're not?" Odessa stammered.

"I said it once, I'll say it again," Will offered. "I have some experience protecting princesses."

Amber gave him that look. "You're referring to them as princesses now? Seriously?"

"Come on!" He protested. "Venam has some princess tendencies."

"You and I both know that you weren't referring to Venam," Amber accused him.

Amber was far, far too sharp with these things. "How do you know I wasn't talking about you?"

She got closer and poked him in the ribs. "As if! You'd make a horrible knight! Your armor sucked!"

"Protecting…" Odessa quietly said, slowly coming to understand what he meant. "Then…you…you still mean to…?"

"Of course," Will simply said. How could he not?

Odessa went very, very still. She stood there frozen, staring at him with that teary-eyed, forlorn look. She quivered ever so slightly, and her bluish lips trembled. Droplets of tears rolled down her cheeks. "I'm sorry," she then said, her voice cracking the second she spoke. A sob rocked her frame and then she flung herself towards him, clinging onto him like a drowning woman. "I'm sorry…I'm so, so sorry…"

Will quietly brought his arms around her. She buried her face in his shirt, more cries rocking her slender frame. He ran his hand up and down her back in gentle, broad strokes. Apologies continued to spill out of the crying princess as her grief and regret came flooding out.

"When you accompanied me…you were trying so hard…" she sniffled, her fingers digging into his shirt. "When I realized how strong you were…what you did for other people…independent and making your own calls, which worked…I wanted it. I wanted what you had…" She sobbed again. Will tried to gently pull away to get a closer look at her face, but she wasn't having it. She remained glued to him, her face hidden in a tangle of her pink hair and his shirt. "I used you. I could have…when you caught up to me I…I could have…when…"

"You wouldn't have," Will hushed her. "Manaphy wouldn't have been there for you if you'd been the type of person to do that."

A shudder rocked her breath, "I went far and beyond… and I'm sorry." She lifted her head and looked at him, her face stained with tears. "I'll make it up to you, I promise."

"We'll figure out a way for you to make things up later," Amber said right when Will was about to tell Odessa that she didn't need to make up for anything, that he'd just be happy if she swore not to do anything this drastic again. "How about you show us the way to your home now? I think we've got some things to set right."

Together, they returned to the royal grounds of Odessa's estate. There, Odessa took the lead. She strode inside with her head held high, her expression impassive and disinterested and Amber and Will at her heels.

Her father spotted them and his expression grew thunderous. He too rose to his full length, shooting an angry glare at Amber and Will before addressing his daughter. "You and Will have quite the nerve to show up here again," he said. "Princess Odessa, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Odessa took a slow breath. "I would like to say, father, that I've come back on my own accord. And thus, I shall continue my stay here under new terms."

"New turns?!" Her father snapped. "Under whose rule? Surely not your own."

"I am not my mother's replacement!" Odessa said sharply. "I will not allow you to treat me as such any longer."

The shock in her father's eyes was interesting to see. It was like he couldn't process that this was happening. "Odessa! I won't hear another disobedient word from you."

"You will," Odessa said with a steely tone.

"I won't!" Her father protested.

Odessa rounded on him with sudden fury, striding towards the man with large, purposeful steps. "You WILL because that is my DECREE!" She shouted.

Her father went pale.

Speaking softer now, Odessa continued, "I am Princess Odessa of Kristiline Town. And soon to be Queen of the Ocean! I will no longer be treated as anything lower! And by my own right to the throne, I will tell you to stand down, father! Lest I relieve you of your duties. Are we clear?"

"I…" the man stammered.

It was then that Will realized that her father had never bothered to declare himself the new ruler. He hadn't declared himself to be the new ruler nor had he usurped his late wife's position. He was committed to following the royal lineage.

Even if he disliked this, what could he do about it? He'd enjoyed absolute power before, and he had used that to groom Odessa to become the new queen. Even if he balked at the idea of Odessa now actually using the authority he had wanted her to pick up, what were his options?

None. Because he never wanted power.

Amber likely followed a different line of thinking. She had her Magmortar out in a flash. The hulking Fire-type stomped towards Odessa's father and glared down at him with malicious intent.

"She said, are we clear?" Amber snapped.

Pale and not at all looking stern anymore, the man turned to look at her. "And who are you supposed to be?" He meekly said.

Amber grinned. It wasn't a nice grin. Will nevertheless loved to see it. "We're the soon-to-be-Queen's guard. Hope that's alright with you?"

Crossing his arms over his chest, Will gave the man a pointed look. If it wasn't alright with Odessa Senior, then he better be prepared to offer a greater challenge than Angie had.

"...I understand," the man said with a small tone, deflating upon seeing the Queen's Royal Guard.

Will expected there to be some minor changes in Odessa's household in the near future.

With Odessa Senior having acquired a new decree to fulfill, Odessa took the time to personally escort her new guards without shining armor back outside.

"Turns out you didn't even need us!" Amber said, rubbing Odessa's back as she walked the Princess - Queen? Half-Queen? How did this even work now? - outside. "You handled that like a prime-time bad bitch."

Wasn't that an insult?

"Maybe I was meant to be princess after all?" Odessa mused. "Anyway, now that I am finally in control of my own life…I think I'm going to finally put my power into good use. The people of Kristiline could actually use someone to guide them."

"I'm sure you'll be fine now that things are rolling your way," Amber pointed out.

Odessa smiled. It was the first time since he'd ever seen her, and damn if she didn't have a radiant one. "I sure hope so! I'm going to try my absolute hardest to be an asset. And when I take my title as Queen of the Ocean…I'll be ready to take any obstacle!"

"Glad to hear it," Amber said. "And if not, I live literally one island away. I'll gladly set some fools on fire for you. And Will…"

The two girls turned their focus to him, next.

"Will has someone waiting for him when he leaves again," Odessa said, still smiling that genuine, happy smile.

"Yeaaah," Amber said, smirking. "He so does. We'll be on our way, then."

"Um, Amber?" Odessa said before they could walk off. "Before you and Will go…I wanted to ask…if it would be cool if the three of us hung out sometime…?" She meekly asked.

Maybe in time, they could go gaming with Odessa at Erick's place? Heck, they could take her to Club STFU or go diving from the cliffs or just go swimming!

"Hah, are you kidding me? Of course!" Amber said. "That mosh pit we were in when I thought you were Will was CRAZY! You're fun. So we're all friends. Got that?"

"Understood!" Odessa said happily. "Soon then! We'll hang out. As real friends this time. And Will!"

"Yeah?"

Odessa strode down the steps of her house, approached him and then cupped his face between her hands. "My guardian knight," she said. "Thank you for everything." She pressed a long, quiet kiss to the side of his face, right below his left eye.

Amber's jaw dropped.

Her lips came free, leaving his skin flushed and tingly. "I know your fight is not over. So go forth with my blessing."

A blessing from the Princess of the Sea. "I shall, Princess," Will replied.

Odessa took a moment to gaze at his eyes for a moment longer, before she spun around and strode back towards the estate again, all business and regal elegance.

The door closed behind them and Amber uttered something like a surprised gasp. "That girl! What a crazy bitch! Love her!" She rounded on him. "Will, I don't even know where to start."

"Do you really think Odessa still has to make up for this?" He asked.

Amber gave him that look. "Will, come on. Use that stuffing between your ears for something else than putting your life at risk. Odessa's going to be the Queen of Kristiline. She's the coolest, craziest bitch in town. Soon, she'll be the coolest, craziest and most powerful bitch in town. If you're going to keep fighting Team Xen, you're gonna want some strong allies."

"That's not why I did this," he protested.

Amber groaned and hung her head theatrically. "God, I know! You know who else knows? Odessa! Know who doesn't give a damn either? Odessa! I just helped you get a very powerful ally!" She jeered at him as if daring him to protest. "You're welcome, by the way."

…having an authority figure he knew he could trust with his life could be a huge asset, now that he thought about it. This was one higher-up Team Xen couldn't compromise with greed or corruption.

"Okay, you may be right," he admitted.

Amber looked supremely pleased with herself. "Damn right I am. I should be heading back to the Resort. Wanna drop by? Say hi to mom?"

"I would, but I have other things to take care of," he said.

"Right. You have princesses waiting for you, amirite?" Amber grinned.

Will rolled his eyes. Eye. Eyes? "Amber…" He said warningly.

"I wonder what Melia would say if she heard that?"

A part of him wondered the exact same thing. "You wouldn't!" He hissed.

Amber's grin grew horrible and predatory. "You wanna take that risk too? Or is that suddenly too scary?"

Will took a step towards the redhead. "Not as scary as what you said when Odessa was still in my body," he said. "Lightly pound that ass?"

Amber pressed one eye shut in a wince. "Yeah…how about this? I don't burn you, you don't burn me?"

"Deal!"

They shook on it, then went their separate ways.

Instead of immediately heading back to Gearen City, Will decided to drop by Kakori Village just in case. Crawli, Rorim and Holly had gotten very involved without actually knowing the context to Odessa's behavior. There might be some bad blood there in the future unless he smoothened that over.

Thankfully, Crawli had things covered. He always did. Odessa's behavior and desperation had been a big red flag to him, and when Will confided in him why Odessa had been driven to that point, Crawli could only nod to himself, as if that simply confirmed things.

Crisis averted.

"One thing before you leave?" Crawli said. "There's someone waiting for you at the Help Center. Said something about you having helped in the past?"

A pit dropped in Will's stomach. "Do you…know who it is?" He asked, keeping his voice level.

Crawli shrugged. "The ranger who notified me only said it was a woman. No other details, I think."

"I'll go check it out," Will replied.

"Right. It was good to see you again, man!"

"Thanks, you too!"

A quick trip to the Help Center revealed…nobody.

Will frowned, carefully scanning the crowded office floor again. Workers, a receptionist, some lost-looking trainers…nobody who would specifically request to see him here. He shrugged and turned to leave again -

- and came face to face with April.

"Hey Will!" She said, smiling. "Hope I didn't scare ya?"

Will, who had very narrowly managed to keep from leaping back in alarm and out of his skin, quickly said, "Not at all. What…what are you doing here?"

"I was actually hoping to catch you before you left," she said. Will noticed she was carrying something like a grocery bag in her left hand.

"How did you know I was leaving?" He asked.

She shrugged. "Uh…scuttlebutt?"

Will batted his eyes at her. "Scuttlebutt?"

"The scuttlest butt! Hey, do you have a moment to walk with me?" She winked at him, then gestured with her head at the exit. "There's something I wanna talk to you about. I won't take long, I promise."

Against his better judgement, Will decided to humor the woman. On the one hand, she'd lied to his face about Nim. On the other hand, when Nim needed him the most, he'd failed her, and now she was gone, while he was still here. So what did he know? "Sure. Lead the way."

"So…it's been a while since the Team Xen incident," April started. "How are you holding up?"

"Incident? Is that what they call it?" Will asked.

April tilted her head at him. "Hmmm…it does seem like a bit of an understatement, doesn't it? It really was more of a large-scale attack. What else should we call it, then?"

"..the rangers call it the Battle of Terajuma," he replied. Everybody on Terajuma called it that. If April didn't know that, she was likely spending her days somewhere else.

"That has more of a ring to it! The Battle of Terajuma…I heard you and your friends played a vital role in the fighting. Your efforts helped save the entire island."

"Not just us," Will quietly replied.

April was silent for a while, her expression thoughtful. "No, it wasn't, was it? I couldn't be here for the memorial, but…it does seem to me like the people are slowly picking up the pieces, again. I hear the Princess of Kristiline even made an appearance again! Would you happen to know anything about that, hmm?"

"Just trying to help out where I can," Will replied. "Before we head out again."

"Then I'd say you have been doing a fantastic job of that!" April said, smiling softly. "That is actually why I'm here, you know? Word gets around from the Help Centers. You've bounced back to your feet in record time and already, you're running around fixing things. I think that's admirable, if not a little bit…worrisome? I think?"

Will shot her a look. "How come?"

April took a moment to consider her words, it seemed. "Well, I think you and your friends were thrust into an impossible situation with no clear way out. You got hurt pretty badly. Most people need months of physical therapy if they suddenly lost sight in one eye - "

He frowned. "How did you - "

" - and I don't think you're doing that. To me, it seems like you've gone right back to doing what you did before."

"The enemy isn't going to sit around for months while I get some injury to heal," Will said. "I can manage."

April gave him a sharp look. "It's not just "some injury" Will. You incurred some serious physical trauma, not to mention…and why are you downplaying what happened to you?"

Will couldn't look at her. He thought of the smoking hole in Jenner's chest. Of the sound of Nim's chains breaking. He thought of Melia sobbing as she watched her father's limp body drop into the volcano. They had given it their all and it hadn't been enough. "People died. Others lost family and loved ones they've known for years. I…I got to walk away with just some scars."

"Did you?" April asked pointedly. "There's a lot to unpack with what you just said. Chief among them being that suffering is suffering. It is horrible that people died. It is equally horrible that others got maimed. It is horrible enough that this even happened."

"But it did happen," Will insisted. "And I still have the means to make sure it won't happen again."

"Do you really?" April asked. "And if you do, is it really up to you?"

Will shook his head, agitated. "Those are questions for a perfect world. It's not. Even if it weren't up to me, if there's nobody else who tries, then nothing happens. And people like Team Xen get to win."

April gave him a sad look. "You're right. This isn't a perfect world. And we do need good people to fight for Aevium, when nobody else can. But you and I both know that you didn't walk away with just some scars," she said, curling her fingers in air quotes. "So I brought you a little something."

Will glanced at her bag. "I'm not sure that's hygienic."

She blinked at him. "Eh?"

"Carrying around a spare eyeball like that."

April's eyes widened. Will expected her to be horrified at his quip, but she started chuckling. "No, I didn't think to bring a spare eye. How silly of me. No, I brought you this."

Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a small Pokemon egg. It was all purple with blotches of pink, as if someone had started angrily jabbing at it with a wet paintbrush.

"An egg?" Will asked. April held it out for him and it took him a moment to understand her intention. "You're giving me a Pokemon?"

"Sure am!" April replied. "I think you could use another one, you see? Think of it as a personal thank-you for not just helping me out, but continuing to help out the others across the island."

"I'm…not sure if I should be taking this," he admitted.

"It's okay not to be certain of things, you know?" April replied. "If this little guy is what I think he is, he might be able to fill in - I mean, he might be able to help you in the fight ahead."

A part of Will still wanted to refuse taking the egg with him - he wasn't sure when he'd have the opportunity to hatch it, and once he did, he'd have to put the newborn Pokemon in a ball and then probably send either it, or one of his other Pokemon, to Sheridan Village through the computer grid.

But now that he knew Team Xen was involved in Aevium's capital city, he couldn't afford to be picky about these sorts of things. More Pokemon to his name meant more flexibility when choosing his targets.

"Thank you," he said, reaching out and taking the egg from April's arms. "I'll take good care of him."

"I know you will!" April said with a big smile. "I gotta get going. You take care, Will. Maybe we'll see each other again soon."

"Yeah," he quietly said, watching the strange woman walk off again.

Is it really up to you?

What kind of a question was that? It didn't matter if it was up to him or not, did it? He'd been there when it counted. The right person in the wrong place, sure, but if it wasn't him, then who?

He didn't get it. The question simply wasn't relevant. He was here now, and he still had plenty left in him left to give.

~~~~~~~(VI)~~~~~~~

---

AN: As per the themes of this novelization, I decided to expand on Odessa's situation a bit, as well as the emotions involved. A lot of it was implied in the game, but kept a bit in the background, so I got to do what I enjoy so much; take small little hints and run away with them. It was a very interesting quest for me to write, and I think it turned out moderately well. I even have plans of expanding on Odessa's role in the story proper. Amber was right there; even if it was never their intention, a Soon-To-Be-Queen can make for a very powerful ally. After all, physical force is but one way of projecting power.

Regardless, those are the side quests from Gearen City and Terajuma wrapped up! Mostly. Next chapter we will finally be boarding that train to GDC and enjoying a peaceful, happy ride to Aevium's capital with no complications, confrontations or conflicts whatsoever! It will be a pleasant experience for everyone involved, I am sure of it.