Chapter Forty-Nine:
Resilience to Rise

Disclaimer: I do not own the series Pokémon. Like, at all. It and all its respectable characters are © to Game Freak and Satoshi Tajiri. However, all writing contents and semi-plots here are © to me; unless it is stated otherwise. All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I do not own them.

Notes: I've recently received an influx of generous messages from various users who reached out with the offer of creating art for this story, as a commission. Regardless of whether these are legitimate proposals or not, I am currently tight on money and am unable to accept any offers. I also tend to draw my own art, so there is that as well. I'm respectfully requesting that I am no longer solicited any further. Thank you for understanding!

With that out of the way, I want to offer my apologies for the extended break I had unexpectedly taken with this story! I was working on other stories in my profile, as they needed some attention too. And in addition to that, I also had to wrestle with this chapter quite a few times. I had several false starts and several times had to stop and restart all over again because the direction wasn't where I wanted it to go. It went in different directions several times over before it settled on the path I needed it to.

Thank you to my long-time readers and also to my brand-new readers for sticking it out, my lovelies, I appreciate you!

Current Team: Keno the Swampert, Sela the Mightyena, Ambrose the Kirlia, Faye the Swellow, Nux the Gyarados, Gunner the Lairon

Badges Won: Stone Badge, Knuckle Badge, Dynamo Badge

"There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in
shallows and miseries
On such a full sea are we now afloat
And we must take the current when it serves
Or lose our ventures."
-Brutus, "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare

She could sense its presence long before she laid eyes on the behemoth, before it chose to make itself known. It exuded an utterly detestable aura and the feeling of impending violence unleashing was her only failsafe to shakily depend on.

The deep, guttural clicks and bellows grew ever closer, but how close or far away it was, that was nearly impossible to pinpoint in the pitch-black gloom. Her eyes just weren't meant to pierce that kind of darkness.

Blood red eyes and hellish red wisps whooshed to life suddenly, and no matter how small a speck she was in this vast and endless void, it found her.

The creature always did.

The clicking increased in pitch and tempo, almost like it was laughing.

"Welcometh back, little mortal."

Shay bolted upright with a sharp, pained gasp that wrenched a stabbing sensation throughout her entire chest. She hissed between clenched teeth as it lanced through her lungs at several angles at once. A pained whimper escaped her as she grudgingly had to slow her breathing down to shallow little sips until the dagger-like stitching in her side began to fade. Once she felt comfortable enough to fill her lungs without the needling in her chest, Shay did the next thing: taking stock of her surroundings.

Goosebumps pimpled along her exposed arms and shoulders, the cooler air of the room chilling the sweat that had accumulated in a thin sheen across her skin. Her clothes clung tightly to her body, and she had to detangle her legs from the bed sheets carefully, so as to not disturb Sela and Ambrose that slept on the bed with her. Faye stirred from her perch on the desk chair but seemed to still be fast asleep. Nux rumbled along, his head and neck pouring into the room through the window while the rest of his body remained outside the Pokémon Center. Keno and Gunner slumbered peacefully away, side-by-side at the foot of the bed, undisturbed.

None of them had heard it. That god-awful clicking sound. It reminded Shay of the terrifying sounds a Clicker made in The Last of Us, but with a deeper, more guttural bite to it. She could almost feel the noise itself resonate within her body, making her bones rattle all the way down to the marrow.

The rest of the room was blissfully quiet and calm, and the contents of her dream—nightmare?—seemed to have at last melted back into the shadows from whence they'd come. Shay's skin still crawled with anxiety, like she was still being watched from the darkness. Her eyes darted about, expecting to see the pointed golden helm, the deep red eyes, or razor-sharp white fangs looming from one of the darker corners of the room. Her heart fluttered about within her ribcage, slowly but surely relaxing like the rest of the room. When her eyes adjusted at last to the nighttime gloom and she felt calmer, she relaxed.

She was safe. She was awake. That thing couldn't hurt her. Not right now, at least.

She stiffened at a shift beside her and snapped her head in the direction, the hairs on the back of her neck standing upright and at attention in alarm. Shay waited, eyes darting about until she found the source: it was Ambrose stirring and he pulled himself upright, ears twitching. He canted his head closer to her.

"Can't sleep?"

"Something like that," she replied softly, not caring to hide the relief in her voice. "Nightmare, I think. Used to be about my jackass ex-boyfriend. Now it's something worse."

"…I could sense that much," he responded. "Do you…need to talk about it?"

"I'm…not sure how to explain it."

"Try."

Shay hesitated despite the encouraging tone he gave her. She sighed.

"I think…it's Giratina."

Ambrose stiffened beside her but said nothing more. It was a bold leap to jump to, she knew that. But who else could it be? She wasn't as familiar with the Sinnoh region as she should have been—but she recognized the golden helm-like skull structure it sported, easily so. Shay took Ambrose's continued silence as a cue to continue.

"Giratina's…mocking me. I'm in the dark and then it materializes out of nowhere and it's hovering over me, like it's trying to scare me. But…"

The Kirlia waited before prompting her. "But…?"

"I've…seen Giratina, in a dream before. The day I woke up in the clinic after the mountain lion attack." Shay shuddered at the memory of that particular visit in her head. "It…saw me or heard me—something to that effect—the day they all showed up above Mauville. Giratina threw back my own words at me. But it was all formal and Shakespearean-sounding. Old-school medieval."

"You never did tell me what you said that day."

"You already know though, don't you?"

"I do. But I want to hear you say it."

The taste in her mouth soured at Ambrose's goading. He'd passed out in her arms before she had begun shouting at the Creation Trio and she had to return him to his pokéball. "I told Giratina and the others to come back and fix their mess. And Giratina said that back to me, in the clinic. When I was still under, I mean."

"And just now?"

"…'welcome back'. That's what it said to me. 'Welcome back'. Again, it was more formal sounding, medieval even, but I don't need to interpret anything, it was clear as day." She hesitated. "I think it wants something from me, and I'm scared to find out what it is."

Just thinking about it had chills marching up and down her spine. Shay shuddered involuntarily and drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them.

"I'm screwing things up, aren't I? I wasted our time at that survival course, when all I really needed was the travel licenses classes. If I had just stuck to that, Gunner and Sela wouldn't have disappeared when they did. My damn eardrums wouldn't have gotten ruptured, and I wouldn't have gotten attacked by that mountain lion—which is super freaky, because mountain lions typically don't attack people like that without really good reason and Sela—"

Her next words caught in Shay's throat, tight and sharp. The guilt still seemed like a sharp instrument carving painful reminders of her failure against her chest cavity. She struggled to free them, but they came, bit by bit. When her next words finally dislodged, she made sure her voice was soft again.

"Sela…wouldn't have lost an eye, but she did and it's because of me. The choices I made."

Despite their talk only a few days ago, Shay's stomach still curdled with guilt about what had happened to Sela and Gunner. If she had kept a better eye on them…

If she hadn't done that stupid course. But all she could think was, 'Maybe I can use this in the future'.

Ambrose sat beside her quietly, his paws laid primly in his lap as he listened. His eyes were closed, but Shay knew he was awake and listening intently.

"Perhaps you are making mistakes you can't take back. Then again, maybe you aren't."

Shay's brow furrowed together, and she turned her head just enough to view Ambrose from her peripheral.

"I thought you said that you could 'see into the future'. That's what most psychic-types can do, theoretically, can't you?"

Ambrose's chuckle was low and soft. Hollow, even.

"Most of us can, as far as I'm aware. Most of my kind can, at least. But just like all things, there is a limit…even for me."

His last few words had his snout wrinkling upwards, as if they were especially distasteful to have them in his mouth.

"I don't see things in a linear or chronological fashion. There are no milestones I can flash ahead to and check off as they pass us by. I see snippets and fragments, pieces of a larger whole. Out of order, at times."

Carefully, Ambrose folded and refolded his paws in his lap, eerily finger-like digits dancing over one another. At first, Shay didn't understand what he was doing until it struck her moments later. He was fidgeting. Ambrose never fidgeted.

"Are…are you okay?"

Shay gently placed a hand on the Kirlia's narrow shoulder. He stiffened at her touch, fur rising to attention.

"Ambrose—"

"I didn't…see what was going to happen to you, what did happen to you. I didn't know you were going to be hurt that day. I felt like there was something that was going to happen, something wrong, I could practically taste it in the air but I…I didn't…"

The unusually soft and reserved manner he spoke in gave Shay pause. This was another new thing that she was hearing from Ambrose: regret, deep and unsettling.

"I should have seen it coming. I didn't know that you were going to be attacked. I. didn't know about Sela or Gunner's disappearance. Not until they were actually gone. I couldn't feel them. I should have seen it coming."

The admission from Ambrose made Shay's heart sink. She found it difficult to swallow past the dry spell that had encased her mouth suddenly. It took a few tries to get her next words out.

"What…what do you know?" Shay finally managed. Ambrose sighed softly beside her.

"I know that you'll end up somewhere new. Somewhere atop a mountain, I think."

"Mount Chimney?"

"No. No, I don't think so. It was somewhere cold, with ice and snow. And I think you're with another human. A…man?" Ambrose's second sigh was harsher. "I'm…not as gifted with divining the future, not like my brother is. It probably helps that he can use his eyes to simplify things…and I can't. Not like how most everyone else can. It takes me longer to make sense of things."

"Your brother?" Shay repeated, confused at first, before she recalled whom he meant. "Oh…your brother's with Wally, right? Oleander."

Ambrose inclined his head, eyes half-lidded. She saw the hint of a smile on his face, and a feeling of approval brushing against her mind at her correct recollection. Shay fell silent, mulling on his previous comment.

"How can you tell that I was on a snow-covered mountain? Are you sure it wasn't ashes instead? Like on Mount Chimney? Are you sure it wasn't Mount Chimney?"

"I felt the bite of cold winds, like needles stabbing into my flesh. It was somewhere far from here, that much I knew. I can smell Mount Chimney from here and this new place…it smelled different. Felt different."

Shay could guess that quite a number of regions had snow and mountainous terrain here in this world. But together at the same time? She was having trouble recalling that information, damningly so. If what he said was true, would it truly be here, or would it be back home somewhere, like Mount Everest, the Sierras, the Andes…?

The questions ran doggedly through her mind all without any clear answers. And Shay had a feeling that pestering Ambrose further wouldn't get either of them closer to the answers. He had sounded frustrated when he spoke about his brother, and again at his admittance in his lacking skills. The clench in his jaw and wrinkling of his snout were indications enough.

She hesitated before deciding, fuck it, and wrapped an arm across his lean, narrow shoulders, pulling him into a side hug. He leaned into her readily, head plopping against her shoulder in return.

"I'm sorry if I'm being frustrating lately. I feel like I'm doubting myself more and I'm getting impatient with everyone more easily as a result."

Ambrose hummed softly before replying. "It's true, you have been…but to be fair, your streak of bad luck has been outpacing the good lately. I think it's reasonably fair you've earned the right to be a little surly from time to time."

She snorted, a crooked smile tugging one side of her mouth upwards. "Damn right I do."

They sat together for a few minutes in companionable silence. But whatever levity they had accumulated quickly dissipated in said silence as those minutes dragged on. The gloom of the room didn't quite feel so oppressive, now that Shay could see most of everything. Not like in her dream. Not with Giratina looming over her like she was an insect it had been inspecting and was deciding whether to smash or spare her.

"What now? Do I just…blindly follow some arbitrary timeline because what, fate or whatever, tells me I have to?" Why couldn't she just pass the buck over to Brendan, or to Steven? Why did it have to be her?

"You are far from blind as far as what is meant to come. It's a wonder in and of itself that your world gleaned anything from here."

Shay's brow beetled together, and a frown was once again tugging her lips downwards.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Do you really think that your world is the epicenter of where everything revolves around? That only your world can imagine of places such as this, and believe them to be fantasy? That we are but fabrications of someone else's mind?"

The worry began to grow in the pit of her stomach, at the implications he was proposing.

"So…what does that even mean? That pokémon have been trickling into other worlds? And we've…done the same, or something like that?" It was a shortened conclusion of what was really going on inside her head. One she could simplify and put into words, at any rate.

She thought of the news report the night before she fell asleep in her barracks room, with the strange-looking shark with a damning star-like pattern branded on its skull. She thought of the grizzly bear that had attacked her and Brendan just outside of New Mauville. She thought of the mountain lion that had nearly ripped her throat out and how surreal and out of place it felt.

Shay thought of Sela and Gunner disappearing to parts unknown.

There was a connection there, somewhere. But she had too few puzzle pieces at her disposal to properly look at and judge what the bigger picture might be. Mere fragments of a larger whole.

Were pokémon really a figment of imagination where she came from? Or were they something that people in her world had encountered before, like Ambrose was suggesting? Isolated incidents over time, unverified accounts, wild tales that had blossomed into or even inspired folklore…?

It wasn't entirely a stretch, the longer she thought about it. Maybe she was biased because she enjoyed mythology, folklore, and cryptid tales. A part of her had always wanted to believe in such things—but Shay found she could only believe in what she could tangibly see and touch and verify as fact. It was why she was, strictly speaking from her world, an atheist.

But pokémon weren't the only ones who could have crossed over, she suddenly realized.

People.

People like her could have crossed over. If she was here, then certainly it had to be equally true that folks from here had ended up in the world where she had been born and grown up in. One person could change the course of history with the stroke of a pen, an idea, or even a humble sketch that evolved into something more.

But being here…somehow felt like she was breaking rules, unspoken but still just as corporeal as the bed she was sitting on. Just by existing, she was subverting a course that had been set already, a path meant for someone else.

And that would be true…if May had been alive. She wasn't, though. Shay was here instead of her, and the more Shay thought about it, the more it felt as though Brendan really wasn't moving into an active role. Which meant that this timeline, hypothetically, was open and up for grabs. So far, she's been the one filling in those blanks, waiting for someone else to take the reins but the longer time went on, the less likely it felt like that was going to happen.

If she stepped up, would that be expected of her, or would it be arrogant of her to assume she was meant to do so?

"I hate this," she whispered, hands reaching up to ruffle through her hair. "On the one hand, I know what needs to be done, and I can cut things in the bud. On the other hand…I have no idea what will happen if I try. And by your own admission, neither do you."

"It is rather difficult to discern, when one action can have a ripple effect that changes things drastically while others don't, true." Ambrose replied, his voice soft, but Shay could detect the bitterness in it, sharp and steely.

"Butterfly effect. A butterfly flaps its wings in Peking, a hurricane forms in North Carolina. Or alternatively, step on a butterfly millions of years ago, everyone's stupid in the modern age. Or straight up doesn't exist. It's a domino line, essentially."

There were more implications, more nightmarish scenarios that kept playing in loops in her head. If she did one thing, it could lead to something similar to what had happened to her, to Gunner and Sela…or worse. It could be worse than a lost eye or a few wounds that luckily didn't end one of their lives and they would leave only scars to walk away with.

"I think I'm at a crossroads. Do I go left or right. Red pill or…blue pill," Shay intoned quietly, a mirthless smile adorning her lips briefly as she thought of Morpheus and his revelation to Neo. It was also almost akin to Alice in Wonderland. Down the rabbit hole, Alice, and you'll see a fantastical world beyond your wildest dreams. But can you get out as easily as you fell in?

And then there was Giratina, now seemingly haunting her dreams, taunting her—a dark and foreboding presence that certainly wished her harm…

Ambrose groaned beside her suddenly, yanking himself to the edge of the bed, legs swinging over as he clutched his head in one paw.

"Would you stop that! All of your indecisive back-and-forth is giving me a headache!"

Shay was both stunned and incensed at Ambrose's abrupt, loud chiding. Her mouth popped open and she was intent on responding, but she froze instead. She heard several grumbles and sleep-addled words slurring into existence from the rest of the team.

Heads rose and sleepy gazes locked onto her and Ambrose. Faye and Sela sported similar, if not identical, looks of annoyance at having their rest disturbed. Nux yawned widely, his teeth flashing in the glimmer of moonlight, and he blinked sleepily with heavy-lidded eyes that were barely open. Gunner propped his head up on the end of the bed and made it sag, while Keno glanced uncertainly between Shay and Ambrose.

"Is everything all right, you two…?" Keno asked, his voice coloured with worry and concern.

"No. No, it's not. Our trainer is, yet again, being an indecisive idiot."

"Hey, what the fuck, Ambrose—"

"You are refusing to make any meaningful choices because you are allowing yourself to remain stagnant and useless. You're scared of making a mistake? We all are, and yet we manage just fine. You can't control everything, and pretending otherwise while doing nothing is the equivalent to simply giving up."

The accusation struck a chord within Shay, igniting her temper within seconds. Her jaw clenched while her fists balled up at her sides. When she tried to scramble to the edge of the bed, a force pushed her back into a seated position and kept her pinned to the mattress. Ambrose's other paw—the one that wasn't clutching at his head—was raised in her direction, a shimmer of violet energy glowing around it.

She struggled to break free but found she couldn't budge even an inch. He had given her free reign with her head, however.

Ambrose scoffed, canting his head in her direction.

"Oh, yes. By all means. Get upset and stew in silent resentment. It's all you're good at these days, isn't it? You bitch and you moan about all your woes inside your head and then you. Do. Nothing. Remind me again how much you claim in wanting to be Champion so much. Or were you still deciding what creamer you'd like in your precious coffee?"

A mix of confused comments arose, exchanged between the others. Shay heard Keno telling Ambrose to release his hold on her. Strangely, Sela remained silent and resolutely so. She only stared at Shay, unmoving and her expression neutral. She didn't engage with the rest of the team.

The longer she remained silent, the more it unnerved Shay. She tore her gaze from Sela's one-eyed stare and brought it to bear on Ambrose once more.

"Dammit, Ambrose! Where did you get off with acting like this?! Where did this even come from?!"

Ambrose's snout wrinkled into a snarl.

"I'm tired of hearing you question every move you make and then you end up doing nothing at all. I'm tired of listening to you complain, and doing nothing to improve upon your circumstances! Do you or do you not want to become Champion and to find a way home? If you don't, then I suggest you stop trying, here and now."

The silence that followed was damning. The others turned their gazes towards Shay. Ambrose relinquished his hold on Shay and she stumbled upright to her feet, but managed to stay on her feet. Shame flushed through her when, as her eyes met the gazes of her team, they turned away to avoid her stare.

"Do…do you all feel this way?"

The silence continued, yet it was answer enough. The thought of them having kept something like that to themselves, just so as to not upset her, lanced through Shay's heart. She tried to keep her remarks to herself, and yet…on those days she didn't…

"It's…not so much being tired of your process, but it's…frustrating sometimes. Especially when we've done nothing to get further along," Keno stated carefully.

"You're too damned afraid to get your hands dirty when it comes to Team Aqua. You keep saying someone else should take care of them, but the only one who seems to give even half a damn about them is you. If Steven Stone wanted them gone, he would have done so already, wouldn't he? He's the current Champion. You'd think he'd be flexing that power a bit more when it came to troublemakers like Team Aqua." Sela said bluntly. Keno sighed, shaking his head.

"I don't know much about these Team Aqua humans. Can somebody fill me in?" Nux piped up. Sela groaned.

"We'll bring you to speed about that later, Nux. Now's not the time. You too, Gunner."

The Lairon chuffed, pleased at having been included into the conversation at last. Shay looked over her team, torn between being proud of them for such conviction…and embarrassment that she hadn't been keeping her internal troubles all to herself like she originally believed.

Especially with Ambrose. He skittered his conscious across hers all the time. Of course he'd be the one to bear the brunt of knowing more than the others. She didn't exactly shield her thoughts from him; she didn't know how to do that on her own.

"I…I'm sorry," she finally managed to get out. "I didn't…I didn't realize that you guys were more in the loop than I thought. I didn't want to…weigh any of you down with things, but I guess I did a piss poor job of that."

Sela was the first to move. She shuffled to the end of the bed and hopped off, planting herself right in front of her trainer. Shay knelt and Sela immediately pressed into her open arms, head resting on the woman's shoulder. Shay wrapped her arms around the Mightyena, a lump swelling in her throat.

"You're an idiot, but you're our idiot. Even when you make stupid decisions…or do nothing at all. We have your back, because we know you have ours."

Shay clung to the Mightyena, her fingers digging into the thick scruff of fur. She trembled, fighting the urge to cry.

"I'm sorry," she repeated softly, when she could finally manage speaking. "I just don't want to make a mistake, or do something wrong that could end up hurting one of you even more or…or worse. I don't know the rules and I'm not great with doing things without…knowing what I can or can't do."

She'd spent a majority of her adult life in the military, went straight into right out of high school. Being told what to do, what not to do, where to go and when she was expected to be there—the whole nine yards. Individuality wasn't in the Marines' M.O. They wanted the troops to fall in line, follow lawful orders without question, to respect the chain of command. When Shay came across any grey, nebulous situations and she couldn't find a direct answer as to what was allowed and what wasn't…

Shay froze in those situations. She didn't know if treading onward would have repercussions leveled back at her. She also wasn't a fan of the idea of being arrested by law enforcement, or worse, killed over a mistake she had made, especially here. Who would take care of her team then? Who would even both to help her in ways she needed?

Nobody can help us, she realized. Oh, there was Norman and the professor, sure. They had helped her to an extent—but they could only offer their support in secret. They couldn't be overt about it, or else it could end up linking back to her in a more direct fashion. Brendan…she didn't want to drag him down with her if things go pear-shaped.

She had no faith in remaining left alone if she were to bring anything of import to Steven. He was, in Shay's eye, the head of the law in Hoenn. She didn't trust what little rapport they might have would hold him off from detaining her under more strict and watchful eyes.

But she had faith in her team. They were her only support and she was theirs. They would have her back at the drop of a hat—and she would do the same, just like Sela said.

Shay couldn't keep stalling any longer. She had to choose, and whatever may come…she had her team ready to back her up, whether things went well or not.

She pulled away from Sela, her lips pressed into a thin smile.

"Okay. Let's kick some ass, then."

"You mean…?"

Shay glanced at Keno. "We can't trust anyone else to get the job done. And since I know where Team Aqua's gonna be, we need to step up our game. If we take care of them instead of waiting around to see what happens or hope that Steven gets off his ass to do something about them, then maybe we can avoid some stupid end-of-the-world endgame bullshit, too."

If there was no revived Kyogre or Groudon catastrophe, then maybe—just maybe—it would end up being nothing but smooth sailing through the gym circuit and then a straight shot to the Hoenn League.

The sooner they cleaned house with the League, the sooner they could get to Sinnoh. Somehow, she felt like time was running out, even if she wasn't aware of just how much they had left. Every day that passed them by gave the Creation Trio more leverage to rally themselves against any outside interference. Every day, her chances of making it home were chipped away, and she couldn't afford to let that drop to zero.

Shay gave Sela one last pat before straightening and scrubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands. When she saw what time it was when checking her x-transceiver, she groaned and faced her team.

"I don't think any of us are going to be able to go back to sleep. Might as well get a few extra hours of training in."

Up before the sun rose. That felt familiar. Not just from her old life, but from here as well now.

Nux rumbled in delight and wriggled at the windowsill. "Can we get some food first? I'm hungry and I refuse to do anything until I eat."

A chorus of agreement rippled through Shay's team as they began to stretch. Shay gathered her sling pack after changing her clothes. "Nux, Faye, we'll meet up with you outside after we get some breakfast for all of us."

"Extra mealworms for me," Faye replied, leaping from the chair and gliding to Nux's head.

"Tuna! Lots of it!" Nux emphasized as he slowly snaked his head out through the window, with Faye perched atop one of his horns. He was especially careful to not bump her into the windowsill as he retreated.

Shay closed the window behind them, then joined the rest of the team as they clustered by the door.

Keno reached for her and she grasped one of his digits—all webbed until the last knuckle joint, and tipped with claws. Professor Birch had told her, when she had asked, that it was a rare genetic trait that sometimes appeared in Mudkip offspring. A one in ten thousand chance, he had said.

The same was said for the teeth that lined his jaws. They were much larger than average, conical in shape, and endearingly enough they were completely retractable. The first time he had sprung his teeth out for an attack, Shay was instantly reminded of Toothless from the film How to Train Your Dragon.

Keno gave her a gummy smile, but she could still see worry shining in his tiger-orange eyes.

"You okay?"

Shay nodded, eyes slanting toward Ambrose. A smile pulled her lips up and she gave the digit in her hand a reassuring squeeze. "I needed the kick in the pants. I'm fine, thanks to you guys. Now let's get some food and go train. We have a gym leader's ass to beat."

Additional Notes: Holy fuck-nuggets. This chapter took so much longer than it needed for me to work on, but I'm glad I finally got it out. And I have to say a special thanks to Star Charter for hosting a little Discord get-together and facilitating a writing session. Just having that kind of structured time gave ME a kick in the pants that I needed to finish this chapter. I'd also like to thank RBL-M1A2Tanker for additional support in finding the meat of this chapter, as I was struggling to get a distinct and clear line of sight for what I wanted in this chapter.

I seriously couldn't have finished this without the help from these two. I'm so glad for my writing buddies and community. Thank you both!