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.

20. Raid on Helojak Island

Chapter 6: Nimpossible Predicament

Raid on Helojak Island

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

---

It was one in the afternoon and Will still hated teleporting. Every time it happened, be it to him or his enemies, it sucked.

"Thank you so much for saving us!" The Director said. He was a short guy with round glasses, mousy brown hair and lab coat. "That man was constantly insisting we hand over the recipe for Margaret! I had no idea what he was talking about, and at a certain point I think he was having trouble keeping a straight face too."

"That's alright, we were glad to help," Aelita told him. She pulled Melia and Will a little bit to the side. "Okay, we kinda fell for that bait hardcore."

Melia didn't respond. She looked about the same way Will felt.

Aelita saw it too. "H-Hey! It's gonna be okay…This isn't over, even with this loss! Not yet, anyway."

Melia's eyes lit up with frustration and her face tightened into a frown. "I feel so sleighted, and embarrassed. Did that really just happen? Karma's such a b- "

"That aside, what do we do now?" Aelita quickly said.

"Maybe we should go to the falls anyway…" Melia suggested.

"But Neved said Zetta already got it…" Aelita protested.

"I know," Melia sighed. "But maybe there's still a chance."

"Guess we don't have anything else to do," Aelita said after a moment's consideration. "I'm down for it."

"What about that lot?" Will said, hooking his thumb at the three abandoned Xen Grunts. They'd tried to make a break for it but the very big and very angry Fighting-type Pokemon would have had something to say about that.

"Let's leave them for the rangers," Melia said. "They're harmless without their Pokemon."

Will thought back to Wispy Tower and the surprise stabfest Combusken had spared him from. These clowns were harmless until you turned your back…

"We can probably reach the falls through that other entrance down below," Melia continued, oblivious to Will's silent disapproval.

"Okay!" Aelita said. "Let's go!"

Loath as he was to leave Xen's people on his flanks, there really wasn't anything else to do. The Rangers would take the station back and arrest any stragglers left behind. In the meantime, Team Xen was after the Relics as well. Nothing else to do than to keep moving.

Down the mountain peak they went again, making their way down the hewn steps and towards the entrance that Xen's people had previously blocked.

There wasn't anyone there this time.

"This is Mirimura cave," Melia explained. "See that elevator? I believe it's the same one that should have been downstairs. Team Xen must have sabotaged it."

Will saw what she meant. The tiny cave, lit by a single lantern, was dominated by a large totem painted in green. It was obviously a sign to aid the trial goers. The left elevator went all the way down back to the Terajuma Jungle, whereas the right one would take them to the Terajuma Falls.

"If this one doesn't work either I'm going to freak out," Aelita said as they filed onto the elevator.

"Here goes nothing," Melia said, pressing the button.

With an old groan and a violent shudder, the elevator began descending, sparing Aelita from her freak out.

All the way down, into a familiar-looking cave. The elevator deposited the three of them into a little grassy area in the hollowed-out mountain, The path took through another entrance out into the Terajuma Falls. Will thought he heard the sounds of fighting up ahead, followed by someone shrieking in a high pitch, but when they emerged into a clearing surrounded by waterfalls and ponds, Will didn't hear anything.

Maybe he'd just imagined it? He supposed –

That was when he saw it. "That's him!" Will exclaimed, pointing at the large sign that stood in the middle of the path before them. "Aelita! It's him!"

"Uhm…I'm sorry?" Melia said, confused.

Will walked towards the large billboard that portrayed Rorim B in all his happy, cheerful glory. The words "YOU DID IT!' were ironically painted around his smiling face. "The Dancing Man!"

"Ah," Aelita said with a horrible smirk. "You mean the beautiful dancing man."

"Yes! Wait, no-"

"You found a beautiful dancing man?" Melia questioned him. She took a closer look at the billboard and the corners of her mouth raised into a little smile. "You found Rorim B?"

"He does look like a beautiful man," Aelita said. "Too old for my tastes, though. If he makes you happy…"

As a matter of fact, Rorim B's presence filled Will's heart with joy. Nevertheless, since he was certain the girls would never ever let him hear the end of it, Will kept that tidbit to himself. "I am going to keep moving."

"Let's do that, yes."

Of course, since seeing Rorim B's cheerful visage really had him feeling a bit more cheerful, it only made sense that the literal next sight the Terajuma Falls had to offer, just had to ruin everything.

"Melia!" Zetta said with fake cheer, standing side-by-side with Neved into the large clearing that separated the Relic's pedestal from the entrance. Zetta smirked at Melia and Will's thoughts drifted turned to unpleasant thoughts. "Nice to see you again!"

"I don't want to hear anything from you," Melia rebuked him.

"Come on," Zetta insisted. "No need for hostility. We're just here to talk."

The lady says no, Zetta. Take a hint.

But Will kept his calm. He'd promised Melia. He had to stay cold. His anger had to serve him, not the other way around.

"Somehow, I feel like that's full of crap," Aelita said with disdain.

"No," Neved agreed. "We aren't here to talk. Zetta, I would appreciate if you kept your head space clear."

Anticipation burned within Will's chest. If they weren't here to talk, then they were here to fight. Good. They had a score to settle. Two assholes made for a better prisoner exchange than one asshole. He just needed to find a way to keep the third asshole from teleporting them away again.

"Why are you threatening all of Terajuma just to get your hands on us?" Melia demanded. "These people had nothing to do with ANYTHING! Zetta! Have you no remorse for all the people you've been hurting? None at all?"

Zetta, had his hands folded across the back of his neck, posing like he was the definition of calmness. Of course, he didn't answer. Why would he? He was a psychopath. Or a sociopath – Will didn't know the difference yet.

"Nothing?" Melia demanded furiously, angrily closing the distance between her and the man who, for the longest time, Will had believed to have been her murderer. "You have nothing to say?"

"They're a lost cause," Will said, putting as much contempt into his voice as he could. "Don't waste your breath on these pukes."

Melia scoffed. "You're right. There's no convincing either of them. They've been a lost cause for some time now."

Zetta remained quiet. Neved just had to open his big mouth again. "The people in Blacksteeple were in the same position prior. Yet Team Xen went forward with their plans despite that. For Team Xen's plans to continue, it would seem that innocent people have to die. But that is the price we pay for our goals. Together as a conglomerate, and as an individual."

Will had some choice words for Neved. He held his tongue. These… men were the lowest of scum. Just like Indriad Theolia. Those who trampled all over others because they believed themselves to be better…or righteous…or serving some greater good.

Someway or another, they would pay.

"We harbor no ill will to anyone who is unfortunate to cross paths with us," Neved finished.

Except for a petty, personal agenda. Isn't that right, Neved?

"You all are terrible," Aelita said, a look of disgust crossing her features. "More terrible than any of us had thought before. You showing us your true colors here have reignited my desire to take you guys down! Sensei…No, my father would want me to keep on fighting!"

Neved took a deep breath. "Well then. If you're so desperate for this to end…then do the right thing. Melia, come with us. Right here, and right now."

Will exhaled a quivering breath.

"Not happening, creep!" Aelita spat.

"The right way for this to end…is for you and all of your people to sink to the bottom of the sea," Will said. He couldn't remain quiet. Something would burst within him if he kept his thoughts barred.

"And drown there!" Aelita added.

Neved snorted. "I see your spirit is unbroken. Fine with me." He sent out Barbaracle and Will answered with Nodking. "Zetta, let's get this over with."

And…instead of going on the offensive, Neved slowly began stepping aside, his Barbaracle imitating his motion to keep himself positioned between Neved and his opponents to prevent his trainer from any attacks.

A pair of his grunts came walking down the path from the relic pedestal…dragging with them a kicking, screaming little girl.

Will went very still. Outrage and frustration and agony swirled around his head, but he dared not move.

"We're ready sir!" One of the grunts called.

"Neved," Melia said, her expression frozen in disbelief. "Neved, what is this? What are you doing?"

"Call it an assurance," Neved simply said. Somewhere above, the sounds of helicopter blades started growing louder. "Fighting you and risking everything was never the goal."

"Neved, Zetta, you two…this is way, way too low, even for the likes of you!" Aelita yelled. "Hostages? Using little kids as…what, shields?"

Fear won out over outrage, easily. Will held out his hands, silently begging the two Xen Admins to calm down. "Whatever you think you're doing, you're still people. You're still men. This isn't necessary."

"We are not doing anything drastic, nor anything that would bring harm upon this little one," Neved said, nudging the girl's pale, tear-streaked face with his knuckle.

"Unless, of course, you try anything funny," Zetta said. "Like, for instance…"

A helicopter descended on the far end of the path, hovering right behind the relic pedestal.

"Trying to stop us from leaving!" Zetta continued.

"Of all the evil, petty, cruel things!" Melia shouted, struggling to come up with words that could describe the sheer depths of their enemies' actions.

She failed. There were no words to describe this. No words that wouldn't already reinforce what Will had decided long ago. These people were the lowest of scum.

"Do not act like you are so much better than us that you wouldn't understand," Neved spat. "Would you not, upon seeing us take off in that helicopter, shoot us out of the sky in an instant, William?"

In a heartbeat.

"If you even hurt a hair on that girl's head, then so help me - !" Aelita growled. Her entire body quivered with rage.

"No harm will befall her…" Neved said as his group slowly began inching their way back to the helicopter. "As long as we make a successful escape, we will release her at an undisclosed beach, of course. The rangers will find her within a matter of minutes. Perhaps an hour."

"No more ideas about fighting back!" Zetta yelled. "Listen to our terms and adhere to them!"

They began boarding the heli.

"Zetta!" Melia screamed.

"You lose."

With those parting words, they all filed into their transport and flew off…

…taking with them the relic, a human shield and very likely what little hope they had left of rebelling against Team Xen's unacceptable demands.

"I can't believe it," Aelita said. "I can't believe they'd do something like that."

Maybe this fight against Team Xen was starting to take its toll, but…Will could. He could see why they did this. It only made sense, from some twisted, petty, cowardly perspective. Team Xen didn't need to win every fight. They just needed to survive losing. Against people like Melia and Aelita, that was easy. They were better. With their grace, with their mercy, they would always allow the enemy to live.

Which meant that the enemy would always fight another day.

…was this on him? Had his desire and intent been so transparent, so superficial, that Neved and Zetta had taken measures against him?

You know. The one that started it all. The trainer from Gearen City.

His stomach rolled in protest. Nausea washed away any anger he had left. "I'm going to be sick," Will murmured. He slumped down against the pedestal and put his head between his hands.

"Well, this sucks…" Aelita murmured.

Which was basically this entire mess summed up.

"…honey, if you have the time?" Someone said.

Tiredly, Will shoved himself back to his feet again. Aelita and Melia had seated themselves on the steps in front of the pedestal, staring blankly ahead.

Will walked over to where he heard the voice come from…and then froze.

That green hair decorated with flowers…those weird plateau shoes…and those aviators!

There, still holding a magnificent pose with the greatest of ease, lay Rorim B himself. His body had gouged a little trench, as if he'd been sent there against his wishes by a particularly insistent Pokemon.

Rorim looked up at him. "Are they gone? Goodness, darling." He hopped back to his feet in one smooth move. "Oh darling it's you! I can't believe you're here in Terajuma!"

"…guys?" Will said without taking his eyes off the man, the myth, the legend. "I found Rorim B."

They…didn't seem to hear him.

"How have you been darling!" Rorim said, patting the dirt from Will's shoulders and then straightening his jacket again with a casual flick of his wrist. "You've sure gotten stronger!"

Melia happened to look up and saw Rorim. "Uh…Will, do you know this person?" She asked cautiously, sounding much like a mother who'd seen her child strike up a conversation with a stranger.

"Oh, excuse me, where are my manners!" Rorim said, presenting himself to the two crestfallen ladies. "My name is Rorim! I am a wandering troupe leader. I also happen to be the father of the Head Ranger down at Kakori~."

It took Melia a second to process that. "You're Crawli's father?" She exclaimed.

"Oh my god he exists," Aelita muttered. She cast an amazed look Will's way. "You really met the Dancing Man."

"That's right honey, Crawli's my darling boy," Rorim said. "Such a hard working individual. Keeping Terajuma safe is a hard job."

"What are you doing all the way out here?" Aelita asked.

"Oh, Crawli told me that a few trainers were taking on the Terajuma Trial. I decided to check on the Relic, and it's a good thing I did! At first it was one grunt…and then there were two, then three, then four…and then those two gentlemen showed up and I was at my limit, darling."

"Us too, dude," Melia sighed. "Us too."

Rorim crouched down in front of Melia and Aelita, a warm smile on his tanned, worn face. "Listen darlings, I know things are looking grim, but you have to keep going. Don't jus' let one little loss crumble the entire wall, y'know?"

One little loss…

God, Will wished. "They've kicked half our wall down already, Rorim. Not much left."

"Oh darling, it's not about the wall they think they're beating down!" Rorim told him. "It's about the walls you keep building back up! Come, let's get out of here. We can take the cable car directly to Kakori Village."

"Yeah…" Melia murmured. "That's probably for the best. Lead…lead the way, Rorim…"

And Rorom B the Beautiful Dancing Man escorted them back to the cable car. Will should have been elated; Rorim was a celebrity, and a good man to boot. It was just…he felt like, every time he won, he still somehow lost. And he didn't understand why.

"Ooh, we're going to take the cable car!" Aelita said, sounding like a child who'd just learned they were heading for the candy store. "I've only seen those things in movies! Hopefully they're safer than they look!"

Aelita's continued enthusiasm and curiosity was a hell of a drug. Every time Will felt like sitting down in a corner and letting his thoughts drift, she pulled something like that.

Will had no idea how she did it. Had to be her father's genes; the fortitude of a man who, fresh out of the deepest pits of despair and physical neglect, had squared off against a Legendary Pokemon with nothing but his fists.

Keta had raised one hell of a girl. Thankfully she'd had the Eldest to keep her going in the right direction.

…Will wondered what he would have done had he not had Melia and Aelita at his side. He'd probably have died already, but that was beside the point. Would he…would he still have gone the same way Aelita had, or would he have followed Keta down that slippery slope? Keta had thought the latter.

Before he could follow those thoughts down a corner he really didn't want to, he heard Rorim B pipe in; Darlings, this is where I bid you all farewell!" and he realized that the cable cart had already touched down.

"Thanks for the talk, Rorim," Aelita said.

"No problem honey! If you ever need my help, I'll be there faster than a Bidoof can say Bidoof~! Ciao!"

Rorim disappeared down the little hill that held the cable cart building. Aelita waved him goodbye, but Melia had cast her eyes to the ground. She hugged her arms to her chest, then quietly said, "Hey guys, I think I'm gonna go for a walk…need time to clear my head. I hope that's okay."

Alone? By herself, when Team Xen was this close? That was absolutely –

"Completely fine!" Aelita said. "Just come back before it's too late!"

"Mhm, I'll see you guys later," Melia said in the least convincing voice Will had heard out of her thus far.

He watched her go. He'd have felt antsy letting anyone be out there by themselves, let alone the one victim Team Xen had decided to move heaven and earth to get. He plucked Froslass' Poke Ball from his pouch and sent her out. "Hey girl. Look…I need you to keep an eye on Melia, just in case."

Froslass stared at him like he'd lost his mind.

He got that a lot, lately.

"I know it's hot out here," Will continued. "Stick to the shadows. Hide in the water if you need to. Just keep out of sight. If anyone tries to hurt her…you know what to do."

Froslass made a little loop in the air.

Will frowned. "You know what to do."

She exhaled a gust of freezing wind in his face and he flinched. "Seriously? Right in front of Aelita too?"

With a satisfied little smirk, Froslass disappeared.

"Guess it's just us again, Will," Aelita said, trying and failing to keep back a grin. "We should probably start planning our next moves. That does mean we'll have to wait for the others to return. What do you think?"

Will took a deep breath. "I'm angry. I'm confused. I feel lost."

"Hmm…" Aelita tapped her jaw with her index finger, mulling over his words. "Wanna work out?"

"Yes please."

The Ranger HQ was a versatile building with plenty of spaces to help the rangers hone their skills, train with their Pokemon and stay fit. It had a sizable gym. Will saw punching and speed bags, free weights, barbells and dumbbells and machines to stretch and tone every muscle group he could imagine and probably some muscles he didn't even know he had.

But that wasn't what Will was after that day. No, he needed to feel the burn, give his body a big, violent shock that would hopefully put him in the right headspace again.

So he walked past the gym and headed all the way outside, to the official outdoor Ranger obstacle course out in the back. With the sun high in the sky and little to no wind, it was the perfect weather to build up a perfect little heat stroke.

In a cruel twist of fate, Alex was there as well. She uh…well, she was one of Crawl's officers for a reason.

"No walking between the obstacles!" She yelled at a pair of rangers who thought they could avoid the heat stroke by lowering their pace. "Drink your water and start running!"

The obstacle course was an impressive sight. Will counted a total of fifteen different obstacles to course; thirty-feet high horizontal ladders, a balancing beam stretching out across a steep drop into a pit of muddy water, a belly-crawling section underneath steel cables while Grass-type Pokemon fired Bullet Seeds above their heads…

That was just the start of it.

Will knew he was about to have an experience and walked forwards.

Alex spotted them. "Hey guys. Heard about the Weather Institute. Nasty business, but you saved us having to storm a fortified position with hostages. Thanks for that."

"No problem," Aelita said. "It was a shame that fell apart so quickly but…well, at least we chased them off. How's the prisoners?"

"Uncooperative," Alex growled with a steely voice. "But that's fine. We don't need them to talk. We just need to prosecute them and put them away. So what can I help you guys with?"

"Weeeell…Will and I would like to take the obstacle course, if it's alright with you?"

"Hmm…" Alex sized them up. Will got the impression of a butcher inspecting a carcass for the first slice. "Depends. You ever run an official Terajuma obstacle course before?"

"I've participated in some obstacle courses back in Sheridan Village, but those were all improvised," Aelita said.

Alex's steely eyes flicked to Will.

"Nothing voluntarily," Will settled for saying. Again, it would have been pretty great to have memories to go back to. How was he supposed to know if he ever did anything before aside from muscle memory? He'd liked swimming, but for all he knew he could have been an aquaphobe before Indriad smacked the memories from his head.

It was starting to really, really hurt, every time he thought about. So back into the bottle those thoughts went.

"So that's a no for the both of you, huh," Alex said. "Fine, it's fine. We've got some new meat on the course today anyway. First weeks of service. I got the time to walk you through these things as you go, but I can't babysit you."

"That's fine!" Aelita said happily. "You won't need to. We've got plenty of experience navigating dangerous areas; we'll pick it up quickly enough!"

"Sure. Grab a couple of water bottles from the chest over there - you're gonna be losing your bodily fluids faster than you can imagine…"

…okay, Will was fairly certain she phrased it like that on purpose.

Within a minute, Alex began dragging Will and Aelita across the obstacles. The first part wasn't so much about stamina as it was technique and confidence; climbing thirty feet into the sky on slippery steel rungs on a rope ladder required good hand-eye coordination and a solid knowledge of safety. Keep three limbs attached to the ladder at all times, don't get hasty, keep your body close to the upper rung as you climbed over it and went down again…that sort of thing.

It was about letting future rangers know that a fear of heights wasn't necessary if they knew what they were doing. That knowledge in itself could then be extrapolated to many other dangerous, frightening situations.

The other parts…not so much.

"Keep your heads down!" Alex shouted as a firing squad of Gloom and Bellsprout began firing rock-hard seeds at incredible speeds right above their heads. "Do you have the guts to deal with live fire? Start crawling!"

Will quickly found that he had the advantage here. Aelita struggled to get a pace going, constantly casting a nervous glance up as the Bullet Seeds zinged mere inches above her head. She worked herself forwards, but didn't quite manage to get the momentum going to keep Will from overtaking her.

For Will, it really was a matter of turning his brain off. He crawled through what might have once upon a time been mud before the sun turned it into a dry pit of sand and dust, placing his elbows and knees as wide as the poles allowed and making large, calculated moves.

Alex gave them tips. She offered them advice. She corrected them when they made mistakes. She continued to scare the living daylights out of Will every time she began yelling.

Will made it out before Aelita did, took a second to wipe his hands and knees and continued running.

After that, it was all about climbing quickly, climbing smartly, climbing without falling and dying and then some more fast climbing. Two-thirds across the obstacle course, Aelita caught up to him again. She leapt past him and landed solidly against a platform that had been angled ninety degrees. She quickly took a hold of one of the ropes that hung there and pulled herself up.

The harsh light of the sun beamed down at them. Will's lungs burned, his side ached and his legs felt like jelly. Sweat poured from his forehead into his eyes, and the back of his shirt was soaked in sweat. Sand caked every inch of his lower body.

He loved every minute of it.

"Final stretch!" Alex yelled when Will hauled himself over a brick wall and saw that all that was left was a fifty-meter dash across several trenches of varying depth. "Start sprinting! Come on! Give it your all!"

Aelita was already waiting for him on the other side. She leaned against a tree, panting with a hand pressed against her side.

"Five minutes thirty…not bad for a start," Alex said, holding up a stopwatch as she approached them.

Will would have said something smart, but he needed every bit of oxygen to not die. He lay there on the grass field, struggling to breathe.

"How…is this…so intense?" Aelita asked. "It's barely…a kilometer…I run ten…times that amount…in the morning…"

"The obstacle course is designed to destroy you no matter how fit you are," Alex explained. "Doesn't matter how good your jogging cardio is; the kind of stamina you need for this is completely different. Try doing this with combat boots and a full load weighing you down, then you'll feel how punishing this can be."

That made sense. Rangers had to run around in full gear the entire day. Traversing the jungle or the mountains with simple running shoes would result in a lot of twisted ankles, so they had to do all that on sturdy hiking boots.

He had to give it to Alex; she was scary, but damn if she didn't know her stuff.

With their introduction and warming-up complete, Will and Aelita began their workout in earnest.

With the tropical heat of Terjuma, it was very important to know when to go all-out and when to take it easy. They drank plenty of water and started taking each obstacle several times in a row, aiming to improve their technique instead of their clearing speed.

Slowly, Will and Aelita began picking up the smartest way to go about certain obstacles. How to handle low-hanging cables, when and where to jump if you needed to clear a chest-high wall, how to properly use body weight and momentum to get across taller obstacles…the list went on and so did the training.

Eventually, after seventy minutes of hard labor, three bottles of water each and a whole lot of sand, sweat and pain, Will and Aelita collapsed into little heaps somewhere near the balancing beam.

"That's enough for today, I wager," Alex said, her arms sternly crossed across her chest. "Not too bad. Keep it up, amd Holly might make proper rangers out of you yet."

"Holly?" Aelita asked.

"Yeah. Crawli's Second. She takes care of matters whenever he's not around. His confidante, so to speak." Alex hesitated, then her veneer slipped. She nervously looked behind her and then said, in a quiet tone, "She's a real hard-ass. Word of advice? Stay on her good side."

"I thought you were the hard-ass?" Will said before he could even think about it.

"Me? You flatter me," Alex said with a little grin. "I'm just tough. Anyway, thanks for joining us today. Catch you guys later!"

"Wow…that was fun…" Aelita said with a satisfied little sigh. "Think the others will enjoy that?"

"Adam's going to eat that obstacle course for breakfast," Will said.

"I dunno. Adam's big and tough, but that doesn't translate to…all that," Aelita replied, gesturing towards the fifteen obstacles behind them. "My father once said that he had no use for men who could bench three-hundred pounds. He wants men who can run up Mount Carotos in the scorching heat with a heavy backpack."

Will shot upright. Holy shit that was inspirational. "I have a new goal in life."

"Sure you do," Aelita grinned.

"I'm serious." Will wiped his forehead with his sleeve. That was the way he wanted to be. When he found Ren again, he'd take him with him. They'd run up the mountain together. They'd grow stronger together and demolish Team Xen together. "Keta was tough as nails. He lost his way, but he found it again right when it counted."

Aelita's grin faltered somewhat.."Yeah…he was. For all of his mistakes…I don't think you can find a better man to emulate than the Sensei at his best."

Maybe the combination of all that running in the burning sun had finally given him the heat stroke he'd been looking for, but the realization made Will feel oddly giddy. "Team Xen wants to break us down as fast as they can? Screw them. We'll outlast them."

"By running up a mountain in the heat?"

"With all the weight we carry," Will corrected her. "The Sensei was right. Who cares if they're stronger? We're going to be tougher. At the end of the day, when we're all on the ground, we will be the ones to get up."

"...wow, that's oddly inspirational," Aelita said. "I didn't know you were the motivational speaker type, Will."

"I'm not; that's the dehydration doing the talking for me."

"Okay," Aelita said, climbing back to her feet again. "Time to get back home then, shove some liquids into you."

Again, phrasing.

"What about Valarie?" Aelita asked as they left the Ranger Headquarters behind.

Will laughed. He could just imagine Val running his obstacle course, falling off the balancing beams and finding out that water wasn't always her friend. "That would be fun to watch. I don't think she's ready for that. What about Ren?"

"Ren? Hmm…Ren's really determined, but I haven't seen him do things physically, you know?"

"Next time we see him, let's ask him. It's been too long since I've seen him anyway."

"Hmm…you know, that might be cool to see, you two racing the obstacle course, fighting and scrambling for the finish. Heck yeah, I'm for it! Melia?"

Not that was the big question. Melia had changed since he last saw her. A lot. She had developed nerves of steel in the meantime…among other things. "I think she would actually get pretty far with determination alone."

"Determination is only half the fuel in the tank, you know."

"Speak for yourself. We all know it's one third determination, one third spite and - "

"Actual fitness," Aelita finished his sentence. "Here's what I really want to see…and it's Alex dragging Saki through the obstacle course."

"...I have another new goal in life."

When they made it to their home, they saw that the others hadn't yet returned. Melia hadn't come back either. All in all it had been three hours since they came back from the Terajuma Falls.

"Where is everyone?" Aelita said, looking around the empty house. "Do you think handling matters at the dock ought to take that long?"

Will shrugged. "Let's grab a shower, put on some clothes and go looking."

"Good idea."

One shower, twenty pounds of sand and a new set of clothes later, Will came downstairs to find Aelita getting ready for the search. "Okay, Melia said she was going for a walk, but that was hours ago. It's getting late out."

"Any ideas where to look?" Will asked.

Aelita thought about that for a moment. "Let's go check Terajuma Beach. I bet someone ought to be there!"

A horrible sense of deja-vu slithered its way up Will's spine, but he wrestled it down and shoved it away. There was no way. There was no way something like that could happen again.

Nevertheless, Aelita and him double-timed it through the jungle path. Considering they'd just broken and battered their bodies against the ranger obstacle course, that meant a slower pace than Will would have liked.

Having learned from their previous search at the beach, Aelita sent out Staraptor to patrol the skies while they slogged their way across the three-kilometer stretch.

Eventually, roughly twenty-five minutes later, Aelita and him emerged from the jungle and headed They made their way across the wooden pier, down the little wooden steps and onto the beach proper.

There, sitting all alone, gazing out across the sea, sat Melia. She was alone and didn't appear injured.

Will uttered s sigh of relief. "Look."

"Yeah, there she is!" Aelita broke into a run and covered the remaining fifty or so meters in seconds. "Melia, what happened to "don't stay out too late"?"

"Sorry…" Melia said within taking her eyes off the sea. "I didn't even realize how late it's gotten. I've just been staring out at the ocean."

With a sigh of frustration, Aelita said, "It's dangerous for a girl to be out alone like this…especially when that girl has a bounty to her head!"

"It's okay," Melia said. "Hapi is on lookout."

In what must have been a preplanned agreement, Hapi flew overhead, making happy little Hapi noises as he did.

"Oh…I guess he is. Still, you've been moping ever since we've gotten back."

"Yeah…" Melia said tiredly. "I kind of fell apart, I admit…I can't believe we were tricked like that. As a result, we lost the Sky Relic…" She grimaced. "What a major fail…"

Will wasn't sure what to even say to that. What Melia said was exactly what he'd felt - how he still felt. He supposed that he just had an easier time distracting himself.

Aelita thought differently. "It's not like we were tricked…Team Xen really was attacking the Weather Institute. We had to save them regardless. Plus there was nothing to suggest that Team Xen was after the Sky Relic. themselves…and they even had a hostage specifically to counter us. Had we taken the relic earlier, we might have still been forced to hand it over. It really isn't our fault."

Melia sighed again. "Yeah, you're right. I just…" She pulled her shoulders up in a little shrug. "I was just so hopeful we might have been able to negotiate some sort of exchange…and to be kicked down like that…I dunno. I guess the glass finally gave way.

Will sat down next to Melia. He knew the feeling. He knew it too damn well. He didn't have words of encouragement or a way to cheer her up. It wasn't exactly a secret that he'd been teetering a bit too close to the edge himself.

But…seeing her like that hurt. He just wanted Melia to be happy. "Look…things will be better, Melia. They're dragging us through the mud…but we have to keep going."

"Will they?" She said, sparing him a skeptical look. "Do you really feel that way? How can you be sure things will ever get better?"

Because I'm going to lose my marbles if this gets worse.

But he didn't say that. Instead, he thought about it for a moment. "Because the things we love are too important."

She uttered a pained little moan and buried her face in her hands. "I don't… want…to give up…but what do I even say to the others? They were counting on us…"

"You could just say hello?" Someone loudly said and Will jerked around, half expecting yet another Xen ambush -

But it was the rest of their friends! Valarie, Adam, Saki and Braixen had emerged from the jungle entrance.

"HEEEY YOUUUU GUYS!" Saki yelled at the top of her lungs.

One by one, they hopped down from the pier and approached. "Mind if we join you~?" Braixen said, her tail happily wagging back and forth.

Melia blinked slowly. "You guys…?"

The others joined them on the beach and Will took the moment to sit back and let the ones who actually knew how to talk do the talking.

"So what happened?" Valarie asked. "What's gotten you so down?"

As Melia began explaining the day's events, Will sat down in the sand with Saki. Miss Blakeory, being the genius she was, wasted no time and began designing an absolute killer of a sand castle.

Being the well adjusted and stable adolescent he was, Will joined her.

"How do I start building a sandcastle?" He asked a minute later. "I'm a beach noob."

"My man, ya've never been to a beach before? That shit is unacceptable, here, let auntie Saki show ya how it's done!"

As Will, Saki and Aelita began playing with the sand, Valarie struggled to take in everything that Melia just told her. "Oh…that evil bastard. He knew you guys would destroy him. Pre-planning a hostage like that is a big sign of weakness in my eyes."

"Weakness or not, they were still able to grab the Relic and escape in a helicopter…" Melia said unhappily. "It just feels hopeless now."

Adam shook his head like a disapproving father. "It's clear now that you kids have a lot to learn still. There's always another solution. Even if it's not immediately obvious."

Gotta appreciate a man who is always in control, no matter what, Will thought, slapping a handful of wet sand against the side of Saki's castle.

"Adam's right!" Val said. "You can't just give up because of one setback. I know you've got more determination than that, or else you wouldn't have come to rescue us at Blacksteeple."

Melia hugged her arms tightly against her chest. "The pressure's really on this time, I guess."

"It's true that the stakes are a taaad higher than last time," Braixen chimed in. "But we're all here and able to fight, yes? Then there's no need to worry."

Adam took three big steps and put himself right in front of Melia. "Remember, last time we were held back by the rules of Blacksteeple. This time, no such limitations exist, and therefore we're free to act how we want. At the end of the day, we hold a certain power over Team Xen just by existing. As long as we're valuable to them, we can use that to our advantage."

A brief silence settled between them as Melia visibly processed Adam's words.

Braixen extended her furry legs into the sand and said, "Wow, someone decided to eat their veggies today, huh?"

"The gears in that brain do be whirlin tho," Saki said without missing a beat.

Adam rolled his eyes. "Shut up…'

Val laughed. "Okay, but I admire that about you, Adam. You're like…the most optimistic pessimist there is. It's refreshing."

"All I'm saying is that you need to remember that we're in it with you," Adam reiterated. " All of us."

"Yeah!" Aelita spoke up. "We'll rely on you, and you'll rely on us. I think that's a fair trade?"

Melia's frame trembled with another sob. "You guys…I know we've only been together for a short time, but…I just want you guys to know that each and every one of you feels like family to me. You're the people I love, and I will fight to protect that!"

Will smiled. Finally, she got it.

"Duuh, you stupid doo-doo head," Saki said, as eloquent as ever. "That's because we are family."

"A weird, misshapen, but stable family," Val agreed.

Hmm…for all Will knew, he had no living family members left. He'd started out with only his mother, and now that she was gone…these people were all he had left. His friends. His family. His loved ones.

"These next weeks are going to be absolute hell, but we can make it through," Val continued.

"Let's make it hell for them too," Will said. He wasn't quite able to keep the eagerness out of his voice, but it got the message across.

Melia shot him a look that he could only interpret as pure appreciation. "Will is right. Team Xen has bitten off far more than they can chew. This isn't the end!"

"Only the beginning!" Aelita exclaimed.

Adam nodded with satisfaction. "Good. By the way, did any of you tell Crawli what happened?"

…ah.

Well, this was awkward.

Aelita winced, Melia clasped a hand in front of her mouth and Will suddenly felt really interested in Saki's sandcastle.

"Oops," Melia murmured, smiling sheepishly.

"We ran into his dad, so maybe he said something," Aelita was quick to point out.

Adam slowly shook his with disappointment. "We should head back to the HQ and let him know then," he sternly said.

Saki stared at Adam. Slowly, an impish grin spread across her features. "Heehee…Yeah right, you just wanna go back to the HQ so you can see Sam again!"

Adam's head snapped to Saki so fast that it would have snapped a lesser man's neck. "What?" He hissed.

"I heard you last night!" Saki continued. "Ooooh Sam! Oooh!"

Adam's feet kicked up sand and dust as he lunged for Saki, but the mischievous engineer was much lighter on her feet, and darted out of his reach. "Oooh Sam! I just want you to hold me!" She said, wiggling back and forth dramatically as she reenacted whatever weird fantasies she had in her head. "You're so cute!"

"Saki if you don't stop I'll tear you in half!" Adam snarled with such ferocity that Will genuinely believed him.

"Ooh good one. I bet you were saving that line for Sam too?"

Will masqued his laugh behind his hand. Holy shit, Saki needed to install a new filter in that brain of hers.

Saki ran for her life as Adam leapt for her again. She skidded to a halt in front of Braixen, who did not appreciate that. "Hey don't run this way! You'll make Adam run me over!"

"Saki Blakeory," Adam growled.

"You dudes are so horny!" Saki laughed. "You and Will should have a get-together! Hold me, Sam. Step on me, queen Val! Hahaha!"

Will suddenly became the center of attention and he wasn't sure if he liked it.

"Uh…what?" Valari said. She raised an eyebrow at him, but her eyes glimmered with amusement. "What'd I miss?"

"Oh!" Melia said, placing a shocked hand in front of her mouth. "Well, you learn something new every day."

Aelita, by far the wisest of them all, simply broke down laughing.

"In my defense…" Will started. He knew exactly what Saki was referring to. "It was a very nice throne."

With that context, Valarie began laughing too,

It was very unfortunate that neither Melia nor Aelita knew what Saki was referring to, which definitely didn't help things. Melia looked utterly lost, and Aelita sounded like she was about to die from oxygen deprivation. "It all makes sense now!" She said in-between gasps.

Braixen was looking at him in a way he really didn't like. It was a sort of smug, knowing little smirk that Will just knew spelled trouble in his future. "Saki, you're talking out of your ass," he said.

Saki managed to dodge Adam. "Speaking of ass - "

Will was almost thankful when Froslass suddenly materialized from thin air, uttering a piercing cry to alarm them of an incoming threat.

But when Hapi suddenly descended from the sky and hovered in front of Melia protectively, Will realized something was actually going on. He was on his feet before the others, scanning the horizon for any sign of trouble.

"Huh? Hapi?" Melia said, puzzled. "What is it, boy?"

There it was. A black speedboat, or some other fast-moving boat, rapidly heading their way.

Valarie saw it too. "Guys look!"

The speedboat recklessly pulled up against the beach, nearly stranding itself on the sand as it came to a lurching halt. Someone flung open a hatch and a pair of black-clad individuals scampered out in a hurry.

Will muttered a curse under his breath as he positioned himself in-between this new threat and his friends. Of all the rotten damn times to make a move - !

Froslass slowly grew translucent again, fading from view until she was barely visible, then called power to herself - nothing fancy or tricky like manipulating the weather or playing with the temperature, but full lethal intent. An inky blackness erupted in front of her, first no smaller than a pinprick, but then it rapidly grew to the size of a person's head.

Will recognized the redheaded woman standing in front of him. He warily searched for more of the Admins, listening for the arrival of their aircraft…but nothing.

She…she was alone with just one of her men? After everything that had already happened?

…had she finally lost her mind?

"Madelis!" Melia all but growled out her name.

"Melia! It's good to see you again!" Madelis said jovially. Too bad her expression was tight and malicious. "It's only been a month, but it looks like you've grown quite a bit!"

Wait, she saw it too?

"What do you want?" Aelita snapped.

"Wait one," WIll quietly told Froslass, who had been about to blow someone's head off with a Shadow Ball. "Let's wait."

Madelis' cruel eyes rested on him for a moment…and then they flickered to every other person on the beach. Slowly, realization dawned on her. "Oh, and it looks like literally every single one of you is here." She sighed in annoyance. " Why are you all here?" Madelis whirled on her subordinate. "I got a report that only Melia was on the beach! What's going on? This was MY chance at getting the bounty reward all for myself!"

"With all due respect, Ma'am. That report was two hours ago. If you didn't spend all that time getting ready and putting makeup on, then we would've gotten here two hours ago."

Madelis smiled pleasantly, pulling her hands to her neck like an embarrassed schoolgirl. "Ahahaha…there must be some kind of mistake there. What you see is what you get. I don't wear makeup~!"

Utterly lost, Will shot Melia a befuddled look. She met his eyes and shrugged, looking just as lost as he was.

Madelis' henchmen, oblivions to the storm that was brewing behind his boss's eyes, continued with reckless abandon. "We have recorded footag-"

"What you see. Is what you get. Got it?" Madelis hissed through clenched teeth.

Her grunt seemed to recognize the threat looming over him and he wised up. "Got it."

And all of a sudden, Madelis was back to pretending to be pleasant. "Well, I'm not stupid. I know I'm no match for ALL of you."

"Debatable," Braixen said.

"So I'm just going to leave. Just pretend this never happened! We never met here, okay?" Madelis said. "Got it? Good!"

Melia wordlessly shook her head. "You can't be serious."

"No, I think she's incredibly serious," Valarie said.

Will had heard enough. He had half a mind to just blow up her boat and watch her fall apart then and there.

Madelis' grunt suddenly pulled his phone from his pocket. "Ma'am! We just got a report that the Sky Relic is secured at Helojak Island!"

Madelis twitched. "Could you come here for a second?" She asked sweetly.

Her grunt, who apparently lacked any form of survival instinct whatsoever, approached his boss without hesitation, who promptly smote him for his monumental screw-up.

"Ever heard of a text message, idiot!?" Madelis snapped, flexing the fingers on the hand she'd just to strike him down. "Why would you say something like that aloud?!"

"S-Sorry…"

Madelis groaned in exasperation. "Get up, we're leaving."

She turned to walk away. Will pointed, and Froslass let loose. The Shadow Ball splashed across the beach in-between Madelis and her boat and the sand exploded. What remained was a sizzling, smoking pit of melting, blackened soot.

Madelis froze. Her grunts jumped into action, but Hapi had already charged up an Aura Sphere and readied himself to snipe someone."Ah-ah-ah," Melia said. "Don't move a muscle."

Slowly, Madelis turned to face Will. "You missed," she said, carrying herself with an air of control and command…but Will thought he saw little beads of sweat forming on her forehead. "Was that supposed to be a warning shot?"

She could call it whatever it was. He wasn't about to let her escape this easily. "I'm not just going to let you walk," he said.

Madelis sighed. "Getting captured by your little ranger friends is really not going to be good for my health. We are walking, William. Unless you aim to…" her voice drifted off. She caught herself, and quickly said, "How about this? I propose a trade."

The temptation to just tell her to go pound sand was so strong. They were on the beach and everything. It would have been the perfect response.

But…he had to be practical here. "Sure. Give back Nim and I'll let you walk."

His reply took her aback. "Nim? The…uh…ah, the psychic girl."

"My friend," Will said. His pulse quickened. " Our friend."

"...I would like to point out, it was not me who took her," Madelis said, keeping her voice calm and civil.

"Lady, we don't give a crap!" Aelita snapped. "If you want to walk anywhere ever again. call your buddies and tell them to bring Nim back!"

"I can't do that," Madelis said. "I literally can't. It's not my authority to make a call like that, and my colleagues would never do so anyway. What I can offer is this…" she made to reach into her pocket.

"If you call your Pokemon now, I'll have Hapi blow up your ship," Melia warned her.

"So unless you like to swim, I suggest you and your boys chill," Valarie said.

Madelis shot a quick look at her boat, then gestured in acquiescence. "Here."

A key?

"Since you're so deadset on getting yourself killed on this misguided attempt to "do the right thing", " she said, performing a little air quote as she did, "How about this? I give you this key and tell you where you can use it, and then we'll pretend we never saw each other. Okay?"

"Lady, you can go suck my di - " Saki started, but thankfully, Adam cut her off.

"How do we know that thing doesn't just open your makeup drawer?"

"I don't use makeup," she snapped. She took a calming breath, then replied, "And how do I know you won't blow up my boat with me in it? Life's all about uncertainties. Since I know who I am dealing with, I'll assume you people will try to storm my island. If you somehow manage to do so, well…there is a sealed lab where we keep some Shadow Pokemon rejects. You need an Admin key to open it."

Shadow Pokemon rejects. That phrase alone raised Will's hackles. "And you're offering it to me?"

"In exchange for never seeing me and me never seeing you," Madelis said. "These Pokemon are valuable in their own right. Our organization will find a use for them. I'm assuming you think they'll be better off with you lot, so here. Do we have a deal?"

Will rolled his eyes. In a way, this was just another attempt to intimidate them with the notion that they had hostages they could hurt. Well, fine. Madelis was many things, but he didn't think she was a liar. She was obviously the lowest-ranking Xen Admin anyway, so any attempt to force her to communicate with the others regarding Nim would blow up on his face anyway. They'd find some way to turn it into another ambush.

"Fine," he said.

Madelis smiled. "Splendid. Who knew you were capable of reason?" She flicked the key towards him and he caught it. "We'll see each other again, you can count on that."

"...what an absolute moron," Adam said when Madelis boarded her boat again.

"So…Helojak Island?" Valarie said. "Thank you Madelis for taking two hours to put on makeup…"

"Fam, we gotta tell Crawli about this right away," Saki said.

"Crawli's probably in his office at this time," Melia replied. "Hopefully he hasn't gone to bed yet…"

"We need to capitalize on this!" Aelita said. "They know the gig is up, and they'll be fortifying the island. We need to go there immediately!"

Aelita was right. Will was tired of fighting this war defensively. They'd never win if they kept defending, kept reacting. They needed to take the initiative, bring the fight straight to Team Xen.

"It's still Crawli's ship, in his dock, in his city," Melia said. "I want to go just as bad as you guys, we have to do this the right way."

"The right way suuuuucks…" Saki grumbled and Will found himself agreeing. Nevertheless, he saw no alternative.

They split up again. Aelita and Saki would get the ship ready to sail the very second Crawli gave permission, Adam and Braixen began gathering provisions and other critical supplies and Will, Melia and Valarie headed back to the HQ to report and explain the situation.

"Helojak Island…" Crawli said after Valarie had gotten him up to speed. "I knew it. That was the place I mentioned before. Recently there have been whirlpools and rough storms appearing in the area. Team Xen must have found the place and made it their base of operations on Terajuma…"

"You did say the island was impossible to get to," Val said. "Did Saki…?"

"She sure did!" Crawli smiled. "That Blakeori is an engineering wizard! She worked with our own staff to create a vessel that can handle the trip."

"Crawli, we need to go RIGHT now," Melia said urgently. "This may be our only chance!"

"S-Slow down there!" Crawli replied, his eyes widening as he realized just what Melia was proposing. "Let's think about this for a second! This is a Team Xen base. You are a high priority target. Heck, your entire groups's targeted. Doesn't this seem like a bad idea? If anything, you should stay behind on this one."

A bad idea? All Will heard was Crawli describing the perfect surprise attack. Melia staying behind on her own, all vulnerable and isolated, would be just what they expected. Taking her along on this attack, where she could provide crucial firepower while staying under close watch, was something the enemy wouldn't expect.

"It doesn't matter where we are," Melia said. "Madelis basically confirmed that we're being watched regardless. If everyone goes without us, we'll just get attacked again."

"Sticking together is the plan!" Valarei said. She pulled her arms around Melia and Will's shoulders. "That's how we roll in this family!"

"Y-Yeah!"

"We have an opportunity to deal some serious damage right now," Will said. "If we wait, that opportunity closes."

Crawli sighed. "If that's what you want, I will not stop you. Meet me at the shipyard. We should go immediately, then."

The sun had finally disappeared behind the distant mountains, plunging Terajuma Island once more into darkness.

Soon, Team Xen's people would end their day and hit their beds. They'd probably run a watch schedule of sorts, keeping a skeleton crew on standby. They'd fortified the island to make it impossible to get to…which meant they didn't actually expect an attack.

The circumstances couldn't be better.

Mom…if you're watching over me…keep looking. I'll do you proud.

They all gathered at one of the shipyards, where Crawli had parked the new and Saki-improved boat. it looked almost identical to the boat Tesla had used, back when she pulled him from the fire.

Tesla…come to think of it, didn't she say she lived here? At the Telia Resort? He hadn't even stopped to think about that. If he failed here, she would suffer Team Xen as well.

All the more reason to kick their freaking teeth in tonight.

WIth his preparations taken care of, Will approached the shipyard Crawli had prepared for them. There, Melia, Aelita and Crawli were already waiting for him.

"Ah, Will, there you are! I…" Melia's voice died in her throat when she saw him. "Will, what is that on your head?"

"A boonie head," Will said, brimming with pride. When the rangers learned he'd been about to embark on a night assault on Team Xen's base, a couple of them had taken him aside. They'd explained that they were the ones who had secured the Weather Institute that day. They'd been so thankful that he, Melia and Aelita had turned a hostage situation into a simple arrest, that they'd granted him access to some tactical ranger gear they usually reserved for their experienced men and women in the field.

Crawli looked him over. "It fits."

"No it doesn't," Aelita laughed. "Will…you're not a hat type of guy."

Perhaps. But Will was the kind of guy who liked optimal silence, concealment and a lower profile. "It's tactical."

"It sure is," Melia said.

"It's ridiculous!" Aelita smiled. "But hey, if you like it…"

Will pulled the brim of the boonie hat a bit lower. "They'll never see me coming."

"You'll be kicking in the front door with Blaziken and Nidoking."

"And until then, they'll never see me coming."

"I'm not going to cramp your style, Will, but…" Melia ran her eyes across his body again and winced. "Yeah, after all of this is over, we're going to go shopping."

They were just jealous.

Together, they headed to Crawli's transport. Everything was ready. His friends had boarded, the supplies were secured and Rorim B was dancing in the pale moonlight -

Wait, what?

"Darling, I will be your captain today~!" Rorim said. Crawli watched him with an amusement look in his eyes. "Are you ready for deployment?"

"Aye aye Captain," Will said.

"Then let's get this show on the road!"

With the combined powers of Saki's adjustments and Rorim's startlingly competent driving skills, they made it to Helojak Island in under half an hour. During the last mile, Rorim cut the engine and let the boat drift forwards in silence, barely more than a specter under the cover of the night.

Slowly, expertly, Rorim guided the boat around, with Crawli giving him the occasional instruction. They slowly pulled up to a decrepit-looking wooden pier that looked like it hadn't seen any use in a decade.

Crawli carefully climbed out and tested the pier. "It'll hold," he said, and Aelita, Melia and Will followed him. "Helojak Island. Home to a modest, but quaint marsh along the edge of Terajuma."

A swamp was more like it. Helojak island came with a thick, humid air that carried the stench of rotting vegetation, swamp gas and the sharp scent of stagnant water. It was raining, which would further help mask their approach.

Aelita peered out over the edge of the pier. "I"m gonna guess that these waves and whirlpools aren't normal?"

"Absolutely not. This island is usually calm and quiet. The fact that it's this chaotic means that Team Xen is doing something nasty."

"If they're on this island, then they're probably going to notice us soon," Melia said. "We should move fast before we get cornered here."

"Right. I'll lead the way."

Fully expecting Team Xen to play dirty, Adam, Saki and Val would fan out in a loose semi-circle around the pier, keeping an eye out while simultaneously preparing for a mighty ambush and counter-attack should the need arise.

Braixen…would give them support from the safety and dryness of the ship. "I'm not going any further than this! Swamp water, ocean water, it doesn't matter! Water is water, and water is from the Devil."

Will found it hard to argue with that logic, so he kept moving.

"Pe-euu, what a stench," Aelita said, scrunching her face up in disgust.

Melia took a wrong step and her left leg disappeared up to her calve into the ebony water. She gasped and stiffened, quickly jerking her boot free. "Gah! Oh, that feels super weird! The water's all warm!"

"That's the marshes for you," Crawli simply said. "Mind your step."

Will had never been so happy with his jungle boots before. The constant downpour and humid air soon had them all soaked through, but at least his boonie hat kept his head completely dry.

He allowed himself to let the swamp soak in around him. This would be his battlefield. This would be where he would ambush and defeat his enemy.

Will listened to the constant patter of the rain, felt the warm, humid water around his feet and saw the shapes natural to the swamp. By simply using his senses, he was able to understand what belonged in this swamp and what didn't belong.

Broad, variegated leaves brushed against his elbows. Vines tugged at his boots and the thick, half-rotten foliage beneath his feet gave away with every step he took.

They slogged through the dark swamp, following Crawli along the driest possible route until they saw something looming ahead. It sure wasn't natural; all straight lines and angles that didn't belong in the swamp. It was a squat, broad building, like a factory or some industrial complex.

Bingo.

"I don't see any guards," Crawli said. "Let's head in!"

Once through the open front door, they found themselves in some sort of factory. Its design was much like the other Xen facilities; with white pipes going from the floor into the walls and all kinds of drums and containers scattered around the place.

They pushed on. The interior of the factory seemed to have been built around the sea; Will spotted enormous underwater propellers, or wings of sorts, violently churning away.

"Looks like we found the cause of the dangerous waters surrounding the island…" Crawli said, staring at the weird infrastructure Team Xen had set up.

"They're using this facility to churn the waters," Aelita realized. "But why?"

"Cause it discourages people from approaching the island," Melia replied. "That allowed them to plot nefarious events without interruption."

Crawli nodded in agreement. "We were wondering how they were able to pull together such a force on Route Six…and this is how. They were already on the islands plotting who knows what…whether or not you guys came to Terajuma, Team Xen had something planned for us…"

It really begged the question: where else had Team Xen set up shop? Or rather, where else hadn't they?

Will continued along. He crossed a small, black bridge -

The metal underneath his feet suddenly began moving. Before Will realized it, the bridge darted away, crossing the open water and sliding through a tunnel into a different room.

Well, goodbye guys, Will thought grimly . The platform came to a sudden halt against a different platform, some sort of broad hallway with handrails that wrapped further around the water.

A pair of Team Xen grunts came wandering around the corner, because of course they did, and they froze in their tracks when they saw they had company.

"Hey! Stop right there!" The leftmost grunt yelled, sending out his Pokemon to engage Will.

Blaziken shrieked in anger, the grunt's Pawniard lunged forwards with metallic, razor-sharp arms, and the battle was joined.

The other grunt watched with wide eyes as Will and his comrade battled each other. Blaziken was fast on her feet and struck like lightning, dishing out hammer-blows without mercy. A flurry of normal kicks followed by searing Blaze Kick took care of the grunt's Pawniard, and his next Pokemon, an insectoid Pokemon with a head shaped like a knight's helmet, fared no better.

Underneath their feet, the catwalk had started to heat up considerably during the brief skirmish. Blaziken's flames, though fired in short, controlled bursts, still vaporized water and superheated the metal. When the fighting was done, the two grunts promptly surrendered.

"I'm not even going to try and stop you as I know the logical outcome is my failure," the other guy calmly said, raising his hands to show he wasn't going to try anything. "But even then, it's no surprise that your rate of success is nearly zero once you reach our Executives."

He'd heard that one before.

With no clear path back, Will continued to start their assault on Helojak Island from his very own position. He continued onwards, passing by more of those turbine blades as he made his way to yet another platform. This time, he was ready for the sudden movement as the platform surged across the water again, delivering him to a platform on the other side of the water, connected to another part of the base.

Will spotted a console bolted onto the wall. It asked him if he wanted to…reverse the flow of the water?

Ah. Like that.

He flipped the button and the devices in the water stopped churning for a moment. Then, they began moving in the opposite direction, and the platform Will had used to get there in the first place drifted back across the water.

"Froslass, could you go and get the rest?" Will asked. "I'm pretty sure this is the way forward."

As always, she acknowledges his order in the most dramatic way possible. She did a little backflip into the air and flickered out of existence halfway through her motion.

It didn't take Crawli, Melia and Aelita long to figure it out. Before long, the three of them rode that same platform across the water, and they were reunited once again.

Melia eyed the two disarmed grunts cowering in the corner. "What a strange way of locomotion…what if people fell off?"

"I'm glad you decided to wait for us," Crawli said. He gestured at the door that barred their way. "This the way forward?"

"It beats swimming," Aelita said. "Everyone ready?"

"Don't step on any more suspicious tiles, Will," Melia chastised him. "That could have ended way different!"

Will pulled his shoulders up in a little shrug. "I'm sorry? If it helps, it was an accident."

"It was the only way forward, Melia," Crawli came to his defense. "We would have done the same thing eventually."

She conceded that with a little tilt of her head. "Still…"

"Come on you guys, let's see what's behind door number two!" Aelita said. She pressed the opening mechanism and the doors soundlessly slid open, its two halves disappearing into the walls flanking it.

The four of them pushed deeper into the complex. Will found himself walking into a cavernous room flanked by white, towering machines. The water continued to flow underneath them, like the room was more of a bridge than anything.

There, roughly twenty meters ahead, another black-clad man stood tinkering with a massive generator of sorts, flanked by a little drone with a flatscreen television for a head.

" You can't even do something as simple as this?" A familiar voice drifted from the drone's speakers. "All you're doing is inputting numbers in the directed slot. Keep up."

"Lay off the nagging, lady," the man replied. "You're talking way too fast."

Wait a minute…Will knew that voice! That was Ren!

Holy shit, somehow, Ren had found his way to this island as well! Hot damn, finally they had some reinforcements.

"Ren?" Will called out. "Ren, my man, is that you?"

Ren turned around. He looked equally surprised to see them all as Will felt seeing him. "Aelita? Will? Green Dude?" He did a double take and then his arms dropped by his side. "Melia?"

"Ren?" Melia weakly said. "What…what are you doing here?"

Will didn't care about the specifics. Ren was here with them now. He laughed, knowing that with Ren here, Team Xen had nothing on them! "Ren! I'm so glad to see you!" He said, crossing the bridge.

"Way to go Ren!" Aelita said. "I didn't expect you to be here ahead of us! Come on, let's blow this base together!"

Exactly! Dependable as always. Ren was a smart guy, determined and resourceful. He…

He didn't move. He worked his jaw, staring at Melia with pained confusion. "I…"

The drone fluttered towards Will, putting itself in-between him and Ren. " Sorry, but that's exactly the opposite of what's happening here."

"That voice…" Melia gasped. "I know you! You're that Xen Admin who fought alongside Madelis on Blacksteeple Castle!"

"Yes, you may refer to me as Nasatsia," The drone continued. " Please do not forget it."

Will's elation at seeing Ren again easily drowned out the annoyance he felt at Nastasia's reappearance. He shoved the drone aside, then stepped towards Ren, holding out his arms to embrace him, just like they had back in Goldenleaf Town. "I know, Melia's alive. I found her! O-Or actually, she found me." He felt giddy, almost to a dizzying degree. He'd prepared himself for setback after setback against a ruthless, cruel enemy. Seeing the first friend he ever made in Aevium - and because of his lack of memories predating Aevium, Ren might as well have been his friend ever - alive and ready to cover his back once more was more than he could have hoped for.

After Mightyena and the Death Wings and his mom and Nim…after all the pain and misery and loss, he finally had a victory. Finally had a sense of normalcy back. Something he could latch on to to keep him going.

"Will…I think you should step back," Crawli said.

" Ren has abandoned your futile path and has decided to join our ranks - "

"Oh shut up," Will told her. "Take your mind games somewhere else."

"Will…" Ren said. He stepped back. "You guys…how-?"

"Ren," Melia said, almost pleadingly. "You didn't…"

Will heard the pain and the betrayal in her voice and knew that she'd reached all the wrong conclusions. "Course not Melia. Come on Ren. Tell her."

Ren took another step back. "S-Something's wrong here. Melia…I thought you were dead!"

A look of pure fury lit up Melia's face. "So you joined the organization that nearly got me killed?"

"I…I didn't…"

"No!" Will said, louder than he intended. "No, that's not…he wouldn't. Ren, tell her it ain't so."

"That…that's not…"

The door behind Ren opened and Neved entered. "You all are late. We were expecting you."

Will tuned the bastard out. Tuned out Nastasia too - talking about afterthoughts and letting go. What did they know? What the fuck did they know?

"Ren, tell her it ain't so!" Will repeated, louder. Angrier. He didn't get why Ren didn't move. Why he didn't just embrace his long-lost friends, give him a fistbump and then help him tear this place apart. They had an after to think of now damn it! Things to look forward to! They had Relics to get, obstacle courses to run together, friends to protect!

Laughing about stupid fucking coffee jokes together. But Ren didn't speak. Why didn't he fucking speak?

Nastasia continued blabbering, talking about the difference between Team Xen and them and utter crap about fate and logic.

Something like hysteria itched underneath Will's skin. Aelita and Melia bought it. They just bought thelies Team Xen fed them.

Not him. He'd told Tesla he'd keep hope. He'd promised mom he'd keep hope - "Come on Ren," Will said. Pleaded. "This isn't funny. We need you."

" Ren, we're done here," Nasasia said through that drone.

"Will…I don't think he's going to…" Aelita said. She sounded shocked. In denial.

Neved crossed his arms. He spoke too, Will believed, but he didn't hear him. Didn't hear him talking about foolishness and betrayal. He didn't hear Melia as she told Ren off, her words drenched in disappointment and pain. Didn't hear Crawli as Crawli yelled for him to get away from the Xen Admins and their new lackey.

Will didn't hear any of that. He took a breath to calm himself. Didn't work. It came out like a shudder. The constant humming of the machines made his throat seize up. That swamp gas still hadn't cleared. It burned in his eyes. "No," he whispered. This wasn't right. It was all wrong. "No nn on no…"

Neved held out his hand. Ren turned. He hesitated, looking at Melia…then at Will.

And he walked towards the door Neved gestured at.

Ren's silence hit harder than any affirmation could have.

"Goddamnit Ren!" Will shouted. "Say something?"

"Will…" Melia said. She approached him. slowly, keeping a close eye on the Xen Admin. "Let him go. Clearly, he has work to do."

Her voice was filled with pain and hurt and spite. Will shook his head. Melia was wrong. Aelita was wrong. Team Xen was wrong.

"You're my friend Ren . Our friend!" Panic welled up inside of his throat like bile. He felt like vomiting. Like screaming.

His mother was gone. He didn't have family left. Ren was it - the closest thing to family he'd had in Aevium. Ren had been a constant from the very beginning. Together with Vena, sure, but Ren had patched up his wounds and laughed and grieved with him. Ren had picked him up and held him upright.

Ren was his brother.

Neved held the door open for Ren, and Ren walked through. He walked right through.

Will felt himself start to run. It wasn't a coherent thought that spurred him on. Nothing rational, anyway. Neved fled. Ren fled. And he went after them. "Ren!"

The world whirled for a moment, unsteady, unbalanced. It righted itself when Neved began yelling at Ren, and Ren sent out his Pokemon.

Suddenly Ren's fully-evolved Greninja was there, right in front of him, taking a swing at Will's head.

Blaziken was there by his side. She blocked Greninja's blow and the amphibian Pokemon immediately flung himself back, deeper into the hall and across Neved and Ren's head. He clung to the ceiling and shot a Dark Pulse through the hall. Blaziken enveloped herself with flames and sprang ahead. She took the lead while throwing her fiery aura outwards and the resulting detonation busted the hallways open on both sides. Metal groaned and creaked as sections of the wall collapsed.

Greninja was never motionless, never stuck to the same position for longer than a second. He leapt from the wall to the ceiling, flinging razor-sharp Water Shurikens that tore deep gashes through the metal when they missed.

"Rem!"

Blaziken knew on an instinctual level that her trainer wouldn't be able to dodge those on his own. She moved with a speed and reflexes that rivaled those of Greninja, pulling Will out of the line of sight and blocking Greninja's attacks with her own body.

Her flames could not fully deflect the Shurikens. Each time she deflected them, they tore little bloody wounds across her body. Every attack she blocked, left her with more bleeding cuts.

But they kept up. Slowly, inch by inch, Blaziken and Will started catching up.

The hallway suddenly ended in a hatch that opened out into a strange room with several glass panes scattered throughout the floor. Neved and Ren filed through, after which Greninja pulled the door close behind them and blasted its locking mechanism with a quick Dark Pulse.

"Get the door!" Will ordered.

Blaziken bounded forwards, braced herself with a feathered arm and slammed into the steel hatch with the fury and force of a speeding train. She busted the heavy metal door off its hinges -

A large stream of water slammed into her body and knocked her back. Will barely had the time to throw himself to the side before a second blast of water could have taken his head off. He scampered for cover behind one of the turbines there and Blaziken did the same, taking cover behind a heavy console on her side of the room.

"Never should have come here William!" Neved's heavy voice boomed through the room.

Will's mind raced as he assessed the situation. Droplets of Blaziken's blood had stained the glass beneath them with red. He couldn't believe it. Ren hadn't just tried to defend himself, he'd gone straight for him.

Like Team Xen always did.

There was no time to process that, no time to think about anything else. Will sent Froslass into the fray and she wasted no time, immediately blasting Ren's Greninja with a Shadow Ball, then dodging his return fire. A Dark Pulse tore through the wall behind him.

Ren sent out an Arcanine as well. The massive, red-furred beast uttered a savage bark and proceeded to bathe the room in flames. The temperature skyrocketed and the floor groaned dangerously.

Blaziken rolled out rom behind her cover and Will did the same, his eyes scanning the room for where Ren and Neved were hiding -

- and Neved grinned as he pressed a button on some kind of remote control. Will barely had the time to register that before a series of explosions went off all around him. Blasts of thunder rolled through the floor. Glass erupted into thousands of pieces and with a screech of tortured metal, the floor beneath him started collapsing.

Will stumbled as he lost his footing. He flung himself towards, arms flailing in the air as he tried to catch himself on something, anything.

He caught a glimpse of Ren's pale, shocked face and Neved's cruel, steely eyes, and then the rest of the floor gave away in a roaring collapse of metal, glass and darkness.

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

---

"So that's what we'll do," Nastasia calmly finished through another remote-controlled drone. " Once that's settled, we're going to write a detailed report on that. Additionally. Ren."

Ren, still nervously walking back and forth across the catwalk, turned to face her. "What?" He snapped.

" Why can you not sit still? Do you have undiagnosed ADHD? Because when I had you fill out those application forms for Team Xen I told you to list any applicable mental illnesses."

"What? No! I'm pissed off about someone lying to me!"

Nastasia sighed so heavily that it filled the connection with static for a second. " Oh boy. Let's hear this one Neved?"

"Uh-huh," Neved murmured, keeping a close eye on the collapsed hallway. Such a pre-planned demolition would not stop their foe. He expected William to find his way up eventually. Weakened, but alive. They had to be swift.

"Who lied to you, Ren?"

"That part isn't very important, but Melia not being dead is PRETTY crucial," Ren snapped, a deep anger simmering right underneath the surface of his apparent calmness.

"Surely you must have seen the broadcast where we noted her survival," Neved said. "There were even more announcements made at the HQ."

"What broadcast?" Ren said angrily. "I've been stuffed in here ever since I was hired! I didn't know! And I certainly didn't know you guys were trying to kill Will! I thought you wanted him alive?"

"That much is true," Nastasia said. "Ren wouldn't have heard much about the outside world for a few weeks now. Well, no matter. William is too dangerous to keep alive, so we must eliminate him. The circumstances shouldn't change because you said you felt nothing for any of your old colleagues. Unless…you were untruthful there as well?"

A faint explosion rumbled through the facility in its foundations. Alarms started blaring. "He lives still," Neved grumbled. "That, or his comrades are closing in on us. We have no time."

"Right. Neved, take Ren and get to the rooftop. I will be there shortly."

"Aye."

Neved took the boy and continued onwards.

~~~~~~~(III)~~~~~~~

---

She moved before anything else did. She'd always been the fastest, ever since she'd been a little Torchic…

Blaziken wrapped her arms around him and spun mid-fall, putting herself between him and whatever was beneath them. They smacked into something hard and sharp, then bounced off a wall and slammed into the ground. They landed amidst a pile of rubble, glass, warped metal and jagged plates.

Even though Blaziken had cushioned the blow, the impact still knocked the wind out of him. White-hot pain shot through his left arm, and he felt like he'd just rolled out of a tumble dryer loaded with rocks.

Blaziken pulled her arms back, carefully letting Will roll to the ground, amidst the rubble. She wiped the pieces of glass and shards of metal off her feathery coat, then glared up at the gaping hole that was the floor above them.

Will shakily got back to his feet. Had…had Ren helped lure him into a trap? Dropped him down a fucking hole so he couldn't confront him?

He couldn't believe it - didn't want to believe it.

But the evidence was pretty fucking irrefutable.

For what felt like the hundredth time that week, Will took a moment to tug at his seething fury and anger and shoved them into a little box to be labeled "do not open". He bottled it up to the best of his ability and put it somewhere where he could kick at it later.

Onto the next problem. Blaziken had cushioned his fall to the best of her abilities, but holy shit he had a piece of shrapnel sticking right out of his arm!

"You're kidding." he breathed. "Seriously?'

Slowly, with a trembling hand, he reached for the large, steel splinter that stuck out of his left bicep. It wasn't as large as he'd feared. Maybe a couple of millimeters wide, couple of centimeters long. It looked scarier than it was. Probably. Maybe.

He bit back a frightened little moan, then clutched the little piece of metal and called, "F-Froslass! I need your help!"

Pain and anguish and frustration had his voice trembling, but Froslass came regardless. She fluttered out of a sideroom that was now blocked off by debris and put her ghostly limbs on his shoulders.

"Just like we practiced," Will muttered, more to himself than his Pokemon. "One…two…"

Be jerked the shrapnel out of his arm before he got to three. A little spurt of blood welled up from the little hole.

Froslass brought her masked face closer and gently breathed on his wound. Her frozen breath filled the deep, round little wound, froze the blood in place and dulled the pain.

He'd worry about freeze burn or tissue damage later. Right now, he had a deep, dark pit to climb out of. Had Nim been there with him, she would have said something smart and profound about symbolism.

But Nim wasn't there.

Ren was fighting to make sure it stayed like that.

Froslass checked to see if the coast was clear. The next instant, Blaziken impatiently pulled him off his feet, braced his neck so that the sudden velocity wouldn't break his spine or something, and then jumped.

Will clung tightly against her feathered torso, holding on for dear life as the ground plummeted away from underneath him. Blaziken's well-developed legs could have propelled her across a skyscraper. Clearing a two-story drop was nothing to her.

She dropped Will right in front of the door. Froslass happily fluttered after him, either unaware or simply apathetic about the whole situation. Will took a moment to retrieve a potion from his backpack and sprayed Blaziken's wounds.

He had to be more careful. Until Axew was strong enough to either evolve or fight for himself,, he effectively only had five Pokemon on him. His enemy was too numerous.

Froslass flew through the wall adjacent to the next door. Satisfied that she hadn't returned to warn him, Will passed through the same door Ren and Neved had moments before. It led him through another hallway, this one at a steep upwards angle that ended in a bend after a dozen meters. Through little grates in the floor, Will saw the stormy water of the sea still churning beneath. He'd been very lucky; if Neved had decided to spring his ambush here instead of above the basement level, no amount of Valaries in the world could have saved him from that watery grave.

He'd chalk that one up to luck. He didn't get to that often.

Blaziken and him continued on their way. Will picked up the pace, rounded the corner -

"Will!"

He barely had the chance to realize that Aelita, Melia and Crawli were all standing right there in that room before Melia wrapped her slender arms around him and clutched the back of his jacket. He gasped at the sudden contact, but after a brief moment of hesitation, he hugged her back.

Melia pulled her head back and gave him a furious, tear-filled glare. "Don't do that to me," she angrily said and her voice trembled. "Don't you dare do that again."

"Running off like that is dangerous man," Crawli said. He and Aelita stood next to a large door, much the same as the one at the entrance of the facility. "We went after you, but then we heard those explosions. When we saw that the entire floor had collapsed…"

"With no Will climbing out of the pit," Aelita added. "I told them you'd be fine, but yeah, not seeing you anywhere was really scary."

Melia's grip on him tightened. Her expression was turbulent and it looked like she fought desperately to keep a grip on her emotions. "Losing Ren is bad enough. I-If I lost you too, I'd…I wouldn't…please…don't leave us like that."

Yeah. He'd known Ren for two months. Melia had been his friend for years. What he felt, it had to be so much worse for her. She hadn't lost herself. Aelita hadn't lost herself.

Why couldn't he keep a better grip on his emotions?

"I'm sorry," he whispered. He reached up to caress the crown of Melia's head, thought better, and merely dropped his arms by his side. "I won't leave you. Not a chance."

"Come, this door leads to the roof I think," Crawli said. "I think I can hear a helicopter approaching, we have to hurry!"

Crawli and Aelita kicked the door open and hurried onto the roof. The black tiles were slippery with rain. There, straight ahead, stood Neved and Ren, as if waiting for something to happen.

Ren stared at Melia.

Melia stared back, her expression hard.

For Will, the plan was simple. Beat them as fast as possible, throw Neved off the roof, knock Ren's freaking lights out and then…then…then he'd knock the sense back into him. There had to be something else going on here. There had to be a reason why Ren was doing this - there had to be!

"We have you cornered!" Crawli yelled. "You two should just give up!"

"You're on our turf," Neved said, way too composed for someone so heavily outnumbered. "We are everything but cornered.

Crawli laughed nervously. "Yeah, it just felt cool to say that, is all. You have friends waiting for us right? No need to hide them any further!"

"Sharp. I'd expect nothing else from Terajuma's Head Ranger." He raised his voice and yelled, "Let's give our friends a warm welcome!"

And on freaking cue, Zetta and Madelis came out of their little hiding spots, taking up flanking positions at their five and seven o'clock.

"See? I told you they'd come!" Madelis said, all but dancing with happiness. "My grunt's mistake turned into a fine opportunity!"

"It's not like they had a choice," Zetta sneered.

"Zetta and Madelis…" Melia said.

Aelita scoffed. "Where's Geara? Did that nerd decide to stay out of this one? Afraid to get wet?"

"He's a little busy at the moment, but you may see a part of him today still!"

Will would rather continue his day without ever seeing Geara's mug again.

"Not that we need him!" Madelis happily continued. "My glamour and beauty is all we require!"

Melia took one look at Madelis' face and said, "All that glamour on your face is melting away because of the rain. Maybe you should've invested in waterproof ones at the fleamarket or something."

Damn. That one was savage.

"You BRAT!" Madelis shouted. "It was all I had at the time!"

Melia didn't miss a beat. "Oh, so you do wear makeup. Guess it's not as natural as you made it seem…"

Yet another reason to stay on Melia's good side; she's developed quite a brutal tongue.

Thoroughly mangled, Madelis could only fume in impotent rage. "I've decided! I want to erase them now! Melia FIRST!"

Will tensed up, getting ready for another slugfest.

"With all of us together, you guys don't stand a chance," Crawli said. "As the Head Ranger of Terajuma, I can't let this slide. Old man! You're my next catch!"

Neved…chuckled. The sound sent a chill down Will's spine. "Sorry, but I won't be your opponent today.

Will could have sworn that the Admins trained each other in dramatic timing. A helicopter came down form the clouds. It came to a awkward, hovering still at the building' s side and Nastasia came walking out. "Well mister Head Ranger. You talk a lot of game," she said. "I'm curious to see how much of that talk can actually be backed up with competence."

"That voice…Nastasia!"

"Oh?" She said, slowly approaching the four of them. "You remembered. On my behalf, thank you for remembering. Well, after we're done here, you probably won't remember anything at all. But that's beside the point."

Will sent out Nidoking. All around him, the others sent out their Pokemon as well, and suddenly the rooftop had grown very, very small with all the powerful Pokemon crowding it.

"Ren, you take care of William. Zetta, you take care of Melia. Madelis, you with Aelita and Neved…just be on standby for now.

"Aye."

Melia turned towards Ren one final time. "Ren, please…" She pleaded.

Ren grimaced. "I…I'm sorry…" he said, barely audible over the rain. He sent out his Pokemon as well; a humanoid, bipedal creature that resembled a green scarecrow more than anything else. It didn't hesitate a moment and unleashed a Dark Pulse on Nidoking.

Something within the back of Will's mind began howling.

Goddamnit it Ren!

"Fine," Will mouthed. So be it.

Nidoking side-stepped his foe's attack and retaliated with a Sludge Bomb, spewing a vile concoction of concentrated poison and acids across the battlefield. His foe crouched down and leapt away, barely avoiding the sludge.

Nidoking charged forwards, lowering a massive shoulder to ram his foe.

Ren's Pokemon stood his ground. His arms glowed green, and massive, sharp spikes began jutting outwards.

Will shouted an order, and Nidoking dropped into a roll at the last moment. Ren's Pokemon swung an oversized spiky fist at Nidoking's head, but missed by inches. As Nidoking passed him by, his massive tail snapped out and struck his foe's legs.

The Pokemon - a Cacturne according to the Dex - went down in an instant, trailing reddish spikes that flew across the battlefield like shrapnel.

Ren's timing was subtle, but Will saw it nonetheless.

"Cacturne! Use Dark Pulse!"

"Straight for the mouth Nidoking!"

As the Cacturne opened his weird, stitched-up mouth, Nidoking straddled him and delivered a wicked one-two combination of jabs straight at its face. After the first two punches, Cacturne's attempt at a Dark Pulse went wide.

After the second two, Cacture's arms went limp.

On the third, Ren finally recalled him.

Fighting went on all around him. The rooftop shook as his friends battled for their lives. Will put his back against Aelita's.

Ren sent out a Flygon next. A winged target like that would be difficult, if not impossible for Nidoking to handle.

"He can't get to you! Use Dragon Claw!" Ren ordered.

Flygon's claws lit up with greenish energy, washing off its claws like liquid flames. He flew towards Nidoking, and raked at him with those wicked claws.

Instead of dodging, Will ordered Nidoking to take it. Nidoking curled himself up, protecting his head with his spiked arms as Flygon battered him with claw strikes. The draconic energy surrounding Flygon's claws allowed him to get through Nidoking's tough hide without too much trouble. Every time Nidoking blocked or deflected his blows, he ended up with deep cuts across his body.

Then, as Flygon prepared another hook, Nidoking's tail snapped out and struck Flygon's leg. Flygon faltered, but didn't stop attacking. His Dragon Claw came down upon Nidoking's neck -

- and Nidoking used that moment to hunch his shoulders upwards. Suddenly, one of his poisonous spikes was in the way, and Flygon impaled his palm on the diamond-sharp protrusion.

Flygon gave a cry of pain.

"Well done Nidoking," Will said, before recalling him. He sent out Pidgeot next.

Pidgeot spread his wings and took to the sky. Flygon gave a cry and gave pursuit, sand trailing his wings as he went after Pidgeot.

Pidgeot, being the personification of a jet engine he was, quickly outflew Ren's Flygon. He turned in mid-air, facing the pursuing dragon, then began beating his wings with more force. He kicked up a savage storm of wind that slammed into Flygon's body like a sudden storm. Flygon's wings caught the wind full on and it slowed him down considerably,

Flygon covered its face with one of its arms, unable to get much closer.

Will shouted his order and Pidgeot instantly picked up speed, plummeting higher into the air to get as much altitude as he could.

Ren clenched his teeth, then shot a questioning look at Nasasia. She shook her head and Ren muttered something to himself under his breath. The next instant he sent out Scyther and the bladed Pokemon wasted no time in surging across the battlefield to intercept one of Aelita's Pokemon.

Having guessed that a dirty trick like that one would have been coming, Will pulled out Houndoom's ball - he'd been holding onto that one for a while - and ordered him to stop Scyther at all costs.

Scyther obliged. He turned around mid-lunge and swept a razor-sharp limb at Houndoom.

Houndoom blasted him aside with a quick burst of flames. His paws skidded across the soaked rooftop as he turned to face Scyther, who zig-zagged across the battlefield too fast to pin down with a quick strike.

Pidgeot zipped overhead, a tiny dot in the sky. Will couldn't physically see it, especially not in this heavy rain, but he knew Pidgeot had just performed such a sharp U-turn that it could have torn any commercial plane in half. He would have flattened his wings to his body and began diving. Who cared about the sound barrier? Pidgeot sure didn't.

Scyther quickly avoided a burst of flames from Houndoom and then threw itself into the air, using its insectoid wings to flutter aside every time Houndoom attempted to shoot him out of the sky. He shot towards Houndoom like a speeding bullet -

Houndoom's jaws parted and he unleashed a thick stream of black smog, which rapidly blanketed the battlefield and made it impossible for Scyther to see.

"Flygon! Dodge him, quick!" Ren yelled. "Protect yourself with Steel Wing!"

An excellent tactical decision. Flygon's wings glimmered with a silvery hue as they became as hard as steel. He touched down on one of the radio towers and wrapped his wings around him, presenting Pidgeot with a target lined with razor-like edges and curves.

Will gestured sharply with his right hand.

Houndoom backed away. Scyther, not particularly well-adapted to the choking, poisonous screen Houndoom had laid down, propelled himself above the cloud of smog. It drew one sword-like appendage back, readying itself for a savage blow -

- And Pidgeot came from above like a freaking missile. It happened so fast that Will only got to see the aftermath; one second Scyther was there, the next second Pidgeot had plowed through the rooftop using Scyther's broken and unconscious body, then flung it over the edge.

"No!" Ren yelled, scrambling to recall Scyther before his Pokemon could drop out of sight.

Flygon's head craned around to follow Pidgeot as the massive bird of prey circled around for round two, and he paid dearly for it when Houndoom proceeded to nail him with a quick Dark Pulse.

"Damn you Will!" Ren shouted.

Screw off, Ren.

Ren proceeded to send out Arcanine in Scythers' stead. The massive canine stomped onto the roof, regarded his two opponents with an almost regal air, then lowered his head. His hackles rose, making him appear even larger and bulkier than he already was.

At that point, things started to become a bit difficult to follow. Will understood that the battle wasn't going well for his allies. Zetta's Pokemon began harassing him as well. Somehow, Nastasia's interference had put so much pressure on Aelita and Melia that they couldn't fend off their opponents and keep them from interfering with Will and Ren's fight.

Which meant that they were free to pull shit like nailing Pidgeot from behind with Manectric's Thunderbolt, or tangling up Houndoom's legs with Tsareena's Power Whip.

His duel against Ren began turning into a desperate struggle to keep the momentum and Will didn't like that one bit. Houndoom pivoted to snap at Tsareena and the next second. Arcanine slammed into him with absolutely blinding speed.

Houndoom attempted to roll with the impact, but Arcanine's incredible speed and bulk made that almost impossible. He nearly lost his footing, shook his head, then narrowly managed to ward Arcanine off with a Dark Pulse.

Flying around in the rain was one thing. Flying around in the rain while an Electric-type attempted to snipe you from the air was a completely different matter. Will was forced to recall Pidgeot before Zetta could truly knock him out and then sent Blaziken into the fray.

Will ordered Blaziken to take the pressure off Houndoom by engaging Arcanine instead. That left a battered Houndoom free to harass Flygon, preventing Ren's dragon from swooping down and nailing someone with another Dragon Claw.

Slowly but steadily, Zetta and Madelis wore Aelita and Melia down. Houndoom managed to force Flygon to the ground with several Dark Pulses in quick succession, but then Florges blindsided him with a Dazzling Gleam. He retaliated with a thick cloud of Smog, but then Tsareena simply lashed out at him through the smoke and struck his head with a Power Whip.

It was the same for Blaziken. Arcanine lunged for her throat with parted jaws. She caught the full brunt of his weight and managed to get her hands around his jaws, preventing them from snapping shut around her throat.

Flygon came in from the side, lashing out at Blaziken with a quick snap of his tail. She let go with her left hand and deflected Flygon's tail, but Arcanine renewed his offensive and shoved himself forwards. and the savagery behind his attack nearly sent her stumbling backwards.

Thinking fast, Will recalled Houndoom and sent out Nidoking instead. Nidoking rammed his shoulder against Arcanine's flank and Arcanine gave a pained shriek. Flygon dove at Nidoking from the sky before he could do anything else, but he'd bought Blaziken the opening she needed. As Nidoking leapt after Flygon and seized a handful of the dragon's wings, Blaziken gathered energy into her legs, then drove her knee up against Arcanine's jaw. The blow sent Arcanine reeling, and Blaziken struck again before the massive canine could recover.

Arcanine staggered backwards and Blaziken kicked off, leaping forwards and striking Arcanine's head with a High Jump Kick Will could have sworn she didn't know how to do a couple of days before.

As Arcanine slumped to the ground, Nidoking wrestled the thrashing Flygon to the ground as well. Flygon gored him with a savage Dragon Claw, tearing through the plating on Nidoking's stomach and in return, Nidoking slammed his head against Flygon's skull. That headbutt, propelled by iron-like muscles and a skull reinforced for ramming into boulders, struck Flygon right where it hurt. Already weakened by Houndoom's Dark-type attacks, Flygon simply collapsed.

That forced Ren to recall Arcanine and order his own Starter Pokemon into the fight.

Greninja, then.

Will heard a sudden cry of pain behind him.

"And we're done here," Nastasia said.

Alarmed, Will spun around. Crawli sank through his knees and slumped to the floor, clutching a bleeding wound in his abdomen.

Nidoking and Blaziken began engaging Ren's Greninja in a furious hand-to-hand fight. Greninja dove underneath a roundhouse kick from Blaziken and struck a quick jab at her exposed abdomen, then dropped low to narrowly avoid a tail-swing from Nidoking. He flung a handful of Water Shurikens at the wounded Poison-type, which in turn gave Blaziken the opening to get in close and unleash a lightning-fast series of jabs and hooks, flames pouring from her wrists as she drove him back.

"So strong…" Crawli groaned out. "I've never…faced someone like her before! Who…who is this woman?"

"Weren't you listening before? I told you my name is Nastasia."

Greninja took a glancing blow to the chin, spun with the momentum and backflipped away. He flung a series of Water Shurikens at Blaziken in mid-air and then a quick Dark Pulse at Nidoking when Nidoking blasted him with a Sludge Bomb. The stream of dark energy cut the globule of gunk in half and it exploded halfway through the air, showering the roof with poison.

Slowly, the other Admins started changing positions. As Melia and Aelita moved to cover Crawli's flanks, Will shifted his attention to Nastasia and Neved. Fighting Ren had been tough, but he hadn't been fighting for his life like they had. In a way, he was still soft.

Will struggled to follow everything that was going on. He guided his two Pokemon as best he could. With Madelis and Zetta encroaching upon his flanks, he had to play a constant game of offense and defense, sending Blaziken and Nidoking back and forth across the rooftop. He had to keep the pressure on Greninja while simultaneously defending his friends from the two Xen Admins.

Blaziken flung herself into a horizontal, spinning kick, driving Greninja back long enough for Nidoking to knock Zetta's Manectric out with a well-placed Earth Power. He clutched his torn abdomen with a shaky, armored limb, heaving and panting. As Greninja began countering Blaziken's furious assault, Nidoking slammed his tail against the ground, shrieking a challenge for the other Pokemon around him to come get some.

Greninja met Blaziken's furious assault in kind, slashing at her with curved Water Shurikens. Blaziken enveloped herself with flames but Greninja was faster and lighter than her. He could dance back and forth to stay out of range, before wearing her down with a constant barrage of Rain-boosted punches and kicks.

Lighter and faster.

Desperate times called for vicious, violent measures. "Blaziken! Get in close and grapple the bastard! Grab him and don't let go!"

Just as Greninja darted closer for another Water-infused punch, Blaziken threw caution to the wind and tackled Greninja to the ground. She flung her wiry arms around his waist and shoved Greninja to the ground.

"Nidoking, catch!"

Grappling on the ground, Blaziken used her superior weight and strength to get an arm around his neck and waist. As Greninja began furiously striking at her ribs with his elbow, Blaziken whirled around and flung Greninja in the air.

Ren's Greninja was a slippery little bastard, but even he couldn't escape from the reality of gravity and momentum. As he spun in mid-air to send a series of Water Shuriken at Blaziken again, Nidoking spun around in a blur. His tail, thick and powerful enough to crush boulders, slammed into Greninja with a sickening crunch.

Greninja slumped to the ground and Ren had to recall him as well.

Blaziken, panting and bleeding, glared at Neved, but she flicked her gaze to Zetta as well, who approached the left flank.

Nidoking, swaying on his feet, glared at Madelis. Her Tsareena tried to rush past him, but Nidoking whirled around and lashed out with his tail again. Tsareena narrowly avoided the attack and immediately backpedaled.

'These guys have gotten so much stronger…" Melia said.

Zetta's Type:Null slowly started marching towards Melia and Hapi fired off an Aura Sphere to keep him at bay.

"What? You think we just sit around in a lounge and do nothing all day?" Madelis snapped. "That only happens sometimes~!"

"We have to keep up or else you guys would get too comfortable," Zetta said.

Slowly, Blaziken inched her way back to Will. He acted fast and took the Super Potion he'd stashed in his back pocket. These people loved to run their mouths. He could take advantage of that. He quickly sprayed the worst of the injuries, starting with the large gash in her flank -

Neved's Vikavolt charged up a lethal attack. With a sudden burst of strength, Nidoking threw himself in front of Blaziken just as Vikavolt attacked, taking a searing thunderbolt straight to the chest.

In his absence, Tsareena attacked, but Aelita's Mienfoo was barely able to drive it back again.

Will started to see that this situation was dire. He still had enough fight in him to take out another Admin, but after that…things would turn problematic.

"Now Melia," Zetta continued. "Come with us and we'll leave your friends alive,"

"S-Stop!" Melia warned him back, her voice trembling.

Blaziken side-stepped the charging Type:Null and brought her elbow down against its neck, hard. She lacked the strength to break its helmet, and the strange Pokemon immediately backed away again.

"What about the others? Weren't they supposed to be our backup?" Aelita hissed.

"Oh, remember when I said you'd see a part of Geara today?" Madelis said. "Well, guess what?"

That freaking Giratina!

Crawli laughed weakly. "We're…kind of…in a bind…right now…aren't we?" He wheezed.

"Yes," Nastasia agreed. "Yes, you are."

The constant downpour of rain didn't exactly help matters. The only thing keeping Blaziken going was her Blaze ability. Once she'd burned through her reserve energy and the fire inside of her died out…she wouldn't be doing any more fighting.

They were on the clock.

Under his orders, Blaziken drove Type:Null back with a flurry of kicks. At the same time, Nidoking opened his maw and spat a large sphere of poisonous gunk at Madelis, but her Tsareena quickly wrapped a pair of slender vines around her waist and pulled her out of the line of fire.

Vikavolt used Thunderbolt again and this time, Mienfoo wasn't fast enough.

"Mienfoo!" Aelita cried. She grit her teeth, forced to recall her Pokemon. She recalled him and sent her weakened Hawlucha out again. "What do we do?"

They had to pull back and disengage, fight their way back to the ship. Will could drag Crawli out, fling them both over the edge and have Blaziken catch them. But…without Blaziken to hold Zetta back, he would be free to take Melia, or hurt Aelita. And Neved still had his whole team.

Nidoking suddenly stiffened and collapsed. Will silently recalled him. There went another flank.

If they pulled out, it had to be at once.

Tick tock.

"We need…to make a run for it," Crawli said.

"Not recommended," Nastasia said. "Running would only delay the inevitable, and also…getting past us while also getting past Giratina would be far too difficult."

"I can still fight," Melia decided.

"Save you strength," Will muttered. He'd decided on the best way to withdraw; a massive blitz forwards using all of their remaining Pokemon, then they'd bust their asses getting down. A feint, followed by a wild retreat. It would be costly. It would probably take more than they could muster. What the fuck else was new? "Crawli, this is gonna hurt. Blaziken, get ready."

Dislocated shoulders, broken bones and internal bleeding was better than dead and buried. Better than this scum taking Melia and winning.

Better than seeing Ren with them -

"We can hear you muttering to yourself there," Nastasia calmly said. "We're going to end this."

Will ignored her. He needed to focus. "Melia, you with Hapi. Aelita, hang on to Hawlucha. Crawli, I gotcha. "

"What's the plan?" Aelita said. She looked pale and scared.

Will took a deep breath. "Pain. Lot's of it. We attack, then we jump. Then we run." He panted deeply, readying himself for an adrenaline-fueled dash to the finish line. "Blaziken!"

Before he could issue his order, a voice whipped through the air, shouting a single command that froze Will in his tracks. "Stop!"

And a burst of psychic energy tore a deep gouge through the roof, splitting it in half and forcing Zetta and Madelis to leap back or take a nasty tumble.

"No way!" Ren said, jerking around and looking up.

Will saw it too. There, standing atop one of the radio towers, stood Crescent. Gothitelle, as always, mimicked her trainer and stood on the other tower.

"Crescent…" Melia whispered.

Will was pretty sure if he experienced more emotional whiplashes that day, something in his mind would break. As it was, what little energy he'd left went into the wild and alien sensation of hope. Newfound, genuine hope, that Crescent would at least be gracious enough to get his friends out in one piece.

Crescent simply walked off the tower and took a leap. Psychic energy slowed her down, turning what would have been a knee-breaking crash into the coolest landing Will had seen in his life. All two months he could remember of it, anyway.

Clad in her familiar attire of crimson tights, a frilled black skirt and a pristine white blouse, the woman was a sight for sore eyes. She calmly put herself in-between Zetta and Melia. "Gothitelle."

Psychic energy flared around her right hand and suddenly, she held a freaking scythe of all things. Before Zetta could even react, Crescent lunged for him.

Type:Null moved to intercept her, but it was too slow on the draw and Blaziken had something to say about that, too. Fire erupted around her fists as she seized Type:Null by his neck and pulled him back.

The very next second, Crescent's blade whipped towards Zetta and sliced across his chest. Zetta screamed as he fell to the ground, clutching a beautiful new hole to breathe through.

"Again!" Crescent ordered and her scythe turned into a freaking bow. A blazing arrow arced through the air and struck Madelis across her chest, bursting apart in a cloud of wild energy. She dropped like a bag of potatoes.

Crescent regarded Madelis with cold, cold eyes. At that moment, standing there in the rain with that controlled, emotionless demeanor, her blazing ruby eye and raven hair, Will couldn't imagine a more beautiful sight.

"Retreat," Nastasia said calmly.

"Not yet!" Ren shouted. "I demand an explanation from this girl!"

"That is an absolute order," Nastasia hissed. "Neved, hand over the Sky Relic."

Neved's eyes widened and Will would have laughed like a maniac if he hadn't felt like ten miles of worn road, covered in shit. "Are you mad?" Neved protested.

Slowly, Crescent turned her burning gaze towards him.

"Let me put it this way," Nastasia said. "Which do you cherish more? That worthless stone, or your life? We aren't winning this fight. Not anymore. Not against her."

Neved grinded his teeth. Looking like he'd have rather swallowed the Relic than hand it over, he began walking towards Melia, taking slow, deliberate steps as if he were treading a minefield. "Here," he growled, thrusting it towards her. "Take it."

"Good. Now retrieve Zetta before he bleeds out. Recall his Pokemon, they are too valuable. Ren, take Madelis. See if her brain hasn't liquified out of her ears or something."

"I'm not going anywhere until she explains herself to me!" Ren demanded. "She's the reason I'm in this mess to begin with!"

Neved put his boot against Zetta's motionless foot, grabbed his arms and pulled him upright, using Zetta's unmoving foot against his own as leverage. He flung Zetta over his broad shoulders. On the other side, His Vikavolt took a hold of Madelis' jacket and started pulling her to the helicopter Nastasia rode in on.

"Get on the helicopter," Nastasia said, and Will thought he heard something quivering in her voice. "I won't ask again."

Ren looked at Crescent with something like rage. He turned his expression to Will, whom he'd last seen blowing up and tumbling down a dark pit, and then to Melia, who had been a close friend for years. "Guys…I…" he started.

"Just go," Melia said, her voice hard. Merciless, even.

It looked like Ren wanted to say something else, but he thought better of it. He cast another look at Will, who simply stared back at him flatly.

He'd find the time to process…all of this later. For now, Ren was with the assholes who'd murdered Mightyena, his mother and quite possibly Nim as well.

As if all of that hadn't been enough, Team Xen had taken his brother and done worse than murder him. They'd turned Ren against him. And Ren had let that happen. He'd done it willingly.

"We'll back off for now, but understand that this isn't over," Nastasia said.

Fury had something terrible and hateful on Will's tongue, but then the strangest thing happened. Crescent wandered past him… and she shoved him.

Okay, it was more like a tiny nudge than anything else. She brushed her pale fingers against his sternum and applied pressure, but the gesture was enough to destabilize him and his thoughts frayed, then fell to pieces within his head.

How the -

"I agree," Crawli said. He was pale, but his eyes hadn't lost their shimmer. "It won't be over until you crooks get off my island."

Nastasia didn't react to that. She slowly backed up into the elevator, as if afraid that, if she broke eye contact, someone would maul her.

Maybe she was on to something there.

The second Nastasia got onboard, the pilot gunned it, and the helicopter took off. Team Xen left…taking their newest member with them.

A silence followed in its departure, one that lasted for perhaps five seconds before Melia spoke up. "Crescent, you saved our lives - "

"Quiet," Crescent hissed, and Melia looked at Crescent like she'd slapped her across the face.

"W-What?"

Then, Crescent turned her gaze towards Will, who had gotten a bit separated from the rest throughout the fighting. She slowly reached out to his jacket, pulling it aside. He took her wrist, vividly recalling a certain nightmare involving Crescent putting her hands on him before.

Crescent's hand tightened into a fist. She locked eyes with him. "I will not hurt you like they did," she told him. "I will not ever hurt you. But you will take your hand off me."

Will felt angry and confused. He felt emotionally and physically drained and battered and he was pretty sure he was staving off something truly, truly bad lurking within the back of his mind.

But he released Crescent's wrist, and she proceeded to pull his shirt up in the exact place where the bruises from Akuwa Town were at their worst. Over the days, they'd started to fade from an angry red to purple. Now, they appeared black. Pretty soon they'd turn green and then disappear.

Something like anger burned in her eyes. She pulled the fabric up higher, revealing that they blanketed his entire abdomen, from his hips all the way above his ribs. Had she gone further, she would have found the same sight everywhere else.

She slowly lowered his shirt again. "I don't understand you, Will," She said, her voice deathly quiet. "Just what do you think you're doing? Going so far…why are you doing this to yourself?"

Her voice was filled with so much emotions - yearning, anger, fear - Will's mind struggled to process it all. Why did she care? Why did Crescent care so much about him? "...They keep taking, Crescent. They keep taking. I have…so little people left," he said, low enough so that the others wouldn't hear him.

"Why though? For these people, why are you going so far?" Crescent said, frustration bleeding into her voice.

Will felt his legs tremble dangerously as exhaustion washed over him, constantly pounding at his head then receding for a moment. Like ebb and flow. "Because they are all I have left." He felt dizzy for a moment. Nausea kicked against his guts. "I'll die before Xen takes them."

"They are?" Crescent said. Her expression became harder, as if she were making a conscious effort to hide her emotions again. "Is that what you believe?"

Sickening anger stabbed at his heart. It would have been fun to remember if he had anyone else left in his life, but someone had poked a fucking hole in his mind and drained the fucking memories out that hole

"it's what I know. Crescent…" Will said, making a conscious effort not to show how shaken he felt. She wasn't to blame. She didn't deserve his anger. "They care about me. I want to see them safe."

Will saw that his words did something to her. It was really subtle, but she was all up in his face. He saw a slight narrowing of her eyes, a tightness around her mouth. "And fight yourself to death? A cruel, painful death? All alone?"

Before Will could decide whether she was threatening or warning him, Crescent turned her furious gaze to the rest of his friends. "As for you lot…you all dragged Will into a situation where he would have very well died had I not interfered, again. Following Team Xen here was a reckless decision! It's laughably embarrassing."

"Hey!" Aelita hotly said. "We're just trying to do what we can here!"

"What you can?" Crescent shook her head with disgust. "There's nothing you all can do. What you should do is leave Will out of your mess, before you get him killed."

Her words shocked Aelita into silence. She bit her lip and looked away.

"We all made the decision to come here, Will included," Crawli said. "It was a risk, sure. We understood that from the get go. Things went poorly for us, but I don't regret this decision in the slightest. Experience is experience and that matters in the long run."

Crescent didn't respond to that. She spun on her heels and slowly walked towards the far end of the roof, where Team Xen had just fled in their helicopter. "I have nothing else to say. Just…be careful, Will. If you keep on this path of yours…you might find out just how much more you can lose. Gothitelle, let's leave."

And that creepy Gothitelle of hers giggled to itself, its beady, inhuman eyes staring blankly at his face. She then mimicked Crescent by spinning on her heels, marching towards the railing and then teleporting the two of them away.

"...man, that was so rough," Aelita sighed. She sank through her knees and sat down on the floor. "How's the bleeding, Crawli?"

"It's stopped. The wound wasn't…as deep as I feared," he said. "And in the end, we were victorious. Even if that victory was handed to us, in a way."

All of that for a worthless Relic…Will would have gladly traded that useless thing to get Ren back.

"Wow, you're way more optimistic than I am, Crawli," Aelita said. She rummaged around in her bag, then plucked a little medic kit from a side pocket.

"It's in my blood…even if it's leaking all over the place now, heh…"

"Crescent was right though…" Melia said. "I found another opportunity to get that Sky Relic and I just…went with it."

"Who is this chick, anyway? She appeared in Carotos Mountain as well. Saved our bacon there, too."

Melia gave her an unhappy look. "It's…complicated."

It sure was. Especially considering Crescent had started appearing after Melia's disappearance. So how in the hell did Melia know Crescent's name?

"Complicated…not the word I'd use. How does she know you anyway, Will? Why is she so concerned with you?"

Will didn't react. At the moment, maybe it was for the better if he didn't react to anything. Not for a while. Keep the big, leaky fucking mess that was his mind these days from bursting along the seams.

The rain continued to wash over them. One by one, they recalled their Pokemon. Aelita began tending to Crawli's wounds. Melia began signaling the others.

"It's like I said, we all agreed to do this," Crawli assured Melia. "This isn't on you. It's not a big deal. Not to me."

"Yeah! We have the Sky Relic to show for it!" Aelita said. She wiped Crawli's wound with some clean gauze, then quickly pressed a sticky bandage over the wound and began applying tape around his waist to keep it in place. "That counts for something, right?"

"I know…I know…" Melia said. "But I still feel bad about it…I'll make it up, I swear it."

Melia didn't sound very sure of herself. Will didn't think she had a lot to make up for as it was. She hadn't decided to turn her back to everything her friends and family stood for. She hadn't been the one to betray her friends when they needed her the most.

She…she hadn't been the one to attack him with her Pokemon…like them.

The rest of their conversation became ambience. Noise. Will zoned out. Everything ached.

~~~~~~~(IV)~~~~~~~

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AN: Let's go, 20 chapters and more than 4600 views! Thank you guys so much for sticking around so far.

This chapter was a big one, not just in size. Ren turning traitor was a big moment in the game, somewhat undercut by a bit of a lackluster reaction on the side of the protagonists. Again, game mechanics. Keeping in line with the main theme of this story, I decided to spice it up a bit.

I had to walk a fine line between realism and drama. I didn't want to overdo the emotional response, but I also didn't want to downplay how much of a blow this is to our heroes. So I decided to go for a bit of a "final straw breaking the camel's back" situation. The combination of everything that's been going wrong so far has pretty much eroded our characters' ability to deal with further losses. They're gonna have to replenish their energy, bolster their resilience.

So anyway, there's been a bit of a confusing contradiction in the game, at least the way I understand it; the in-game ultimatum clock says that Team Xen gave 30 days before they'd attack Terajuma, while Team Xen's speech said 20 days. I'll be working with the 30 day ultimatum as it gives me more time to work with. I will retroactively change the previous chapter to reflect that as well.

Lengthy AN over! Don't forget to drop a fave/follow if you liked this story, please leave a comment with your thoughts, feedback or even suggestions what you want to see happen next. Suggestions in particular would be really appreciated! There's a ton of character interactions, scenes and little moments coming up, but I'm just one man with one brain. I'd love to see your suggestions!

With that said, I will see you all in with the next update!