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.

22. Short Respite

ANL And we're off to Chapter 7! Like I said, it's my favorite story chapter. Expect fluff, a fun time on the beach, a sweet reunion with old friends, drugs and intense violence, not neccesarily in that order.

...

Chapter 7 - A Teila Fire and Ice

A short respite

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

---

Madelis uttered a piercing cry of victory and Ren bit back another sigh and scathing comment. These people…

"Hoo-hoo! Take that, Zetta!" Madelis whooped as she, presumably, took the lead in their little game.

"Heh, not bad, Madelis," Zetta replied. "Didn't take you for a billiards girl."

"I've played some games in my past. Oh, It's so great to have you back, Zetta! Things were so dreary around here!"

"Now that the teleporter on top of Mount Valor is complete, it's no big deal."

The door opened and that punk Geara came walking in. He took one look at his two fellow Admins and proceeded to explode. "What are you going on about? You're acting like you and Zetta are best pals or something!"

Madelis gave him an annoyed look. "Well, we've never argued about anything in the past. All things considered, he may as well be my best friend."

Ren resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It sounded like Madelis lived a miserable, lonely life.

"I guess we have gotten along pretty well. I don't mind. "

Geara spat a curse. "Zetta and I have been working together for a while and I know for a fact that you two wouldn't be so buddy-buddy if we left you alone in a room."

At this point, Geara almost sounded jealous…but Ren wasn't sure which of the two Geara was actually jealous of.

"Perhaps, that's how it would start out," Madelis seemed to agree, casting a dreamy gaze like she always did when she started mixing up her reality with her twisted fantasies. "But in a ray of loneliness and sorrow, a burst of passion may arise."

Ren almost gagged.

"Letting go of our inhibitions and becoming one with another…"

Perhaps Nastasia would be merciful and simply knock his lights out if he asked her now? "Is this really what you guys do behind closed doors?" He asked his…well, his mentor.

"Don't group me together with those idiots," Nastasia said, her voice possessing just the faintest hint of disgust. "I'm just here to do my job as usual. That's all."

"Hm…"

"You're disgusting, Madelis," Geara growled.

Zetta uttered a short, barking laugh. "Hah. That shut him up reaaal quick!"

"It's so easy to push his buttons," Madeis agreed. "And I do it whenever I can!"

"Come on Zetta!" Geara snapped, "We were only testing out the teleporter! Finish up that game and don't keep me waiting!"

Demanded one Xen Admin of another…

Ren wondered what the punk's issue was. What went on inside of that twisted little head?

"Such a nagging child," Madelis said when Geara slammed the door shut behind him again.

"He's just determined, I guess," Zetta replied calmly. "I should probably head back with him…"

Madelis pouted like a lovestruck teen. "Awww, do you really have to go?"

And her voice just oozed fake disappointment. Someone ought to mob the floor…

"Eh, I'll probably be back," Zetta grunted. "Sooner or later."

The poor, oblivious bastard took his leave as well, and Madelis watched him go with that horrible look of longing in her cruel eyes.

Ren couldn't take it anymore. He leapt to his feet and confronted her. "Are you honestly that desperate for attention? You're lucky Zetta is oblivious to your ulterior motives."

Madelis was as unrepentant as ever. "You take what you can, kid. This place is lonely! You'll learn that soon enough."

Ren turned away. "Whatever," he scoffed.

"In fact, I have plans of my own that I have to attend to," Madelis then announced, raising her voice so Nastasia could hear her.

"Are you going to cause trouble for everyone again?" Nastasia said. "Getting yourself killed trying to kidnap Melia in front of William and the other targets again?"

"Hey – what – " Madelis sputtered. "How do you know?"

Ren couldn't physically see Nastasia rolling her eyes, what with the sunglasses and stuff, but it wasn't hard to imagine. "All our vehicles are registered in our system. We can track and trace every one of them out in the field at any given time. Don't think your little trip went unnoticed."

"Tch. I'm sure I have no idea what you are talking about!" Madelis insisted.

Nastasia sighed. "Fine. I'm not responsible for you. After that horrendous encounter at the Helojak Factory, I'm very behind. And if it weren't for our main terminal point at our GDC base, we'd be stuck there for who knows how long?"

"Bleh bleh bleh. Nerd talk and all that," Madelis spat, proving once again that she was either in over her head or just completely stupid. Ren was willing to bet money it was both.

But…considering his own position at the moment, he wasn't one to be judging.

At this point, he wondered who wasn't in over their heads.

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

---

Will found himself wandering an endless abyss. Everything was as dark as the night and he couldn't see more than a few meters ahead. He couldn't see anything above or below him either - except for distant, sparkling flecks of snow, like a whiteout at night.

He was lost. He was tired. He was alone.

A voice called out to him from the darkness, washing over him like a bucket of freezing water. He didn't stop to listen and started running, but almost instantly his thighs began cramping up. His ragged gasps came out in clouds of frigid air. Every bone in his body yelled at him to keep running, but he barely even saw if he made any headway.

A wall of blood-red ice erupted right in front of him, exploding from the ground in jagged edges that were sharp enough to cut him to ribbons if he touched it.

He backed away, the cold slowly seeping through his body and into his mind, into his soul. His breath was frantic now. More walls of ice burst from the ground in rapid succession; in front of him, to the left of him, to the right of him – it was everywhere. It boxed him in.

Chills shot through his body when he realized that he had nowhere left to run. He was stuck in a tiny little cage of ice.

Melia!

It was no use. He tried to yell for help, but the words died in his throat. He couldn't muster as much as a frightened whisper.

Aelita!

"Your fate is inevitable," that same voice whispered at him.

Where? Who?

"Our paths are destined to cross."

Her voice came from everywhere, as if it were glued to his spine. The cold intensified. Slowly, he began to feel his body growing painfully sluggish and numb, as if were slowly freezing over.

Like Nim.

"A destiny shaped out of the will of ice and snow…"

Will looked up just in time to see a massive spike of spice appearing out of the thin air, mere meters above him.

"OnE WiTh IcE aNd SnOw," the voice snarled with manic glee.

There was nowhere to run. The sculpture of ice slammed down on him and crushed him to the floor. Its jagged spike burst through his ribs, shattering them into splinters as it sliced through his lungs and his guts, wrenching apart half the vertebrae in his spine. An indescribable pain spread through his upper torso, but only his upper torso. The mass of the ice had pulped and crushed everything below his abdomen and it felt cold, so cold.

Blood poured from his parted lips as the pain blinded all of his senses. He wanted to scream, but the sharpened edges of the ice had cut his lungs to minced meat. Every wheezed attempt at any intake of air just resulted in a horrible, wheezing, grinding noise. He coughed violently, blood and pieces of wet flesh flying from his mouth.

He couldn't breathe.

Blood went everywhere, slowly soaking the ground beneath him.

He couldn't breathe.

A trembling hand reached out into the darkness, almost pleadingly, but there was nobody there. He was all alone and he would die alone.

Anyone…

He couldn't breathe he couldn't -

Something solid slammed into his body and in a jarring flash, he lay on the ground of the Kakori Village house, tangled up in his sheets, his limbs as contorted as in the darkness and the ice.

The sound of rapid footsteps, then, "Will, are you okay?"

The muscles in his chest had cramped up and he still couldn't breathe. Frantic, Will thrashed around, his mind still utterly convinced that he was choking on his own blood and shredded organs as he lay dying in the frozen darkness –

Aelita took one of his arms, pulled it out from the tangled sheets and tried to help him up. Instead, Will jerked his arm free from her hands and rolled himself onto his stomach. He strained, his chest cramping up as he gagged and wheezed –

Suddenly his muscles relaxed and he was able to breathe again. He took in big, grateful gulps of air, and the screaming panic of suffocating slowly began to recede.

"Will, hey, can you hear me?" Aelita said. She sat crouched beside him, gently rubbing his back as he gasped for air. "Are you okay?"

Just a nightmare. Just another stupid freaking nightmare.

Will exhaled a relieved breath and sat up slightly, resting his back against the frame of his bed. "Morning…"

"Good morning to you too. Were you…dreaming?"

Translation: Did you have another nightmare?

"…I guess."

Translation: still don't wanna talk about it.

He started untangling himself from the sheets, wondering where on earth the whole thing with the ice came from. It was so vivid, too. More so than the others; it hadn't felt like the usual nightmares. His chest still felt all weird, and the freezing cold…his extremities still felt icy.

Seriously, why the ice?

"Where are the others?" He asked.

Aelita, already fully dressed, plopped down on her bed. "Downstairs. We may have something going on there, so we should probably go deal with that."

Something about the way she phrased that didn't make it sound like an emergency. So when she took her leave and gave him the privacy he needed, Will took his time getting dressed. He checked out his abdomen in the mirror and didn't see anything out of place. The bruises had almost faded, too.

Nice.

Will took Axew's Poke Ball and sent him out. "Let's get some socializing, okay?"

Axew happily leapt up at him in excitement.

"I know, you need socializing as well," Will quipped. "Let's go."

They headed downstairs just in time to catch a handful of villagers hauling plates stacked with food, baskets piled with fruit and vegetables and several boxes with all kinds of freshly baked bread inside.

"...is all of this?" Melia asked of the two rangers who oversaw the whole thing. Will quickly recognized them as Sam and Alex.

"This would be a gift from everyone in the village," Sam explained.

Saki bunched up next to Adam. "Psst, Adam, now's your shot," she whispered at him.

"Shut up, Saki," he hissed through clenched teeth.

One of the villagers, a lady who almost looked as old as the Eldest, spoke up. "Alex and Sam told us what you've all been going through. The people here in the village wanted to show our support in some way. So we all gathered and cooked this smorgasbord of food for all of you. Please, enjoy!"

"Th-That's so sweet!" Aelita said.

"Thank you so much!" Melia joined in.

"We also wanted to make sure you guys knew we weren't planning on turning you in or anything," another villager, a balding man in his late fifties, added. "We've got a tight-knit family here on Terajuma. Team Xen don't scare us one bit!"

"We truly don't deserve this," Melia started, but both Saki and the elderly lady interrupted her.

"Nonsense!" The woman said.

Saki, meanwhile, took a seat at the table. "Speak for yourself! I've been waiting for a moment like this! This Fried Krabby is MINE!"

"Hey!" Braixen chastised her. "Don't eat everything, Saki! Hey…is it weird for me to eat Fried Krabby?"

Will approached the table and took the seat in the corner, right next to Saki. This seemed like one of those moments better suited for the two ladies than him. "Not at all," he told Braixen. Axew stared at the strange people in the house as he followed his trainer towards the table -

"Watch your head Axew!" Val warned him.

- and promptly bonked his head against table felt the heavy oak table tremble as Axew's thick skull made contact and peered down at him. "That's why we're subtle when we stare," he said. "Come."

"Anyway, when you guys are done eating, you should head down to Terajuma Beach," Alex said. "We've prepared a small festival as a thank you for how hard you've been fighting back."

"Thank you so much!" Valarie said.

"Alright then," a visibly-relieved Melia said. "Let's eat up and make our way down to Terajuma Beach!"

"Hey, Will, a quick word?" Alex said, gesturing with her head at the door.

"Sure."

He followed the ranger outside, where she took him apart at the side of the house, adjacent to the coast. Alex looked around warily, as if afraid someone could overhear them talking. When she was satisfied the area was clear of eavesdroppers, she began explaining. "So the Head Ranger has something for you, both because you have shown you might need it in the coming battles and because you've shown the aptitude a ranger must demonstrate before getting the clearance to use this."

Alex held out a small package wrapped in paper. "We call it jungle chocolate. Look sharp, because this stuff is no joke. In essence, they're combat stimulants; used to keep people going longer than they naturally should. We used our Pokemon to help modify Modafinil into something that lasts shorter, but has a more intense effect."

Will stared at her. "Crawli's giving me drugs?"

"Hey, hey!" She snapped, looking deeply offended at the suggestion. Then she looked over her shoulders to double-check nobody was around. " Stimulation package. In the situation you have to, for example, drag a wounded comrade out of an incredible mess even though you're on your last legs yourself, this stuff can save lives." She paused. "It has saved lives. Certain rangers employed to tackle special tasks use this to stay awake longer, stave off the debilitating effects of injuries and handle sleep deprivation."

Will looked down at the gift she was offering him. He could easily imagine Neved and Zetta starting some long-term campaign in the final week to keep them up at night, deprive them of their rest and slowly wear them down that way.

Hell, the very scenario she'd just described had almost cost them everything; Melia and Aelita exhausted, Crawli too wounded to escape on his own and a long haul back to the ship under enemy fire. In that situation, this…stim-pack would have been really useful.

"What's the catch?" Will asked. "Why isn't this standard issue?"

Alex looked uncomfortable. "It's heavy stuff. It can mess up your biological clock for a while and…for some people, it can be addictive. Holly has been adamant that we only use it as a last resort, when our lives are at risk."

So basically, drugs.

Will thought back to the many close calls he'd had fighting Team Xen in the past. Escaping Goldenwood Forest…surviving Madeli's Shadow Mewtwo in Carotos Mountain, the grueling fight against Giratina…

Akuwa Town.

Blacksteeple Castle.

If he'd been faster back then…stronger, sharper…he could have beaten down Neved before Madame X ever arrived.

Maybe…maybe then…

Wordlessly, he reached out and took the packaged gift. He wasn't sure if he'd ever use this, but he still appreciated the fact they they cared so much. "Thank you. I'll be careful."

"Remember!" Alex said. "It's only for your fight against Team Xen here, and only in life-threatening situations. There's three doses there, enough for three separate instances."

"I'll be careful," Will promised. "Hopefully, I won't even need it."

"That would be the best-case scenario, yeah," Alex said. She offered him a hand. "Thanks again for fighting the good fight with us."

He shook her hand. "Couldn't have done it without you guys. Tell Crawli I said thanks."

She grinned. "I will. Have fun today!"

Will carefully stashed the…ah, jungle chocolate in his pocket, then headed back inside. He could already imagine the tongue-lashing Melia and Val would give him if they knew that he'd even accepted it, not to mention the ass-kicking he'd receive from Aelita.

He'd put it away somewhere and…hopefully he'd just forget about it.

What the villagers had donated to them wasn't so much a breakfast as it was an entire feast; Will counted at least five different kinds of baked bread, three different egg dishes, more different cheese and sandwich meats than he knew what to do with and even a ceramic kettle that turned out to be some sort of soup. Apart from the roasted Krabby he saw slices of meat of fish, raw and roasted alike. There was tea and coffee and juice and ice-cold mineral water with bits of fruit floating in it -

It was a lot to take in, so Will decided to go ol reliable and poured himself and Adam some coffee. He wanted to build up a routine, get some semblance of control over his days. Coffee first.

Soon, the table was awash in several different conversations as the gang kicked back and enjoyed themselves to their fullest. Melia and Adam began talking about Adam's experience as a Gym Leader, Aelita scooped Axew up and began feeding him scraps of dinner together with Braixen, and Saki started penning down entire pages of notes and sketches for some sort of mechanical contraption. With one hand, of course; she used the other to wolf down plate after plate of scrambled eggs and smoky bacon.

"I wanted to congratulate you Will," Val said as she began smearing butter on her toast. "I heard you beat Crawli! How'd that go?"

"Eh, I kinda had to destroy his garden along the way."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Will said, before slapping some eggs and bacon on his own plate as well. "We fought in this underground forest area. All swamp and wet grass."

"Ah," Val said, recognizing where he was going. "And his Bug-types have the home field advantage there, of course."

"Yup."

She laughed to herself. "We all know how you deal with your opponent's field advantage, yeah. Something tells me he didn't like that very much."

"Actually, it seemed like parr of the course for him."

"Hmm." Val poured herself some orange juice. "Did you have fun?"

"I did parkour."

"Sorry?"

"Crawli's Gym test was a set of parkour challenges and a hostage rescue," Will explained. "It was a lot of fun. More fun than the fight itself, I have to admit."

She looked at him in amusement. "Parkour, huh? Interesting. Maybe when all of this is over, you should become a ranger. Beating Crawli means you're practically an honorary ranger already."

Huh. That was something he hadn't considered yet. When this was over…would this ever be over? Team Xen was so large, and they were so few. He just hadn't considered the notion that there could be something after this fight.

…being a ranger didn't seem half bad to him.

"Maybe," Will conceded. Opposite of him, Axew wrestled himself free of Aelita's grip and began going on an adventure underneath the dining table. "I haven't thought about the future very much."

"We've got a lot on our mind already, yeah," Val replied. "I'm not even sure if I can return to Akuwa Town, let alone when I could do that."

Yeah, they had a particular shadow looming over them at Akuwa Town. Will didn't like to think of that himself very much. "Tired of the tropics already?"

She snorted. "Not at all. It just feels like Team Xen has driven me from my town. That is unacceptable. I have a reputation to keep as a Gym Leader, you know?"

Will quietly sipped his coffee. His mother had chosen Akuwa Town for a reason. He wasn't sure if he would ever know that reason, but for the moment, that didn't matter. "When you return there, and Team Xen does reappear…gimme a call. I'll be there."

Val grinned at him. "Dashing. I hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does, I won't hesitate. You have a deal!"

After that, Adam and Melia finished their conversation and Adam struck up some small talk with Val about Blacksteeple's food and its dining hall, which was something Will wasn't too interested in. Below him, Axew kept sniffing around, walking around the room in ever-growing circles until Will started to think that it wasn't food his baby Pokemon was looking for.

"Will, could you hand me the tea?" Melia asked him,

Will took his eyes off Axew and reached for the teapot, which was just a few inches out of her reach.

"Thanks! You know, I heard you and Val talking about Akuwa Town and I just realized, I never even asked you where you were from originally!"

Oh crap.

Will feigned his sudden shock at the personal question by pretending to choke on his coffee. He hadn't told anyone about the whole stolen memories thing. Not Venam, not the Eldest and not even Aelita. That whole mess with Indriad and that mansion of his weighed enough on his thoughts already. If he had to somehow find a way to convey that utter mess into words, he had the sinking feeling he would slam fsce-first into a wall of his own making.

He wasn't looking forward to that.

Melia had enough on her mind already. He didn't want to bum her out more. Besides; everybody was finally happy again. He wouldn't be the one to ruin the mood with his problems. "That's okay. You've had a lot on your mind. Wait one."

He got up from the table and went after Axew. His little dragon started clawing at the door and he didn't want to have to explain to Crawli why his house suddenly had all these massive gouges across its wooden interior.

Also, it gave him more time to think of a way to change the subject.

"I think he's looking for something," Braixen said, shooting a glance at the baby Pokemon in his arms. "Got no idea what for."

"Maybe someone needs a bathroom break," Will said. "Be right back."

As it turned out, it wasn't a toilet break Axew needed. Once outside, he continued sniffing around, scanning his surroundings and continued searching for whatever it was he missed.

Fresh out of options, Will headed back inside after ten minutes of walking around with his baby dragon. He hoped that Melia had found a better conversational partner than him in the meantime.

She had. Aelita, ever dependable, had struck up a conversation about Melia's previous work back in East Gearen.

Slowly, the group began finishing up and getting ready for the beach party the rangers had set up. Will wanted to take his boonie hat with him. Aelita, Melia, Val and Braixen didn't agree with that.

"Will, you have the fighting spirit of a hurricane but the fashion sense of an explosion," Melia told him. "Normally I would say to each their own, but I know how conscious you feel in public. That thing will draw attention."

"It's gonna be a big party," Aelita said. "With a lotta people. Lotsa eyes to stare at you."

"Fine," Will sighed, putting his beautiful camouflaged hat back where he'd found it.

"Much better," Val agreed.

"If you are going shopping with Will, can I come?" Braixen asked.

Aelita laughed. "Why do I get the feeling you just want to see people dress up in pretty clothes?"

"The nerve of that statement!" Braixen said with faux shock.

Melia and Aelita just laughed.

Will shot a suspicious look at Braixen. Somehow, he felt like he had missed something important, something that would end up haunting him in the long run.

When they were all dressed for the party, Val and Saki took the lead and they all headed down south to the beach.

"Can you believe they're holding an entire festival just for us?" Aelita said. "It's crazy!"

"Terajuma has always been an especially welcoming island, but this is another level…" Melia agreed.

"You know, I think we should give our Pokemon some time to relax too!"

"Hah, you're right."

The next moment, Aelita and Melia sent out their Pokemon. Not all of their Pokemon, Will saw, but just the ones who could enjoy themselves without getting in the way of the others. Hapi and Hawlucha, for example. Staraptor and Meganium.

Will assumed that Froslass would freeze him solid the next shower he took if he sent her out in this blistering heat, so she was right out. That left Pidgeot, Axew and Houndoom. Blaziken didn't appreciate public settings without anything to keep her occupied very much and…well, Nidoking got a bit grumpy when he was tired. Or bored. Or stressed. Hungry, thirsty, spooked…he just wasn't a good fit for this beach party thing.

Hapi nudged Pidgeot and fluttered up into the sky. Pidgeot, with great dignity, turned his mighty head away.

Hawlucha immediately gave chase and Staraptor shot the two of them a stern look. Then, he and Pidgeot went off on their own.

Houndoom watched them go, then began searching around. Next, he flicked Axew up between his horns and the little dragon nestled himself on top of his skull.

"Aww, would you look at that?" Aelita said. "And to think people are scared of Houndoom!"

"I sense an adventure coming," Will said.

Houndoom barked and then bounded off, Axew holding on for dear life as Houndoom disappeared into the jungle.

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Melia said.

"Heh. Having seen Houndoom in action, I think Will raised that big four-legged boy just right. They'll be fine! They've got four buddies in the sky on overwatch!"

"Yeah," Melia agreed. "You're right. Guess I'm still worrying over little things…"

Through the jungle and straight onto the beach. There, it turned out that Sam and Alex had neglected to say that they'd invited all of Terajuma.

That's a lot of people, Will thought with dismay as he looked around at the beach. Children played together in the sand and in the water, rows of people stood waiting for their turn in front of a dozen or so different footstands, a handful of half-naked muscled dudes and scantily-clad girls engaged each other in a furious beachball fight and a whole squad of rangers was getting ready setting up some sort of podium. They'd already put together several long rows of chairs, offering room for a couple of hundred people to watch whatever event they were going to host.

…maybe Melia had been on to something, telling him to dress a bit less conspicuously.

"Wow, that's a big party!" Aelita said.

With how big that whole concert setup was, it was a wonder the whole pier hadn't collapsed already. Terajuma built its things tough.

"Heck yeah dudes! Party time!" Saki yelled before disappearing in the crowd.

"Hang on, I gotta make sure…" Adam said. He towered over most people so he didn't exactly disappear like Saki had, but it wasn't long before the crowd swallowed him up as well.

Will tore his gaze from the enormity of his new surroundings. They were here to have fun. Nothing else to it.

"I wonder if we can get some tropical smoothies out here…" Melia said.

"Aren't all smoothies kinda tropical?" Aelita replied.

The frozen ones weren't. Those were called…arctic smoothies.

Minus one Saki and one Adam, their group headed deeper into the beach proper. There, Val promptly threw down a towel and laid down. "Man, relaxing on the beach is so nice, Will. There's a beach in Akuwa Town, but most of the time it gets too cold to do anything."

"How did these people even get here?" Will asked, looking around at all the party-goers. No way they all came from Kakori Village, right? He'd have at least seen some of them on their way here.

"There's a ferry on the beach that takes these people back to the Teila Resort whenever they want to," Val explained.

"Oh look!" Aelita said, pointing at something Will couldn't see. "Hawlucha and Hapi are playing!"

"Heh, they are having so much fun together," Melia replied. "They're like best friends now!"

Overhead, Staraptor and Pidgeot were nothing more than distant, blurry shapes as they flew through the sky. Sometimes, one would detach and plummet all the way towards the sea, only to soar back up after a second. Either they were fishing, or just enjoying the sea water in their own way.

"Hey Aelita, they're selling Terajuma shirts!" Melia pointed out.

"Are those special?"

Melia laughed. "Yeah, they got floral prints on them and everything. Come, I'll show you! You gonna be alright on your own for a moment, Will?"

Will spread his hands in a gesture of indignation. "Hey. It's me."

Melia and Aelita stopped to stare at him.

Okay.

Just because he'd set out on his own when the ghost trees started disappearing…and when Sariah lured him away under false pretenses…and that incident with the strange Pokemon in the jungle…that time he went after Ren only to run straight into a -

So…they might have a point.

"I'll got sit down next to Braixen," he said, albeit under silent protest.

The two girls just smiled at him and then left to go get some shopping done.

"Hello Will deary~!" Braixen said when he sat down next to her, taking care not to get any sand on her coat.

"Hey Braix. Can't help but notice you're sitting obviously close to the sea."

She gave him an affectionate smile. "Oh, that's just fine. The water is calm today. How's the festival for you?"

"It's uh…it's busy."

"Isn't it? Now don't let it get to your head, this isn't all for us! Crawli said that he wanted to use the opportunity to make a show of things. Unite the people, calm everybody down, raise their spirits and send a message to Team Xen."

"That makes a lot more sense," Will nodded.

"Where are the girls at?"

"Shopping for some Terajuma shirts."

"Ooh! Those are so pretty!" Braixen said. "Supposedly, each one has a special pattern on them so that no two of them are ever the same. They're so cute."

Huh. Neat.

"You know a lot about fashion," Will observed.

"Yeaaah…" she said, looking very pleased with the compliment. "That's why I'm going with you shopping soon. With Melia, Aelita and me, you'll be in good hands."

"Thanks, I guess. I've gotta admit, I'm not very well versed in fashion…things."

Braixen giggled. "We've noticed."

After a couple of minutes, Melia and Aelita came back again, each one sporting a large paper bag…and an ice cream.

"Here, for you," Aelita said, offering Will a cone.

"I see you were successful?" He asked, gratefully taking the icy treat.

They exchanged a knowing look. "Yeah," Melia said. "We've each got one…and we've bought one for you too!"

They are so cute! Braixen's words echoed through his head.

"Thanks," Will warily said. "That's uh…thoughtful?"

"You can try it on in your own time, no need for that now," Aelita said.

"Guys?" Val called out. "I think Saki and Adam are going to war."

Alarmed, Will leapt to his feet and turned towards the spot he'd last seen them going - the beachball field.

"Oooh, I wanna see this!" Aelita said. She darted forwards and Melia and Will were forced to keep up, lest they lose track of her as well.

"We've only been out for a little bit, but I already feel like I need another shower," Melia said as they made their way through a cheering crowd. "It's so hot out today!"

"Perfect weather for another dive," Will replied.

"Yeah!"

Somehow, Adam and Saki had gotten embroiled in a match between a bunch of guys and a bunch of girls playing against each other. Adam's voice rose above the clutter and the noise. "Oh come on Saki! Can't you play a game without cheating for once!"

The girls started booing him, which prompted the boys to start cheering harder to back Adam up.

"It's not cheating!" Saki protested. "I'm using different methods not explicitly stated in the rules to bend the outcome of the game in my favor! Is that so wrong!"

"YES. You STUPID cog wheel!"

"Awww Adam, you do care!"

"I uh…" Melia said, staring at the chaos that the two had unleashed. "Let's go back the other way, shall we?"

"Yeah, sounds like a plan," Aelita said. "Looks they they uh…got things under control."

Will couldn't say it out loud, but…he kinda hoped Adam and the guys would win.

Eventually, they started spotting familiar faces on the beach. As always, Sam and Alex went together, clad in their familiar blue ranger uniforms. It looked like they handled security around here, though Will had the sneaking suspicion they were having a lot of fun in their own right. The first time he saw them, they were patrolling through the shallow water with their boots off. The second time, they were keeping an eye on things while standing in line for some fried Krabby. Now, it looked like they were taking a peek at the backstage area of the podium.

Heh.

But they weren't the only familiar faces; soon, Will spotted a particular steel-eyed, black-haired woman gazing out over the sea.

"Good day Ma'am," Will politely said.

Holly turned to regard him and the others. "Ah, Will and friends. Please, just call me Holly. How are you all enjoying the festival?"

"We're having a good time!" Melia answered. "We've just been playing around on the beach, taking in the sights."

"Getting some shopping done," Aelita added, shaking her bag.

"Hehe, yeah."

Holly nodded approvingly. "Good, good. Upon Rorim's request, I have also acquired two musicians to play for us this afternoon."

"You mean…like a concert?" Aelita asked.

Holly nodded. "It'll only last for an hour, so it'll be short and sweet."

"I'm surprised you were able to find people willing to perform, given the current state of Terajuma…" Melia said.

"Well, one of them is a local from Teila Resort, and the other one is actually from the mainland," Holly explained. "Like you said, it's hard to find musicians willing to make the trip down here, but this one was more than willing."

"Awesome! That'll perk up everyone without a doubt!" Aelita said.

"Ehm…how can a person be native to a resort?" Will asked.

"Teila Resort started out just that, a resort for people to have their needs catered to," Holly patiently explained. "As it continued growing and developing, it became a small village in its own right. Right now, it's got a population of some two-thousand people, although only a fraction of them actually live at the titular resort itself."

"What you're saying is, people didn't bother to rename it?"

A ghost of a smile played over Holly's lips. "What I'm saying is, people love something homey. They will always think of that place as the luxury resort, even though it's grown into a community. So it will always be Teila Resort."

Will nodded along, even though he didn't understand it at all.

"When's the event starting?" Melia asked.

Holly turned to look up at the pier where the people were just about getting finished with their preparations. "Actually, they should be here any minute now. I'm gonna make sure everything is set up correctly."

"Alright, good luck!" Aelita said politely. When Holly was gone, she turned to Will and asked, "Even here you know people. Where'd you meet her? She seems nice."

"She is," Will replied. "If you stay on her good side."

"Doesn't that go for everyone?" Melia asked.

"True. It goes especially for her," Will told her. "She's Crawli's…surrogate mother. Head Captain of Recruitment, Crawli's Second."

"Oh. Oh," Melia said.

"So you met her when you were doing parkour inside of the gym, right?" Aelita said.

He nodded. "Holly's a veteran ranger and kinda scary when she's not being this easy."

"I can't really imagine that, but if you say so…" Melia started.

He guessed Melia just had to have been there.

There would be time for Aelita and him to coax her onto the obstacle course eventually.

Eventually, the people began crowding around the podium, seating themselves in anticipation of the coming concert. Holly, Sam and Alex worked with some technicians to get the sound systems working.

Will cast his gaze across the pier just in case and saw a lone, purple-haired girl standing there. She had an electric guitar in her hands and seemed to be waiting for the show to start. She…looked familiar.

Was that…?

Aelita, ever the social butterfly, saw him looking and promptly decided to approach the girl. "Heya! You must be the musician they've hired!"

Will's stomach flipped around when the girl turned around to answer.

Venam?

"That's right! You're lookin' at the most famous artist in all of Ae - " Venam's voice died somewhere in her throat when she saw the trio standing in front of her. Her eyes became as large as saucers and she nearly dropped her guitar.

"Venam?!" Melia exclaimed.

Melia's voice startled her so badly that she almost fell off the pier altogether. "HOLY SHIT!" She shrieked. "IT'S A GHOST!"

…Oh Venam…

"What?" Melia stammered.

Venam nearly fell to her knees in front of her old friend, as pale as a sheet and floundering like a Magikarp. "The ghost of Melia is back to haunt me! I'm so sorry Melia!"

"What are you going on about, Venam?" A thoroughly confused Melia said. She took Venam by her upper arms and helped her back on her feet. "I'm no ghost! It's me! It's really me! Melia! Your friend!"

"...really?" Venam whispered. Will saw the chaotic energy drain from her body until only the pain and memories of Melia's death remained. She took a few steps back, as if scared of what she saw, and her eyes flicked to Aelita, then to him. "Will…did you…is this true?"

"It's true!" Will told her. "Someone set us up. She never died in that cave."

"Will…Aelita…you're here as well…" Venam quietly said. "It is true then! But…" A pained look crossed her features and she turned away from them. "But I don't understand…I thought you..,?"

Will recognized much of his own reaction mixed in there. The disbelief, those horrible memories resurfacing upon realizing that something didn't add up…he'd been there before. He didn't like seeing someone else go through it as well…although Venam definitely had the better circumstances of finding out about Melia's survival.

"Yeah, I know," Melia said, her voice heavy with guilt. "It's a very long story…one that I don't think I can get into right now, but just know that I managed to escape Zetta."

Venam turned back to Melia again, looking at her with a mixture of emotions that Will couldn't even begin to process. They all flickered across her features in a second, before sheer, unadulterated joy won out over all the others. "I'm so happy! This is the BEST day ever!" She exclaimed. "This feels like a fucking dream! I'm gonna cry!" She sniffed and her lip began trembling. "Yep. I'm gonna cry…"

"Venam, you can't cry now!" Melia said, aghast. "You have a show to put on! Channel your happiness into a great performance, okay?!"

Venam threw herself at Melia and hugged her tightly. The guitar got in the way, but that didn't make the reunion any less sweet. "Yes Ma'am! It'll be the best performance of your lives! Fuck, Will, I don't know, but you kept her safe again! Holy shit, you guys just wait! I'm gonna go get ready! You guys just grab a seat, okay?!"

Venam ran off to get her final preparations in order, leaving one very emotional Melia, one very relieved Aelita and a somewhat puzzled Will in her wake.

…why was Venam on Terajuma? Had she gotten her before this entire mess began? If so, then how had she missed that island-wide ultimatum? Team Xen had hijacked every single broadcasting station in the area to get their threat across.

"What are the odds I'd run into Venam here of all places?" Melia asked.

"Weird, huh?"

Melia looked troubled. "I have to tell her about Ren and what's going on with Team Xen…surely she must already know what's going on, right?"

"Somehow, I feel like Team Xen being here doesn't bother her," Aelita said.

Melia shrugged. "Somehow, I feel like you're right. I'm honestly surprised she isn't mad that I haven't contacted her sooner…"

Aelita smiled. "I don't think she's thinking about that right now…she's just glad to see you're alive, Mel."

"Sure…" Melia replied. "We…huh. Say, Aelita, you joined Will after he made his way to Sheridan Village, right?"

"Eh, yeah?"

Melia cast her a questioning look. "Then how do you know Venam? She recognized you. She knew your name and everything."

"Oh, that, haha," Aelita nervously replied, rubbing the back of her neck. "You see, uh, something I neglected to tell you was that some stuff happened in-between Carotos Mountain and Goldenleaf Town."

"Oh?" Melia said, frowning.

"You see, uh, there was this incident in East Gearen City…"

Even now, Aelita tried to protect him. Sometimes, Will wasn't sure if he deserved a friend as loyal and dedicated as she was. "That's okay, Aelita," he softly said.

"Huh? Will?" Melia said, looking lost.

Aelita looked at him with a pained expression. "You don't have to explain anything if you don't want to, Will. Of all people, I'm sure Melia would understand."

"Goys, you're starting to freak me out a bit."

"Something happened in East Gearen a week after you disappeared," Will said. "It uh…involved Venam and her friends, too. It worked out in the end. I asked Aelita not to talk about it."

"Huh…why is that?" Melia asked, concerned.

"Because I don't want to talk about it," Will flatly said. The shame and repercussions of what Indriad Theolia had done to him, combined with the pain of leaving Maria all on her own there…it was something deeply personal. Something he was desperate to keep private. "I'm sorry. I know it's selfish, but - "

"Whoah, hey, slow down," Melia urged. She brought her hands together in a time-out gesture. "Stop right there. You shouldn't apologize for having boundaries, Will."

"Yeah," Aelita said.. We went through a lot. It's normal to have things you don't want to talk about. Everybody has stuff they don't want to talk about. They're allowed to."

Will looked at them, feeling a gratitude that he couldn't begin to bring to words. "You guys…" he said. "Thank you."

Aelita nudged his shoulder. "There you go again, thanking people for basic courtesy. Come on! We've got a rockstar to watch!"

Melia found them three seats that hadn't been occupied yet somewhere in the third row. They all sat down, excited for the show to start.

After a minute or two, Holly walked on stage. "Thank you all for joining us today for this impromptu festival. It's not much, but we're happy to see everyone in high spirits despite our grim circumstances. Our first performance today is from a band based in East Gearen City. Please give them a round of applause!"

The audience erupted in applause and whistles as Venam walked on stage, looking ready to rumble. Will wasn't sure who had promoted Venam to a band, but hey. As long as she was happy.

"Hey Terajuma Island!" She yelled, her voice amplified by the many speakers the rangers had set up. "Are you guys ready to rock?"

She pulled a mean guitar riff and the audience cheered loudly, but Will saw Holly looking contemplative. She walked up to Venam and asked, barely audible over the sound of the audience, "Are you all that's here? I thought you were with a band?"

Venam pulled her little microphone away from her mouth as she replied. Will didn't hear what she said, but he hoped things were under control.

That was when the other girl walked on stage. She had long red hair with streaks of yellow highlights, tied into a fiery ponytail. Her skin was tanned, like she'd spent years living out on Terajuma Island. A native girl, then.

She was beautiful, but her expression was one of indifference and vague annoyance, which didn't seem to fit with the fact she was about to throw a rock concert with Venam. Maybe she was just really getting into the zone?

"Sorry I'm late," she said to Holly. "Mom couldn't find the keys to the yacht so I had to walk here myself."

"Ah, Miss von Brandt," Holly said, visibly relieved at seeing the girl. "Thank you for joining us! Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to Amber Von Brandt!"

The audience erupted in a deafening applause.

Von Brandt? As in, Tesla Von Brandt?

Tbis was Tesla's daughter?

Venam's expression went from serene and happy to thunderous in two seconds flat. "Wait, Amber?" She exclaimed, whirling on her fellow rocker in a heartbeat.

Amber shot her a look and her eyes widened with recognition. "Venam?!"

"Amber?" Aelita murmured.

Freaking Saki burst onto the podium. "Saki!" She yelled.

The three girls took a moment to glare at each other and suddenly, the tension was so thick that it could be cut with a knife.

Uh oh.

"EVIL WENCHES!" Saki shouted.

Venam scoffed. "Hah, you guys couldn't handle the publicity I've been getting so you punks followed me down here?"

"Me follow you?" Amber yelled back. "I LIVE HERE you dumbass! If anyone is doing the following it's you two! It wasn't enough that my life was uprooted and thrashed into the ground, huh? You just had to come to my island and boil my blood?"

"Uhm…" Will muttered. He shot a glance at his friends. Melia stared at the spectacle with shock, her lips parted in a silent "O", whereas Aelita looked like she was about to ask someone to pass her some popcorn.

"Oh PLEASE!" Venam snarled. "I'm not here for you! I'm here because I was asked to be here to perform with my band!"

"Your band, huh?" Amber said, her expression downright vicious. "Where are they then? Stuck in the loo? Or are you actually by yourself? I wouldn't be surprised!"

Ouch.

"Silence!" Saki screamed. "It's you two who have been hunting ME this entire time! But do not fret. I shall dispose of these evildoers without hesitation!"

Will realized he'd never seen Saki in any emotional state other than relaxed, or perhaps mildly concerned. Right now, her expression was twisted into something murderous. She glared at the two girls with open hate.

"Never in my day did I imagine myself in the presence of this foul beast again," Saki then continued, her voice growing deathly quiet. "Tell me…who let this demon out of her cage? I will exterminate this vermin and bring peace back to this land once more! The land shall not be free of sin as long as these wenches - "

"No," Amber flatly said.

Saki blinked and the emotions seemed to just fall off her face. "Wat."

Amber looked at Venam, then back at Saki, and she looked…tired. "I said no. I don't have to deal with this crap. I'm outta here. Host your own goddamn show."

With those parting words, she brusquely shoved her way past Saki, who'd still blocked the exit, and walked off.

"Miss Von Brandt!" Holly shouted after her. "Wait!"

She ran after Amber, leaving Saki and Venam alone on the stage.

Will didn't need to be a social butterfly to recognize that these three had some serious history together. Tesla's girl…what was that about her life being uprooted? What had happened to her?

"You can't just interrupt a bitch mid monologue?!" Saki exclaimed. "The time of death for that purple sasquatch must wait. I must hunt down the fiery witch and douse her of her flames."

Will watched in astonishment as Saki proceeded to storm off as well, leaving a thoroughly frustrated Venam alone on stage.

The audience grew quiet. People began murmuring and whispering among themselves.

Including Melia and Aelita.

"What just happened?" Melia asked.

Aelita laughed. "Teehee, that was a pretty good show! The acting was phenomenal! It felt so real!"

"Uh…encore?" Will said. How was he supposed to react to something like that?

"Yes! Encore! Encore!" Aelita cheered.

Oh. She was being serious.

…sweet, innocent Aelita…

Melia looked back and forth between them. She saw the unease on Will's face and told Aelita, "I don't think that was acting."

Realization dawned on Aelita and her expression fell. "Oh. Oooh, so it was all a trainwreck?"

Melia winced. "Yeah pretty much."

"Oops. I've never seen anything go that poorly before so I thought it was an act…"

Will really couldn't blame her for that. He'd had confrontations with Xen Admins that somehow felt less intense and emotional than what he'd just witnessed.

"We should go see if things are okay with Venam," Melia said, getting back to her feet.

The three of them began making their way through the slowly-dispersing crowd.

Now that the initial shock had waned, an expression of deep concern started spreading over Venam's features. "Oh man, oh man," she stammered, looking paler with every second that passed. "I think I'm in some real deep shit now guys…"

"Venam, what was all that!" Melia asked.

Venam sucked in a breath. "Okay so basically Amber, Saki and I used to be best friends, but now we want to kill each other."

"I see," Melia said.

"You know, the typical childhood falling out."

…this was typical for girls?

Venam continued. "There was a fire, and there were lawsuits, and blame and all that. Casual teenage stuff."

Aelita cast a befuddled look his way, and Will pulled his hands up in open confusion. "What's so casual about that?" She said with dismay.

"A-Anyway, Amber stormed off the set and now it's just me left for the show and I…" She suddenly stopped talking.

"You…?" Melia spurred her on.

Venam didn't look at her. "When Holly called for the gig I told her I had a whole crew so she would pay me three times more."

Oh.

Oh no.

"You what?" Melia exclaimed.

Looking very unhappy, Venam said, "I thought I could finesse the system by doing a quick show and then getting the hell outta here before any questions were asked! But now I'm all that's left and…basically I'm SCREWED!"

Normally, Will would have tried to think of something to help cushion the blow, see if he couldn't help sort things out.

But Venam had just screwed over Holly.

Holly.

He was pretty certain that Venam was, in fact, very much screwed. He didn't want to be anywhere near her when Holly found out.

"Let go of me you heathen!" Saki's angry voice sounded from behind the stage, and then Holly was back, dragging a kicking and squirming Blakeory with her onto the stage.

One-handed.

She dropped Saki on the ground, stepped towards Venam and grabbed a fistful of her shirt, nearly pulling her off her feet as she glared at the girl. "You're SCREWED alright! You and your big mouth, child! You thought you could swindle me?! Now because of you and Miss Blakeory my main event has stormed off!" She brought her face closer to Venam, who looked like she was about to pass out in fear. "So what do you propose I do with the both of you? Perhaps I shall work you both to the BONE down under Kakori HQ?"

Well, some hooligan had recently destroyed Crawli's Gym Arena, so…

"Please, ma'am," Venam croaked. "It's Mother's Day…"

"It is NOT Mother's Day and you are NOT a mother!" Holly snapped. "We do not CLAIM YOU."

Will saw the little gears turning in Venam's head - those that Holly hadn't fried with her glare, that was. "W-Wait! We can fix this! We're all trainers here, right? What if we had a battle? Would that be entertaining enough?"

Holly let go of Venam and the poor girl almost sagged to the ground. "Hm…yes, I think that would do well."

"Yeah," Venam was quick to say, her eyes flickering to Will and Melia. "Saki and Will versus me and Melia!"

Underside of bus, meet friends…

"Why us?!" Melia exclaimed.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?!" Holly growled. "No, you get to partner up with your dear friend Saki Blakeory."

It looked like Holly had decided, so Will resigned himself to another battle. At least he'd be teaming up with Melia…

"But - " Venam protested.

"B-But we have nothing to do - " Melia started.

"TEN-HUT!" Holly shouted and everybody stiffened. "Everybody take your places, NOW!"

"Y-Yes ma'am, right away ma'am," Melia sputtered.

Will, utterly relieved that it wasn't just him, took his position at Melia's side. Venam shot him a very apologetic look. She nervously laughed and said, "I'll make this up to you someday Will, I swear!"

"Now I want a nice and clean fight!" Holly shouted. "The stage will be this podium and the entire area around it ranging from that tree-line all the way to those rocks there, marked in the water!"

"Yeah yeah, I hear you," Venam sighed. "Even though I have to team up with this goblin…well, we're still gonna win."

That was a lot of boasting given the circumstances. Will had a shiny little Poisenheart badge on him that proved her confidence might not be entirely founded.

"You seem confident?" Melia said. "Last I remember I whooped your butt!"

"Yeah, you did, but I got stronger since then!" Venam said.

"This shall be easy," Saki murmured angrily. "Like taking a soul away from a newborn baby. Do not get in the way, purple wench. I shall take care of this myself."

"Just don't cry when I have to carry your ass myself," Venam snapped.

"Those two have no idea what they're about to get into," Melia said. "Let's show them who they're dealing with!"

They all sent out their Pokemon to battle, and Will found himself facing a Metagross and a Muk that looked like it just crawled out of a paint factory. Meanwhile, Melia chose a two-headed Pokemon he hadn't ever seen before. Hoping that this was Melia using her Zoroark again, Will sent out Froslass to give it some ranged support. Froslass would absolutely hate the weather, but her tactic of setting up hail and snow and then disappearing with Snow Cloak hadn't failed her yet.

"Metagross!" Use Explosion!" Saki ordered.

"What?" Venam yelled.

Her Metagross floated up in the air and detonated like the world's largest piece of firework. The immense blast of energy knocked every bit of electronics from the podium, blew apart the stage and nearly united the entire front row of seats with the people behind them.

The immense shockwashes washed over every Pokemon in the field, knocking out Muk and Melia's Zweilous…and failing to do any damage to Froslass, as she simply became incorporeal and allowed the shockwaves and overpressure to harmlessly pass through her.

"Saki, you freaking moron!" Venam shouted.

"Silence, wench! You shall not question my tactics!"

Next, Saki sent out her Aggron and Venam chose her Toxapex, which had evolved since Will last saw it. Melia chose Hapi.

Knowing that Froslass didn't have the staying power to hold against those two heavy hitters, Will recalled her and sent out Nidoking instead,

With Nidoking on the ground, Melia had no issue with ordering Hapi into the sky. Togapex tried to shoot Hapi down before it could get some air, but Nidoking had something to say about that. Aggron swung a heavy, steel tail at him, but Nidoking managed to avoid it and rammed face-first into Venam's Toxapex. Hapi narrowly avoided its sludge bomb and was free to begin charging up Aura Sphere.

Toxapex wrapped its barbed limbs around its head to protect itself, just like it had all that time ago in Venam's Gym. Aggron however saw his opening and body slammed Nidoking to the ground. The sheer mass and weight behind Saki's Steel-type meant that it could hit like a truck. Worse, its steel body meant that it wasn't just resistant to Nidoking's poisons, it was outright resistant.

Nidoking leapt back to his feet. He warily eyed Aggron and Toxapex as they formed up. Toxapex shot a beam of scalding hot water at Nidoking, who dropped to all fours and ran for cover. The beam of water sprayed across the vertical frame of the podium and as Toxapex shifted to reacquire his target, Hapi swept down from above to pelt Aggron with Aura Sphere.

As bulky and tough as the Steel-type was, the spiritual nature of Aura Sphere made it impossible to just shrug off by being tough. The blast of energy splashed across Aggron's chest and it staggered backwards.

Nidoking whirled from his cover, ducked underneath a blast of water that Toxapex aimed just a bit too high, and then lunged for the Poison-type.

With Aggron sufficiently distracted and commanded by a Saki who didn't give a damn about Venam, there was nothing preventing Nidoking from shoulder-checking Toxapex off-course and then grappling it.

Nidoking's body was coated in a thick layer of damage-resistant skin, like a natural armor. That and his immunity to almost all poisons and venoms meant that all of Toxapex's natural resistances didn't do a whole lot against him.

Nevertheless, Toxapex lashed out with its claws, raking at Nidoking's face.

Nidoking uttered an enraged roar and then flung Toxapex into the air. It tried to curl up into a ball to protect itself, but Hapi was on it, catching it with a powerful Air Slash that sent it flying off into the sea.

Aggron seized his chance and tackled Nidoking to the ground. Nidoking went down swinging, punching Aggron's face again and again, to which Aggron answered with a bone-crushing headbutt.

Venam recalled her Toxapex and sent in her ace; Seviper.

Aggron's steel plating proved to be tougher than Nidoking's boney skull. Another headbutt and Nidoking's resistance weakened. One of his arms dropped to his side.

Rearing back for another Headbutt, Aggron didn't see Hapi's Aura Sphere until it slammed into his side. The blow couldn't physically have knocked him off Nidoking, but it did knock the fight out of him. As Aggron went slack, Will realized that Nidoking was far too dazed to continue fighting, and he recalled the big guy as well.

That left Houndoom in the field, with Froslass as a possible backup, against Saki's Probopass and Venam's Seviper.

"I'll take Venam, you handle Saki," Will said.

"Deal!"

"I shall smite all of you!" Saki yelled.

But Hapi had something to say about that. As it turned out, Saki wouldn't be doing nay smiting that day. In fact, neither would Venam. Her Seviper really was a tough little critter, with razor-sharp teeth and a bite that could have torn through steel, but in these confines, out in the open with the powerhouse that was Hapi on overwatch, it couldn't lever its mobility very well.

It didn't help that any physical attack on Houndoom would be met with a torrent of flames. Melia helped keep Probopass busy and allowed Will to focus his attention on Seviper. Once Venam was out of the fight, it was two against one against the raging Saki.

Hapi scored the knockout blow on Probopass and the crowd went wild.

"And that's that!" Melia cheered. She held out her palm towards Will and he gave her the low-five. "Will and I won!"

"Woo!" Aelita shouted, making her voice audible even over the loud cheers and applause from the rest of the audience. "Go Will and Melia!"

"GOSHFLABBINDAMNIT!" Saki shouted.

"The battle has been decided," Holly called out. "Will and Melia are the victor! Thank you all for visiting us today! I hope you all had a wonderful festival! Keep your spirits high and your heart powerful! Terajuma Island will not be taken over by Team Xen!"

The crowd shouted in approval. At the very least, their morale remained unbroken .Team Xen wasn't going to cow them into submission.

Venam, far from amused, crossed her arms over her chest and looked away.

"Screw this!" Saki yelled. "I'm going to hunt down Amber. Cya!"

"Saki - " Will said, but it was no use. Saki ran off in search of more conflict, and Holly made no motion to stop her.

"So…how was that?" Venam asked the Head Recruitment Captain. "Are we good?"

"Hardly!" Holly snapped. "I paid you eighteen-thousand bucks and I didn't even get a musical performance! In fact, the only performance I've gotten was mediocrity! You called that "getting stronger"? An embarrassment!" She grabbed hold of Venam's wrist. "You're coming with me to Ranger HQ! You have a lot of work to do!"

"Help." Venam sputtered as Holly began dragging her away. "Help."

Melia, still looking confused, simply waved at her. "Bye Venam?"

"That was fun!" Aelita said, resting her elbows on the podium and grinning at them. "But I think I'm gonna head back home with the others now!"

"Okay, see you guys later!" Melia replied.

With all the entertainment and spectacle gone, the crowd began dispersing in earnest now.

"This is not how I pictured this day going…" Melia sighed to herself. "But it was fun, right?"

"A lot of fun," Will replied. "Plus you got to see Venam again. For a while."

Melia chuckled. "I'm glad to hear that! I just hope Miss Holly won't be too hard on her. Then again, I also hope this will finally teach Venam to stop taking advantage of people. We should be getting back, too. Crawli said he wanted to talk to us about the location of the next relic. So I imagine we'll be getting a visit from him soon."

"Any other plans for today?"

"Eh. Walking through the village, relaxing, that sort of stuff. Maybe do a patrol with Hapi. Speaking of…"

They took a moment to call their Pokemon back to them. Houndoom and Axew had been hanging out in the jungle the entire time and when Houndoom came traipsing back towards him, Axew had already fallen asleep between his horns.

"There's a good parent," Will said, rubbing Houndoom's snout for a moment before recalling Axew. "Did you have fun?"

Houndoom barked in what he could only assume to be affirmation.

"Nice. Now if only someone could get his head out of the clouds and join us!"

Pidgeot kept circling above him, making the most out of his very slow descent.

In contrast, Hapi came flying the moment Melia called for him. "That reminds me!" Melia said. "I see you don't keep Mightyena on your team anymore? He was such a good boy! Did you swap him out?"

Will kept staring up at Pidgeot, Of all the things she could have asked…

He didn't want to bother her with the truth. Not Melia, not any of his friends. He didn't want to see them suffer. He didn't want to see them hurt, especially not if the source of that hurt was him.

So he wasn't sure how to answer that. He'd tried so hard not to think about what had happened to him in Akuwa Town that he'd barely even begun processing it.

He…ended up ignoring her question. He continued staring at Pidgeot as the great bird came down, clutching his Poke Ball tightly.

They needed him as they had gotten to know him; determined, calm and in control. A fighter - their fighter.

"Uh, Will, did you hear me?" Melia said.

"Yeah," he forced himself to say. "I think I'll leave Houndoom at the house for today. I'm going to see what the damage is on those Pokemon we took from Helojak. See why Team Xen calls them rejects."

"Okay," Melia said after a few moments of silence. "Sounds…like a good idea."

They headed back to the village on their Pokemon and then went their separate ways after that, Melia on Hapi and Will on Pidgeot. He told Houndoom that he'd be right back and that Houndoom needed to keep a close eye on the house, just in case.

"I'll be back soon," Will promised.

Houndoom uttered a deep sigh, rolled himself into a ball underneath the table and closed his , he took one of the two Poke Balls with him and left again.

He just hoped Melia wouldn't be too mad at him.

During their pursuit of Team Xen up the mountain towards the Weather Institute, they had passed by a passageway leading to some sort of jungle ruin. Back then, he hadn't given it much thought, but right now it seemed like the perfect place for some reflecting and some training.

Finding the Weather Institute was the easier part of the trip; Pidgeot flew parallel to the cable-cart cable and easily navigated his way to the top. From there, it was a matter of backtracking their way to the base of the hill, where he had accidentally burned down the bridge fighting Team Xen.

A pair of construction workers were already busy repairing the damage, working alongside a couple of Timburr and a big Gurdurr to install a new framework of wood and metal.

Will tried not to pay them any mind as he walked past them, but he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty for having fallen for Neved's taunts so easily.

He made it through the jungle passage at the far end of the path that snaked in-between the two hills. There, he took the Helojak Pokemon and set it out.

It was a small little thing with white arms and legs, green hair and two flat, red horns at the top of its head; a large one to the front and a smaller one at the back.

But something was very wrong with it; the horn at the front of its head was cracked and seemed to be missing a part.

The Pokemon looked up at him, revealing a pair of pinkish-red eyes underneath its hair. Half its face was marred by crisscrossing scars, some of which hadn't even healed properly. Some of those scars still glowed with a very faint hue of familiar purple.

Very gently, Will reached for the little Pokemon's head to assess the damage -

It flinched badly, throwing its little arms in front of its face to shield itself. It stumbled backwards, away from him, and in doing so it tripped over its little legs and fell to the ground.

Will thought he'd seen true cruelty by now. Apparently, that had all just been par for the course for Team Xen. Just when he thought they couldn't find new ways to sink lower…

"It's okay," he said. "I'm not going to hurt you."

His Pokedex told him that this little thing was called a Ralts; a part Psychic, part Fairy-type Pokemon. He'd been lamenting his own lack of a Psychic-type ever since the first time Crescent had teleported him. He should have been elated that he'd finally found a Psychic-type Pokemon of his own now…but he just felt horrified.

The way Team Xen treated even the Pokemon they planned on using and distributing, the way they'd just locked this little thing away when their cruel experiments broke it and the poor state they'd left it in…he couldn't find a different way to describe that other than plain horrifying.

Sobering, perhaps. After all, this was how they treated their "own". There was no saying what cruelties awaited their enemy. The things they would do to their prisoners if they got their hands on them again…

Just another reason to keep fighting.

Little Ralts curled up into a little ball on the ground and stayed there, shivering in fear. Not much he could do about that. Maybe one of his friends knew what to do? Crawli would probably know. If not, then surely Holly would have an idea.

With a heavy heart, Will called Ralts back to its ball again.

Back to the original plan. He sent Axew out. "Time for a jungle adventure."

Together, they headed towards the temple.

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

---

Tyluric Temple Outskirts

Flora could hardly believe it. Finally, after all this time they had access to the temple and now some imbecile with no grasp of the importance of this location thought he could just stumble his way in?

It was unacceptable. "HEY!" She shouted at him. "Don't even try it! We were here first!"

The trainer and his little Axew glanced over their shoulders, the little Pokemon perfectly mimicking his trainer.

He looked to be some punk in his late teens wearing a mixture of reject camo ranger gear and normal civilian clothes. His boots were covered with mud and clumps of grass. His emerald eyes settled on Flora when she rushed to intercept the fool.

"We waited all this time for this stupid bridge to be fixed and now we have to deal with this?" She said. "Yeah you. My group and I traveled all the way from GDC to visit this temple. You and a bunch of other explorers think you can just waltz right in - "

"Flora, mate," Talon's voice came from further down the bridge behind her, and Flora grinded her teeth in frustration. "This just isn't the proper way to introduce yourself."

He and Flora's little brother came hollering at the sound of her voice.

Great.

"Talon, don't even think about lecturing me," Flora growled. "You and Florin aren't even supposed to be here, remember?"

"I'm interested in plants too, sis," Florin protested. "How could I give up this opportunity?"

Flora scoffed.

Talon, meanwhile, walked up to the punk and began introducing himself. "Apologies mate. The name is Talon. I'm the Flying-type Gym Leader. I'm also a bit of an adventurer. This is my best mate, Florin, and his sister Flora."

"Yes, I'm Flora. That's my brother Florin. There's not much to say other than that."

"Always the sunflower, my sister is," Florin laughed. "Sorry for the trouble. We've just been waiting quite some time for that bridge to be fixed."

"Now everyone, there's no need to be so competitive," Talon chastised them. "We're all interested in exploring some ruins, so why not do it together? What's your name, mate?"

"...Will," he said quietly. His eyes darted from Flora, to Florin, then back to Talon. "Why are you so interested in this place?"

Talon smiled. "I see I've piqued your curiosity, mate. Like I said, I'm an adventurer, but I don't go on adventures for the sake of them. In my spare time I love to craft maps of various regions and dungeons. Tyluric Temple is a location I have not yet explored and I'd like to sketch a map of this beautiful place whenever possible."

"Hah, if we're gonna travel together, then we may as well begin," Florin, ever the optimist, said.

Flora bit back a scathing reply. Instead, she addressed this stranger spanner in her plan. "What about you? Why are you here?"

"Just wandering," Will replied. He made it sound casual, but his answer was a typical non-response and Flora didn't like it one bit.

"Wandered into the most interesting place of the jungle then!" Talon said. "Come on, let's get a move on!"

With their new… compatriot, the four of them walked into the temple. Almost immediately, Flora was hit with a hint of energy in the air, as if the very ground in this temple was charged with something…different.

"Aw, incredible! The energy in this temple is something else!" Talon said as he took in his surroundings. "I've never felt anything like this!"

"Look Flora!" Florin said with excitement. "The grass and flora of the area has changed color!"

"I never changed, you're just crazy," Flora said, perhaps a bit too quickly.

Florin threw her a puzzled look. "What? Oh, I see what you did. You know what I mean, sis."

Flora turned away. "Just making a funny, or whatever. But yeah, I see what you mean. This place must be imbuing the area with some sort of mystical energy. That would explain the sudden change in color."

Florin knelt in front of the strange plant life. "I'm going to take a sample back for our garden!"

"Alright, mates!" Talon declared. "Let's stay close together while exploring! If the bridge crumbled outside, then it's possible the rest of the structure isn't too stable itself. That, and I'm willing to bet this place is absolutely crawling with wild Pokemon! Keep on your toes!"

"We'll be fine," Flora scoffed.

They made their way deeper into the temple. It wasn't long before they crossed a shallow underground river, walked up a stone set of stairs and ended up outside again, in the midst of the temple ruin.

"Huh, I didn't expect to be outside again so quickly," Talon commented. "Very interesting."

Considering this temple had been built above a massive chasm, it only made sense for there to be some precarious edges. Florin being who he was, instantly found one and peered over it. "Whoah. you do not want to fall off this place…how far down do you think this void goes?"

"Dunno, but it's gotta end sometime, right?" Flora replied. "Nothing is surviving from this height, so keep yourself behind the railing."

Talon couldn't take it. He rushed towards Florin and physically dragged him away from the edge. "There now my anxiety has been temporarily quelled," he said. "Let's keep the dangerous game for those with wings, mate"

"Haha, yeah," Florin said with a smile. "Thanks."

Flora sighed. "Oh brother." She couldn't handle that idiocy, especially not around this strange Will person, so she set off by herself, wading through the knee-high grass to get deeper into the temple -

Out of nowhere, a tentacle slammed into her chest and sent her reeling backwards. The literal next split-second, Will's Axew vomited a thick, cloudy stream of draconic energy across the brush, incinerating the tall grass, ripping the weeds from the ground and nearly upending a tree.

In doing so, he revealed a Carnivine that had been hiding in the undergrowth.

Will looked down at his little dragon. "Something you ate?"

Axex gave him a sad little cry in response.

"I see! So it was a Carnivine! Took a sneak shot at Flora there, yes?" Talon said. "Well, you got what ya asked for. Why would you attack us like that?"

Carnivine hissed at Axew, who bared its canines in response.

"Not a kind fella. Fine, alright," Talon continued. "Then we'll just have to teach you a lesson."

Carnivine took the threat seriously and bolted. "It ran off," Flora said, disappointed.

Talon just laughed. "Just as I expected it to! This is the best case scenario. Technically we are the ones walking into its home uninvited. I'd be impolite to walk into its own house and pick a fight. Now then! Back to adventure!"

They headed deeper into the temple. Flora followed a trail of odd symbols along the left-hand stone wall, constantly on the lookout for the one specimen she sought. Anything else was irrelevant to her, and thus something to be ignored.

Will remained very silent as they continued exploring. He didn't ask any questions, didn't bother to look for anything specific himself. He just wandered along with her naive little brother and Talon with his two-sizes-too-large heart. In a way, Flora could appreciate his silence.

Eventually, they headed down another set of stairs, revealing an underground passage filled with hot lava. The ambient temperature shot up.

"Oh, would you look at that!" Talon said. "This is an unexpected sight!"

"Magma?" Florin questioned. "In a lush place like this?"

"It's a temple," Flora explained. "They need to scare off people somehow."

Florin cast her an uncertain look. "Do we keep going?"

Flora scoffed. "Case in point…"

"As long as we keep our wits about us, we'll be fine," Talon said reassuringly. "Those who are not comfortable going past this point may wait upstairs."

That was not in line with her plans. "Wait upstairs my ass! I spent too much time preparing to give up now!" Flora bit at him.

"Wherever my sister goes, I go," Florin said.

"Well, let's go then," Will simply said.

"Very good!" Talon told him. "You have the heart of an adventurer!"

"Or the brain of an insane person," Flora muttered.

"Either way, it's welcome here with us!" Talon said. He then took a moment to explain about it being the job of an adventurer to make others feel safe, but Flora realized that this might be the perfect opportunity to initiate phase three of her plan. As Florin began moving forwards, she yelled, "WAIT!"

They looked at her.

"It's tea time," she said.

Florin and Talon immediately relaxed and began looking for a comfortable spot to sit down. Tea time was, historically speaking, a sacred adventuring tradition, and it had become somewhat of a habit for them to partake in the hot beverage during every adventure they undertook.

Will seemed a bit lost at first, but he proved to be an adaptable guy if nothing else. As Flora began brewing the special tea she'd procured, Florin and Talon began setting up a little picnic area in the center of the room. Will sat down with his back to the wall, where he could keep a close eye on the stairs as well as the route deeper down the structure.

Flora kept a close eye on him while she worked. Who was this guy really? She recognized him from that strange transmission her people had intercepted from Team Xen. She couldn't believe she hadn't recognized him before.

What was he doing here?

"Tea's all done," she said, pouring herself a cup. "Here, I'll take some too…"

"This is a really strange place to have tea, Flora," Florin commented.

Flora already had her rebuttal ready for comments such as those. "So you're saying you don't want any?"

"N-No…that's not what I said," Florin was quick to say, ever the timid little guy.

"It's a unique experience, but that's what makes it fun," Talon said. "Now you can brag to your friends about having tea within an ancient temple. I bet that'd impress Rhodea, hm…?"

Florin took that comment on the chin. "Is that jab payback for what I said earlier?"

Talon laughed. "Absolutely."

With the mood set and the tea distributed, Flora just had to make sure the others remained unsuspecting. Luckily, she had the perfect distraction sitting right across from her. "So, Will," she said, faking a pleasant tone. What's your story then?"

"Yeah!" Talon said. "I'd like to know more about you as well."

Will stared down at his tea. For a moment, Flora was afraid that somehow, he'd noticed.

"Soo?" Florin said. "Go on, tell us!"

His gaze still locked on the delicate cup in his hands, Will said, "Do you guys know about Team Xen?"

"Hmm. Aren't they a criminal organization? A bunch of terrorists who've kept a low profile until recently?" Talon said. "I heard about them. "They've been out there for a while, but they changed up their tactics a couple of months ago, when they suddenly began attacking places across Aevium with reckless abandon.'

"Wait, didn't they attack the S.S. Oceana?" Florin said.

Talon snapped his fingers. "That's it! They attacked the Oceana. Word is, it sank. They managed to find a couple of bodies, but the rest are still missing."

"Yeah, well, I was there," Will quietly said. He continued not looking at any of them as he spoke. "They tried to take a friend of mine. I stopped them. We've been fighting against each other ever since. Made some friends along the way. Team Xen's after them, too."

So it was true. This was the famed William, the one who had caused so much trouble for Team Xen then…

It was a shame. Team Xen was nothing but scum. By all accounts, that ought to make Will an ally of hers.

Flora noticed his fingers digging into the porcelain cup. Fearing that he might accidentally break it, she looked for a way to distract him from that. "How'd you end up on Terajuma, Will?"

Will looked at the stairs. The muscles around his mouth tightened. "Narrowly. They captured us. We fought back. Stole one of their battleships and sailed here. But they followed us…they're on Terajuma too." He blinked a couple of times and suddenly, he seemed to snap out of something and frowned, before addressing Talon. "Didn't you notice their broadcast? It was all over the island a couple of days ago. They're gonna wipe out Terajuma island if they don't get their hands on us."

"They're here to attack the island?" Talon said, his voice low and tight. "Absolute cowards."

"They've been after Gym Leaders as well," Will continued. "They're killing everybody who can get in their way."

"I'm sorry to hear you've been through that, Will," Florin said.

"Yeah. A nasty bunch. They got no shame whatsoever. Tell you what mate? Once we're done here, well help you out in any way we can! The three of us are supposed to be here for the next few weeks. When Team Xen attacks, we'll promise to fight back as well."

"...you would do that?" Will asked with surprise.

"It's the right thing to do!" Florin said.

"Team Xen…" Flora mused. When the time came for her plans to fall into place, it would see the end of that despicable little cult as well. "I'll crush them myself."

Luckily, that was the moment her homemade recipe began kicking in. She heard Florin slur through his next words as he began yawning.

"She's gonna what, mate?" Talon said, before breaking into a big yawn himself. "I've gotten so tired all of a sudden."

"Oh…that was fast…" Flora said, faking the same response. "I'm getting…pretty tired myself…"

"Flora," Will groggily said. The cup of tea slumped from his fingers and clattered to the ground. He tried to get up, but he was unable to, and his eyelids fluttered. "You…what…"

Flora watched as he closed his eyes and slumped to the ground. He began breathing heavily, and Flora knew she was safe.

"Just. Kidding," she said, smiling. That had been close; the way Will kept glaring at the tea almost made her fear that he'd been on to her. Luckily, he was just a fool after all. "That's the power of Bellossom sleep powder melatonin. Extra strength." She sighed and then turned to face her brother, "This wouldn't have happened if you just let me come here alone, Florin. Sorry. I'll come back to get you the moment I find what I need, okay? So just…have a nice nap till then."

With that, Flora was off.

She had a rare sample to collect.

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

---

As Will's blurry vision came into focus and his mind clawed its way back to consciousness, two thoughts occurred to him. One good news and one bad news.

The bad news: he was pretty sure he'd just gotten roofied by that girl Flora. His very first foray into drugs and it hadn't even been voluntary, let alone performance enhancing. Not impressed.

The good news: he'd just had several hours of uninterrupted, dreamless sleep and he felt strong and well-rested.

"You fool," Will muttered as he got back to his feet. "You've only made me stronger…"

One by one, he helped Florin and Talon shake off the effects of Flora's horrible, no-good, definitely-worse-than-Aelita's herbal tea. Luckily for him, they'd been in the process of waking up already, so it didn't take him more than a minute to get them to their feet.

"Mates," Talon said after he assessed the situation, "I think we took an unintentional siesta."

"Okay, but where's Flora?" Florin asked.

"I think we need to have a conversation about your sister," Will told him.

"Yeah, she's gone, coincidentally right after we passed out," Talon said. "Florin, sometimes I don't think I can say I like your sister very much."

Florin sighed. "She knocked us out, didn't she?"

"Well then. I believe it's time we go look for your sister. A nice scolding would do her well, yes?"

Will would have been upset that they were only going to scold a girl who'd drugged them into unconsciousness, but he felt so relaxed after that little nap that he couldn't even complain.

What had she said? Bellossom something-something?

Maybe after Talon was done scolding her, he could get himself some of that stuff. Maybe he could teach himself how to brew herbal tea and finally catch up on his backlog of sleep.

Together with Talon and Florin, they began chasing after the not-so-nice sister. The three of them pushed deeper into the temple. Occasionally, he caught a glimpse of the symbols Talon and Florin had been so happy about; they were a part of the rocky walls, composed of glittering foreign calligraphy, sometimes nothing more than drawn images on the wall.

They reached a dead end with a particular mural that piqued Talon's interest more than the others. He approached it, whistling to himself. "Take a look at the mural on the wall," he said in a low voice.

"It's interesting," Florin said. "It looks like there are cyclones being controlled by some sort of deity…"

"Not only that," Talon said, "But the people who are worshiping it are being terrorized by them. I believe the being depicted here must be the same one on the statues we've seen earlier. Tornadus,"

A Pokemon then?

"That name certainly checks out," Florin said.

"There's an inscription on the wall here as well. Unfortunately, it's using a language I am not familiar with."

"It's the ancient language the Garufans used!" Florin gasped.

"It's a shame we can't read the message they left for us…but it is what it is."

Behind them, one of the massive air-holes suddenly began exuding a massive amount of force, blowing a heavy tornado of rushing air through the room in an upwards motion. It swept out into an upper room, one Will hadn't even seen before.

It was a puzzle.

This entire place had been built with puzzles. The glittering symbols on the wall took on a sharp cast, emitting faint illuminations as they passed through the temple.

Upstairs, they aligned an array of ancient mirrors and reflected a beam of sunlight directly into the wall atop another platform, right above another mural.

The mural intensified and started glowing an intense yellow-gold color.

"It's another one of those murals," Florin said. "It's different…this mural seems to be depicting the deity Thundurus. This picture has an inscription, too."

"Again, it's a real shame that we aren't able to read this…" Talon said.

"Looks sort of depressing, anyway."

Will wondered if Karen could read this. She spoke the language, it only made sense she could read it, right?

It didn't matter. He had a sneaking suspicion that Flora was after something specific in this temple. If she wanted it bad enough to drug her own friend and brother, it had to be something powerful.

Something dangerous.

"Flora always been like this?" Will asked.

"No, she's actually a very sweet girl!" Florin said.

Will turned to give him an incredulous look.

"Er, Florin here means to say Flora's a focused gal," Talon corrected him. "Once she sets her mind to something, nothing's stopping her from achieving that. Seems that's now expanded to serving knockout tea to her mates."

Will didn't know the girl, didn't know what kind of baggage she carried with her or what had happened in her life to make her this way. Normally he didn't want to judge, but spiking someone's tea was a dick move no matter which way you looked at it.

Well, he'd sort that out once he found the girl…

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

---

Finally, after what felt like hours of searching, Flora made it to the temple's innermost sanctum. There, lying atop the pedestal, lay the item she'd been looking for all these months.

The cursed root.

So that was that Landorus had created as a form of revenge against humanity. The creation that caused so much devastation…Legendary Pokemon could be such foolish beings.

"Landorus, I hope you're listening," Flora said as she approached her price. "This form of "revenge" that you enacted upon humanity has not been forgotten. Hope you can take what you dish out."

A mass of tattered limbs and leaves detached itself from the ceiling and nearly dropped down on her. It was that damned Carnivine from before!

"Oh, I get it now," Flora said. "You're the protector of this temple, aren't you? So when you saw us infiltrating your domain, you attacked. Or rather, you noticed me entering your domain."

The Carnivine uttered a high-pitched cry. As far as intimidations went, Flora had heard better.

"Does my presence make you uncomfortable? Does it put you on edge? Truthfully, your interference is putting me past a point of irritation that I seldom return from passively. I'm giving you one chance. Move aside. Or I will make you move."

The Carnivine did not take her gracious offer. It surged backwards towards the pedestal and seized the cursed root in its own two grassy tentacles.

"What are you doing?" Flora demanded.

Dark energy erupted from the cursed root. Before Flora even had the chance to choose one of her own Pokemon to defend herself, the energy swept across the entire grove and her world went blank.

~~~~~~~(VI)~~~~~~~

---

Crawli would have loved exploring this temple. Will saw all kinds of Bug-type Pokemon as he trekked across the ruins. He even had to walk right past a pack of Ariados and a couple of Spinarak as he crossed a stone bridge and headed down south again.

"Looks like the innermost chamber is right ahead!" Florin called out.

"You're right mate. Seems to be some sort of grove."

Another hidden grove usually meant trouble. Will already had Blaziken out to ward off any potential ambushes. Axew stuck close to his feet.

There, standing out in the open in the middle of the grove, stood Flora. She had her back turned to them..

"Ah! Flora!" Florin yelled.

Flora didn't respond. Why was she just standing there?

"We've been looking everywhere for you!" Florin continued, seemingly oblivious to how sketchy this whole thing looked. "What's the big idea with that tea you gave us?"

Flora didn't respond.

Bad feelings all around.

Blaziken tensed up,

"Trouble," Will whispered. Silently, Talon nodded. He retrieved a Poke Ball of his own.

"Helloooo?" Florin said, walking towards his sister in agitation. "Are you even listening to me? Flora!"

Flora turned around and Talon must have seen something Will hadn't, because the next instant his Braviary had shoved itself between the two siblings and knocked Florin back.

"F-Flora!" Florin exclaimed. "What happened to you?"

Will saw it too, now. Flora's eyes were empty and blank, and little vines had wrapped themselves around her ankles and neck, poking into her flesh and underneath her skin. Her movements were jerky and stiff, like those of a puppet.

"What happened?" Florin cried out in dismay.

"I knew somethin' wasn't right with your sister mate," Talon said. "Flora, what's going on?"

Flora's mouth opened and words came out, but it wasn't Flora who spoke. It looked like Flora wasn't even home at the moment. "Humans who enter the Tyluric Temple without permission are to be punished," Flora's body said, her pronunciation all wrong, the emphasis on all the wrong syllables. Whatever had taken over had no idea how human speech worked.

"Uh, that's not Flora's voice," Florin said.

A Carnivine slithered towards Flora from one of the trees and Blaziken inched closer to Will, positioning herself in such a way that a single twist of her shoulder would put half her body in the way of an incoming attack.

"This girl was foolish enough to travel to the depths of this temple," Flora's body continued. "She wanted to enter this temple so bad. Now I've granted her wish. She will never leave. Her arrogance is the same as the ancients from before."

"The same as before…?" Florin muttered.

Will assumed that meant the Garufans? What had the Garufans done to warrant such hostility?

"It's the Canivine from earlier," Talon said. "I should have guessed."

No, he shouldn't have. He couldn't have. Nothing that humanity knew about Carnivine suggested that they were capable of something like this. In fact, Will wasn't sure if this thing was even to blame for Flora's…condition.

"Can't say this isn't deserved," Talon continued calmly. "But we'd love to leave with everyone in one piece, yea?"

"I sensed no darkness within your hearts…however, if you continue down this path, then you will meet the same fate as the girl."

Will didn't react very well to threats these days. They solicited an automatic and instinctual sense of defiance from him. Team Xen probably had something to do with that.

"Not gonna lie, mate. I'm not a fan of threats," Talon said.

Thankfully, Will saw it wasn't just him. The moment one party had to resort to threats, negotiations had broken down. At that point, there was no sense in talking anymore.

"Feeling a bit unwelcome, I am. If you won't let Flora go, then we'll just take her back by force."

"Free my sister right now!" Florin yelled.

"Very well…" Flora's body continued in that eerie, creepy voice. "Landorus, as your humble servant…I shall drive away any human!"

The atmosphere in the room changed. An immense pressure suddenly weighed down on Will and the Carnivine twitched and spasmed. A power far more ancient and alien than anything Will had experienced before filled the air and Carnivine's body changed. Its limbs fused together into a long, serpentine tail, its eyes seemed to melt or sear away as its skin grew thicker and darker. Its tongue split apart into three different, serpentine appendages. Dark ichor dripped to the floor as its body underwent these rapid changes, but even then, it didn't seem to be in pain. It didn't resist the transformation, it just…obeyed.

Twin tentacles burst from the top of its head, each one tipped with a strange, red bulb. Eyes? Some other sensory organ?

"I-It transformed!" Florin said.

Which…yeah, would be strange for anyone who hadn't dealt with Rift Creations before.

"Will, Florin, careful," Talon warned them. "This thing isn't normal. Will, I'm sorry to throw this on you, but I'm going to have to deal with Flora. She's far stronger than she looks. Take care of the Carnivine; we can do this together. Keep on your toes!"

Will nodded, then shot a sideways glance at Blaziken. Her expression was detached and cold as she took in her new foe. He knew that look; she was getting into the zone.

"Florin, let us handle this," Talon continued.

"Axew, stay back," Will said.

Carnivine lashed out with its serpentine tail, which snapped towards Will like the crack of a whip. Blaziken got herself in front of the attack just in time, but the sheer force of the blow sent her tumbling to the ground. She slammed a claw into the ground to stop her momentum and was on her feet and fighting in an instant.

The next instant, Carnivine sprouted arms from its body and one of them shot towards Will, faster than he could dodge. The plantlike appendages wrapped around his chest and suddenly, Will got jerked off the ground.

"Blaziken!" He yelled.

Strangely enough, Carnivine simply flung him away instead of doing something more violent. Will sailed through the air and rolled to a rough halt in a pool of mud, dazed, but unhurt.

Carnivine gathered energy, then spat a cluster of Seed Bombs at Blaziken. She deftly avoided the first two, then knocked the third out of the way before it could explode in her face. The Seed Bombs detonated and the explosive shockwaves tore through the ground, throwing up large clouds of sand and plants.

Blaziken flung a fistful of fire at Carnivine, but the flames washed over its thick skin like water, failing to set it alight.

Looked like they needed a heavier hand.

The Carnivine opened its maw and began creating a small, blue sphere of energy that rapidly grew larger and larger.

"Aim for its mouth!" Will ordered. "It might be a weak spot!"

Blaziken did as he said. She gathered flames to her right ankle and then swept her leg across the field, throwing a large arc of flames at Carnivine's mouth.

The flames washed over its face and tongues and the sphere of energy burst. Carnivine uttered an ear-splitting screech, thrashing across the ground and tearing large holes across the soil with its leave-like hands.

"Now!"

Blaziken threw herself into a flying kick, her leg connected with its jaw and the impact sent Carnivine reeling backwards. Blaziken pressed the advantage, clutching one of its tentacle-like protrusions and pulling its massive, fang-tipped head closer towards her. She gathered fire on her other fist and struck several Fire Punches in quick succession, but then the Carnivine broke free. It pulled its serpentine tail between itself and Blaziken like a coil and shoved her back.

Next, it pounced like a snake, trying to lock its massive jaws around Blaziken's torso. She got her arms in front of her just in time and kept the vice-like jaws from snapping shut around her. Will could only guess at the sheer biting force behind those jaws; even with Blaziken's immense physical strength, he saw her struggling to keep those jaws open. Her arms trembled as the Carnivine kept wriggling around, using its long, snakelike body to constantly shift his axis of attack, forcing Blaziken to keep adjusting her footing. it wouldn't let her get the leverage she needed.

But two could play at that game.

"Blaziken! Grapple it towards you, get your leg in-between you!" Will shouted. "Get on the ground if you have to!"

Even though he didn't know the right fighting terms for situations like Aelita undoubtedly would have, he got the message across. In grappling, there was a tactic where the defender deliberately pulled themselves and their attacker to the ground, immediately using their momentum to throw them overhead or to the ground in a disadvantageous position.

Blaziken understood what he asked of her. With incredible strength, she rolled onto her back and pulled Carnivine up across her. In a flash, she had a burning foot placed against its chest. Carnivine was still trying to clamp down on her head and didn't realize what she was doing. By the time it realized how much force a Blaziken could leverage with their legs, it was too late. Blaziken shoved him off her in a wash of fire and the Carnivine went airborne.

Immediately, Blaziken rolled back onto her feet and grabbed a hold of the Carnivine's elongated tail. She dug her nails deep into its thick hide and pulled Carnivine towards her, allowing her to mount the back of its head and get her claws around its upper jaw.

That was when Will spotted the other shapes emerging from the grove. Misshapen bundles of tentacles on feet, sickly and purple, with singular staring eyes directing their focus at the human intruders in their home.

Without thinking, Will said, "Axew, keep them off her!"

Axew scampered forwards, looking all too eager to finally get some action himself. He was a Dragon-type after all. It was in his blood.

The malformed Tangela began creeping towards them from every direction. Axew spun around from one target to another, unsure which one to engage.

"To your right! That one!" Will said. "Stick to one target at a time. Keep them back!"

Axew inhaled deeply and gathered draconic energy within his stomach, which began glowing with blue light. before firing off a powerful blast of blue and black energy.

The attack was sloppy and unfocused - of course it was, Axew had only hatched like two weeks ago - and washed over the Tangela like a destructive cloud more than anything else. Still, an unfocused cloud of destructive energy was still destructive energy and the Tangela stumbled backwards.

"Again, to your left! Bit more left! The one that's right in your face!"

Again, Axew gathered power and energy within his little belly and again, he expended it in a directionless cloud that didn't do much more than set the ground on fire and drive the Tangela back.

For now, that was all he could do. It was all they really needed; Blaziken had managed to wrestle the Carnivine to the ground and kept its neck pinned with one knee. She used her other foot to keep the Carnivine's lower jaw pinned to the ground, keeping herself ablaze in a corona of fire to keep Carnivine from mustering an effective response.

Then, Blaziken clutched Carnivine's upper jaw with both claws and began pulling.

Carnivine's trifurcated tongue darted in every direction and it trashed around with its tail, but it was no use. As the Tangela began getting close enough to attack Axew with their Vine Whips, Blaziken shot Will a look of confirmation.

She will never leave.

"Do it!" Will ordered.

Blaziken's expression became fierce as she heaved -

With a truly sickening crack, Carnivine's jaw snapped. Its entire body stiffened, then went completely slack.

"Oh my god," Florin said, covering his mouth in horror.

"There…" Talon said. "That should do it."

"B-But how!" Flora's body exclaimed. She sank through her knees.

"I understand you're territorial mate, but this is just insanity," Talon said. "You would have killed her."

"I just…wanted to protect the Pokemon that live here…humans can be so terrible. Us Pokemon are tied down in shackles because of humanity's arrogance. Daily we deal with looters and trainers who want nothing but to indulge themselves in greed…when the bridge to the temple was destroyed, I felt peace."

The Tangela stopped attacking. Will picked up his panting, exhausted little dragon.

"Definitely can understand the feeling of just wanting to be safe," Talon said. "I did not realize you all were feeling such suffering on the inside. And all of us…we've contributed to that suffering just for barging in. We believe that, just because we can, we should. Seldom do we take the opportunity to think if what we do is for the best."

Perhaps. It could be the other way, too; people who truly believed what they did was for the best, often acted with more resolve and less hesitation. Less guilt. Somehow, Team Xen was convinced that they were on the right path. That what they did was for the best.

Will wasn't sure which was worse; the person who didn't think things through, or the person who did, and reached all the wrong conclusions.

"Now we've fought, and talked, I feel like we've made our points clear," Talon continued. "Please mate. Let our friend go and we'll leave."

For several long, tense moments, it looked like defeating Carnivine hadn't been the end of it; that somehow, the temple had claimed Flora and that it would never let her go.

But then…"She will be freed. And as for me…I shall wither away. This body has been broken. This place shall be without a protector…but worry not. A new one will take my place. In time. Perhaps…maybe even I went too far…in the end. If there are humans like you who are so understanding…then maybe humans aren't as bad as I thought they were."

Carnivine's body started flaking away. Like a plant that had been left to dry for weeks and weeks at an end, its body crumbled and fell apart.

"I…wish it didn't have to be this way," Will admitted to Talon. "I didn't want to kill it."

Talon placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Sometimes, both parties are too convinced to listen to reason. When they come to blows, they fight for their ideals…and those fights can result in casualties. This is not your fault."

Flora gasped. She clutched at her neck, then said, "Wh-What? Where am I?"

"Flora!" Florin yelled, rushing to his sister's side. "You're okay!"

"Huh? Florin? What are you doing here?"

Cleaning up the enormous mess a certain someone had made.

"Saving you, that's what!" Florin said. "You were taken over by that Carnivine! This wouldn't have happened if you didn't literally drug us with that tea! What is WRONG with you?"

Will saw the gears turning in Flora's head. Maybe he'd been dealing with the likes of Madelis for too long, but he got the sudden impression that Flora was about to start lying through her teeth. "I figured that the temple would be too dangerous from that point on. And you guys would follow me regardless of any warning. So I took it upon myself to make sure you didn't, that's all."

Luckily, Talon was no fool. "Do you take us for a couple of bloody idiots?" He snapped. "You just wanted the treasure for yourself!"

Something unpleasant came over Flora's features. "Aww, is little Talon upset that he got tranquilized?"

Will was starting to really dislike this girl. "Me thinks Talon would have been more upset if Florin's sister became fertilizer before we could find her," he said.

Flora leveled a glare at him. He met it in kind. The amount of venom and hostility in her eyes surprised him; whoever she was, whatever she was really after here, Will knew that he had just made himself a new enemy.

"For the record, I'm not interested in treasure at all," she spat. " And none of you were supposed to be here in the first place. But you were just so insistent."

Whoah. That look in her eyes. She really was unrepentant.

"Next time, just say you don't want us to come," Talon said. "Florin and I would gladly take a trip on our own time. Not only that, but you've wrapped Will up in this as well."

"I'm sorry," Flora said. "You're right. I shouldn't have done what I did."

Even Will could tell that her apology was fake as all hell. If there was one thing Flora was sorry for, it was that her plans hadn't worked out the way she wanted to.

Who was this girl even? What was she after?

"I can't tell if that apology is genuine or not, but it's all you've got, so…I've had enough exploring for today. I think I'll take my leave, yea?"

They left the temple after that. Florin kept bickering with Flora, Talon laughed at their antics, and it was as if nothing had happened. It…was a strange dynamic for sure. These people obviously knew each other very well.

Will wondered how he would have reacted if it had been Melia or Aelita who had spiked his drink to knock him out. Depending on the circumstances, he would have probably raised hell over the fact that they hadn't trusted him enough to just talk to him instead. Worse, he felt like it would have put a serious dent in their friendship. Then again, he'd probably get over it eventually.

The comparison was moot anyway; real friends would never pull underhanded stuff like that with each other.

That begged the question again; why had Flora resorted to something like that?

Maybe Talon, Flora and Florin had some issues to work out when he was gone.

Well, that wasn't his problem.

"That was fun," Flora said as they emerged on the stone bridge at the temple's entrance again.

"Fun?" Florin exclaimed. "Really? You were practically going to marry that Carnivine!"

"I think that could go well," Flora replied. "Dunno. Have a few Carnivine/human hybrid babies."

Oh god. Flora. Tentacles. The images.

"Damnit Saki," Will muttered under his breath. Somehow, this was her fault. Her and her stupid teasing.

"I . Hate. That!" Florin yelled.

"I know," Flora said with a little smirk.

"Well, I believe it's time we head back," Talon said. "All things considered, that was a fun expedition. Will made it even better! We're renting a house in Kakori Village. You should drop by, come say hello some time."

"Yeah," Florin said, and he shook Will's hand. "We'll be here for a few more weeks too."

"After what you've told us about Team Xen…now I can't just leave my mates for dead, can I? We'll be there for you, Will. Truly."

"Thanks," Will quietly said. "I really appreciate that."

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Flora said. "Right. Well, let's head on home everyone."

All in all, he'd made two new friends and one new enemy, all of whom had promised to come to their aid when the time came.

That was a net victory, wasn't it?

It was late in the afternoon by the time Will made it back to their home in the village. He wiped the mud off Pidgeot's majestic feathers as best he could, recalled him when he realized he'd have to find a way to bathe the enormous bird of prey, then headed back inside.

He'd planned on just sneaking past everyone and grab a quick shower, but when he flung the door open, he saw that literally everyone minus Saki was gathered there in the living room, so he threw his plan to sneak past them out the window.

"Hey Will! You - oh my god what happened!" Melia exclaimed.

Aelita shoved her seat back and leapt to her feet. "Wow, did you go through that obstacle course without me?"

"What's that smell?" Braixen said, scrunching up her nose. "That's just mud, isn't it?"

"I swear, we let you out of our sight for one moment," Val said.

Will took a deep breath and shut the door behind him.

"Are you alright?" Melia said, her voice thick with concern. Will guessed that, if the roles had been reversed and it had been Melia who dropped by all covered in mud and looking exhausted, he would have been just as concerned.

"I'm fine," he reassured them. "I had tea in an ancient temple with new friends, a mean girl spiked my tea with drugs and - "

In hindsight, that hadn't been the smartest thing to say. Everybody including Adam leapt to their feet and began slinging all kinds of questions at him. They crowded him and got really passionate and concerned about that tea part, and Will had to clear the air on that front.

"No, no, not like that," he said. "She drugged the other two guys as well, so I had a powernap of a few hours, then fought a plant monster who'd taken over that girl's mind with some tentacles - everything worked out."

"...you really are a very odd person at times," Val said, sitting back down again. "I'm just glad you're okay!"

"So why did that girl drug you and the others?" Melia said, still not looking fully convinced that he was okay.

"She was looking for something on her own. What it was, I don't have the foggiest."

"You mentioned new friends?" Aelita said. Adam took a bottle of water from the fridge and threw it at Will, who gratefully caught it. "That's neat!"

"Yeah. Talon, the Flying-type Gym Leader," Will said before unscrewing the bottle and pouring it down the hatch. He hadn't even realized how thirsty he was. "They rented a house in Kakori Village as well."

"...is that including this girl you mentioned?" Melia said. She made it sound innocent enough, but Will saw that same steely glint in her eyes she got whenever she confronted Team Xen.

"I guess? They're adventurers. If you'll excuse me, I need a shower."

"Make that two showers," Braixen said. "I'm not sure what that is, but it doesn't smell like normal mud."

"Don't tell me Braixen," Will said. "It was a jungle grove in a temple. There is no way."

"No, no!" Braixen quickly said. "Not like that! I would have bolted through the window if it had been that. No, it just smells weird, is all."

"Any word from Crawli?" Will asked as he headed towards the stairs.

"Yeah. He'll be dropping by tomorrow," Melia said. "He's going to tell us where to find the next Relics!"

Neat.

Given how hard they'd had to fight to get their hands on the Sky Relic, there was no way the others could be more difficult. With some luck, they could just swoop in, take the Relic and leave again.

No complications, no trouble.