TEEN: The Glaceon and the Shadow

[Arkadelphiak]

Oh man. As someone who was totally captivated by The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Unova, all that destruction really stung. And I knew it! I knew it was Diego!

 

[apenpaap]

I'm sorry about all that, it really hurt to write it as well.

Chapter Eighteen: Echoes in the Dark

Boreas sat on the ground. Just himself and the four walls, as always. Though there was no light to see them by, he knew exactly where they were by now. The tiny little underground cell was two metres wide, two metres deep, and two metres high. “Except,” said Aqua, “it's more of a coffin than a cell, isn't it?”

Boreas sighed. “I know.”

Aqua continued. “A cell has guards.”

“Guards I could trick,” Boreas said.

“Behind the walls of a cell, there are corridors, maybe even the outside.”

“Places I could escape through,” Boreas said.

“But there's nothing behind these walls but dozens of metres of rock. You haven't been imprisoned, love, you've been buried alive.”

Boreas sighed. “You said the same thing yesterday.”

“How do you know it was yesterday, my dear fellow?” asked a green snake, standing bipedally on short, leaf-like limbs. He had a calm voice, with a cultured accent, and pleasant, brown eyes.

“I don't, okay?” Boreas said. “It was before I went to sleep, Octa, and that's the closest thing to a clock I've got.”

The Servine shrugged. “'Tis better than no measure of time at all, I suppose. However, 'tis a bold assumption to make, that you sleep roughly once a day. After all, a complete lack of light is bound to do odd things to one's circadian rhythm. Even outside, there are plenty of occasions when one feels tired in the morning and restless in the evening. You really have no idea how often you really sleep, do you?”

Boreas nodded glumly. “Sometimes I feel tired, but I think I only just got up, and sometimes it feels like weeks before I finally get tired and have to sleep... And I'm pretty sure the food doesn't come at regular intervals either.”

“Diego has gone out of his way to make this place as uncomfortable as possible to you, my dear fellow. I would be terribly surprised if the food dispensers did have any regular regime to them.”

A big, black and red canine with curled horns scoffed. “Diego. I can't believe you got beaten by that idiot, pup.”

“Yeah, well, I did, Lucius.”

“And that's ridiculous!” The Houndoom continued. “The guy's a complete chumpus, and you were gonna easily take him down... But you couldn't even shake off some psychic power? You know you can do better than that.”

“Apparently, I can't!” Boreas snapped.

“You failed,” said a voice that made Boreas cringe and close his eyes with guilt. It was no good, of course; his eyes were completely blind in the darkness anyway, so he didn't see any of them with his eyes in the first place. The Quilava with the fierce, steel-grey eyes was just as visible with his own eyes closed. “You failed to stop Diego, let everyone else down. Half a million pokémon could be dead because of you, and one of them-”

“Leave me alone!” Boreas yelled. “Yeah, you were one of them! You're dead, so stop tormenting me!”

Larissa raised a frowny eyebrow. “Yes, I'm dead. That's your fault, all your fault.”

Boreas turned away from her, trying to quench his tears. “I know! Just leave me alone, please...”

“Now, now, my dear fellow,” Octa spoke, “let us examine this logically, hmm?”

Boreas groaned. “I'm not in the mood for logic.”

“None of us are actually here,” Octa continued, ignoring him.

“You don't say,” Aqua rolled her eyes. “He's alone in the tiny underground coffin he's been alone in for who knows how long? Any further brilliant epiphanies?”

“Please let me finish,” Octa said with annoyance. “Naturally, this means we are all either figments of your imagination or some supernatural phenomenon. A kind of astral projection of the psychic imprint of departed-”

“Go ahead, Octa,” Boreas sneered. “Just say 'ghosts'. No need to waste a million syllables when a single one will do.”

“Yes, quite.”

“So what you're saying,” Boreas said, “is that perhaps that's Larissa's ghost haunting me because I got her killed?”

Octa smirked. “My dear fellow, I think you are far too intelligent to believe any such clap-trap. There is no need to make ludicrous and unfounded assumptions like the existence of ghosts, when perfectly natural ones will do just fine. Besides, none of us even act entirely like the real pokémon you befriended over the years did. No, we are clearly figments of your imagination; your brain making up sensory information to fill in the complete lack of it. We are, in short, hallucinations brought on by your lengthy sensory deprivation.”

“Well then,” Boreas sneered. “I can just stop thinking her up and be rid of her, can't I? And for that matter, the same goes for the rest of you.”

“You're right, pup,” said Lucius, “you can do anything you put your mind to!”

Boreas sighed. “So I thought, yeah, but I couldn't resist Mewtwo. Anyway, if you're a figment of my imagination, you're a lousy one. When did the real Lucius ever give compliments?”

“My dear fellow,” Octa spoke, “we've already established none of us act truly like the person we look like.”

“Why don't we?” Aqua asked. “That makes no sense.”

“Indeed,” Octa said. “Clearly, we are something else, simply your own thoughts given flesh. Your mind must have decided to stick a familiar face to its own thoughts, because it was a fairly good, albeit imperfect, fit.”

“Wow,” Aqua said, “what a completely pointless explanation. I've got a better one: the isolation is driving Boreas mad, and trying to analyse that madness is only going to draw him in deeper.”

“Good point,” Boreas said.

“Love, it's better if you ignore us, try to make us all go away.”

Octa sputtered. “Ignore us?! Have you gone completely doolally? I'm the only voice of reason he has, his very reason given voice, as a matter of fact! If he doesn't listen to me, how shall he ever...” Octa continued talking, but Boreas tried to shut him out, ignore him. Tried to shut all of them out.

They were all gone now. Just him and the four walls again. He casually rapped a claw on the floor for a little, creating a quick rhythm. Of course, he could only make a single note, and the tiny coffin had no acoustics to speak of. He sighed as his mind began to wander a bit. He wondered if it was day or night outside. Either way, there would be more light out there than he'd ever see again. More light than Larissa would ever see again...

He vividly recalled Larissa's last words, how her final breath had left her broken body, how she had fought on to the bitter end-

“She was so young,” said a much healthier looking Larissa. “She didn't deserve to die that soon, let down by you and forced to save Praeclara on her own.”

“Please,” Boreas cried, “leave me alone. I don't want to imagine you any more. Just leave me in peace, Larissa!”

“You feel guilty,” said Larissa, “and with good reason. But-”

“No, stop talking!” Boreas snapped.

“...Wait one moment, my dear fellow,” Octa said. “Why is it you can't bear imagining Larissa, yet you have no problem at all imagining Aqua?”

“Um, good question,” said Larissa. “Her death is also your fault; why aren't you more upset about it?”

Boreas frowned. “I don't know. I love Aqua. Why am I so caught up on Larissa instead when they both died?”

Aqua rolled her eyes. “Isn't that obvious?”

Boreas and the other three phantasms looked at her. “It most certainly is not!” Octa said.

“Because he knows she's not dead.”

Octa scoffed. “Preposterous. He saw her decapitated body!”

Aqua rolled her eyes. “He saw a Vaporeon's decapitated body. Sure, the shock was enough to black him out for a while, after everything else that'd happened, but I think he knows it wasn't really Aqua any more than I am. She didn't even look that much like Aqua.”

“Of course!” Octa exclaimed. “My dear fellow, why would Diego kill Aqua without you seeing her execution? He wanted to completely crush your spirit, and while he did a decent job of it, actually killing her in front of your eyes would be far more effective. He killed someone else, and did his best to pass her off as Aqua's corpse, presumably because Aqua escaped!”

“Yeah!” Boreas stood up, feeling glad about something for the first time in ages. “She's still alive!”

“And some other Vaporeon died,” Larissa said. “Another life you failed to save.”

“Who cares?” Lucius scoffed. “She's not Aqua, Boreas doesn't care about some random Vaporeon.”

Boreas sat down again, his euphoria considerably dampened. “Why am I imagining the four of you?”

“Sensory depri-”

“I know. Why the four of you specifically?”

“My dear fellow, we've already established your mind simply chose our images to give a face to certain thoughts and ideas.”

“You mean parts of his mind?” Aqua said.

“Whatever you wish to call it. I hypothesise it simply picked a person close to you to represent a particular side of you. I'd be embarrassed to even have to spell this out for you, but we mustn't forget that I most likely am your logical side, so when I figure this out, it really is you figuring it out, hmm?”

“You think so?” Aqua said. “Then tell me, mr. logic, what does Larissa represent?”

Octa rolled his eyes. “I should've thought that was obvious if you've listened to a word she's said. His mind couldn't have picked a better face for his altruism.”

Lucius laughed. “He could've represented his own altruism, he's got plenty of it.”

“He doesn't, though,” Larissa said. “Or, at least, not much of it. Usually, when he helps someone it's more out of pride and an inflated sense of his own importance. I don't think there's much question who here represents those, and other selfish traits.”

“And I'm proud of it,” Lucius said. “You'd just have him sitting around moping and crying over some stupid girl who got herself killed and a bunch of pokémon he never even met. Meanwhile, I'll remind him how brilliant he is, and that he can get out of here if he puts his mind to it. Then, when he's out, he'll kick Diego's ass and save everyone. He can accomplish all you want simply by ignoring you.”

“His arrogance got him into all this!” Larissa growled. “If he hadn't been so sure of himself, he wouldn't have gone into the hideout without backup! He would've had a better plan than just 'Diego is an idiot so I'll beat him just by being me'! He would've cooperated with the police instead of trying to show off all the time! He would never have lost! He'd be better off without you!”

“That's not entirely true,” said Aqua. “Boreas shouldn't try to be something he isn't. That's only going to lead to more trouble, and it's not going to work anyway. Obviously, he's led his ego lead him too much lately, but that doesn't mean it should be cut out entirely.”

“It should if he wants to be a better person!” Larissa said. “What are you supposed to represent anyway?”

Aqua shrugged. “Wisdom, acceptance, truth, common sense, whatever you like to call it. I don't think labels will help us much now, or ever, really. I am what I am; words serve as an approximation at best, not a definition.”

“Common sense?” Octa exclaimed. “Surely I am his logic and reason, and therefore his common sense as well? He couldn't pick a better representation of the concept than me, his oldest friend, and-”

“Will you all shut up?!” Boreas snapped. “I'm sick of your babbling! Why am I doing this anyway? What do I need to hear my own thoughts coming out of other people's mouths for anyway? And why is it just thoughts, and none of you represent any emotions? That seems like it'd make more sense. One of you could represent my anger and annoyance, and do all this yelling at the others for me.”

Aqua smirked. “Who says no-one here represents your emotions? Last I checked, there are five voices in this conversation.”

“You're saying I represent my own emotions?”

“Well, you can hardly put those in an imaginary body, can you? Besides, who better to represent them than you, yourself? You let yourself be led by them a lot, after all.”

“Right, fine,” Boreas said. “So what you're saying is, I obviously feel my emotions directly, while, when I start thinking logically, for example, it's me thinking, yet I hear Octa saying it-”

“Because you're suffering from severe sensory deprivation,” Aqua said.

“Right,” Boreas said.

“With that in mind,” Aqua began, “there's really no reason for you to freak out about Larissa, is there? She's just a face stuck on your own thoughts, not the real one.”

“Yeah,” Boreas said glumly, “the face of the friend I led to her death, who was strong enough to do what I couldn't. It's a face I don't want to be reminded of.”

“But-” Larissa began.

“Since you're all figments of my imagination,” Boreas said, “I now assign Octa to tell me my altruistic thoughts. I mean, it fits you too! Well, a little anyway. I mean, Octa is pretty smug, but he was always lecturing me, just like Larissa.”

Octa smiled. “If you really thought that, I'd imagine you'd already be hearing me lecture you again. But you picked well in letting me be logical as always, my dear fellow.”

“Well, whatever,” Lucius said. “I don't know why you're so upset anyway. You just said it yourself: all Larissa ever did was lecture you, question you, argue with you, and be an annoying, sanctimonious stick-in-the-mud. She was stupid, and slandered you, and didn't appreciate how much she owed you. She'd have died with the rest of her town if you hadn't saved her – twice in one day! The least she could've done was be grateful, but she started nagging you right away. Who cares if some idiot girl got herself kille-”

An ice beam sizzled through the darkness and hit a wall. “SHUT UP!” Boreas yelled. “If you ever say anything like that again, I'll- I'll...”

“Ice beam yourself in the face?” Aqua asked. “That's you, you know; not actually old Lucius. These are the kind of things you've been thinking and saying all this time.”

“Maybe I should stop being such an idiot, then.”

“I don't think you can. People don't really change, you know.”

“Maybe not. But they can get damn close if they really choose to.”

“Yeah!” Lucius said. “You can do anything you put your mind to!”

“Of course I can,” Boreas agreed. “And I will. I'm going to be what I've pretended to be for ages. I can be a good man, and a hero, if I put my mind to it.”

Larissa's voice butted in rudely. “You're still making this all about you.”

“Even like this,” Lucius snapped, “as a figment of your imagination, she's still annoying and constantly tries to argue with you!”

“Shut up,” Boreas said, facing Larissa and trying to keep it together as the mere sight of her made guilt well up in him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you're not actually trying to help anyone with this; you're just trying to be a better person for your own sake. Because you think being anything else is beneath you.”

“I guess so,” Boreas sighed. “Aqua says I'm always showing off, and that I only help people because I've got some kind of hero complex and want people to see me as their saviour. That made me rush into the hideout, and now Larissa is dead.”

“My dear fellow,” said Octa. “Be logical about this: you could not have known Diego would use Mewtwo's power against you. You suspected Mewtwo was under his control, but there's no way you could've expected it to be like this, with it reduced to no more than a machine, and therefore impossible to reason with; merely an extension of Diego's own will.”

“Yeah,” said Boreas, “but I could have resisted it. Larissa did. I should've resisted it!”

“Love,” Aqua said, “it was a Mewtwo's psychic power. It was practically invincible. The fact that you were unable to resist, while Larissa was, says more about Larissa than it does about you. I think you provided more resistance than most pokémon would have.”

“But not enough!” Boreas snapped. “I still danced like a puppet to Diego's tune! If Larissa could resist it, than means it's possible, and that means I should have done the same!”

It was quiet in the tiny coffin for a while. Then Aqua spoke up. “Why do you assume that because Larissa could resist it, you could too?”

Boreas stammered, trying to think of the right reply, but Lucius butted in. “Because obviously he can do anything she could, and better too!”

“That's not-” Boreas began.

“Boreas, love,” Aqua said, “Larissa resisted the most powerful psychic on Earth. That was a feat of titanic will and determination. There's no shame in being unable to do that any more than there's shame in not having her fire powers. Yet, you feel like you should have. Isn't your guilt just another form of arrogance? Sometimes, someone else is simply better at something than you, and that's okay. You've got to accept that.”

“Total crap,” Lucius said. “That's a loser's attitude. If you really want to, you can always become better than someone else.”

“Hmm,” Octa said, “I'm afraid I agree with Lucius. One can be whatever one wants to be, if one simply works towards that goal. That said, there is logic in Aqua's words: one cannot be the best at everything at once, and therefore others will be better than at certain things. Do not take your failure as a source of shame, my dear fellow: see it as an impetus driving you towards improvement.”

“That's so arrogant!” Aqua snapped. “There's nothing he could've done, and claiming he could be anything is nonsense-”

“Larissa,” Boreas said, still feeling guilt rise up as he looked at her, “what do you think?”

“Um,” she said, “you know I'm not the real-”

“Yeah, yeah, got that the first time the words 'figment of your imagination' were used.”

“Well, I'm with Aqua. You're not all-powerful, and there just wasn't anything you could do at that point. Sometimes, you just can't win. However, there are still a lot of pokémon out there who need help. Who knows how many died before Larissa stopped Diego? And he might not have control over Groudon any more and basically be on a path to self-destruction, but he's still got a lot of goons working for him. Even if he doesn't have any better plans, he can still kill lots more pokémon. Oh, and then there's Sofia.” It was a little jarring to hear Larissa talk about Sofia in such an off-hand way. “When she finds out about her girlfriend, she's going to have a hard time. Your duty to Larissa is to convey her final words to Sofia. They might give her some solace...”

Boreas nodded. “You're saying I should stop wallowing in guilt, break out of here, stop Diego once and for all, and save Fournaria?”

Larissa buried her face in a paw. “You're doing it again. Trying to be the conquering hero because you want to be, rather than because you want to help people.”

Boreas thought about it. “Maybe,” he said. “I don't deny that's part of it. I want to be a good person. I want to be able to think I've done everything I can for others, helped them out. And yes, I wouldn't mind them recognising me for that either. But first of all, there's nothing wrong with that. Who cares about my motivation if the result is pokémon getting helped out? If Aqua is right, I can't actually change anyway.”

“It's true,” Aqua said. “People don't really change, so you've got to learn to accept who you are.”

“Thank you,” Boreas said. “And anyway: I do care about others. The very fact that I have thoughts that get voiced by you, Larissa, proves it. And, you know what, I really do feel terrible for letting the real Larissa, as well as who knows how many pokémon in Praeclara, die. And that's not just because I feel like I should be better, stronger than that. Six years ago, when I thought I'd killed Diego and I stood outside Ghetsis' throne room, mortally wounded and with one last chance, I almost turned back and lived. Almost. Because ultimately, it was both the thought of all the people I'd never know dying if I didn't go on and the feeling that I couldn't live with myself if I turned back, that I'd always know I was a coward, that pushed me on. So yes, maybe when I say I want to escape, get out there, and stop Diego once and for all, that wish is partially born from a desire to be good, or heroic; to be the best I can be. But that's not even a bad thing, even if that were the whole truth, which it isn't! Because I don't do good out of a sense of duty, or obligation, or because the law says I have to. I can leave Fournaria any time I like, but I'm helping out where I can first, because it feels good!”

“Yeah!” Lucius roared.

“That's what I was talking about, love,” Aqua smiled. “Now you're being true to what you are, not what you'd like to be.”

Larissa shrugged. “Not bad.”

“What?” Boreas grinned. “No arguing? You're not going to tell me I need to change my ways, or that I'm arrogant?”

She gave a small smile. “I'm not the real Larissa. As long as you help others, I'm fine with it. Just try not to-”

“Let my ego fool and drive me again? Don't worry about that, I'm not going to let it. I've been a huge idiot, but after all that, I don't think I have much of an ego left!”

“Of course you don't.”

“Well then,” Boreas said, jumping to his feet. “Enough sitting around feeling guilty! It's time I got out of here!”

“So it is, my dear fellow,” Octa said, “but I do not believe this revelation gave you the power to dig through fifteen metres of rock.”

“No,” Boreas agreed, “but they give me the tool I need every day! Water, Octa! From now on, I'll only drink enough to quench my thirst, and I'll throw the rest at the wall, and freeze it. Then I can dig away the layer of stone I made brittle.”

“That's going to take months, my dear fellow.”

“Years! But sitting here listening to voices in my head until I die of old age will take even longer!”

 

[Wispy Willow]

Well, that certinly was an interesting window into Boreas's psychology... Or something. Also, glad to see Octa and Lucius back, if only breefly. I thought you said there weren't going to be any other returning characters though... Eh, either way, I await the next chapter with the usual anticipation.

 

[apenpaap]

Well, that certinly was an interesting window into Boreas's psychology... Or something. Also, glad to see Octa and Lucius back, if only breefly. I thought you said there weren't going to be any other returning characters though... Eh, either way, I await the next chapter with the usual anticipation.

I don't see any returning characters other than Boreas himself last chapter. Neither Lucius nor Octa was ever there. For a more serious answer: I didn't say Diego would be back either, because if I told you what characters would and wouldn't reappear honestly, it'd be a pretty big spoiler. I also didn't know I was going to do this chapter using hallucinations of other characters; that detail was something I thought of while writing it.

Chapter Nineteen: New Praeclara

Sofia wandered the streets of New Praeclara, her hands in her pockets and her eyes on the ground. She had little desire to look up and see how the city had changed, and not for the better, since it was called Valadares. Between the construction and demolition projects everywhere, most trees and other public gardens being removed, the advertising popping up all over the place, and the evicted pokémon, it didn't even look like she was in Fournaria any more. Sofia walked by pokémon who seemed almost as unhappy as she was on her way to the address where she'd meet her grandfather. Not Grandfather, of course, but her literal grandfather. She didn't really see why Aqua had made tracking him down such a priority. Sofia wasn't in the mood to meet some stranger, and certainly wasn't going to feel any affection for him just because he happened to have 25% the same genes she did. And if she thought that meeting this stranger was somehow going to make up for losing Larissa, she had another thing coming.

Of course, she knew why Aqua had gone through all that trouble, asking Sofia for everything she knew about her family and inquiring all over the city for him after she'd told her one of the few things she knew was that he lived in Valadares – no, New Praeclara. It was simple logic: she wanted Sofia gone. Aqua hoped if she'd find her missing grandfather, Sofia would for some reason want to live with him and leave her in peace to do whatever she was planning to do – probably killing the Shadow. Sofia didn't really mind, even if she didn't want to meet her grandfather. The company she kept hardly mattered if Larissa wasn't part of it. And Aqua probably had better things to do, so she had just played along. And so here she was, walking through the outskirts of town as they were dyed red by the setting summer Sun. She had told Aqua she wanted to do this alone, and the Vaporeon's enthusiastic response had made it obvious she had been planning something. While Sofia couldn't bring herself to care that much any more, she still hoped she'd succeed and kill the Shadow. That would be something Larissa would have wanted, she supposed.

This was the street. Somehow, she knew it without even having to look at its name. In the forty-second house of this architecturally pleasant, yet oddly lifeless street with fancy, old, brown brick houses, her grandfather lived. And maybe her grandmother too? As far as she could remember, neither Grandfather – maybe she should think of him as Great-grandfather? She always thought of him as her grandfather, because it was simply shorter and she'd never met his son anyway, but it was getting semantically confusing – nor mummy, nor daddy had ever mentioned her, even on the rare occasions they had said something about her actual grandfather. All she had ever been told about him was that he was a Raichu named Mauricio, that he lived in Valadares, and that he had had some kind of fight with his father that had driven a permanent wedge between them.

Sofia wondered what kind of argument could be so bad that someone would never talk to his own father again, and just leave, not even taking his young son, Sofia's father, with him. For that matter, she wondered what kind of person would do that for any kind of argument. Even if it had somehow been bad enough to forever leave his father, how could someone leave his kid behind and force said father to raise him? The thought made Sofia even less anxious to meet her grandfather – no, she decided. She already had a grandfather, even if he was technically her great-grandfather. She'd call this man Mauricio, and nothing else. She wasn't going to let him usurp Grandfather's status in her mind.

She had come to the forty-second house, her shadow huge and lanky, several metres long on the street, in sharp, dark contrast to the red evening light. Her throat was dry and her legs felt a little wibbly. What was Aqua thinking? What was she even supposed to say? “Hi, I'm Sofia, some girl you've never met but who's the daughter of that little Castform you abandoned – he's dead by the way, and also your dad has been kidnapped. Can I live with you now?”

It was ridiculous. She should just walk by and claim she'd said hello and they hadn't liked each other if Aqua asked. And yet... She was a little curious. She'd never know what Mauricio was like if she walked by, and not knowing something and being content with that went against her entire nature. The doorbell drew her eyes, and she already began to extend a hand. She took a deep breath, pressed it, and took a step back. She waited anxiously for the door to open and reveal some old Raichu, while trying to put together what she'd say to him. She waited. And waited. She began tapping her foot impatiently. She rang the bell again. How long did it take to just open the door? She had to have been waiting for at least twenty seconds by now. She walked into the garden and pressed her face up against the window. She didn't see anyone in the living room, which had a very minimalist aesthetic. She didn't particularly like it herself, but she supposed some pokémon just preferred a mostly empty house without any decoration, as good as no furniture, no curtains on the windows, and dust on the floor.

Hold on, Sofia frowned, and ran to the window on the other side of the door. She had to jump to look into this one, but there she saw a similar sight: the room was as good as empty, a single couch without pillows all that remained inside. Jumping over the fence into the next house's garden to look into the windows there too, she realised why the street had felt so oddly lifeless when she entered it: everyone had left. Or been forced to leave, presumably. She grinned and clapped her hands once, proud to have figured it out, before she realised it wasn't all that hard to figure out.

She walked left the garden, looking about the street glumly. All the gardens were poorly kept and overgrown, and several houses' front doors even hung open. She sat down on a fence, looking at the house that had once been Mauricio's. Her brief excitement sank away like the Sun dropping beneath the horizon. She hadn't truly wanted to meet him, yet she now felt sorry she'd missed him... And also that the entire street had apparently been evicted. She stared at the house listlessly. If Mauricio had taken his son with him, Sofia might have grown up in that house. Would never have known her great-grandfather. Probably wouldn't have met Larissa. Of course, she probably wouldn't be a Kirlia at all, since chances were daddy would've ended up with another woman than mummy, and her entire genetic make-up would've been different, so she really wouldn't have been Sofia at all, but still.

“It's a blue place, isn't it, miss?”

Sofia looked up as a soft voice spoke next to her. A young Froslass was standing behind the fence, a few metres away, her large, dark eyes sad as she looked at the house. Sofia just nodded.

“It's all getting demolished tomorrow,” said the Froslass wistfully. “I'll miss this place...”

“Why are they destroying it?” Sofia asked.

The ghostly creature shrugged. “We tried to ask, but no-one seems to know. All we knew was that we suddenly had to pay huge amounts of money to live in our houses... Everyone who couldn't pay was evicted, and the few who could were instead bought off. I figured they were going to let new pokémon live here, but it's getting bulldozed.”

“That's horrible!” Sofia said.

“Tell me about it,” the Froslass said. “We got barely a day's warning to pack our things and scram when we couldn't pay. Still haven't found a new place.”

“You've been living on the street?”

The Froslass nodded, a bit embarrassed. “My brother and I. I... Guess it could be worse. I just hope someone this street really badly... Anyway, what about you? I take it you didn't live here? I can't recall ever seeing you, but...”

Sofia shook her head. “I'm not from around here. I used to live in Praeclara. The old one, I mean.”

“Oh!” the Froslass squeaked. “I'm so sorry. That explains why you're looking so blue; sorry about complaining about my home being wrecked when your entire city got wrecked!”

“Don't worry about it,” Sofia said, a little coldly. “It's honestly the least of my problems right now.”

A silence fell, and the Froslass fretted a little uncomfortably. “I... Er, it was cool meeting you.”

As she began moving away, Sofia had a thought. “One moment. If you lived in this street, do you know a Raichu named Mauricio?”

She turned back with a frown. “Mauricio?”

“Yeah, he lived in this house here, I think.”

“I'm sorry,” the Froslass said in a small voice, “but he's dead.”

“D-dead?!” Sofia blurted out.

She nodded sadly. “He was in Praeclara for a little vacation when... Well, you know.”

Sofia said nothing.

“D-did you know him well?”

Sofia shook her head. “I've never met him. Today was to b-be the first time. I came here to find him. You see, he was my grandfather...”

“I beg your pardon?” The Froslass asked.

“Only I've never met him,” she explained. “I guess I never will now.”

“Sorry, you're his granddaughter?”

“Yes, I am...” Sofia raised an eyebrow quizzically. “Why are you acting so surprised?”

“Well, I was rather under the impression I was his only granddaughter.”

Sofia almost fell off the fence. “Sorry, what?”

“Granddaughter. His. That's me.”

“B-but then... You're my cousin?!”

The Froslass peered into Sofia's eyes. “If you're telling the truth, which I doubt. Why did you come here today if you really are my cousin? Why not sooner? It seems a bit weird that you'd show up so soon after he died.”

Getting her surprise under control, Sofia tried to explain. “Well... I suppose because I've got no-one else left... I used to live with Gra- uh, my – no, our – great-grandfather, but he was kidnapped by the Shadow a few months ago... A-and then, on the day Praeclara was destroyed, I-I-I lost- I l-lost- I-” You can't break down right in front of this girl! “Anyway, I-I was in Valadares anyway, and I guess I just wanted to meet my only remaining family. Er, I guess that's you.” Sofia waved awkwardly. “Hi. I'm Sofia.”

She hopped down from the fence and shook her cousin's cold hand. Now that she truly looked at her, she could recognise her own features a little bit. Catarina was about her own age, a little older perhaps. “Hi... I'm Catarina. You... How... What?”

“I'm sorry,” Sofia said. “I know this is even more confusing for you than for me. Us running into each other like this is an incredible coincidence... Well, I say it's an incredible coincidence, but since I came to find Mauricio and you... Did you come here to see your home one last time?”

Catarina nodded. “I guess us being in the same place makes sense, then... Still, why'd you come to look for granddad now? Why didn't you appear last year, or next, or whenever? What got you to search right now?”

Sofia really wasn't ready to have this conversation with her cousin, but she could tell if she didn't give some answers, Catarina would be even more suspicious of her. “I... I don't have many people left. In fact, I don't have anyone left now. I... Lost someone the day Praeclara was destroyed – p-please don't ask more about it – and someone I know thought it would b-be good for me if I met my remaining family. I guess I have now.”

“Yeah...” Catarina said. She clutched her forehead. “Sorry, it's all rather a lot to take in.”

“I know,” Sofia said. “I never even considered that Mauricio might've had other children after he left; that I might have a cousin.”

Catarina smiled. “Actually, you've got two. Want to meet my brother?”

Sofia, who had been looking for an exit strategy from the conversation, nodded and forced a smile. “Sure.” She supposed it wouldn't be too bad to meet another family member. Catarina was honestly a pleasant person, and Sofia could easily imagine liking her immensely if she wasn't feeling so terrible inside and didn't just wanted to be left alone.

Catarina made a little skip. “Cool! He's also my only remaining band member; the others had to leave because- anyway, I'll take you to him, but... Uh...” she glanced at the house a little awkwardly, trying to find words.

“I'll wait for you at the end of the street,” Sofia said, allowing her some time to say goodbye to her home. “Take all the time you need.”

“Thanks.”

Sofia waited for ten minutes or so in the gathering dusk before Catarina showed up. It was difficult to tell with a Froslass, but Sofia thought she might have been crying. She looked a little hesitant now. “Look, Sofia, I should warn you... We haven't found a new home yet. We're still searching. What I'm saying is... It's going to be on the street. I... If you don't want to come, I understand, and-”

“Don't worry, I've lived in a tent myself for ages,” Sofia said, before she realised she'd missed a great opportunity to leave.

“Okay,” Catarina said, visibly relieved, “I guess a lot of pokémon are looking for a new home these days... I just hope Tacito's right that all this is for the better in the long run...”

Sofia remained silent. She didn't have the heart to tell her cousin that minister Tacito was the Shadow himself. Of course, if Aqua was doing what she thought she was doing, the Shadow might not be a problem any more after today...

–

Getting in had been easy. Aqua supposed it made sense: Fournaria had been peaceful and safe for a hundred and fifty years. There had been little need for security, even protecting the prime minister. Well, today that mistake would work out in their favour; though she doubted many pokémon would realise. Here, on the top floor of the mayor's old office and home, an ancient building dating back to when Valadares was one of Fournaria's squabbling states, Diego had his office. He had no idea Aqua was coming for him. He'd never know what hit him either. She wasn't Boreas; she didn't plan to give him a chance to trick her, escape, or get reinforcements by sharing a long, bantering conversation with him. She was here to kill him, not to interview him.

She sharpened her ears. A slightly nasal voice came from the end of this ornate hallway. She carefully sneaked closer to a half-open door. She'd recognise that voice anywhere. “...point being?”

“Sir, your reforms are costing you support among the populace!” said the other voice, which was vaguely familiar to her as well.

“In the short term, perhaps,” Diego said coolly. “But I assure you, they'll come around to my way of thinking eventually. I already have a number of devoted supporters.”

“A small number, sir! And the reason they're so devoted is because your reforms allowed them to become... Well, not to put too fine a point on it, rich. But there's not nearly enough of them to re-elect you, and the opinion of the majority seems to be turning against you. If you please only a small subset of the population, your rule will not last long. More importantly, it is becoming progressively more difficult to keep order on the streets. Most pokémon do not appreciate being evicted because their former job no longer earns them enough to survive with your new reforms.”

“Then let them find a new job,” Diego said. “If someone is willing to pay enough to support them wasting their time making music or pondering the mysteries of the universe, they can keep doing it, but if no-one does, they can practice their hobby in their spare time, after doing something useful to earn their keep. Once everything gets going, my reforms will have created plenty of new jobs, allowing everyone to find employment, and then nobody needs to worry about the rent any more.”

Now Aqua recognised the second voice. Brigadier Stewart of the Praeclara constabulary tried to keep the emotion out of his voice. “With all due respect, sir, you place an awful lot of faith in the impersonal forces of economics somehow taking care of everyone. Even if you're right, that does nothing to solve the rapidly increasing poverty and crime we see at the moment. If you don't begin fulfilling your promises soon, the people will demand an election.”

“Out of the question. Fournaria is in a state of emergency; an election will wait until it's over. If we show such weakness, the Shadow will win.”

“Bu-”

“I'm the only surviving democratically elected representative of the entire nation, brigadier. I will carry out my mandate to lead the people until the threat to them has been eradicated.”

“Sir, I must advice against that. If you continue on your current course, and don't allow elections, there will be protests. You may be removed from office eventually.”

“Well,” Diego said in a dangerous tone. “Then it's a good thing the army is coming along well, isn't it, brigadier?”

“Sir!”

“I shall protect Fournaria from treason, whether by the Shadow or anyone else. After all, isn't the Shadow himself Fournarian? If groups of dangerous radicals take it upon themselves to determine the course of our society, rather than letting their democratically elected representative do so, I will protect Fournaria to my last breath. And so, brigadier, shall you, is that understood?”

“Perfectly, sir,” the Bisharp said, icily.

“Don't worry; it won't come to any of this. While it's true only a few pokémon will be rich in my new Fournaria, everyone else will have the opportunity to be. As soon as pokémon truly realise that, they'll come around. Even those who will never truly be successful will still support whatever helps those who are, as long as they have the belief that they will one day join them. Trust me.”

“If you say so, sir.”

“Was there anything else?”

“No, sir.”

“Then you're dismissed.”

Aqua hid as the Bisharp left the room and walked out the corridor, looking troubled. She waited a few minutes for him to truly leave, as well as to make sure Diego was alone in there.

“Aqua, dear, are you planning to let yourself in any time soon?”

She jumped, every hair on her body standing on end. Her first thought was to run for her life. But... If Diego knew she was there, her escape routes were likely already blocked. Maybe her best bet was to take him hostage, or, if she was going to be caught herself anyway, to complete her mission first. She entered the office, alert for anything. All she found was Diego, disguised as a Sceptile, with his feet propped up on his desk, perfectly at ease. “That's better,” he grinned.

Aqua was sure she hadn't made a sound, and even if she had, how had he known it was her? There were primitive cameras in Fournaria, but there was no screen of any kind in this room; if she'd been filmed, how had he seen the footage?

“I've been expecting you to drop by.”

“I'm here to kill you, Diego, not to talk,” Aqua said, despite being too cautious to attack him right now, considering he was somehow prepared for her.

Diego smirked. “No, that was more Boreas' domain, wasn't it?”

Aqua gritted her teeth, unable to resist asking. “Where is he?”

“Dead. I killed him myself. But that shouldn't surprise you. It's only by my kind and amiable nature that he's lived this long in the first place. I've had plenty opportunities to kill him before.”

“I don't believe you,” Aqua lied.

“Then don't,” Diego said, “if it helps you feel better. I'll be honest: I considered sparing him, for you. I knew you wouldn't take it well, and you know I have no ill will towards-”

Aqua managed to laugh. “You really enjoy your little fantasy that you're anything but a heartless mass murderer, don't you? You can fool yourself, but you can't fool me any more. In case you've forgotten, you broke my back the second I had it turned. Fortunately, that also opened my eyes. Staying in the hospital for a few weeks helped me see who the real villains were back then. But enough of the past.”

“Yes,” Diego said, a smile still playing around his lips, “you were about to kill me.”

“Yes.”

“Without even giving me a choice? You're not going to tell me you'll spare me if I leave the continent, be a good boy and never bother anyone again?”

“I'm not Boreas. He might believe someone can change everything just by choosing to. But I think you and I both know people don't really change. You'll always be a black-hearted, power-hungry bastard. Always taking what you can, never giving anything back. Wiping out pokémon by the hundreds of thousands just to get what you want. I'd actually like to sit back and just watch as it all comes back to bite you – and it will. People like you have a way of hurting themselves even more than others, of creating their own destruction. I would sit back and watch you drive yourself into the ground. Except that this is personal. You've killed a few too many people I love, so I want to do it myself. Your slow self-destruction at the hands of your own greed just isn't good enough.”

Diego smiled. “You know, I really do like you, Aqua. You're just like me. But if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get. Now!”

Aqua was blown off her feet by a massive electric shock that make her every hair twitch and her muscles cramp wildly. A Jolteon had appeared out of nowhere... And the ornamental plant next to her was gone. Stupid illusions.

Diego laughed. “Oh, did I forget to mention I've got a bodyguard now? Can't be prime minister without one, you know. I actually picked a Jolteon especially for you. Say hello to Marco.”

“He's – AAAH!” Aqua screamed as she was electrocuted again. “He's not your prime minister! He's the Shadow in disguise! He's a Zoroark! Don't listen to-”

“He knows,” Diego said gleefully. “He's one of my own men. Makes it much easier to speak my mind. Anyway, enough of this. Marco, kill her.”

“Yes, sir.”

Aqua tried to fight back, but she had no control over her own muscles. The Jolteon was about to strike again when...

“What the devil is going on here?”

“Brigadier Stewart,” Diego's voice dripped with annoyance at the arrival of the brigadier, flanked by two guards. “You're late. This assassin sought to kill me, but my bodyguard has already dealt with the problem.”

“What?” the Bisharp peered about the room. “But this is Aqua, one of the travellers who sought to fight the Shadow.”

Aqua spoke up. “I still am! The Pr- AAAH!”

“And now,” Diego said, “it seems she has turned against us. Do you need any further proof that Fournaria is under constant threat of rebels? That enemies can lurk behind every corner?”

“Perhaps not,” the Bisharp conceded, “but I'm sure her trial will reveal her true motivations.”

“Trial?” Diego snapped.

“Yes, sir; it's what we do with criminals, in case you've forgotten. I thought I overheard someone ordering an immediate execution as I came in, but I'm sure that's merely an old man's hearing playing tricks on him.” The brigadier's eyes, however, left little doubt of his faith in his own ears.

“Of course,” Diego said sourly. “Lock her up in preparation for her trial. And arrest all her known associates. I have reason to believe others might have joined her in her treason.”

“I'm not the traitor, you're the- AAAH!”

“If you hurt the arrested without cause once more,” the brigadier said calmly, “I will place you under arrest as well, bodyguard to the prime minister or not. Come to think of it, I don't recall ever having seen you before.”

“A sign of his skill,” Diego said quickly. “To return to the question of Aqua's associates: don't bother finding Boreas or Larissa. I have reason to believe both are dead. Marco, help the brigadier escort her to a cell.”

“No need for that, thank you,” the brigadier said coldly. “I would feel better if your bodyguard stayed with you. It is after all possible she was not working alone. I have two men as backup; she shan't escape.”

Aqua managed to get to her feet and walked out of the room, after throwing a glance at Diego. She began to explain in the corridor. “He's the Shadow.”

“I find that highly unlikely,” the brigadier said.

“It's true. The short version is: the Shadow is a Zoroark, his real name is Diego, and he is pretending to be Tacito. I don't know how long he's done it; I don't know whether there ever was a real Tacito whom he killed or if the entire identity is a fake.”

“Mrs. Aqua,” the brigadier said, “you still have my gratitude for escorting the refugees of Diamarina to safety. But I cannot believe any of this, and you shan't convince me of such claptrap.”

“Then look at the evidence!” Aqua said. “He's a tyrant, using the grief and fear he caused himself to gain more power. You just prevented him from having me killed on the spot.”

“You did try to assassinate him, did you not? I can hardly consider an overreaction in such a situation as evidence my lawfully elected prime minister is an imposter! I assure you, if you wish to base your defence on that claim, it will be investigated thoroughly, but I would advice you to pick a better excuse. Perhaps you do not understand in how much trouble you are. This assassination attempt won't be taken lightly.”

“Look,” Aqua said, getting tired of the brigadier's thick-headedness, “can't you just investigate for yourself? You'll find little inconsistencies, both in the present and the past, and then you can come let me out of jail. We don't need to bother with a trial he's going to rig anyway.”

The brigadier sniffed. “What do you take me for? It is not up to me, nor any individual, to take the law into my own hands. If your ridiculous claims have any merit to them, there are lawful methods to impeach the prime minister and have you acquitted. I would advice you to prepare for your trial by contacting your-”

“Sorry, but I don't have time for that.” Aqua suddenly let a great wave of water expand all around her, and then surfed away rapidly on a second one, knocking down the guards escorting her. There was a lot of shouting, and an alarm went off, but fortunately the security was still lax. She imagined that'd be changing after today. In fact, she had probably blown her only chance of getting at Diego directly, she realised as she jumped through a window and jumped in a pond outside to let her natural camouflage hide her. In that case, perhaps her best bet would be returning to the hideout. Diego would be a lot less dangerous without control over Groudon, and perhaps she could even discover what happened to Boreas; she knew from experience not to trust a word Diego said. Once the searching for her relented a bit, she'd pick up Sofia. She'd need that map of the hideout, and taking Sofia with her would also keep both of them out of trouble.

 

[apenpaap]

Chapter Twenty: At the Edge of Hope

Sofia liked tinkering. Always had, since the first time she'd taken one of her toys apart and tried (unsuccessfully) to put it back together. She enjoyed it so much, in fact, her mind tended to be completely absorbed by it. So she was so delighted and absorbed by putting together the geophone, she didn't even think about being back in the place that had taken Larissa from her, after all these weeks. The fact that she and Larissa had made love on that mountain there mere hours before she'd been brutally ripped from her life didn't even enter her mind. She was so focussed on putting the device together she didn't even think of how she'd had the idea for it mere seconds before the worst moment of her life, and-

A teardrop splattered on the back of her hand. Dammit, stop thinking about her! You've been crying so little lately. Well, I say so little, but I mean so little at day. And I say so little at day, but I mean less often at day. Point is: you'll be fine. A scientist is always fine.

She took a deep breath, trying to focus on the work again, even when she secretly doubted it'd do any good. Sure, they'd get a map of the hideout, and they could use that to stop the Shadow, but... It was already too late. What was the point of any of it if Larissa was dead? She knew she shouldn't think like that, that she should try to move on, and she had tried. She really felt like she had tried. She had watched the stars above, studied the traits of all the organisms, both pokémon and otherwise, she saw, examining the obvious signs of their shared ancestry; had slowly gone over the periodic table and truly outlined for herself why each element was perfectly at its place, had worked out some fancy number sequences, and designed in her mind a machine that could perfectly wake up a person at the right time with toast, strawberry juice, and some nice music ready. And all of it left her completely cold and bored. There was none of the delightful fascination she should've felt with any of those things.

She had tried making new friends too, of course, but it was laughable. Who could ever replace Larissa? She had gotten along with her cousins reasonably well, but no more than that. And when Aqua had shown up after a few hours with the news that they were both wanted and should get out of town, she had actually been glad for the chance to get away from her family. Aqua, of course, just thought she should move on. But what was the point? She usually felt there was none, yet the past few days she had been seized by this bitter anger occasionally. Larissa was dead, and so were five hundred thousand others, and the one responsible for both was the prime minister. It was enough to make her feel either lethargic or furious, and she had no idea which.

Aside from looking for Sofia's own family, they had naturally searched New Praeclara for Proteus, Triton, and Neso. But they weren't there, and everyone told her all refugees had come there, and that no-one left behind in the dead city would still be alive. She knew Larissa wouldn't have given up, would have gone to the ruins herself and dug them all up until she found her brothers, if needed. But Sofia knew it was a lost cause. There was nothing to be done. They were dead, just like their big sister, and myriads of others. She hadn't even realised for a few days that she too was now homeless, that the city she'd grown up in was in ruins. All in all, it was one of her lesser problems.

There was a very slight tremor; unsurprising considering they were right next to mount Jund once more, and Sofia shook off all these distracting thoughts, figuring she was finally done with the machine. She stamped her foot on the floor to test. There was a tiny little spike of activity on the geophone's screen. Suddenly, Sofia felt like she hadn't for a long time: giddy and proud. This was her creation, and it worked! She could use it to find out all sorts of things about the ground, dig up all kinds of mysteries!

“It works! It works!” she cheered. “Aqua, it works!”

Aqua jumped a little; she had been half snoozing a little bit away. “Huh?! Oh, that's good. When will you have the map ready?”

“Oh,” said Sofia, “it should take me a few more hours. You see, we'll create a small explosion, and b-because sound travels at a different speed in air than in earth and rock the way the sound waves echo out of the ground will allow us to create a map. It's a pretty difficult calculation, though...” The brief surge of joy was sinking away already. She tried to keep it up with nice thoughts; it had been a very nice reprieve. “So... We'll use it to find grandfather, right?”

Aqua sighed. “Yes. But we can't do that right away. We have to stop Diego's control over Groudon first. Too many pokémon's lives depend on it. You... Understand that, right?”

Sofia closed her eyes. “...Yes.” She did. She really understood why it was logical to do that first, why it was technically more important than saving grandfather. And yet, she couldn't help but feel some spite towards Aqua. Grandfather wouldn't be able to make it all better, but at least being with him again would be an improvement... She missed him terribly, even if it was usually overshadowed by the Larissa-shaped hole in her heart.

“So we'll use the map to get into the room we met Diego in. Then we can figure out how he controlled Groudon, and stop it...”

Sofia took a deep breath as she thought back to the worst moment in her life. She didn't want to think about looking into that room where the one she loved lay in a pool of her own blood, but she knew she had seen other things there as well. Even in the horror of that moment, her eye hadn't been unable to also be momentarily drawn by the mysterious and interesting machine that had replaced the Shadow's chair. It hadn't held her interest for long, but long enough to notice the many wires and cables that came out of it. Coupled with the psychic presence she had felt, it was not that hard to figure out it was related. Those wires had to signify a weakness...

“...We could knock out the power?” Sofia proposed.

“You think he needs that to control Groudon?” Aqua asked.

Sofia nodded. “And even if he doesn't... It's all underground. Most of the Shadow's pokémon won't have dark vision like Obnard. We'll have torches. It'd be a clear advantage.”

After talking about it some more, Sofia buried a tiny explosive device and set it off, letting the geophone collect the sound data. It was once again enough to give her a brief spark of excitement. She was actually distracted from her memories while she compiled the data the geophone gave her, and helped it create the map over the next few hours. At last she was at least doing something!

With the map finally ready, she pored over it with Aqua, trying to make sense of the vast underground labyrinth, and especially trying to figure out where the generator could be. Ultimately, they decided on a mysterious group of clearly artificial chambers that were entirely separated from the main base. Sofia figured it'd make a good spot for a generator if you didn't want your own minions to have the chance to sabotage it; considering some of them might be outraged by Praeclara's destruction, that would be wise.

Sofia's excitement kept up as they went into the caves, going back in through the rear exit. It wasn't like she felt happy, or even cheerful, but simply that for the first time in a month, she had energy and didn't quite feel like her existence was pointless and going to be nothing but misery. Doing something useful really did feel better. The map, though difficult to read, showed them the path back into the base, preventing them from getting lost in the natural caverns Obnard had showed them the way out through.

They emerged onto the ledge in Groudon's chamber. Deep down, Groudon still slept. The room opposite them, though, looked empty and disused. There was neither machine nor chair in there any more, and though the glass was dirtier than before and harder to see through, she thought there even was a bit of a dark stain where Larissa had lain. Sofia walked onwards rapidly as she began wondering what they had done with her body, whether they had given it a proper burial, and where it was now; thoughts that made her feel a little sick. She'd probably never even know any of the answers to that, never have a place to properly mourn her.

She tried to shake it off as they started coming to familiar tunnels, and went deep in thought, letting her mind wander a bit. Aqua was better at this stuff anyway, so there was no harm in just following her. The Vaporeon was very cautious, and moved slowly, looking around every corner before turning, but they came across nobody. These parts of the hideout hadn't been all that busy last time, but not completely empty either. They reached the Shadow's room without any trouble, but with a creeping sense of worry, and found it just as empty as it had looked.

“Nothing,” Aqua said, superfluously. “Absolutely nothing.”

Sofia was silent, torn between trying to ignore the dark stain on the ground and sitting down and crying over it.

“...Maybe this room isn't used while Diego is busy being prime minister?” Aqua postulated. “I don't think he'd let anyone else wield his power over Groudon.”

Sofia silently thought, staring at the dark spot. A thought was beginning to form in her mind.

“...Right,” said Aqua, annoyance etched on her face. “If this room is empty, I suppose your theory that the machine was controlling Groudon is wrong. No sense in knocking out the power, so we should-”

“Nononono,” Sofia hurriedly interrupted, her intuition tingling though her mind hadn't quite caught up yet, “we should take out the power anyway! The machine was probably just moved to a different room, andand we should still take it down with power and all!”

Aqua frowned. “Are you sure? Shouldn't we search for it first?”

“No... Need to,” Sofia lied. “Trust me, I'm a scientist. I know all about how secret hideouts are structured. And I'm telling you, that... Generator is clearly a weak point. We just need to get as close to it as we can and dig the rest of the way – Using my foldable shovel, a few batteries, and some jiggery-pokery, I should be able to make a simple automatic digging robot that should get us through the earth quickly and without much effort.”

“Isn't it still a lot of effort wasted, though?” Aqua said. “For all we know, it's just an old garbage dump or some tunnels that were cut off by a cave-in.”

“Probably not,” Sofia babbled, “I'm fairly sure it was deliberate and it's their only source of power. Positive!”

“Look, don't you-”

“Trust me, I'm a scientist.”

“Well... If you say so. What way do we go from here?”

“This way! No, that way!”

They continued through empty tunnels in the hideout, towards the mysterious hollow space. There were a few barely used labs and storage areas here, but nothing else. By the time they were nearby, Sofia's intuition was starting to look correct about one thing at least: there was no generator in the hollow space. As far as she could tell, there were no wires in the ground leading from it, meaning it had to be some kind of self-contained system. It didn't look like the area had been sealed off by a cave-in, but deliberately buried, so curiosity was one reason she'd lied to Aqua and pushed for them digging into the hollow space.

“I'm going to take a look around,” Aqua said as the machine Sofia had put together started digging through the ground. “I'll be back in a while, alright?”

But there was another reason, one that was honestly more of a wild guess, one she didn't want to admit to Aqua... What if this was some kind of prison? You didn't need guards if the Earth itself did the job for you. Maybe prisoners were thrown in here to starve to death? And if so... She didn't dare think of it, because the chances for disappointment were so great. But wondering what they'd done with Larissa's body had got her thinking. What if she had evolved? Larissa was so determined and strong-willed, Sofia could barely believe she hadn't managed to save herself by evolving. It made no logical sense. Of course, her own eyes had told her Larissa had died a Quilava. Except... Not long before, her own eyes had told her she was talking to a Darkrai on a throne, not a Zoroark on a mysterious metal box. The Shadow was a Zoroark. Illusions were his main weapon. Maybe, just maybe, Larissa had evolved, and he had used an illusion to hide the fact for some reason. It wasn't impossible, every part of that was completely logically possible.

And now her digging machine hit stone! That was a problem... Except that it was limestone. She quickly rushed back to the last lab she'd past by and took a look among their chemicals. She grinned widely. Easy enough to mix up an acid solution with these. And once the acid had softened up the stone, the small drill she carried would let her get through the final half metre with ease. As she got to work, she returned to her train of thought, her heart pounding with excitement as she thought of who could be on the other side of a layer of easily soluble limestone.

So Larissa had evolved into a Typhlosion. Well, what if the Shadow had taken an interest in her amazingness, and decided she was worth more to him alive after all? He wouldn't take any risks with Larissa, though; he'd know by now to be careful with her. So what better place to put her than a sealed room, buried deep underground? It made sense. No-one would ever know she was in there, unless an overly-curious Kirlia decided to dig it up on a fool's hope. Even if there had been no food in there, Larissa could still be alive! It had been seven weeks, but pokémon had survived a long time without food before, and it wasn't like she'd waste much energy in there. It was entirely plausible that, when Sofia broke through this last layer of stone, she'd be greeted by a lovely Typhlosion, embracing her tightly and running her paw through her hair and saying how much she'd missed her and how she'd never scare her like that again and-

Sofia broke through the wall! A hole of about 10 centimetres had opened up into a small, dark room. And in there... That was a pokémon! She was moving, shielding her eyes from the light! An indistinct sound of pure happiness escaped Sofia as she scrambled to make the hole larger, barely able to believe this wonderful twist of fate, mad with desire to finally be reunited with her Larissa. “'Rissa!” she squeaked, making the hole larger. “Rissa! I'mcomingforyouI'mgettingyououtoftherejustonemoreminuteandwe'llbe...”

The four-legged shape had come close to the hole. Its ears were far too large, it had a tail with a missing tip, and scruffy, blue hair with a streak of grey in. The eyes that looked into hers were cyan, not grey. “Sofia?” said a dry, cracking voice. “Is that really you?”

Sofia couldn't find words.

Boreas closed his eyes. “Sofia, I'm... So sorry. Larissa is dead...”

It was true. Sofia was certain of it now. Her last, faint hope, crushed brutally. She nodded slightly.

“Sh-she died saving the world, Sofia. She killed what was left of Mewtwo, broke Diego's control over Groudon. He can never use its power as a weapon again. But... Diego himself was enraged. He killed her... But it was quick. She never knew what hit her. She... Didn't suffer.”

His horrible, horrible words echoed through Sofia's mind, which had gone completely silent. “...No.”

“What?” said Boreas, confused.

“No,” Sofia said sharply. “No, it wasn't quick. She did suffer. I saw her body. Why are you lying to me?!” she screamed. “TELL ME THE TRUTH! If you dare lie again-”

“I'm sorry; she asked me to tell you that...” said Boreas. “But you're right, it really wasn't quick or painless... Diego kicked her internal organs into a pulp for breaking his mental control... As she was dying, she told me to tell you and her brothers she died a quick and painless death... And then she-” his breath halted, “she told me she loved you. And that it changed nothing, that she would have stayed with you to her death anyway... Sh-she died thinking of you, Sofia. She only wanted me to lie to spare your feelings... Even on her deathbed, she was still taking care of others...”

Sofia couldn't possibly say anything over the hurricane of emotions inside her.

“I'm so sorry. I thought I could break Diego's control, but I couldn't... She could. She died a hero, Sofia, and-”

“She shouldn't have died,” Sofia hissed furiously.

Boreas shook his head.

“She defied evil, while you couldn't! She saved millions, and as a reward she was brutally murdered!” Sofia shouted, her mind awash with fury. Fury at the universe's cruelty, fury at the Shadow, but most of all, fury at Boreas. Fury that he had the gall to survive when Larissa hadn't.

“I know, she-”

“You should've been the one to die!” Sofia yelled, barely able to resist shoving the drill into Boreas' face. “You said we'd be okay! That she'd be okay! You – you're arrogant, and nasty, and awful, while she was wonderful, and sweet, and brave! You're old, andand she had so many more years to live – live with me! Sh-she had me! You should've died, and she should've lived!”

“What's going on?” Aqua said, drawn by the noise. Sofia felt sick with jealous rage as she turned around and saw her expression. The same expression Sofia would have had if Larissa had been in the underground cell. She trembled with hate and didn't hear a word of what either of the Eevees said. She wanted to hurt them, hurt them terribly, make them pay for what they had done to her. But through the red haze, she still had enough sense to know it really wasn't their fault, that they were her friends, that she shouldn't-

She stormed off, past Aqua into the cave, knowing she had to get away from them before she snapped. Aqua didn't follow her – unsurprising; it's not like Sofia would've cared what might happen to her if she'd just run into Larissa again either. She ran through the corridor, almost blind with rage, and entered the same lab she'd mixed up the acid solution. She screamed inarticulately and threw a rack of testing tubes against the wall. They shattered. She kicked over a chair and threw her hammer right into a cupboard full of glasswork. All this science equipment – what good was it? What was the point of knowledge if the one certain and unchangeable fact of the world was that Larissa was dead, and nothing would ever bring her back? With another scream of rage, Sofia threw open the cupboards and threw armfuls of intricate glasswork on the ground, covering it all in shards. She crushed a petridish with her foot. She slashed open a bunch of the small containers of chemicals with her knife.

After a while, the red haze had slightly begun to lift, and she was overcome by terrible, bitter grief instead. She pulled a chair back to its feet and sunk down on it, tears flowing freely and loudly in the destroyed lab. Until now, there had been a tiny bit of secret hope holding out in her, and now that was shattered too. Larissa really was dead, and Sofia would never see her again.

Sofia heard the door open. “What the...?” Sofia didn't care that a stranger had entered the lab. If they wanted to kill her, let them get it over with and release her from this agony. “Who are you?! What did you do?!”

But then Sofia had a thought: this was a minion of the Shadow. She slowly turned to look at the Ursaring, who flinched back a little. She worked for the Shadow. That was the only reason she would be here. She helped the monster who had ripped Larissa from her life. She shared the guilt. She – no, it was guilty. It was as guilty as if it had personally wrung the life from Larissa's body. Without pokémon like it, the Shadow would never have gained this much power. He would never have been in a position to threaten anyone, and Larissa wouldn't have had to lay her life down to stop him, and would instead have lived happily ever after with Sofia. If it wasn't for pokémon like this Ursaring, Sofia would still live in beautiful Praeclara with Larissa and grandfather.

With a scream of blind fury, Sofia launched herself at the Ursaring, jamming her knife deep into its thigh. The Ursaring howled and something hit Sofia as she slashed the bloody knife across the huge bear's abdomen, making a long, shallow cut. She darted out of the way of one of the mighty arms trying to crush her and dug her blade deep into the other leg, cutting muscle, flesh, and tendon. The Ursaring collapsed, and Sofia drove the point of her knife into its large, furry chest, pulling it out instantly and cutting to the bone of one of the arms. The Ursaring's only functional arm hit Sofia and threw her off, but she was awash with fury, desiring only blood. Every slash, cut, and stab she gave the Ursaring felt like some minor repayment of her own suffering, ever drop of blood she drew a delight. The powerful creature was helpless against her, and suddenly she found her knife hovering little more than a millimetre over the Ursaring's left eyeball. She had been about to kill her, to stab right through the thin area of skull behind the eye into her brain, but for some reason had stopped herself. The Ursaring froze, focussed on the knife just barely above her eye.

Sofia looked at the blood dripping down the knife, the blood her own hands and arms were awash in, the blood that had splattered all over her clothes. It was so red. Red like Larissa's blood had been. It was also nice and warm, and the drops dripping from her knife caught the light in a beautiful way. Yes, the blood was beautiful, Sofia realised, a grin spreading on her face as she stared at it with fascination. So beautiful. So nice. So flowy.

“P-please,” the Ursaring whispered. “I have a son. He's just a small Teddiursa. He shouldn't grow up without his mother. Please... Nice Kirlia, g-good Kirlia, don't kill me...”

Sofia looked into the Ursaring's eyes now, still grinning. A son, she thought. Killing her would make him understand what I'm going through. Why should he have someone who loves him, when I don't?

Both hands gathered on her knife's hilt, preparing to jam it right into the Ursaring's skull. It would only take a moment. Just a little, momentary action from her now would change the life of some Teddiursa completely. It was very empowering. Had the Shadow felt like that when he changed hers forever? She began to tremble. Was she really about to do that to someone else? Was she really going to rob someone of his mother, make him go through her own suffering? She lifted the knife a little bit, but thought of something.

“Where is grandfather?” she asked, surprised at the child-like, flat sound of her own voice.

The Ursaring looked at her, eyes wide with terror. No-one had ever looked at Sofia in that way. It felt good. “I-I don't-”

“The scientists you kidnapped. Where are they?”

The Ursaring's eyes widened even further, giving Sofia's own a good run for their money, and she shivered. “P-Please... Don't- don't kill me... Please, miss Kirlia, I-I wasn't involved, I-”

“WHERE?!” Sofia screamed, her heart freezing at the obvious fear the question brought the Ursaring.

“I don't know,” the bear whimpered, “I don't know! They disappeared when the Shadow and some of the troops did! D-don't kill me! I really don't know, no-one here does!”

Sofia blinked. “D-disappeared? The Shadow disappeared?”

Trembling, the Ursaring explained. “No-one's seen him since the day the capital was destroyed! Desiderio denounced what he did, and took charge, and then most of our other leaders disappeared, and your grandfather with them! But-but I think they weren't killed by Desiderio, miss, everyone says they left to find the Shadow! I swear, they are probably alive, and so is your grandfather! Please, please, don't kill me...”

Sofia blinked again, trying to process this information. “You mean you don't follow the Shadow any more?”

“N-n-no! He went too far! We never wanted to destroy Praeclara! He said he would change Fournaria, that's all! Many of us had family in the capital! W-we never meant for this to happen, but now the new government is hunting us all mercilessly!”

Hot crimson rage returned. “Oh, you poor thing. All you ever meant to kill was a few thousand pokémon. No b-big deal.”

“It-it was different!”

“Tell me, what is it about destroying Praeclara that made it so different from the smaller towns? Don't you have the guts to take the logical next step and kill on a large scale, or is it just the symbolism of the capital and the seat of power that makes it different?”

But at that moment, Aqua entered the destroyed lab and gave a little gasp. “Sofia? What's going on?”

“Help me!” the Ursaring screamed. “Save me! Don't let her kill me! Please! Please, help me! J-just don't let her-”

She and Boreas exchanged a brief glance, and then Boreas incapacitated the Ursaring with an ice beam. Sofia slowly got off her, her cheeks burning with shame at having been caught going out of control this badly as Aqua healed the Ursaring's wounds with aqua ring. “Who is she?” Boreas asked.

“One of the Shadow's minions...” Sofia said. “No, wait, not the Shadow's any more! She told me they were no longer working for the Shadow! Desiderio is the b-boss now, the Shadow disappeared andand so did a lot of their other leaders, and she said she thought the Shadow had gone too far in destroying Praeclara, andand grandfather has disappeared too, and-”

“First things first,” Aqua said, “let's throw her into Boreas' cell. We won't dig her back in, so she can get out, but it'll take her a few hours in this state. That should give us more than enough time. Tell us everything while we carry her.”

Sofia explained everything the Ursaring had told her, though she deliberately kept the circumstances of their fight vague, and didn't mention at all how unbelievably, blindingly furious she had been, how satisfying it had felt to slice her knife through the flesh of the Ursaring, how gorgeous her blood on the blade had been, how badly she had wanted to kill her. Those already felt like the acts of another person, one she could barely imagine being her, and one that scared her to be honest. And yet... It had been the closest thing to joy she had felt in weeks. That sheer terror the Ursaring had looked at her with, that certain knowledge that her life was in Sofia's hands, and that she could, and would, take it without a thought, was something she had never seen in another person's eyes before. No-one had ever feared her like that. It shouldn't feel good, even if the Ursaring was an evil person, she knew, and yet... Yet it had. It had felt incredibly satisfying, it had felt like payback to the universe in general, it had felt gratifying, had made her feel powerful and like she could really make a difference to this one person at least.

–

“You should've been the one to die!” Sofia's face was a twisted mask of fury like Boreas had never seen her before. “You said we'd be okay! That she'd be okay!” Boreas cringed. He had said that. He had been so sure his intellect and luck would make it all work out. What had he been thinking? “You – you're arrogant, and nasty, and awful, while she was wonderful, and sweet, and brave! You're old, andand she had so many more years to live – live with me! Sh-she had me! You should've died, and she should've lived!”

Boreas couldn't help but agree with her. He was going to say something – anything, somehow try to make it better for poor Sofia, but then he heard the most wonderful voice on Earth. “What's going on?”

Sofia was forgotten as he locked eyes with Aqua. She looked flabbergasted. “Aqua,” Boreas said.

“You're- you're alive,” she said, coming to the small hole in the wall. “You survived.”

“You know me, I always-” Boreas began, then cringed a bit at how he sounded. “I'm sorry. I messed up badly. I let you down, and Sofia, and Larissa, and everyone else, really.”

Aqua gently touched a paw to his face. “Yes. But I don't care about any of that. Let's just get you out of there.”

Boreas gently gave her paw a kiss. “I've made many mistakes, Aqua. And it's about time I fixed some of them. Starting with you. I love you. I love you, and I don't say that to you nearly often enough. But more importantly, I don't act it often enough. I will change that, just you wait and see. And... I hope you can forgive me.”

Aqua smiled and kissed him. “Of course I can. I love you too, after all.”

Boreas closed his eyes for a moment and delighted in just being with Aqua.

“C'mon,” Aqua smiled. “Help me get you out of there. And then we should probably find Sofia; she seemed a little upset.”

 

[apenpaap]

Chapter Twenty-One: Discoveries

“...And then I wandered off to have a look around, since I figured it'd take her a while to dig you out. Well, except I didn't know it'd be you in there until I came back and heard her screaming at someone. You know the rest of it.” Aqua finished her story.

Boreas thoughtfully looked about in the darkness of night, trying not to let guilt get him down too much. Things were far worse than he'd thought. Praeclara destroyed and Diego prime minister despite Larissa's sacrifice. So many pokémon dead... He understood now that blaming himself for it all was a form of arrogance, and yet he couldn't help it. He had so many questions, yet one above all: “And how have you been doing?”

Aqua raised an eyebrow. “That's your reaction? How am I doing?”

“Yeah,” Boreas said, “you've been through a lot, with all that going on, so I'm worried about you.”

“I know I have, but shouldn't you worry about the rest of the world first?”

“It can wait,” Boreas said resolutely. “It must've been hard on you.”

Aqua blushed a little. “Well, it was. I was all alone while the world was falling apart. But worse, not a day went by without me worrying myself sick about you. At first, I thought you'd probably survived and would pop up at some point with a smug smirk, but that hope slowly disappeared. Especially after Diego told me he'd killed you. I knew I couldn't believe anything he said, but I... I didn't think I'd ever see you again.”

Boreas held her for a while. “I didn't think I'd ever see you again either. I was trying to dig myself out, but mainly just to give me something to do. It'd have taken me years on my own.”

“It was so lonely, without you. It really made me realise I have no-one. I even considered going back to Unova... Seeing Toxica and Selene again, or maybe even my family... I'm glad I didn't, but I was so alone. I mean, technically I wasn't, but I couldn't really talk to-” She gave a meaningful nod towards Sofia's tent. “She's been doing much worse than me, I don't have that much right to complain.”

Boreas nodded sadly. “She... Did not take it well when she found me. She was expecting Larissa.”

Aqua sighed. “She's changed, love. It's like all the life has been wrung out of her and she's just a shadow of her former self. She doesn't trip over her own feet or words with excitement any more, she barely sleeps or eats. She's been crying all the time, especially when she thinks I don't notice.”

“Has she been angry a lot? She shouted at me when she found me, I've never seen her that furious. Or angry at all.”

Aqua shook her head. “No, most of the time she just goes around without any energy. Honestly, I hope that anger is a good sign, even if she went... A bit far with that Ursaring. It might mean she's beginning to recover.”

Boreas almost chuckled. “I've got to give it to her. The fact that she took down a bear on her own, with just a knife, is very impressive. It was almost three times her size. That doesn't make that anger good for her, of course... Honestly, when I looked into her eyes while she was shouting at me, and later when we found her with the Ursaring, she looked insane. It scares me to see that in her. I think she needs to get away from all this and get some rest. I don't think she's in any condition to continue with this adventure.”

Aqua nodded. “I found some relatives of hers in New Praeclara, in the hope it'd click between them and she'd stay with them. But I needed her to make a map of the hideout, so I had to take her with me before she had much time to socialise with them. But you're probably right; it'd be for the better if we took her back to them and let her stay there and let her recover with her family. I just hope they can help the poor thing better than I could.”

Boreas put a paw around her shoulders. “I'm sure you did all you could, love. There's just not much either of us can do for her. Well, there's one thing: we shouldn't tell her why we're going back to New Praeclara. It'll just make her worry about it all the way there. It's kinder to wait for the last moment.”

–

Boreas woke up in darkness. It was a dream. Just a dream. He was still here, in the horrible dark cell where he'd be all his life. “No!” he screamed, overcome by panic. “No, no, let me out! Let me out! Diego!!!”

“Love?” Aqua's voice said in his mind. “Boreas! Calm down!” suddenly he was grabbed by strong paws, and he actually saw her before him. Not in the vague, not quite real way that he saw his hallucinations, but in the really actually quite real way that the real Aqua looked. Suddenly he realised: it was dark, but not quite the pure blackness underground: there was some dim light around even on a cloudy night deep in the mountains, and he could see around him a little bit. He hugged Aqua tightly with relief, still panting rapidly.

“It's okay, Boreas,” she whispered. “It was just a nightmare. You're free now.”

“I'm sorry,” Boreas said, hating how shocked his voice still sounded. “I'm sorry, I'm an idiot, I just overreacted, that's all.”

“You're not,” Aqua said gently. “It's only to be expected you'll have some nightmares and-”

“It wasn't even a nightmare, I just woke up in the dark and thought I was back underground. It's ridiculous, and I really should've known better.”

Aqua gently caressed his ear. “You've experienced something terrible, and you will need time to heal. I'm honestly surprised you've held up this well. Don't be ashamed of yourself, love.”

Boreas trembled and held her a little closer. “I just... Thought I was going to be okay. Thought now that I was out, it was all over. I guess it's not.”

Aqua shook her head sadly.

–

New Praeclara had changed. Last time, there had at least been an atmosphere of hope and promise in the air, despite the increasing squalor. Now everyone seemed grim, angry, and fearful as they began to realise just how bad things were. Tall grey towers rose from the city's centre, but here on the outskirts, the buildings themselves were the same as ever before. The posters were new, though. Lots of them were adverts, but there were also ones that ordered the reader to alert the patrols, marked by their black scarves, of anything suspicious, ones that warned of the Shadow's agents hiding everywhere, and ones that called for specific criminals to be arrested. But the ones that Boreas focussed on were the large posters with impressive photographs of prime minister Tacito. There he was, Diego. Though the species and face were entirely different, there was still something in the expressions, the gestures, or maybe the eyes that was very reminiscent of him. Boreas might've been impressed by how he had fooled everyone, played both sides, and made himself ruler of Fournaria. But no more. He had a hard time feeling anything but disgust for Diego after he'd witnessed him kicking Larissa to death.

It was pretty hard for him not to go over to whatever place Diego had installed himself in and try to kill him. Obviously, if he tried, he'd probably be captured. Aqua had told him as much. But seeing these posters had made him realise yet another way he could've stopped all this from ever happening. If he had just agreed to meet minister Tacito when he was asked to, all those months ago, he would've recognised Diego instantly... And that made him feel even more like going to Diego right now and solving the problem once and for all, even if he knew he wouldn't be able to. It wasn't easy to just ignore his feeling and do other things... Especially as he had no idea what those things were. Bring down Diego, obviously, but where to start?

All the buildings around him were for some reason making him uncomfortable. The way their walls rose high above him and left only a narrow space that felt like it was getting narrower all the time was oddly disconcerting. Fortunately, they were not going very far into town and stopped in a messy alleyway near the edge. “Everyone looks so grim,” Sofia said. “I suppose they'll all b-be much happier when we kill the Shadow...”

“Yes,” Boreas said cautiously. “But... That's not why we're here.”

Sofia turned in surprise. “But I thought- why did we come back here then?”

Boreas and Aqua exchanged a look. There was no easy way to say it. “We've come to say goodbye to you, Sofia.”

“What do you mean?!” She squeaked. “Leave you?”

“Aqua and I have talked about this,” Boreas explained, “and we both agree it'd be better for you if you stayed with your family.”

“B-but- No, I b-barely even know them...” she glanced about nervously.

“Sofia,” Aqua said gently, “you've suffered a terrible loss, and it has affected you a lot. More danger and trouble is not what you need right now. What you need is rest, safety, and others around you.”

Sofia cast her eyes down. “B-but,” she said in a small voice, “Larissa would've wanted me to continue... She would've wanted the Shadow b-brought down...”

“And we shall bring him down,” Boreas said, feeling so very sorry for her. “But she wouldn't have wanted you to do it. She would've wanted you to remain safe, to be happy.”

Sofia gave him a quick glare. He knew she still blamed him for surviving while Larissa didn't. “B-but I can defend myself... I fought an Ursaring and won.”

“You don't have to push yourself any more,” Boreas said. “You joined our adventure because Larissa did. And that's alright; there are much worse reasons to head into danger than for love. But that was before. Our quest has become a lot more dangerous, and she's no longer with us. You shouldn't try to go to the ends of the Earth with two old nutters because it feels like it'd honour her memory. I'm sure nothing would've made Larissa as happy as to know that you were safe once she was gone, and there's no better way to honour her memory.”

Sofia nodded slightly, tears in her eyes, which seemed to have grown even bigger in her gaunt face these days.

“It'll be for the best,” Boreas said to her. “You'll be-”

“Come look at this, love,” Aqua said. She was looking at a poster on the wall. It had her face on it.

“That's original,” Boreas chuckled. “He's really going with wanted posters to catch you? It's a cute mugshot, though; looks almost as good as the real thing.”

Aqua rolled her eyes, but with a smile. “My mugshot isn't what interests me. Take a look at this.”

Now Boreas saw: someone had graffitied the poster with a small message near the bottom. “Lady, I'm stationed near the home of your bouncy friend. Come visit some time. O.”

“Do you think it's a message from Obnard?” Boreas asked.

Aqua shrugged. “He often addresses me as 'lady', and Sofia certainly used to fit 'bouncy friend'. It sounds to me like he's telling us to come to Praeclara, because Diego has something going on there.”

“Bit of a coincidence,” Boreas said, “us coming across this particular poster.”

“Not if he got a group of pokémon to graffiti as many of them as they can find. If this is the only one, I agree you, but otherwise, it's pretty clearly a message for me.”

Boreas thought. “Praeclara. He might've had more reasons to destroy it than we thought. Seems worth a look to me. Although, we should consider the possibility that's a message from Diego luring us into a trap.”

Aqua nodded. “You're right. It's the closest thing to a clue we have, though, so- Where'd Sofia go?”

They found her out in the street, walking away with slumped shoulders. “Hey,” Aqua said gently, “don't leave without saying goodbye.”

Sofia turned slowly. “Goodbye.”

Aqua put a paw on her shoulder. “We'll find your grandfather, Sofia. You'll be with him again, just wait and see.”

She nodded without conviction and began to walk away. Boreas knew he had to say something, anything. “I'm sorry, Sofia. I'm so sorry for everything that happened. If I could somehow go back and change things, I-”

“Well, you can't,” she snapped, turning her back on him. Boreas watched her go sadly. She really had changed. It was obvious even from this distance. Sofia had always been thin, but never to an unhealthy degree like now; and she had usually had a spring in her step, not a depressed slouch.

He shook his head. “I'm so sorry.”

Aqua put a paw around his shoulder. “Nothing we can do to help her now.”

“I know,” Boreas cast his eyes down, “that's what saddens me the most of all. We've really made a mess out of that girl's life. I suppose the only thing we can do for her is to get rid of Diego and hope she can fix her own life then... By the way, should you be standing around out in the open like this?”

“Like what? Oh, right, I'm a wanted girl. Like that's a new experience.” She rolled her eyes, but Boreas already spotted a Braixen wearing a black scarf pointing at them as he talked to several other pokémon wearing black scarves.

“I dunno,” Boreas chuckled as they retreated back into the alley, “I don't think you've ever been on a poster before.”

“First time for everything, love,” she winked, as they broke out into a run, the patrol now following them. “I suppose I should be glad I can still stir up this kind of trouble at my age.”

“At your age?” Boreas chuckled as he fired an ice beam behind him while they left the alley and went into a busy street. “You're still young, you know.”

They quickly darted into a little shop and watched their pursuers run by through the crowd, obliviously. “Not that young any more,” Aqua said with a small sigh. “I used to be much younger...”

“Obviously,” Boreas said as they exited the shop and followed the street towards the city's edge, “that's how time works. You can't change anything about that, love, and you're the one who's always telling me to accept what I can't change.”

“I know...” Aqua said sadly as they left New Praeclara behind them, leaving the road as well and going into the forest to prevent being spotted.

“Hey,” Boreas said gently, “why don't we sit down, love, and talk about whatever's bothering you?”

“Why?” Aqua said.

“Because you're clearly not feeling well,” Boreas said, sitting down at the foot of a big oak tree.

“We're right next to the city,” Aqua said. “We can talk later. We need to get away now.”

“If trouble shows up, we'll deal with it when it comes,” Boreas said. “Your happiness is far more important than avoiding some danger. Come, sit with me, love.”

Aqua gave a small smile and sat down next to him. “It's nothing, really. Because you're right, I should just accept what I can't do anything about, and I also know I've got decades left, and that true beauty is on the inside and that I'm being shallow. I even know you love me no matter what, but... I just can't help it, Boreas. I used to be so much... Well, sexier.”

“Sexier?”

“Yeah. I used to be a hot young goddess, and now I'm not.”

Boreas put a paw around her. “Aqua, my sweet Aqua, you know that doesn't matter. And even if it did, it's just not true either. You're still gorgeous and sexy, even if you've gained a few years.”

“And a bunch of weight,” Aqua muttered.

“A tiny bit,” Boreas said truthfully, “and it makes you look better, if anything. Surely you don't think you'd look better if you were a skinny sack of bones like Sofia?”

“Quit flattering me already...”

“I'm not flattering you. Well, maybe I am, but it's still true. I really do think you look great, and the little bit of weight you've gained only helps accent your beauty.”

Aqua rolled her eyes. “Sure.”

“I'm not lying to you. You don't think you'd have such nice hips if you weren't a little chubby, do you? Your weight helps accentuate your body's lovely curves.”

Aqua looked down at her protruding belly. “And adds a few new ones.”

Boreas laid a paw on her stomach, gently petting over it and enjoying its softness. “Which are lovely all the same. That belly – which, by the way, isn't nearly as large as I think you think it is – actually looks very good on you, and I know that if you had had it when we were younger, I would still have jumped off that boat to say cheesy pick-up lines to you. Probably even more readily.”

Aqua laughed, a blush on her face, and weakly pushed him away. “Stop it, you! Don't make fun of me-hihi!” She giggled as Boreas poked her tummy.

“I'm really not. I just don't want you to feel bad about something you shouldn't at all. You are beautiful, Aqua, and I've told you that, among many other things, not nearly often enough lately.” He gently kissed her.

“Thank you, love,” Aqua smiled, wrapping her tail around him as their lips parted.

“What's important to me, love, is that you feel good about yourself. If you'd feel better if you were thinner, I'll help you lose weight any way I can. But you're a sweet, sexy girl who loves to eat and looks gorgeous, cute little potbelly and all,” he patted it, and Aqua giggled and pulled him a little closer to her. “I'd be much happier to see you love yourself the way you are.”

Aqua kissed him. “You know what? I'll promise you I'll stop being silly and that I'll do my best to remember I'm still hot, if you promise you'll keep reminding me I am.”

“Every day,” Boreas said with a grin.

“And I know I'm being ridiculous and... Oh well, we should really be going now. It's a long way to Praeclara, and we don't want Diego's lackeys hounding us all the way.”

–

Colonel Stewart entered general Lupo's office, glad to have some good news to report to his new superior at last. “What do you want?” the Walrein boomed, his moustache waving up and down. Stewart had to suppress a derisive snort. The general's office oozed decadence, lavishly decorated to an extent that Stewart disapproved of strongly. For that matter, Stewart had always believed in being kind, albeit stern, to his subordinates, and would never have asked them to report in such a manner. He kept a straight face; it naturally wasn't his place to disapprove of his superior, even if he had been promoted suspiciously rapidly at around the same time Stewart had been demoted.

“Sir, the dissident Aqua has been spotted in Vala- New Praeclara by one of our patrols. She hasn't been captured yet, but I believe we should be able to pick up her trail once more. My best men are on the job.”

“They are, are they, colonel?” Stewart almost cringed at the way the general pronounced the title as if it were an insult.

“Yes, sir. She was seen leaving the city in the company of one other pokémon soon after, going westward. She appears to have left the road, and while it shall certainly be difficult to track her further movements through the mountains, I have faith in the men I put on the case.”

“Hmm,” said the general, “in that case, why don't you go with them?”

“Sir?”

“It was your fault she escaped, colonel, so you're the logical man to kill her. I might even be able to persuade the prime minister to rescind your demotion if you do so swiftly.”

“Surely, sir-”

“That's an order, Stewart. Take any troops you need, but I want you out of this city and after that Vaporeon today. She's to be killed on sight.”

“Sir, I accept your orders, but surely she has the right to a fair trial, conduc-”

“She lost that right when she betrayed Fournaria. Prime minister's orders. Bring back her head, colonel, or it'll be yours on the block instead. Be grateful for this opportunity to clear your name.”

“Yes, sir,” Stewart snapped, unable to keep an icy edge out of his voice as he saluted and left.

–

“Hurry up, you old bastard!” Lubyanka snapped. “You're not here to sit on your butt, but to work!”

The old Weavile glowered at her, but didn't say anything. She'd beaten that out of all of them a good while ago, though the Weavile had been the most troublesome. If it'd been up to her, she'd have killed him, both to teach the others a lesson and because he couldn't do much work at his age anyway. But stupid Ricardo didn't let her kill anyone. It wasn't like the old days, when she only answered to the Shadow and could kill anyone she liked.

Lubyanka ground her teeth and sat down on a piece of statue, probably broken off the ruin before her that was once the museum. How could the Shadow do this to her? Sure, he had sent someone to break her out of jail before the city got destroyed. But didn't he know she was his most loyal servant? How could he put stupid Ricardo of all pokémon above her? She shouldn't be in charge of this stupid dig through some museum that was even more boring as a ruin than when it was actually standing upright. She should be in charge of the whole city, in charge of building his secret army, not telling lazy pokémon to dig up pointless old junk! No-one was as loyal as she was, and she'd thought the Shadow knew that.

Of course, she had failed him a bunch of times in a row. But that wasn't her fault, it was the fault of those two stupid brats, Larissa and Sofia. Her ear twitched as she remembered the sudden pain of the Quilava biting her just as she was about to have some fun with the other one. And then, later, they had actually captured her and thrown her in jail. Oh, if only the Shadow had liberated her sooner so she could've seen him kill Larissa! Or better yet, prove her loyalty by doing it herself! But at least she'd kill the other one next time they'd meet. Even if it was the weak, wimpy one, it'd at least give Lubyanka some satisfaction. She'd start by poking out her eyes, of course, as she had planned twice before when she was rudely inter-

“Lubyanka! Lubyanka!”

Lubyanka looked up and glared at the idiotic Donphan that snapped her out of thought. “What do you want?”

“They-they-they-”

“They-they-they-they-they-” Lubyanka said in her special voice she used for imitating idiots. And this idiot's stutter reminded her of Sofia to an annoying degree. “What?”

“They-they f-found it! It-it-it's-”

“Then shut up and show me!” She sprang to her feet and rushed into the ruin, past old junk, the pokémon she'd put to work digging through it, and the pokémon she'd put to work guarding them. There she saw it: three pokémon, two of whom had been digging and one who was a guard, marvelling at a fist-sized blue orb, gently glowing with a wavy light. “Out of the way! Mine!” She sparked them with electricity and pushed past them, taking the orb. They knew better than to complain.

“Finally!” she cheered. “You!” she pointed at a Pidgeot. “Send word to the Shadow immediately that I found the blue orb! Straight to the Shadow, understood; no stopping by Ricardo!”

She giggled as it launched itself into the dusty air. This was just what was needed to get the Shadow to see how loyal she was once more. He would see when she brought him the orb that'd let him control Groudon once more! She would be his ticket to ruling the world! If only they'd known about the orb sitting in the museum earlier, they wouldn't even have had to go through all that trouble kidnapping Mewtwo and extracting its brain!

 

[apenpaap]

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Shadow's World

“Friendly reminder: curfew starts in one hour. Please return home as soon as possible. Your police force will be patrolling the city at night. If you see anything suspicious, please call them immediately. Your prime minister thanks you for helping him make Fournaria a safer place through your cooperation. Your prime minister loves you.”

Sofia was startled by the warm voice blaring from speakers on the rooftops. She had been lost in thought, aimlessly wandering the city as she had all day long, ever since Aqua and Boreas had said goodbye to her. She hadn't realised there was a curfew now. She looked about anxiously. She hadn't really wanted to go to her family, but she didn't want to be arrested either. Fortunately, she wasn't too far away from the alleyway they had called home last time. Although with this curfew, chances were she wouldn't find them there...

She walked by the massive, brand-new houses that now stood in the place of Catarina's old home as the number of pokémon on the streets rapidly dwindled. “Friendly reminder: curfew starts in forty-five minutes. Please return home as soon as possible. Your police force will be patrolling the city at night. If you see anything suspicious, please call them immediately. Your prime minister thanks you for helping him make Fournaria a safer place through your cooperation. Your prime minister loves you.”

Fortunately, the tall, old, brown-brick buildings in the neighbourhood where she'd last seen her cousins were still standing. The area had gone downhill fast, though. The streets were garbage dumps, many windows had been smashed, the posters were even more ubiquitous here than anywhere else, as if to try and convince the pokémon here things were going well despite the evidence of their eyes. A Marshtomp sitting still in the gutter mumbled something as she passed, and she quickened her pace. It made Sofia worry whether she'd find Catarina and Pedro here; she certainly wouldn't have stayed here, if she were her cousins...

She turned into the alley where they used to be and found it predictably empty. She sighed, looking at the heap of junk where she had hoped Catarina would still be. It looked like someone had dumped their old, broken furniture here, so it was a fairly clean heap of junk, but still just a heap of junk. She didn't know why she had even considered her cousins might still be here. They probably found a new place to live... Or at least a safer and more pleasant street to stay on. If only she had any way of contacting them...

“Friendly reminder: curfew starts in half an hour. Please return home as soon as possible. Your police force will be patrolling the city at night. If you see anything suspicious, please call them immediately. Your prime minister thanks you for helping him make Fournaria a safer place through your cooperation. Your prime minister loves you.”

First things first: she needed to find a place to stay during curfew right now. Obviously putting her tent up would draw far too much attention from the police, at least inside the city. Half an hour wasn't enough to get to town's edge either. She could go knocking on doors asking whether she could stay the night, but that seemed like a bad idea in this kind of place. She sighed, looking at the heap of garbage. At least it was just broken, sawed-up furniture. As far as garbage heaps went, this was definitely one of the better ones. She didn't have any cause to complain, really. Walking to the heap, she started to pick up a few of the more intact cushions and such, figuring they might make her night a little more comfy, while looking for a good place to dig herself in and-

“Scram! This is our spot!”

“WAAA!” she screamed and jumped back, tripping over her own feet and landing hard on her bum. “Ow! Y-you can talk? You're alive?!” she squeaked, looking at the garbage heap with wide eyes before doing a mental double-take. “No, hang on. Occam's razor, Sofia... Hello? Is there anyone inside this garbage?” She got up, wincing a little and rubbing her backside as she peered at the heap.

Suddenly a white head with little icy horns popped up from the side of the heap. “Sofia? Is that you?” Catarina smiled in recognition. “I'm sorry, I thought you were... Well, someone else. C'mon in, the entrance is right here!”

“What? The entrance to what?” Sofia walked to the place where the Froslass' head had just popped out, a bit dazed as well as sore now, and looked more closely. Even knowing where it was, she could still barely see the opening. It was like a tiny, hidden tunnel between two pieces of a broken sofa into some kind of garbage kingdom. She squeezed herself in.

It wasn't a garbage heap at all, she realised as she entered its inside and found herself on a soft, mattress-covered floor. It was a small hut made mostly out of broken furniture and other junk. Pieces of broken and shattered couches, chairs, tables, and beds had been hammered together haphazardly to provide a surprisingly cozy shelter that perfectly resembled a pile of garbage from the outside. “Ooh, that's clever,” she said, looking into the faces of her cousins Catarina and Pedro. Pedro looked away a bit.

“Thank you,” said Catarina. “Here, sit down, Sofia. Took us a few days to make this, but it's been worth it.”

Her Snorunt brother nodded. “Oh yeah, we had to get creative when the curfew was instated. You don't want to be caught out at night...”

Catarina shuddered a little. “You definitely don't.”

“Won't they try to remove it, though?” Sofia wondered. “Surely someone would try to come pick up the garbage.”

“Nope,” Catarina said. “You have to pay for that now, and it's not like anyone in this neighbourhood is gonna do that.”

“Pay?” Sofia asked. “To have garbage picked up?”

“Yep. Part of Tacito's new reforms. It's unfair to make everyone pay for the garbage disposal, instead of just the people who make the garbage. Well, that's what he says. By the way, you're welcome to stay for the night, Sofia.”

“I am?” Sofia asked, impressed with her cousin's generosity, considering the garbage hut was pretty small for two pokémon already.

She smiled. “What's ours is yours.”

Pedro nodded with slightly forced enthusiasm. “Of course, of course!”

“Thank you!” Sofia said. “I'll just go out of town with my tent tomorrow, but I didn't know about the curfew and didn't have time today.”

“Don't bother,” Catarina said, “you can stay here as long as you like. I'm not going to make you waste hours each day just walking in and out of town when there's a perfectly soft ground for you to sleep on here.”

“Okay...” Pedro scraped his throat, fiddling nervously with his cloak. “I, er, should probably apologise for trying to flirt with you last time. I didn't know you were my cousin, since of course no-one bothered to tell me...”

Catarina stuck out her tongue. “It's not like I had much time to tell you. I was about to when her friend picked her up. It's your own fault anyway for hitting on every girl you meet.”

“Yeah, fine...” Pedro muttered. “Anyway, sorry about that.”

“Apology accepted,” Sofia said. She had barely even noticed it last time, anxious as she'd been to get on her way.

“What happened, anyway?” Catarina asked. “We haven't seen you in a month! Where'd you and your friend go? Did you know there's wanted posters of her around town?”

Sofia sighed. She really didn't feel like telling, but supposed she owed them an explanation for letting her stay. She began to tell what had happened and how she was involved. Telling of happier days was hard enough to do without bursting in tears, so she kept the earlier parts of her adventures extremely bare-bones and didn't mention Larissa at all. “...And so we decided I was in over my head and should stay here while they went to Praeclara to figure out what the message was about... I showed up on your doorstep a few hours later.”

“Wow,” Catarina said, “that's quite the story.”

“But is Tacito really the same person as the Shadow?” Pedro asked.

Sofia just nodded.

“Puts things into perspective,” Catarina said. “I mean, we already knew he was an awful PM, but that he'd planned all this and played both sides?”

“We have to let people know,” Pedro said.

Catarina nodded. “They might think we're just conspiracy nutters, though...”

Her cousins continued to discuss it, but Sofia couldn't bring herself to join their brainstorm and found herself slowly drifting off and falling asleep on the soft mattresses on the ground.

–

She walked through the dark forest, eager to see what was up with the lights down in the valley. Maybe it was a party, or maybe there were other scientists there investigating-

Suddenly, something pounced out of the bushes with a bright, fiery light and hit her, knocking her down to the ground and pinning her down below it. “WAAA! Don't eat me, you'll get sick!” she shrieked as she looked up into two steel-grey eyes blazing with fierce intensity. The Quilava was strong, leaving her no chance to escape, and she looked furious, dangerous, and scary.

But then that anger melted off her face and she didn't look nearly as threatening any more. “...You're not one of Lubyanka's thugs.”

"N-n-no," Sofia squeaked, still terrified, “I d-don't think I am - B-but I'm willing to negotiate if that's a bad thing!”

“No, it's- um... Well, it's a good thing you're not. So sorry, I thought you were.”

Now that the fiery fury had made place for embarrassment, Sofia realised the Quilava was very young, probably even younger than she herself, and that there was something quite likeable and pleasant about her. Maybe it was the embarrassed, insecure fidget or the slight blush that had appeared on her cheeks. “Ap-apology accepted,” Sofia said, still trembling a little, but starting to get more curious than afraid of the Quilava who still had her pinned down with her powerful grip.

The forest around them faded into and became a dark cellar, where their faces were even closer together. This time Larissa wasn't pinning her down to the ground, but listening attentively as Sofia explained in a whisper the gadgets she'd built. Her heart beat rapidly with excitement, and she never wanted to run out of clever things to impress brave, strong Larissa with. She was in a bit of an odd mood. They were in mortal peril, yet she couldn't stop feeling warm, excited, and happy, her stomach tingling a bit and her heart beating rapidly. Larissa had called her a cutie pie earlier, and they had teased each other, and had ended up wrestling, and then... Then Sofia had recalled making a complete fool of herself by flirting with Roxana last semester, and had quickly gone back to work. Once she'd remembered what she was doing amidst the distracting storm of emotions at least.

She was not in love with Larissa. They were just friends. Friends who liked to hug and tease each other and would sometimes romp about together, and when they did and Larissa won, overpowering her and pinning her down or tickling her, the only reason Sofia enjoyed it so much was that she loved to see Larissa happy after all the trauma she'd gone through. It was only friendship she felt now that they were forced to sit closely together and whisper to each other like lovers, and she certainly didn't desire to close that last bit of space between their faces and kiss the Quilava. And when Larissa laughed heartily as Sofia put on her brilliantly invented camouflage duck-hat, it was only joy that she'd brightened her friend's day a bit that made her stomach feel tingly, her heart beat rapidly, and her mind to keep on repeating the sound of Larissa laughing as she tried to climb through the hatch. And when she couldn't quite climb through on her own and Larissa helped her by putting her hands on her bum and pushing her through, there was no reason at all why Sofia was blushing and why her mind was trying to think of other scenarios where she would get stuck and Larissa would have to somehow push or pull her and end up touching her butt again. That's what she told herself at least.

Everything became lighter as Larissa was now brushing her hair on the cliffs at dusk. Sofia felt like she was melting away with happiness, feeling Larissa's strong, sweet paws gently caress her hair as she sat so close to her, but the wonderful, floaty feeling was purely platonic. She had to reign herself in not to moan with pleasure, but that too was merely platonic. She started massaging the little pillows on Larissa's feet merely to pay back her friend for brushing her hair, not because touching her was all she wanted to do and her feet were both the easiest to reach and the least incriminating. And when Larissa suddenly stopped and they said a far too quick goodbye, that was not her heart nearly breaking because she'd almost ruined her friendship with Larissa with her stupid, non-existent attraction for her.

And now they were in the dark once more, sitting together on the hillside, a dreamy look in Larissa's eyes. As much as Sofia loved showing off her knowledge and earning Larissa's admiration, she had somehow known to stop talking now and just sit with her, looking back into those intense, grey eyes. Her heart pounded rapidly to be so close together under the starlight. Very close. In fact, Larissa was coming closer.

Sofia's breathing became rapid and excited as she realised what might be about to happen. She tried not to get her hopes up too much and yet... They were mere centimetres apart now, and Larissa was tilting her head... Sofia closed her eyes, waiting for her dreams to come true.

But they didn't. Larissa's kiss never came. She opened her eyes, and was all alone in a grey world. All alone, except for the phantoms. Sofia saw herself, Larissa, and a Machop. The Machop was pulling her away, and she was pleading to be allowed to stay with Larissa, who rushed towards her and snapped at the Machop. The ghostly Sofia and Larissa hugged, and the real Sofia tried to join in, but found her arms only grabbing at air. “I don't want to go...”

Larissa looked deep in the eyes of the ghostly Sofia, the angry, intense frown on her face melting into a sweet, loving smile as it so often did when she looked at her. There was no fear on her face, yet perhaps a trace of the knowledge that this was the last time they'd ever see each other. “Hey,” she said gently, touching Sofia's face, “Calm down, Sofe. You'll be alright. Just stick with Aqua, and you'll be safe.”

“B-but you won't!” the real Sofia cried. “You won't be alright!”

“B-but I want to stay with you...” the other Sofia said.

“Me too,” Larissa said with a brave smile, friendly lights twinkling in her eyes. “Um, with you, that is. But we'll see each other again soon, right? I'll find you as soon as I'm done here, and nothing's going to stop me.”

“I-I know...” the other Sofia said, a little shakily, as the real Sofia tried to warn her, tried to tell her not to go. They shared their last kiss.

“Go on,” Larissa said. “And don't forget, I'll still be there for you, even if we're apart. I always am.”

“No, Larissa!” Sofia screamed, as she was pulled back into the darkness, Larissa's final smile to her fading. “Larissa, don't leave me! Larissa!”

Sofia shot awake, trembling all over. She was on the floor of the garbage hut, next to her sleeping cousins and of course, Larissa was dead. She was crying, and had no idea how to stop; she could only be as quiet as possible so she wouldn't wake her cousins up. Even after she'd calmed down, there was still no way she could get back to sleep; she could only lie in the dark and wait for dawn. At least she had a lot of room. There was a surprising amount of space on the floor of the garbage hut, even with all three of them. Probably fortunate, Sofia thought, considering she tended to start cuddling others while she was asleep.

At last Catarina and Pedro woke up, and Sofia could stop pretending she was asleep. There was a single apple a person for breakfast, during which Sofia tried to get her mind off the depressive track and back into more productive thinking. “Can one of you show me the way to the university later?” she asked during a lull in the conversation.

Catarina frowned. “Sure... Why?”

“Well,” Sofia said, eating the last little bite off her apple's core, “it's about time I got back to normal life, and that means re-enrolling. Since the university of Praeclara is... Well, I thought it'd b-be best to enroll here. I heard good things about Valadares' university.”

Pedro scoffed, while Catarina just looked a bit sad. “I don't think you understand quite how things work now.”

“What do you mean?” Sofia asked.

“Well, d'you have money?” Pedro said.

Sofia patted her many, many pockets. “I think I've got some...”

“Not enough,” Pedro said, quite certainly. “Studying costs a fortune now.”

“What?” Sofia blurted out. “B-but... They make you pay for it? Every pokémon has a right to education!”

“Every pokémon has a right not to sleep in garbage,” Catarina sighed. “I'm sorry, Sofia, but things haven't been the same since minister Tacito – or the Shadow, or Diego, or whatever his name is – came to power. Look at us. It's not like our band wasn't successful.”

“Not that successful,” Pedro added.

“Fine, we were hardly world-class. But we were doing fine, right? Pokémon came to our performances and enjoyed themselves. We were booked every other week or so. Usually just as an opening act, but anyway, my point is, we were doing fine for ourselves. Could actually support all five band members, if a bit narrowly. Then suddenly, one day, boom, the world changes. Melania dies in Praeclara, Paolino suddenly has to work his other job sixty hours a week, and Evita goes into the army to protect Fournaria, whatever that means when the Shadow himself is the prime minister.”

“Leaving just the two of us,” Pedro said. “Not much of a band.”

Catarina shook her head. “And of course, the rules change, so now we have to pay a sky-high rent,”

“Electricity,” Pedro added.

“Garbage disposal,”

“Water,”

“Rising food prices, and- Anyway, you get the idea. Everything that was free, now costs money. Everything that cost money, costs more money. Everything's about money now.”

“That's terrible,” Sofia said.

“Nah, it just sucks,” Catarina said. “What's really terrible are the new rules. Most days, my little brother and I take to the streets, play some songs with just the two of us. Try to get enough money for food and water, you know. Trouble is, we've got to watch out for the black scarves. Avoid them completely if we can, appear to be neither homeless nor currently a professional street singer if we can't.”

“There's a new law that lets them draft the unemployed and the homeless for the army, see,” Pedro added.

“Wait, 'draft'?” Sofia said. “You mean force them to join? B-but that's slavery!”

“Sure is,” Catarina said, “so we try to avoid that. Speaking of, you should probably find yourself some new clothes.”

“Huh? What's wrong with these?”

“They stand out too much, and don't look neat enough,” Catarina said.

“But they're nice and comfy,” Sofia said, fiddling with something in one of her many pockets. “And I never run out of pockets. Pockets are good, I love pockets. You know, sometimes I come across things I don't remember ever putting into them.”

“That may be,” Pedro said, “but you just need to attract the attention of one copper with that jumpsuit, and they'll start asking questions. Questions like 'where do you live?' and 'how much do you make?' And before you know it, you're having to cut your hair short and get up really early to be shouted at by pokémon with tiny brains.”

“I-I see... Well, I've got a dress in my backpack for when my usual clothes are wet from washing. It's blue, but shouldn't stand out too much otherwise... And it's got some pockets too; made them myself since they forgot to put them in.”

“Perfect!” Catarina said. “Well, no, not perfect. Better anyway. So, what are you going to do today?”

“Well...” Sofia thought. “I... Didn't expect to have to make money. B-but surely it can't be that hard to find a job. Someone's got to be in need of a scientist in this city, even if she technically hasn't graduated yet.”

“I hope so,” Catarina said, without much hope. “Meanwhile... Meanwhile I think we've got to make a stand. You and me, Pedro. We already knew the PM was awful, now we know he's also the Shadow. We've just got to tell everyone else! I feel like 'The Trouble with Tacito' could incorporate it in the lyrics easily!”

–

Sofia got along surprisingly well with her cousins. They mostly did their own thing during the day, since Sofia could neither sing nor play an instrument, and so would be of little help to them. Instead, she went out in the morning and tried to find a job. She approached several companies, shops, and pokémon, but none of them were looking for help. On top of that, she had to keep her temper and walk on quickly when she saw someone get arrested, or their door kicked in by pokémon in black scarves, or a gathering on the street broken up violently. By the evening, she'd come back to the garbage hut, unsuccessful and angry at both her failure and everything she'd witnessed that day.

“The Shadow is destroying Fournaria,” she pontificated angrily, on the fifth evening with her cousins, “and he's doing it all in name of protecting it... From himself! Why doesn't anyone else see it?”

“You're wrong,” Catarina said calmly. “Well, pokémon don't know that he's the Shadow, but there's plenty of them who think what he's doing is wrong.”

“Then why haven't they done anything to stop him?” Sofia muttered.

“You've got to understand, no-one knew everything you did. He scared us all witless with what he did to the capital, and then moved very, very fast while everyone was too terrified to realise he was a far greater threat than those he claimed to be trying to stop. I'm sorry to admit, I applauded him at first, thought he was our big saviour.”

“Me too...” Pedro nodded. “Didn't realise how screwed we were until we had to leave our house.”

“Others are coming around. We're actually getting cheers and applause now when we play protest songs. They're beginning to realise Tacito is only good news for a very few of them. Give it time, Sofia, he's been in power barely more than two months.”

Sofia sighed. “But we don't have time! I saw the black scarves raiding homes and arresting pokémon off the streets just for speaking out against Tacito today!”

Catarina put a cold hand on her shoulder. “Oh yeah, we know about that, alright.”

“Had to run at the end of our show,” Pedro said.

“See?” Sofia squeaked. “They're not very nice any more! By the time enough pokémon realise how b-bad Tacito is, we'll all be prisoners... I just wish someone would do something to stop him...”

“They are,” Pedro said. “Trouble is, it ain't easy to make a difference.”

“Why don't you come by our performance tomorrow, Sofia?” Catarina asked kindly. “You'll see, there are plenty of like-minded pokémon, and more of them change their mind every day.”

“Fine,” Sofia said.

“Besides, what about your friend Aqua? She's on a mission to fight Tacito, isn't she?”

Sofia nodded. “I guess so...”

–

A small crowd of two dozen pokémon or so had gathered around the sound of music. Others were listening briefly before continuing on their way. Sofia's cousins were performing in one of the larger streets near dusk, both of them playing guitars while Catarina sung as well. Sofia carefully walked through the crowd to get a bit closer.

She found herself quickly dreaming off, listening to the music. It wasn't particularly fun or even pleasant music, but it definitely was powerful and beautiful. It was delightful to just listen and clear her head a bit. In fact, she barely had another thought until she was startled by the first warning of the approaching curfew blaring through a speaker on some roof nearby.

“Alright, folks,” Catarina said at the end of her song, “about time to call it a day! Don't forget to leave a tip, and drop by again tomorrow!”

As the crowd slowly dispersed, Sofia wandered into the little clearing around her cousins. “Sofia!” Catarina greeted her. “Glad you could drop by! Hope we didn't hurt your ears too much.”

“Nonono, you were great!” Sofia said. “I loved it.”

“Thanks,” Pedro said, “sis, let's pick up some food before we go home, alright? I'm starving, and we actually made quite a bit today.”

“Sure,” Catarina said.

The three of them walked along together, a bit of a spring in Sofia's step. “You're really good, you know. I can't imagine what you must've sounded like when you had your whole band.”

“Better than this,” Catarina smiled. “Didn't need to play on the street either.”

Sofia smiled. “When you've got your band back together, I'll definitely come listen! I'll bring Larissa too, I just know she'll love your mu-” Her breath stopped mid-sentence. This was so stupid, she thought as the tears came again, so stupid. She quickly pushed away from Catarina and began to run home alone. She knew Larissa was dead; she'd spent most of her time thinking about it lately. So how could she be so dumb to think she'd take her to a music performance, and then be so stupid to freak out when she remembered that was impossible?

Of course, that was just it. The sudden realisation that she could never again take Larissa anywhere, enthuse to her about anything, that she would never again see that angry, intense face melt into a sweet, loving expression just by looking at her. It was ridiculous, she thought as she leaned on a wall, holding her head angrily and trying to stop crying. As usual, she couldn't.

She heard more than saw the movement beside her. “Who was she?” Catarina asked softly.

Sofia sobbed. It took her a moment to compose herself enough to answer. “S-she was... Wonderful. The most wonderful person I've ever met... And I loved her. I loved her so much. She was sweet and b-brave andand selfless and strong... Even if she could b-be a bit grumpy sometimes,” Sofia wasn't sure whether she chuckled or sobbed. Catarina gently patted her back. “She was my b-best friend, andand my girlfriend... B-but she was also a hero... Sh-she gave her life to stop the Shadow, Catarina... She b-broke his control over Groudon forever andandand she saved millions doing that... Without her, I don't think the Shadow would even b-bother pretending to be a benevolent ruler; he'd just wipe out any resistance instantly. She saved us all, b-but I wish she hadn't...” She gritted her teeth. “I wish she had for once in her life not b-been so wonderful. I wish she'd run away and saved herself and left the Shadow with his weapon.” She was past feeling shame by now. “I wish,” she added angrily, “that she'd come back to me, no matter the cost. And I know I shouldn't put the lives of all those pokémon who'd suffer above our love... She certainly didn't! But I don't care. If I could give the Shadow his weapon back, and get Larissa in return... I would take that trade happily. She'd be disappointed with me. But I'm not like her. She once told me she loved how beautifully different from her I was. Maybe she'd eventually forgive me, then. B-but even if she didn't, it'd be worth it.”

She realised only now that she was hugging Catarina, her cold hands gently rubbing her back. “I had no idea, Sofia.”

“...Neither did I,” Sofia stammered as she calmed down a bit. “I... I didn't realise I was angry at her on some level... I feel... A bit selfish now.”

Catarina let go of her. “I think it's just a normal reaction. You obviously loved her an enormous amount, so you can't be expected to have a rational and calm reaction to her death.”

“I guess not,” Sofia sighed. “But I... I feel so horrible all the time. It's like there's a never-ending storm inside my mind. Half the time I'm horribly depressed and lonely, the other half I get seized by this terrible anger at just about everything... I think being around you and Pedro helps, but only a bit... I guess b-being alone made things a bit wor-”

“Friendly reminder: curfew starts in fifteen minutes. Please return home as soon as possible. Your police force will be patrolling the city at night. If you see anything suspicious, please call them immediately. Your prime minister thanks you for helping him make Fournaria a safer place through your cooperation. Your prime minister loves you.”

“C'mon, we'd better go home,” Catarina said. “Pedro'll bring dinner food there, so no need to worry about food.”

Sofia nodded as they walked. “I'm sorry for making such a scene,” she sniffed. “It's hardly like I'm the only person who lost someone, am I? I mean, you lost your grandfather, your friend from the band, your parents...”

“Mum and dad?” Catarina looked at her confusedly. “What makes you think they're dead?”

“They aren't?!” Sofia gaped.

“Not last time I checked... They live and work in Oliveira. They regularly send us mail, actually.”

“Sorry,” Sofia stammered. “I just sort of assumed, b-because you were living with your – our grandfather, and I had never seen them around, andand... Well, to be honest, I haven't encountered anyone who has parents lately. I just thought-”

“It's alright, Sofia,” Catarina giggled. “I actually got a letter from them today. They're looking forward to meeting their niece when they get a vacation, you know.” She looked down. “I just don't think they'll be quite as glad to find us living on the street... I haven't told them about the house yet...”

“Why don't you move to Oliveira?” Sofia blinked as she thought about it. “...And how do you get letters if you live on the street?”

Catarina sighed. “Pedro and I talked about it. But if we do, it means kissing goodbye to being musicians. Oliveira is a tiny hamlet deep in the mountains. No audience means no music. I don't want to give up my dreams just because Fournaria is going through a rough time.”

“I understand,” Sofia said.

–

She felt a bit better after that. The next few days, she found herself calmer, and with periods where she didn't feel like lying down and crying herself to sleep; even if she felt guilty for blaming Larissa for her brave sacrifice. She got along better with both her cousins too, as she finally had come to think of Catarina as a true friend and felt able to share her feelings with her. After all, if she'd been so nice and understanding when Sofia was ranting selfishly, she'd be understanding about just about anything. So she had a comparatively nice few days. In the evenings, after another day of finding no work and quickly walking past pokémon in black scarves being unpleasant to other pokémon, she'd drop by Catarina and Pedro, listen to the end of their performance, and then walk back home and have dinner with them.

On the fifth day after her open-hearted talk with Catarina, things didn't go that way, however. Right in the middle of a song where they sarcastically wished Tacito goodnight, while really asking how he could even sleep at night in the first place, someone pushed through the crowd. Sofia thought it was just someone being rude until suddenly a short, but muscular Conkeldurr wearing a black scarf strode into the small clearing around them and grabbed Catarina by the upper arm with one of its meaty fists. “Gotcha, scum!”

“...Don't dream of the pokémon you locked u- Ow! Let me go!” Catarina yelled, but the Conkeldurr had grabbed her right where her arm connected to her head, so she couldn't fight back well.

“Spreading nasty lies about the prime minister, eh?” The Conkeldurr sneered, effortlessly stopping her struggles.

“Hey, don't touch my sister!” Pedro had dropped his guitar and was trying to pull the much bigger ape away from her.

“Clear off, you lot!” The Conkeldurr commanded the gaping onlookers. “I've got grounds to arrest all of you for listening to seditious talk, so be glad I'm letting you off easily!” The crowd began to hurry away as the Conkeldurr pulled hard on Catarina's arm, making her whimper in pain, as it was attached to a Froslass in much the same way most creatures' ears were. “As for you, missy, I'm arresting you for treason and sedition in both word and thought,” Pedro had made a small gale full of sharp little ice crystals and tried to buffet the Conkeldurr with it, but it knocked him to the ground with a single swipe of its massive free arm. “And resisting arrest as well!”

“We didn't do anything!” Catarina squealed, tears in her eyes as the Conkeldurr was pulling very hard on her arm. “We were just singing!”

“Sounded more like recruiting for the Shadow to me!” the brute sneered. “Or riling up the crowd! It's treason either way! D'you know what the prime minister does to traitors?”

Sofia was the only pokémon still close to the scene; everyone else was watching from a safer distance. “Yeah, he gives them jobs policing Fournaria!” Catarina defiantly spat. “AAA!” she screeched as the Conkeldurr pulled even harder on her arm. Sofia found herself trembling with anger and unable to think of a way to help her, a single loud, whistle note sounding loudly and continuously in her mind and driving all other thoughts out.

“Why, you little-”

“And why bother calling him prime minister?” Catarina cried as the whistle grew louder and louder in Sofia's mind. She desperately wanted to hurt the Conkeldurr. “Call him what he is! All hail emperor Tacito, dictator for life! OW, stop it! My species' arms are very sensitive!”

“I know,” the Conkeldurr growled, “you should've thought of that before you slandered the prime minister! But now you're still slandering him. I reckon I should make an example out of you. Why don't we see how much force it takes to pop your stupid ear-arm-flap thing right off your head?”

Sofia began stepping forward, breathing heavily as the whistle in her head grew ear-piercingly loud and everything in her field of view other than the horrible brute had gone dark, red, and blurry. There was only blazing, furious hate.

“AAAAH! NO, STOP IT!!! AAA! I'LL COME QUIETLY, JUST STOP!!!”

“Too late, bratty little traitor! But if you're nice, I'll let you keep the other one.” The Conkeldurr pulled even harder now.

Sofia's knife flashed in the evening light and plunged deep into a beefy shoulder. There was a scream of pain and rage as the brute dropped Catarina while Sofia pulled the knife out, beautiful, deep red blood squirting out of the wound. A massive arm brushed her just barely, knocking her down, and she used the opportunity to stab right through a tiny foot into the ground, flooring the brute. She slashed a long, shallow wound across its chest, cutting several of its thick, purple bands. She was filled with powerful, joyful, fiery rage with every stab and slash, with every gorgeous crimson drop freed from the brutal ogre as her blade flashed again and again at its fallen shape. The whistle tone in her mind was all-consuming.

She was interrupted by the massive impact of an elephantine arm launching her off her feet. She hit the ground several metres away, an agonising thud on her head as she landed. The all-consuming rage was instantly knocked away, and so was her consciousness, nearly, blackness consuming all of her vision for a few seconds. She slowly sat up, nauseous and dizzy. Catarina rushed over to her, dragging her groggy brother along, and hurried her to her feet. In a daze, Sofia followed her, running away from the fallen and bloodied Conkeldurr. Her head was still spinning and her ears rushing as they ran though streets, and she almost passed out several times, their flight dreamlike in her concussed state. It wasn't until they sat down somewhere, which she soon realised were a group of bushes outside the city, that her head cleared a bit.

“D-did we leave the city?” She asked, rubbing the wound on the backside of her head. It was thankfully small and bleeding only a little.

Catarina nodded, a little shakily. Her arm was bruised, but didn't look broken. “I-I thought we'd be in a lot of trouble if we stayed... After what happened...”

Sofia cringed a little, realising Catarina had seen her attack the Conkeldurr in an insane rage. “I'm so sorry!” she squeaked. “I just wanted to protect you, I-I got really angry and I couldn't stop andandandand he was going to tear off your arm andand-”

“Are you kidding me?” Pedro interrupted. “You're apologising? You saved us! What you did was way cool!”

But there was something in Catarina's eyes; maybe pity, maybe fear? “Thank you, Sofia,” she said in a small voice. “You did save me from that brute.”

Sofia realised she was still holding the bloody knife and quickly hid it in her pocket, casting down her eyes. What if Catarina thought she was crazy? Or that she might start stabbing others too? What if she was right? “I went too far... I-I'm not dangerous or mad, I promise! I just...”

Catarina sighed, and gently touched Sofia's hand. “Sofia, I don't think you're mad. I think you have a lot of anger inside you, and I think you will never be able to live with it until you do something about it. Something... Better than stabbing some thug wearing a black scarf. You told me last week that you wished someone would do something about Tacito.”

“I know,” Sofia sighed. “I've thought about it myself already. It's obvious, isn't it? If I want someone to do something about him... I should be that someone myself.”

Catarina nodded. “Yes, I think so.”

“It's just that... I was trying to lead something resembling a normal life again... But who am I kidding? I don't think I can. Not while grandfather is still in danger and everyone else is too b-because the Shadow rules Fournaria... I need to go back to Aqua. And Boreas. I have to join them again. I'm going to Praeclara.”

“And I'll come with you,” Catarina said calmly.

“What?!”

“You're in no state to be alone,” she explained. “I'm your cousin and your friend, so I should help you. Besides, I'll be a wanted criminal now. I'm in danger no matter where I go, so I might as well do something useful.”

“Well-said, sis!” Pedro said cheerfully. “Same goes for me; I'll come with you too.”

“Pedro,” Catarina began, “it's too... Well, you're right; you'll be in danger anywhere too. I guess you can come too.”

Sofia wanted to protest, to tell them they should try to lay low, but then realised she did actually want them to come along, and that she'd regret it if she did manage to convince them not to follow her. “Thank you,” she simply said.

 

[Osprey]

... Ok, whoa, wow. I should've come to expect a lot of deaths from your previous work, but darn if this story isn't a sadistic kick in the feels every few chapters. Your description of the capitol city's destruction was vivid and rather gut-wrenching, with all that effort put into keeping those Cyndaquil alive for naught... sheesh. Oh, I like how you loopholed the "no returning party members" thing with Boreas' hallucinations. Caught the characters perfectly, even if they were out of character for obvious reasons.

It was pretty bold to go with a romantic relationship between Larissa and Sophia. I could almost get over the thought that the former was a quadruped mammal while the other was more humanoid. (Not that bothered with the romance... well, just about any descriptive stuff about any kind of relationship makes me uncomfortable, so it wouldn't even matter if they were of opposite genders.)

Oh hey, everyone, our favorite jerk-with-a-heart-of-hookworms is back from the "dead," Darth Vader-style! Goddarnit. I was bothered throughout "Adventures of a Glaceon" that Diego seemed to never die in stark contrast to... well, everyone else. Well, imagine my reaction when his resurgence as The Shadow has more or less confirmed that he is, for all intensive purposes, immortal. Seriously, now I'm expecting every other significant and dead character to show up as a deus-ex-machina. Okay, okay, so his surviving is somewhat justified, but I'm hoping he'll finally be done in this time around. Like, freeze the head, cut off the head, and burn the damn body... then kill him again as he tries to use that decoy as an escape! Haha!

... Nice job so far, it's an enjoyable read, despite the unusually high body count. More, please!

 

[apenpaap]

... Ok, whoa, wow. I should've come to expect a lot of deaths from your previous work, but darn if this story isn't a sadistic kick in the feels every few chapters. Your description of the capitol city's destruction was vivid and rather gut-wrenching, with all that effort put into keeping those Cyndaquil alive for naught... sheesh. Oh, I like how you loopholed the "no returning party members" thing with Boreas' hallucinations. Caught the characters perfectly, even if they were out of character for obvious reasons.

Yeah, the story has turned out a little darker so far than the Surprising Adventures. Anyway, I don't really consider the "no returning party members" thing binding. That was more of a general indication to prevent people getting their hopes up, not a strict promise.

It was pretty bold to go with a romantic relationship between Larissa and Sophia. I could almost get over the thought that the former was a quadruped mammal while the other was more humanoid. (Not that bothered with the romance... well, just about any descriptive stuff about any kind of relationship makes me uncomfortable, so it wouldn't even matter if they were of opposite genders.)

If Sofia being more humanoid than Larissa bothers you, feel free to imagine Larissa as a more anthropomorphic Quilava. I honestly hadn't thought of it that way (to me, they're both pokémon, and in fact I considered several other species for both of them before settling on Quilava and Kirlia, even considering Sofia as a Venomoth). Anyway, I can understand not being entirely comfy with romance stuff being depicted, no matter the species.

Anyway, on to the next chapter:

Chapter Twenty-Three: Snicker-Snack

The remnants of uniquely diverse architecture stood in ruins around them like giant, rotting teeth. The pavement had shattered, and fissures both small and great marred the city like massive scars after the earthquake's torment. Dust hung thick in the air, creating a huge, white halo around the Sun that covered most of the sky. Trees, some of them uprooted and some of them broken like matchsticks, lay around willy-nilly, some of them fallen into what once was someone's home. Great mounds of broken stone, wood, metal, glass shards, and dust blocked the streets. An unpleasant scent of rot and ash hung everywhere. A lot of the ruins had been carbonised by firestorms, and every building had at least partially collapsed. Half-decayed corpses of every species of pokémon lay rotting among the ruins. Praeclara was dead.

The first sign that they were nearing the capital had been small cracks in the road, and a brownish dust cloud ahead. They hadn't paid much attention to it until they came across the first uprooted tree. From there on, thing had only become worse, the road getting interrupted by fissures and landslides and the entire landscape ravaged, until they had finally spotted the ruins themselves.

Losing her home had been the least of Sofia's concerns. She had given Praeclara little thought, and, even though she knew what had happened, it had not quite gotten through to her yet. She hadn't really thought the earthquake could've been quite as bad as she'd been told. It was unimaginable, but now that she was finally here, there was no escaping the horrible fact that the jewel of Fournaria and the half a million pokémon inhabiting it had been completely annihilated. Walking among the utter devastation took Sofia's breath away, and did the same to her cousins. There was no sound in the entire city, except for the wind and their echoing footsteps.

Every building had collapsed in a different way. Some had toppled over, some had been oddly bent and had metal and wooden supports sticking out at bizarre angles, some had collapsed in place and turned into rubble mounds with a roof, others had half-slid out of position and spilled into the street, some had burnt down, some had toppled into a fissure, and so on. Sofia did not doubt that if they took a good look at the bodies instead of walking past them quickly and averting their eyes, they would notice similarly diverse causes of death among them.

Perhaps the worst thing about it was how it just went on and on, unendingly vast. A whole hour passed without a word being spoken, and they were still surrounded by destruction, dust, and an oppressive silence. Except that it was getting less silent. Sofia could hear the rushing of her blood in her ears and her own heartbeat with disturbing acuity. Even more worrying were the whispers. They were just on the edge of her perception and inarticulate, mumbly, as if the ghosts of the dead were talking to her. But Sofia knew that wasn't what they were. She knew it. She knew they were just in her mind. There was no reason to be scared of them, nor anything else here. Nothing here was alive; there weren't even any insects, despite the decaying bodies. Even they avoided this place. So she shouldn't be scared, she told herself.

Their progress was slow. The terrain was bad, and the layout of the ruins extremely confusing at the best of times. They frequently had to walk around fissures, landslides, or buildings collapsed into the street, and sometimes had to climb over heaps of rubble that blocked their path. There were occasionally small ponds where fountains or underground pipes had broken during the disaster. The water was all stale now, of course. The great bridges over the city had all collapsed, and the hillsides had come down in great landslides and buried large parts of the city. Some of the towers still stood precariously, often only a single wall and some half floors wobbling in the wind, high above the rest of the ruins.

Sofia felt too horrible to cry about any of it. This beautiful city was her home, where she had lived all her life. While she hadn't really had any friends in her studies, the knowledge that as good as everyone she'd met in her life was rotting somewhere in this ruin made it even more depressing. Three thousand years of history had also come to a sudden, brutal ending. The whispers became slightly louder every second Sofia spent thinking of it.

“I... Don't think there's anyone here,” Pedro whispered. It was the first thing any of them had said since they entered Praeclara.

“...The city was big,” Sofia whispered back. Something about the place made the thought of talking out loud very unappealing. “We've seen very little so far. We need to keep searching.”

“We won't be done before dusk, though,” Catarina whispered as they carefully walked through the burnt-out ruin of some sort of large, open building. Perhaps it had once been a kind of meeting hall or indoor market. “I... Wouldn't like to camp in the ruins at night...”

Sofia knew what she meant. “I'm sorry, b-but I don't think we'll have the time to get in and out of the city... We're not moving fast enough and it's very big... It'd take hours every day.”

“What if your friends already dealt with whatever's going on?” Pedro asked. “We're what, eleven days behind them?”

Sofia nodded. “Whether or not they did, we need to find either them or Obnard. It's our b-best bet for finding a way of stopping the Shadow... Somehow.”

Catarina's cold hand squeezed her shoulder. “Don't worry, Sofia, we'll get him.”

“I guess...” Sofia said without conviction.

“It's just a matter of time anyway, if he keeps on going like this,” Pedro said. “Pokémon will see he's turning Fournaria into a police state if we just give them a bit of time.”

“They won't stand for that, y'know,” Catarina said as they passed under two twisted and rusting metal beams that formed a kind of archway. “No-one's had to go through poverty, fear, or oppression for over a century, and no-one's happy those are back.”

“Maybe,” Sofia said, “but they haven't done anything about it yet...”

“There hasn't been enough time,” Catarina said. “But fewer and fewer pokémon buy Tacito's talk about bigger threats and see what he's doing. You've seen the crowd around us yourself.”

“Yeah,” Sofia muttered, “and with you here, the Shadow's eliminated one voice of reason. He'll just keep going until there are none left.”

“Don't worry, Sofe, I don't think-”

Sofia stopped immediately and turned to face Catarina with a start. “What did you just call me?!” her voice pierced the silence of the ruins and echoed loudly.

“I c-called you Sofe. I just thought-”

Sofia's heart beat rapidly and loudly in her ears, joined by a shrill whistle tone and the whispers of the ruins. “I heard you. How dare you?!”

Catarina took a step back. “I'm sorry, Sofia, I didn't mean anything by-”

“How did you know?!” she snapped, thoughts and emotions storming through her mind.

“Know what?” Catarina said shakily. “I-I'm sorry if I've offen-”

“Were you trying to make fun of her?!” Sofia shouted, everything around her seeming to either darken or brighten, all except for Catarina herself. “Or did you think you could somehow replace her?!”

“Calm down, So-” Pedro began.

“That's it, isn't it?!” she screamed, even though she had stepped forward and had left barely any room between her face and Catarina's. The whistle was shrill and horrible, fighting with the mad, rapid drumbeat of her heart for volume. “This is some sort of sick set-up!!! How stupid was I to think you'd just 'coincidentally' ran into me, your cousin!”

“S-Sofia, please... Calm down...” Catarina said, her eyes large with fear.

“You're not even my cousins, are you?! Neither of you! Who are you really?!”

“Calm down,” Catarina quivered, trying to keep her voice level. “Please, Sofia, you're not thinking straight...”

“Aren't I?!” Sofia snapped. “I think I'm thinking straight for the first time in ages! There are too many coincidences surrounding you, and I know why: the Shadow sent you! He sent you to spy on me, to win my trust! He did the same to Aqua and Boreas a long time ago, they told me about it! I should- I should-” She found her hand going to the pocket where she kept her knife, driven by the burning desire to hurt the one who had tricked her so cruelly, who she had actually come to see as a friend. It was very hard to think through the increasingly loud cacophony in her head, but something inside her pulled the brakes, told her not to.

“Sofia,” Catarina quivered. “I know you're upset, but you have to calm down. T-take a deep-”

Sofia's hand grabbed around her knife's hilt as she glared right into those big eyes that so reminded her of her own. She wanted to hurt the traitor, kill her, give her what she deserved, and yet at the same time she was inwardly trying to scream at herself over the cacophony to stop it, to think about what she was doing. She couldn't calm down the inferno of rage inside her, but there was one thing she could do. “LEAVE ME ALONE!!!” Sofia yelled as she ran off through the dead city, the whistles and drums and voices going faster and louder by the second. It was a mistake, she knew, allowing them to live. They would hurt her, with her back turned. She couldn't trust them. They were plotting against her.

After who knows how long, she came to a halt. She held her head, trying to silence the infernal noises, and rubbed at her eyes in the hopes of clearing her distorted vision. She was partially successful at least, as the whistle and her heartbeat were no longer ear-piercingly loud, but just background sounds. But the whispers... The whispers were so loud. And then she saw movement. There was something behind that rock. No, a face in that shadow! Dark, vague shapes danced in the corners of her eyes, like shadow creatures hunting her! She screamed and tried to run away, but someone tripped her, grabbed her leg. She screamed when she saw it was a dead, rotting body, its empty eyes looked straight at her. The whispers laughed as she crawled for her life through shards of stone and sought refuge behind a lone wall. She sat down in the shadow behind it, hugging her knees tightly and whimpering in terror as she tried to hide from whatever was hunting her and find it at the same time. If only everything would stop moving about on its own...

“What's happening to me?” she squeaked. “Close your eyes,” said a voice in her thoughts. “Close your eyes and just breathe...”

Sofia was crying with terror for the warped world around her, but obeyed. The screeching cacophony continued, the whispers sneaking closer and closer, but she kept her eyes firmly shut and focussed only on her rapid breaths. The whispers began to die down at last. Her panic died with them as she calmed down slowly, starting to feel better. At last, she opened her eyes. She was still in the ruins of Praeclara, but everything had quieted down. The terrifying hallucinations had stopped at last, though the noises were still present. She was trembling and had dug her nails into her knees.

“There you are!”

Sofia startled and looked up at Catarina, only to find out she wasn't Catarina at all... Before her stood a beautiful Luxray with a bite torn out of her ear. “Not you,” Sofia muttered. “Leave me alone.”

Lubyanka laughed. “I thought I heard someone screaming and crying. Should've guessed it was you.”

“I'm not in the mood,” Sofia said. She had to think right now, not split words with some deranged bully she'd long ago got over her fear for.

Lubyanka laughed that stupid laugh of hers again. “You're not looking very well, are you? Aww, has widdle Sofia been crying?”

“Fuck off,” Sofia said flatly.

“Such bad language!” Lubyanka sneered. “I wonder what Larissa would say about that...”

Sofia clenched her teeth as her heart beat loudly in her ears. “Don't you dare,” she hissed.

Lubyanka cackled. “Aww, are you sad because your little scissor sister died? Her own fault. Stupid girl bit off way more than she could chew, opposing the Shadow himself! But if it's any consolation, you'll see her again soon. I would've loved to kill her myself, but I'll make due with you instead.”

“You never stood a chance against her,” Sofia snapped, everything around Lubyanka beginning to distort again as the whistle grew louder and louder. She made a halfhearted attempt to calm herself down, but didn't really want to bother.

“She was lucky, that was all!” Lubyanka snapped. “But not against the might of the Shadow, was she? Stupid little brat got herself killed at last. Is it true that he kicked her to death? I bet it took a lot of kicks for her to die!” Lubyanka laughed. “I wish I'd been there to see it, it must've been hilarious! I bet she begged him for mercy, and- kgggk!”

Sofia's knife flashed and Lubyanka clutched her cut throat, eyes wide with shock and pain. The whistle cheered her on loudly as she plunged the knife into the Luxray's shoulder next. There was an electric shock, but it barely registered with Sofia. The ear where Larissa had left her mark was next. Beautiful red drops squirted out with every stab and slash at the collapsing Luxray, as she hit her hated enemy again and again. It was such a powerful crimson, so vivid and gorgeous, encouraging Sofia's rage heartily. Lubyanka met her eyes, terrified and silently begging for mercy, and Sofia stabbed her right into the chest. Lubyanka lay dead, but Sofia kept on stabbing. The whistle was loud and triumphant, and someone was laughing. No, cackling was a better word.

It was her, Sofia realised. She was cackling madly as she kept on stabbing Lubyanka's corpse. She froze. Her corpse. She had killed her. The cacophony in her mind was silenced instantly as the realisation dawned on her. Lubyanka was dead, and Sofia was still holding the bloody knife, her dress covered in little red spots. She began to tremble and felt nauseous and horrified. “I went too far...” she whispered hoarsely. “I went too far...”

It was just Lubyanka, of course. Just a nasty, stupid, sadistic bully. But... Sofia looked at her dead, bleeding face, trying not to let nausea take her. She was a terrible, awful harpy who'd killed thousands, and had tried to add both Sofia and Larissa to that number. Sofia certainly wouldn't miss her. But she had once hatched from an egg, presumably to loving parents. Maybe she'd had siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents. She'd probably gone to school, learnt about the world, made friends, fell in love. She'd evolved twice, met thousands of pokémon in her life, had dreamt and had goals she wanted to achieve. And it had all ended with Sofia. Her life had ended right here, on the tip of her knife. Lubyanka clearly hadn't expected when she'd got up this morning, that it'd be the last day of her life. And, though Sofia knew the world would be far better off without her, that was horrible. Lubyanka had been as ignorant of her final hours ticking away as Larissa had been on that wonderful night they'd spent together.

Much worse than what she had done, was what she could've done. If she hadn't managed to hold herself back through the mad rage, if she hadn't had one small spark of sense left, it could've been Catarina's body slowly bleeding out on the dusty ground. She had been very close, sent into a fury by the simple coincidence of her cousin trying out Larissa's old nickname for her. How could she have gotten that angry over that? How could she have believed such horrible things?

It was this terrible, mad anger that she fell into so readily lately. It got worse every time, more powerful, had even more grip on her. And she had enjoyed it. Enjoyed the force of her emotions, enjoyed the power it gave her... Enjoyed hurting the pokémon she's attacked and their blood, disturbingly enough. She knew what she would become if she continued like this. She'd become Lubyanka. Evil, deranged, cruel, and sadistic. Maybe she already was.

She shivered and clutched her knees again, this time not terrified of the monsters outside, but inside. She was insane, a danger to everyone around her. Making friends with Catarina and Pedro had been a terrible mistake, as she'd nearly attacked them too. She couldn't expose anyone to that again, she had to hide, had to protect the few pokémon she still had left...

No, she decided. She was better than this. Surely she was better than this. She had to be better than the madness, but she couldn't hide from the world and give in to crippling depression either. She could calm herself down if she got close to the rages again. She could refuse to give in to anger. She could stop hurting others because she got upset. She had heard Aqua say pokémon don't really change, but she knew that was nonsense. Of course she could change, she thought to herself. She could change starting right now.

She plunged the knife into Lubyanka's chest one last time and left it there, getting up and drying her tears. It would be easy to give up and hide from Catarina forever, but she had to try to find her, explain and apologise. And if the Froslass wanted nothing to do with her any more... She swallowed. That'd be absolutely fair and to be expected. But that was her choice, not Sofia's.

Suddenly she realised where she was. She was inside her own house. What was left of it anyway. The wall she had been leaning against was the only part of it still standing. She could only assume that she had instinctively found her way here in her enraged state, and perhaps had sat down there subconsciously because the place had held positive associations for her. She now noticed she had killed Lubyanka right on top of her grandfather's books, soaking them with her blood. She wandered sadly through the ruin that had once been her home until she got to her own room. The model Solar System she'd made when she was a Ralts was easy to recognise, but now it was more of a weird, twisted metal spider, with most of the planets fallen off or sticking out at odd angles. Her posters and drawings had all torn when the walls came down. Her clothes had survived the earthquake pretty well, but hadn't taken nearly as well to a whole summer of lying about exposed to dust, rain, wind, and Sun.

She quickly went through her possessions, taking the few things that were still in one piece. None of it would be useful, except as mementos to her old home, her old life. She found the most precious one face-down under a small piece of ceiling. A broken picture-frame held a photograph of Larissa and Sofia, cuddling each other and laughing. Sofia shed a little tear when she saw it, but also smiled. She looked so... Young on the photo. And so happy. She held the photo to her chest in an odd hug as she thought of the day when they'd taken it. Larissa had woken up earlier than Sofia and tried to climb into her bed to snuggle her, but had fallen off the ladder, unhandy as she was with it, and woken Sofia up with the noise. She had laughed at Larissa, who'd been a bit embarrassed about the whole thing.

They had gone to the theatre later on and cuddled a bit throughout the show, though it was too interesting to get too distracted from. They had eaten at a cute little café and played a game at home when Sofia had realised her room didn't have anything to do with Larissa in it, which perhaps wasn't that odd as she was technically only there for an extended sleepover, and had taken the picture. Looking at the picture, she realised that for the first time, she could think back to those happier days free of bitterness, although not without longing. “What would you think of me if you could see me now?” she wondered.

She put the picture in her pocket, careful not to fold it, and started walking back to where she'd last seen her cousins. Even in anger, it wasn't that hard to know where the Sun stood. Of course, some time had passed, so she'd compensate for that by keeping the Sun 10 degrees further to the west than she would otherwise. That was easy enough. She could never get lost, even in these endless ruins, while the Sun was out. Her cousins might not know how well the Sun could be used as a compass, though; it was her experience that surprisingly few pokémon knew about it if Sofia hadn't told them first. And that while the motion of the Sun was elementary and easily deducted from-

“Hang on!” she suddenly halted among a group of burnt houses. “What was Lubyanka doing here?” She hadn't even thought of how odd it was to run into her here in the middle of the dead city, having been too busy feeling horrible about what she'd done. She supposed she had drawn her attention by screaming, but still. That had to mean the Shadow was indeed up to something in this city! There had to be others here too, it was too much of a coincidence otherwise.

She walked on, quickly, into the proper direction, over heaps of rubble, through precariously wobbly ruins, past the bodies of the dead and broken-off body parts of statues. It didn't take long for her to get worried for them. How long had she ran in anger, and where were Catarina and Pedro? What if they had decided to leave forever, terrified of their insane cousin? Sofia could hardly blame them, but she'd come to like them so much, and she really had been feeling better since they'd become part of her life. If she could somehow patch things up with them...

Voices! Not the vague, mumbly, incomprehensible whispers that spooked through her head here, but actual voices! She would've greeted them loudly and probably begged for forgiveness if she'd known what to say. As it turned out, it was a good thing she didn't, as the voices weren't her cousins'.

Five pokémon were escorting a battered and angry looking Catarina, who was carrying her brother, who looked even worse. From the looks of it, he had tried using his guitar to defend himself, while Catarina had used her ice powers. One of the pokémon, a Pyroar, spit some fire at Catarina's feet and laughed when she screamed and tripped, dropping the wounded Pedro hard on the ground. The whistle started blowing loudly in Sofia's head again as she clenched her teeth furiously and wished she hadn't left her knife in Lubyanka's chest. How could she have been so stupid? Leaving her only weapon behind in a city full of enemies just because she was scared of what she might do!

She forced herself to breathe deeply and think of a different solution as she followed the group at a bit of a distance. It worked surprisingly well. The whistle quieted down soon, leaving her thoughts much clearer, and she realised it was a good thing she'd left her knife. She had, after all, no training in knife-fighting at all, and the only reason it had gone so well for her the three times she'd used it in combat was that she'd completely surprised her opponent every time and relentlessly hacked at them before they knew what was happening. She wouldn't stand a chance against five pokémon at once. Fortunately, she still had the best weapon she'd ever had: her mind. As if a knife could ever be nearly as useful, she tried to tell herself. And with a whole city of useful items to use, she could probably think of something...

But first, she had to follow the pokémon who had captured her cousins. She did so for about fifteen minutes until she came to a surprise. The area ahead was mostly cleared of ruins and rubble, and there were a lot of pokémon there. There were no ruins in the area, and a few buildings had even been restored. There was a small berry tree orchard. As she looked closer, she saw that some of the pokémon looked downtrodden, hurt, and often famished, and were, in fact, chained to one another by the ankles. The other pokémon looked quite nasty and threatening. Sofia almost made a sound when she recognised Obnard, trotting around with an arrogant swagger. And then, she actually screamed when she saw a thin, very old Weavile among the chained pokémon. Her grandfather trembled on his legs, his cane nowhere to be seen, yet he was being forced to work like all the others. As several faces turned to her hiding spot in response to her surprised cry and started approaching, she realised she was at considerable risk of being captured as well.

–

It was embarrassing, Boreas thought. Absolutely embarrassing. Surprised in their sleep. Obviously, it was a risk they ran by both sleeping at the same. But really, it had been reasonable. They were out in the middle of nowhere, and hadn't seen a sign of their pursuers in days. Apparently Stewart was smarter than Boreas had thought and had deliberately fallen back to lull them into a false sense of security before walking all through the night to catch up. Boreas and Aqua had been tied up by the time they'd woken up, and hadn't been able to do much to resist. And now, they were being wheeled back to New Praeclara together, sharing a little mobile cell on wheel. It was small, surprisingly dark, and reminded Boreas unpleasantly of the tiny underground cell he'd spent seven weeks in, so he spent most of his time looking out of the small, barred window and trying not to think about it. There was a lot to look at, at least, with the landscapes moving by.

He and Aqua had tried to talk to the troops marching along with them, but none of them responded or acknowledged them. They tried to escape, but their cage was too sturdy and the guards were too alert anyway. It wasn't until the evening that they stopped and made up camp. Boreas found himself feeling rather uncomfortable by then. They spotted Stewart for the first time since their capture.

“Brigadier!” Aqua called through the small, barred window. “Brigadier Stewart, you have to listen to me!”

The Bisharp rolled his eyes, but walked over to them. “It's colonel Stewart now, actually, thanks to your escape.”

Aqua blushed. “Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get you demoted...”

The Bisharp smiled humourlessly. “That's a great relief.”

“I had to get out, though, and-”

“Yes, and since I was guarding you, I got the blame. I was lucky not to be imprisoned myself.”

“R-right. So, I'm sorry about that. Er, I know this will sound clichéd, but you have to let us out.”

“Of course. Anything else? Maybe you'd like me to assassinate the prime minister for you?”

“It's very important that we get to Praeclara,” Aqua explained, “the old one, you see. I got a message from a contact of mine that the Shadow is up to something there, and that I need to go there.”

Colonel Stewart frowned sadly. “No-one is up to anything any more in Praeclara. Believe me, I was there when it happened, and organised the evacuation of the remainder of the population.”

Though Boreas was feeling queasier and queasier, he now spoke up. “What about Tacito?”

The Bisharp turned. “What about him?”

“Was he with you? When you evacuated?”

“No. He was out of town at the time and made his own way to Valadares.”

“He didn't!” Aqua said. “He is really-”

“The Shadow, yes, so you've told me, and I still don't believe it. There is quite simply no evidence of it other than the word of the woman who tried to assassinate him. You have to admit, your actions hardly made you the most reliable source.”

“Fine,” Aqua said. “You don't have to trust me: go to Praeclara. You will find your evidence there. You don't have to let us free, colonel, but just go there yourself.”

The Bisharp paused for a moment. “I have neither time nor desire to return to Praeclara. Now, if that's all-”

“It's not!” Aqua said. “Colonel, you know what Tacito is doing is wrong!”

“I may not agree with him on all points, but that doesn't mean I condone your attempts to assassinate and slander him! Nor does it mean I can disobey his orders willy-nilly. I'm a policeman, not a vigilante.”

“Policeman?” Aqua smirked. “Last I heard, you were part of the army now.”

“They're the same thing, these days.”

“And does that strike you as healthy?”

“My opinions on the matter are irrelevant. Now, if that's all, I shall make sure some food gets sent your way. Goodnight.”

Boreas kept looking out of the window while Aqua muttered about their captors. He was starting to feel very bad, as if the walls around him were closing in on him, and barely listened to her. Aqua cheered up when two large plates of a warm dish with potatoes and cheese was handed through the door, though. Boreas kept looking out of the window, finding himself queasy and strangely reluctant to look away.

“At least they take good care of their prisoners,” Aqua said in between large bites. “This is delicious!”

Boreas forced a smile. “You can have mine, I'm not hungry. I think I got motion sick from the long ride...”

“Dwn't mind if I dw!” Aqua said with full mouth. “Bwt you rwlly dwn't know what yw're mwsswng.”

Boreas kept staring out of the far too small window as Aqua ate with delight. He forced himself to breathe slowly. The walls weren't closing in on him. That was stupid. Aqua would notice, for one. And this was just a wooden box on wheels, not an oubliette buried deep underground. The outside was just behind a bit of wood. He could even see it through the window. There was no reason to be feeling a slowly rising sense of panic. He could even see a bit of the sky. It was alright. He was a big Glaceon, not some scaredy pup. He had faced dozens of deadly foes, even thought he'd thrown his life away once or twice. He had been stabbed through the lung and survived. He could not possibly be scared of being inside a box.

“Ahh,” Aqua sighed, “That was delicious. You really should have tried a bite, I bet- Love, are you alright?”

“Fine,” Boreas said hoarsely, trying to subdue his trembling.

“No, you're not,” Aqua said, hugging him. “What's wrong?”

“Just... Feeling a little ill,” Boreas said, trying to keep his breathing under control as he fought off the illusion that the window was getting smaller.

“You're trembling,” Aqua said with concern.

“Fever,” Boreas muttered, wishing she'd stop holding him. It felt as thought she was hugging him far tighter than she needed to.

“Glaceons don't get fever. You're terrified.”

“N-no. What's to be scared of?” Boreas squeaked. “I'm perfectly safe here. In this box, which is only made of wood. And there's a window. And – stop hugging me so hard! You're choking me!”

Aqua let go of him. “I was barely touching you. Try to take deep, slow breaths, love; I'll get help.”

“...Don't have to...”

“Hey, you!” Aqua called through the window. “My husband needs to get out of here right now, he's having a panic attack. C'mon, hurry up, man! Look, if you're not allowed to talk to me, get the colonel quickly!”

Boreas would protest, but he could barely breathe any more. He soon heard the Bisharp's calm voice from outside. “Yes?”

“You need to open the door right now, Boreas is having a panic attack. I think he might be claustrophobic.”

Nonsense, Boreas thought, trying his very best to breathe the little fresh air from the window rather than the suffocatingly stale air from inside.
“You think he might be?” colonel Stewart asked sceptically.

“Well, he didn't use to be, but being buried alive for seven weeks clearly changed that! Now let him out!”

A serious, metal face peered in through the bars. “Very well, then. But I warn you: I'm prepared for any tricks.”

Boreas wanted to protest some more, wanted to tell them he wasn't claustrophobic and that he was fine, but he was already rushing out as the door opened and rolling onto his back on the grass, finally able to breathe again as he looked up at the almost dark sky's openness. He couldn't do anything but let the delight of freedom wash over him. He had always loved being out in the open with no idea where he'd go next. The box had been unnatural and unpleasant. That was all.

Eventually, he sat up, a little embarrassed to find the colonel sitting on a stool next to him, as well as some other pokémon guarding him. “Are you feeling better now?” the Bisharp asked with some concern.

“Fine,” Boreas said, trying to suppress a blush. “Um, how are you?”

He raised his steely eyebrows. “Quite well, thank you.”

“Hey, er,” Boreas said. “Thank you for listening to my wife. She sometimes knows what's good for me better than I do. She's very sensible.”

“So I noticed.”

Boreas swallowed. “Er, yes. Now, colonel, I may not have treated you with much respect in the past, but-”

“'Are you going to tell us anything you've discovered, or just continue spouting this nonsense at us?'” the Bisharp quoted with a stern face.

“Right, yes, my point-”

“'I don't want to help you with your investigation; I want you to help me with my investigation.'”

“Yes, I used to say those kinds of things, didn't I?”

“'You probably won't see me again, but don't forget to be grateful when the Shadow stops bothering you'?”

“You, er, have a good memory,” Boreas scraped his feet. “Look, I'm sorry for being a bit of a knob. I just want to ask you not to let it prevent you from listening to me or my wife.”

“I will listen to any voice, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

“I know, and I'd get it for you, if only you'd allow me- Hold on, what am I actually being accused of? I wasn't with Aqua when she attacked Diego- Tacito to you. I was still in my oubliette underground!”

“You, and all Aqua's other known associates stand accused of aiding her in her attack on the prime minister.”

“Do you have any evidence we did?” Boreas asked.

The colonel sighed and frowned. “Only the prime minister's accusation.”

“Is that enough?”

“It is nowadays, I'm afraid. Now, I don't suppose you're planning to tell me where Larissa or Sofia is?”

“Larissa is dead.”

The Bisharp cast his eyes down. “I'm sorry to hear that. Pleasant, sensible girl. The earthquake, I take it?”

“The Shadow himself, actually,” Boreas said. “She broke his control over Groudon to prevent him from ever using it again, and he killed her in retaliation.”

Stewart sighed. “Dreadful business.”

“She wanted to be a cop, you know,” Boreas said. “Wanted to join up once we'd solved the crisis.”

“She would have made a good one,” the Bisharp mused. “I would've been proud to have her in the service.”

“I can imagine. She gave her life to stop Diego, yet you don't even want to consider that he changed his plans and posed as Tacito to rule Fournaria.”

The Bisharp sighed. “Tales of a brave friend do not constitute evidence.”

Boreas had an idea. “Fine. I'm not asking you to believe me. But let us pretend you do, colonel. Let's pretend I just presented you with overwhelming evidence that prime minister Tacito is the Shadow. What would you do with it?”

“Have him put on trial for his crimes, during which he would presumably be impeached.”

“Ah,” Boreas grinned, “impeached by whom? The rest of the government was wiped out, remember, and he hasn't allowed elections to elect a new one yet.”

“In a situation like this, the judge would have power to-”

“The judge,” Boreas said. “Of course. But have you considered whether they would go against Tacito? He's got considerable power over them. Am I not under arrest solely based on his word, not that of any judge or prosecutor? And I hear a lot of pokémon haven't even got a trial lately, but were just convicted without any chance of defence. Do you really think any judge would even see your evidence? Wouldn't you just get arrested for slander or treason?”

“Fournaria is in an emergency situation,” the Bisharp huffed.

“You can say that again,” Boreas said. “And it's not the Shadow. It's not even that your prime minister is the Shadow. The real emergency is that Tacito, no matter who he really is, is for all intents and purposes the sole ruler of Fournaria, and he pulls more power and security to himself every day! Your prime minister is a dictator, and whether you believe me shouldn't even matter any more. I have no idea what's in Fournaria's constitution, but I'll bet Tacito is way outside of it.”

“I think you've had quite enough fresh air. Back inside you go.” Boreas would have protested if he hadn't seen the clear thought and doubt in the other's eyes. It was clearly better to leave him alone with his thoughts for now.

“Could I get some food, by the way?” Boreas said. “I'm afraid I was nauseous just now and gave my plate to the wifey.”

After some orders from Stewart, Boreas was escorted back into their mobile cell with a cooling plate of leftover potato dish. Aqua greeted him warmly. “How are you feeling now, love? You really had me worried.”

“I'm fine, I'm fine,” Boreas said, taking a bite. “Mmm, that really is very good.”

“Yeah,” Aqua said, unable to avoid the occasional quick glance at Boreas' dinner. “Anyway, how did it go? I heard you talk. You think he might believe us?”

“I don't think so, but I got him to think at least. I think he's a good man who just has way too much faith in the authorities and is at a loss now that they're not as benevolent as they used to be.”

“That's what I think too,” Aqua said, sniffing the air. Boreas had the impression she could barely avoid licking her lips. “I wonder if we could talk him into letting us go...”

“I don't think so. We'll have to find out own way to escape. But if we can persuade him, he might at least do something about Diego. Any help at all would be welcome at this point. By the way,” Boreas grinned, “these servings are quite large. I don't think I'll eat all of this. You can eat a bite along, if you like.”

“Really?!” Aqua said happily, before correcting herself. “No, I mean, I shouldn't; I've already had-”

“Yeah, if you want. It's good stuff, but a bit much for me.”

“Thanks!” Aqua happily began eating from the other side of Boreas' plate.

Boreas smirked. “I'm not sure how you can stomach this much, though. Two big plates down, and still hungry for dessert?”

Aqua blushed. “Wwwell, there's hungry and there's hungry. Anyway, I've got plenty of space to put it in, haven't I?” She patted her round tummy with a slightly embarrassed wink.

“Plenty,” Boreas giggled, happy to see her take a more positive attitude to her weight.

“Hey!” Aqua frowned, unable to suppress a chuckle herself.

“What?” Boreas said, eating another bite. “Your words, not mine. By the way, you don't have that much space down there. Not enough for two and a half big plates, anyway, as that cute belly of yours has clearly rounded a bit more to fit it all in.”

“Hasn't,” Aqua stuck her tongue out before quickly taking the final bit of Boreas' dinner.

“Has,” Boreas chuckled, putting his front paws on her round tum, rubbing over it a bit. It had lost its usual softness, Aqua's skin and fur tightly stretched over it. Boreas laughed, “I'm just surprised you don't have a stomach ache now.”

“It wasn't that much,” Aqua protested, enjoying the rubs to her swollen belly.

“Not for you, maybe,” Boreas teased.

“Yeah, well, you were the one who gave his dinner to me... Twice.”

“That's because I like to see you happy.”

“And I am,” Aqua giggled. “Well, satisfied is more like it, I guess. I mean, as good as Stewart's cook is, I could do without being locked up and taken to Diego. I could do without Diego for that matter... I can't believe we're still cleaning up after him, seven years later...” Her playful mood had disappeared instantly, and Boreas quickly found his own heart heavying as well as she reminded him of the trouble everyone was in.

“I know,” Boreas said, caressing her finned ear gently. “I honestly thought when we found his hideout, that it was all nearly over. That we'd take him down and save Fournaria and sail off into a new adventure together. Well, once we get the boat, anyway. We'd still have to get it off that beach it washed up on, obviously.”

Aqua nodded. “Didn't turn out that way, did it?”

“It will,” Boreas assured her, and himself as well. “We'll beat Diego once and for all, and then watch us sail off into a new adventure.”

Aqua sighed. “Look, about that, Boreas... I've been thinking, and... Don't take this the wrong way. It's like this: I love you.”

“Uhh, I love you too?” Boreas said.

A smile flicked across Aqua's face. “I know. But when you were buried alive, I realised something: you're the only person I love.”

“Er?” Boreas asked.

“Not in that way,” Aqua rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. Friends, family. I... We... Don't really have them.”

“Well, technically-” Boreas began halfheartedly. But he'd felt what she'd said in his heart before.

“Yeah, I know. But we either haven't seen them for five years, or they're just people we met on our journeys and are really more like allies than friends. I just... Started realising how empty my life is without you. And meanwhile, I saw that mirrored in Sofia. She didn't have any friends, and no family either beyond a kidnapped grandfather. And when she lost the only person she loved, it was extremely hard on her. Age, experience, and perhaps a more stable personality made things less bad for me, but still. I can't help but think that maybe having only a single person in your life who loves you isn't enough. That as wonderful as romantic love is, it's not enough on its own to make someone happy. I... I would like to see our friends again, Boreas.”

Boreas smiled wistfully. “I've... Actually thought of them too, lately. I saw Octa and Lucius in the coffin when I was wildly hallucinating to make up for the endless dark. And I couldn't help but think how much I'd love to go back to Unova someday. See them again. Laugh at Selene's word salads. See how Unova is doing, really. Maybe see some more of it; it's a big place, and there's plenty of it I haven't been to yet.”

Aqua gave him a hug. “I would love to go back, love. Probably not forever – I don't think either of us was made to settle down forever anywhere. But for a while.”

“Yes,” Boreas smiled, thinking of the faraway continent, the closest to a home he'd ever had. “Yes, we should go back. As soon as we've dealt with Diego, as soon as Fournaria starts recovering, we should go.”

 

[Wispy Willow]

I must say, I really like Sofia's character development in the last few chapters, great job. Also, do I hear hints towards a third fic?

 

[apenpaap]

I must say, I really like Sofia's character development in the last few chapters, great job. Also, do I hear hints towards a third fic?

Glad you're enjoying it. As for the third fic: no, you're not hearing hints towards it. The Glaceon and the Shadow is planned to be my final fan fiction (I'm planning to move into original fiction after it's done).

Chapter Twenty-Four: Flight of the Kirlia

Sofia ran through the ruins, starting to lose the lead on her pursuers. She was simply too small; her legs couldn't take steps as big as her pursuers could. For a second, she considered trying to will herself to evolve to a Gardevoir so she could run faster, but thought better of it. She could do better than tripping over unfamiliar legs. Instead, she used her size to her advantage, jumping into a burnt-out ruin and hiding in a pile of ashes.

She heard footsteps rushing by. “Where'd she go?”

“That way, I think!”

Sofia kept quiet for a while longer in case it was a trick, and then crawled out, dyed grey by the ashes. That was good; camouflage would help her. Now then, she thought, how was she going to save her relatives? First of all, she'd need to take a better look at the cleared area. She hadn't seen that much last time. She walked back, careful of others that might see her, and took refuge inside a hovel on the edge of the clearing.

It was a large area, comprising a big slice of the old centre of town. There were dozens of the Shadow's pokémon there, and perhaps hundreds of their slaves. She forced herself to stay where she was despite recognising her grandfather again, and now also spotting Catarina being fitted with a chain around her ankle, giving the Charmeleon doing it a foul look. The captives were mostly being forced to either dismantle or restore the buildings on the clearing's edge, thus expanding it. Some of them, however, were tending the orchard and harvesting from it. Sofia hated to admit it, but the area actually looked somewhat nice, other than the forced labour. It was green and grassy, and the restored buildings looked good, like a new start for the city.

The pokémon were vigilant, and it was obvious she couldn't sneak in while it was daylight. Fortunately, the Sun was already setting, so she didn't have long to wait until she could see if the cover of darkness would help. Unfortunately big, bright lights were turned on at dusk, which kept the entire clearing lit up at night, and the guards didn't look like they had any intention of retiring either. She guessed it made sense; a single escaped captive could alert a lot of pokémon to their presence. Their patrols were tight and vigilant, which was extremely annoying as Sofia was getting very curious about some of the buildings. There was the low, flat building where the captives were eventually all grouped into; the tower where flying pokémon would occasionally enter through the roof, while others were busy in the lower parts; places that looked like workshops, and more.

If only she could take a closer look at it all... But they were too vigilant, even at night. There was no way she was sneaking through the open area with all these guards watching, she decided, by the time midnight started nearing. Maybe digging underneath would work? That would take a long time, though, and they were bound to come across either the entrance to her tunnel or the displaced dirt she dug up at some point. Not to mention the problem of Praeclara's rocky soil. She sat down in frustration and looked up at the stars, a halo around Venus and Jupiter due to the dusty air.

She sprang to her feet. “That's it!” she squeaked. “Up! I can't walk or dig, so I'll fly!”

She walked through the dead city, switching on her torch for visibility. She had much to think about and do! Her mind calculated and designed busily as she walked, whispering excitedly to herself and wishing someone was around so she could talk to them; both to orden her thoughts and show off a bit. “Let's see, my mass is 12 kilos-” holding a hand to her chest, she winced a little at how unpleasantly her ribs were sticking out now. She really should take better care of herself... “Probably 10 now... Well, I suppose that's an advantage in this case! I weigh less than a Pidgeotto, but of course my wings are unlikely to be as efficient. I'll need to generate at least 981- no, 98 newtons of lift to fly... That should be doable with relatively small wings...”

Of course, there was another problem, she realised: her pectoral muscles were far weaker than any bird's. Giving herself big wings was easy enough, but flapping them? Her body wasn't built for that. She grinned. As a biped, her legs logically held her strongest muscles, so she'd simply have to make a mechanism that allowed her to control her wings using them!

Despite the darkness and the way the city had changed in the earthquake, Sofia soon found her way to her favourite hardware store. It had held up fairly well, actually, only one of the walls and a few small patches of roof had collapsed. It seemed fairly safe to enter, so Sofia did. Naturally, it was dark as a cave inside, but she knew her way here like inside her own pockets. “Waa! Ow!” she tripped over a fallen display case and bruised her elbow. She'd better turn the lights on after all.

Naturally, there was no more electricity, so Sofia used her torch to find her way to the generator section. Most of the portable generators for sale had hit the ground hard during the earthquake, but she managed to find an undamaged one among them. Making her way to the back, she rewired a bunch of cables, hooking one of them up to the generator. She cheered for herself as the lights came on and the generator roared and buzzed. Everything in the store lay on the ground, but most of the tools were sturdy enough that they'd taken no damage. There was plenty of space too, and almost everything she needed. It'd make a good base of operations.

–

Sofia strapped her arms to the large wings. They were made of thick plastic sheets and supported by two curved beams, each of which had two hinges so she could fold the wings onto her back if she needed. Her heart was beating rapidly with excitement and perhaps a little bit of fear. The calculations worked out; she should have plenty of lift, but of course she hadn't tested it yet. That was what she was going to do right now.

She had solved the problem of flapping the wings by letting her legs drive them using a set of pedals. The pedals were attached to the wings both by a long hinge that allowed her to either let the entire pedal block hang in its proper position between her feet or put it away on her back so she wouldn't trip over it. Plenty of clockwork transferred the force of the pedals to the wings. That was all there was to it. No need to weigh herself down with needless junk, she thought.

She carefully folded her wings up so she could leave her base through the door. It required squeezing her shoulders unpleasantly, with her arms attached to them, but it was better than having her wings extended all the time. It was a pleasant morning, out in the streets, and she needed to get a bit of height to start with. She could get enough speed by just running and jumping, but if she did that on flat ground she'd have as good as no time to transfer her legs from running to the pedals.

She climbed to the top of a large, sturdy mound of rubble. She was about two metres high, so it'd buy her 0.63 seconds, but hopefully that was enough. If it wasn't, at least the fall wouldn't be very high. She unfolded her wings. She swallowed a sudden, rising sense of dread. She hadn't had time for anything but excitement while she was tinkering, but now she really realised how dangerous this could be. Falling two metres wasn't the problem; the problem was whether she'd be able to stay up or land once she got going. “Too late to back out now,” she told herself, wishing her voice sounded as secure as her words. “The physics work out... I can do this...”

She ran, jumped, scrambled to put her legs on the pedals, and pedalled as fast as she could. The great wings flapped slowly, several times in a row, and a sudden force pulled her up, but not fast enough. The edge of that roof came very, very close... And she made it over! Her eyes teared from the force of the wind and the sudden brightness of the rising Sun, and she screamed in joy and fear. “WOOHOO!!! Brilliant tinkering Kirlia 1 - gravity 0!”

The wind pulled hard on her wings, and almost flipped her over. She fought against it, trying to steer by shifting her weight, but it had as good as no effect. She was powerless against the wind, which slowly steered her on its own. The straps around her arms dug painfully into her flesh, her eyes were dry and irritated, and her back was starting to hurt already as it had to keep her legs on the pedals, but she was flying! Really flying!

Her rapid breaths weren't just fear and excitement: her legs were getting tired quickly, her thighs already burning. Better to land, then, if she could find a street running parallel to her current course. Suddenly, she saw nothing but curly green hair as the wind blew it into her face. She cursed and tried her best to get it away by flicking her head, as her arms were still strapped in, and falling asleep fast from the painful tightness of the straps. She stopped pedalling, letting her legs rest while she floated downwards. She swallowed as she realised how narrow the streets suddenly looked and how fast she was going and how hard it was to steer. She slightly shifted her weight forward, going into a dive, before pulling up rapidly, losing a lot of speed and height. It was only a few more metres to the ground, but these were the hardest, with all the houses in the way...

Suddenly, her dress caught around her knee, pulling her leg off the pedal. With a yelp, both her feet slid off and she suddenly dangled vertically from the horizontal wings, only suspended by the straps that felt like they had already cut through her arms and were now resting on her bare bones. She struggled as the ground came near fast. She screamed, trying to put her feet to the ground properly, but she was going far too rapidly. She tumbled over and folded her wings in an instant so they wouldn't be damaged, made a somersault, and landed hard on her back. “Owww...” she groaned, looking up at the light blue sky. “Alright, we'll call it a draw...”

–

Sofia tied her hair into a pony tail. She smirked. An extra day of preparation had probably made all the difference. She was no longer tied to the wings by her arms – that had left her with some nasty bruises – but had instead turned her dress into a flight harness, removing the skirt and attaching the wings directly to its back. She had made a small tail fin she could control by pulling on two ropes with her now free hands to improve her steering. Overall, she felt much, much better about her ornithopter now that she'd fixed the mistakes she'd made in the first test. She expected the wind might make her legs a bit cold, with only her shorts on, but it was September; she'd survive it easier than she'd survive falling because her skirt impeded her. Besides, she'd be so busy pedalling, the cold might actually be very nice.

She took a small iron saw to cut through the chains of the prisoners, as well as a torch. She preferred to be prepared for everything, but tools were heavy and she couldn't afford to weigh herself down any more. Oh well. She'd had to get used to carrying fewer tools than usual about her anyway ever since she'd left her jumpsuit in New Praeclara; might as well go all the way. She wondered whether actual birds ever got annoyed by that. Although she supposed having no hands was even worse than not being able to carry enough tools.

She walked outside, fortunately without having to twist her arms behind her back this time, since they were no longer attached to her wings, and walked to the same heap she'd launched off last time. She climbed up and unfolded her bat-like wings, her heart pounding.

Unpleasant memories of her last crash resurfaced, and Sofia was very aware she'd been lucky to survive, and might not be that lucky again. Maybe she should quit while her spine was still in one piece... Kirlias, after all, weren't meant to fly and, as far as she knew, no other non-flying pokémon had ever seriously tried this. Of course, there was the myth about the pokémon who created wings for himself by gluing feathers together with wax and then flew across the sea, only to get arrogant, fly too high, and have his wings melted off by the Sun's heat. Sofia looked over her impressive three metre wingspan and recalled her calculations. She'd never seen that story as a warning against ambition and the folly of trying to improve on nature through technology; it was a story about the problems of wax as an adhesive. Pure and simple.

She grinned, put on her aviator goggles, started running, and jumped, quickly putting her legs on the pedals and pedalling furiously. The great wings flapped and she soared up above the twilit ruins. The wind rushed through her hair, over her face, and past her legs, but this time her eyes were safe and her hair was stuck in a pony tail. Her flight harness supported her well and without cutting into her, and her legs were under no risk of restriction. The wind tried to blow her away, but a simple pull on the right wire turned her tail, and she was no longer its plaything.

She soared higher and higher, leaving the city deep below her. She could see the clearing and the sea already, could oversee a huge chunk of the city, saw the last sunlight on the tops of the hills and saw the Sun itself slide behind the horizon. She screeched with triumphant laughter, her voice carried away by the wind. “WHEEEE!!! I'm flying! I'm flying on wings of science!”

Once she'd gained enough height, she let her legs rest for a bit, as she was already exhausted. She gently floated in a large circle, trying out how the wind affected her and how she could best cut it. She was struck by the vast beauty of the world below her, even above this ruined city. It gave her true hope. Yes, she had lost Larissa, yes, she was probably insane, yes, she had murdered Lubyanka and got close to doing the same to Catarina. But if she could do this, fly by the power of nothing but her own mind and body, what couldn't she do? She laughed, not a care in the world.

She kept climbing, until she was at the height of the clouds. She avoided flying through them, as she didn't want to get cold and wet, but couldn't resist buzzing at their fluffy edges, playing catch with the thin wires of mist near them. And then, when she had exhausted herself, she slowly began floating down, letting her legs rest. Dusk was falling fast now, and soon it'd be dark enough that there was no chance of her enemies seeing her if she stayed outside their lights.

She began to make her way to the clearing. She could see its layout well from above, watch the chained lines of slaves be taken to the large, flat building, presumably either to sleep or do more work. She would've loved to make that her first stop, but she knew she had to go to the small tower first, as she had seen a lot of suspicious activity there, and it was easier to float down after investigating it than having to fly back up after freeing her family.

In the deepening dusk, the land was quickly turning into a uniform black sea where only the bright light of the clearing was visible, as if it was an island floating in space. That would be a problem if she had to get out by flying, Sofia realised; her torch would never shed enough light to allow her to land in the dark without breaking her neck, and while her ornithopter was considerably nicer after its redesign, staying in the air until dawn was also impossible. But she'd deal with that problem later.

She had stopped pedalling, letting gravity slowly take her down as she floated in big circles over the clearing. She knew she could enter the tower through the roof; she had seen flying messengers do it earlier that day. She wasn't sure whether she could stop quickly enough to not fly into the wall at full speed, though. That was the kind of thing she supposed she should have practised for.

There was another problem: as she got lower and lower, she could still not see the opening in the tower's roof. The lights were all at ground level, and there seemed to be no light turned on inside either, so she couldn't see anything. It was starting to make her very nervous when she was only a dozen metres high, so as she spun in a final circle, pulling up slightly to slow down, she took her torch from her pocket and shone into the tower. She'd just have to hope no-one would notice the extra star.

She could see the opening now! She put away her torch quickly and pulled up sharply to lose her final velocity. That brought her a bit too high, so she had to do a clumsy turn not to overshoot her goal. She sunk into the tower. Her feet hit the ground running and she managed to stop quickly. A perfect landing! She chuckled giddily. “Brilliant flying Kirlia 22 – gravity 1.”

She folded the pedal block onto her back, then folded the wings in. The whole ornithopter was built as light as possible, so she could keep it on without much impediment. She rubbed her eyes as she took off her aviator goggles, and then turned the torch on again. It was safer than turning the lights on, which would probably be seen from outside. She was in a kind of roost, a message room for the flying pokémon that brought the Shadow's messages back and forth. There was an odd, unpleasant smell. Sofia quickly searched about, making as little noise as possible in case the tower wasn't empty.

There, on the table! A sealed letter. Perhaps it had just arrived, or was waiting to be picked up? Either way, Sofia was sure no-one would mind her having a look. She opened it, heart pounding with excitement, and read.

“Total control will be taken in early October. Expecting opposition; your support will be needed to quell it. Ready yourselves to come to my aid. The Shadow.”

“That sounds important,” Sofia whispered, “it would be such a shame if someone took your letter, mr. Shadow...” She stuffed it into her flight harness' pocket with a smirk.

She sniffed again. What WAS that smell? Did they keep rotten eggs in this tower? She decided to explore, cautious like a burglar trying to sneak down the stairs in the dark. Unfortunately, she hadn't counted on her folded wings hitting the stairs behind her; they suddenly tilted her off balance and she fell forward with a yelp, landing on the stairs and sliding down them on her stomach. “Oof,” she muttered, getting up again and inspecting her wings.

She shone around with her torch. This lower room was full of small wooden kegs, workbenches, and equipment that looked like it was used for mixing powders together. She cautiously opened one of the kegs. It was filled with a dark powder. “That's odd...” She looked around a bit more, noticing the workbenches and tools were stained with dark coal smudges. Suddenly she realised what the powder was. ”Gunpowder?” she whispered. “You are up to no good, aren't you, mr. Shadow?”

She smirked, as she'd just thought of the perfect way to both mess up the Shadow's plans and cause a distraction. But first, she'd need to save her relatives. She walked back up the stairs, to the communications room. She folded out her wings to their full span and put the pedal block back in position with a click, walking to the edge of the open roof. She gulped as she looked down; as much faith as she had in her own creation, it was creepy to jump off a twenty metre high tower. But she needed to get to the building the slaves were kept in, and flying would call less attention to her than walking over the well-lit ground.

She put on her goggles and jumped, keeping her scream in and diving down for a second before stabilising and gently floating over the grassy clearing. She held her breath and stopped pedalling as she floated over a Breloom, but it didn't look up. The roof of her target was big and open, and she had no problem landing gracefully. She folded her wings in once more and started removing some of the loose roof tiles to make a hole for herself to slip into the isolation area underneath with. Finally, she removed a ceiling tile below her and stuck her head through the hole. It was dark as a cave inside, so she shone around with her torch. There were a lot of thin Pokémon sleeping on the ground, their ankles chained to a kind of wooden fence that ran through the middle. The whistle began to blow in Sofia's mind as she saw it, but she forced herself to breathe calmly.

She let herself drop as quietly as possible and searched for her relatives, tiptoeing through the sleeping hall. There! Catarina was asleep on her ground, several bruises on her face and body. Sofia was filled with guilt; this was all her fault. She kneeled next to the Froslass, gently shaking her awake. “Catarina? Don't make a sound; it's me, Sofia.”

Catarina took a sharp breath and flinched back right as she woke up, her eyes wide with fear as she looked on her cousin. Sofia couldn't have felt more horrible. She couldn't believe she'd enjoyed a Pokémon looking at her like that before. “Please,” Sofia whispered hurriedly. “Catarina, I-I didn't mean to... It's so stupid, b-but Larissa always called me Sofe, and you doing that just triggered me... I don't want to hurt you, b-but, I-I think I'm going mad... I stabbed Lubyanka, that evil Luxray I talked you about, to death when she found me andandand I-I didn't want to, but the madness took me, and I've resolved never to let it do that again andand I left my knife b-behind and I never want to kill anyone again andand I'm so, so sorry...”

Catarina nodded, gently touching Sofia's arm. “I know,” she whispered. “It's good to see you, Sofia.”

Sofia smiled weakly.

“I still don't think you're mad,” Catarina whispered. “But your anger can be very dangerous, and I'm glad you realise that.”

Sofia nodded. “I-I don't want to hurt you, I never want to hurt you, andand if you don't want anything to do with me after I rescue you, I understand-”

“Of course I still want to do with you,” Catarina said. “And I forgive you. But... you really scared me, Sofia. I can forgive you, but I don't think I can forget.”

“I will never do that again!” Sofia promised, giving a surprised Catarina a hug. “I will try, anyway, I don't want to hurt anyone I like... And preferably no-one I don't like either. It's behind me now. Promise...”

Catarina nodded.

“I-I'd better get to sawing through that fence! It'll be easier than getting through your chain.”

Sofia got to work, wishing the saw didn't make as much noise as it did. “So...” Catarina asked. “What's up with your clothes? If I didn't know better, I'd say you-”

“I flew!” Sofia grinned widely. “I invented the ornithopter, and just flew here! And it was wonderful.”

“Impressive,” Catarina said. “My cousin, the clever inventor.”

Sofia blushed happily.

Catarina was free soon. “Pedro is nearby,” she whispered. “I'll wake him up and explain while you saw. He... You scared him too.”

Sofia started working on the part of the fence Pedro was tied to, while Catarina did as she said. “What's going on?” Pedro whispered, a little trembly. “Sofia? What's she doing here?”

“Freeing you, idiot,” Catarina said. “And don't worry. We talked about it, okay? She's calmed down, and she'll never do that again.”

“R-right,” Pedro whispered. “Er, why isn't she wearing a skirt?”

“Oy,” Catarina laughed. “Cousin, remember?”

“I wasn't looking at her legs!” Pedro protested. “I was just curious, that's all!”

“Shh,” Sofia said, “it impeded me while flying, and I didn't have any trousers that fit. So, shorts.”

“Right,” Pedro said, still sounding uncomfortable. “Um, flying?”

“Well, she hasn't got wings on her back as a fashion statement,” Catarina explained.

Sofia finished sawing through the fence and got up right away, her mind already set on her grandfather. In her worry over Catarina, she'd almost forgotten that she hadn't seen him in months. She walked hurriedly past sleeping, malnourished pokémon until she saw him. She trembled a bit. He looked so terribly old.

“Are you okay?” Catarina asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Sofia went to the sleeping Weavile. “Grandfather? Grandfather, wake up. It's me, Sofia.”

“Wait, grandfather?!” Catarina blurted out.

“Hmm?” Slowly, he woke up. Sofia immediately threw her arms around him and gave him a tight hug. He startled. “Child, what are you doing here? You must leave instantly, or they'll see you!”

Sofia let go of him, smiling widely. “I'm here to save you, grandfather. It took me ages, but I've finally found you again!”

“Sorry, grandfather?” Pedro interrupted. “Do you mean to say doctor William is your – our great-granddad?”

“Y-you know each other?” Sofia asked, looking from one to the other.

“Barely,” Catarina said, stunned. “I-I helped him up the other day when he tripped, and we talked for a while. That's all.”

“What do you mean, child?” Sofia's great-grandfather asked. “Do you mean...”

“Right, introductions, or re-introductions, I guess:” Sofia said. “Grandfather, these are Catarina and Pedro, my cousins... Your other great-grandchildren!”

The other three were all stunned to silence. “You...” the old Weavile stammered. “You must be descended from Mauricio! He must've had more children after he left...”

Catarina nodded stiffly.

“...How- How is he?”

“...He's dead,” Catarina said sadly. “The earthquake...”

Sofia hadn't expected the news to make her great-grandfather so sad. “I'm sorry,” he whispered. “I'm so sorry... I-I had hoped that perhaps I could have seen him again. I never... I never apologised to him...”

“Apologise? What happened, grandfather?” Sofia whispered.

“Just the foolishness of a very stupid old man,” he said, full of regret. “I never was a good father to him, child. I... I tried to force a life upon him I thought would make him happy. Tried to make him live my life, only better. I don't think I ever truly realised that he was a very different person with very different wishes until it was far too late. Never accepted his choices, never accepted his ambitions. Never thought the girls he went out with were good enough for him. I'm... I'm afraid I treated each and every one of them rather rudely. And when he got one of them – your grandmother – pregnant, well, child, our conflict only got worse. Eventually, when your father was still young, we had a terrible confrontation. I... I said many things I never should have. That was the last time I ever saw my son...” Sofia was shocked to see tears rolling down his face. “I... I do not know why he left your father with me, child. I tried to find him again, apologise for my words and actions, but all I managed to find out was that he'd moved to Valadares. But it was a big city, and I couldn't find him...”

Sofia hugged her great-grandfather, trying to comfort him, as bizarre and backwards as that felt.

“I resolved to be a much better grandfather than I ever was a father. I raised your father
with all the love and respect I never did show my own son, doing my very best to atone for my mistakes in this way. I-I had ruined one boy's childhood; I had to do everything I could to make things better for my grandson.”

“You did, grandfather,” Sofia reassured him, “daddy loved you a great deal.”

He nodded. “He grew up well. I cannot describe my happiness when he found a sweet girl and they had a daughter together,” he affectionately touched Sofia's nose. “I tried to find Mauricio once more, to let him know he was a grandfather now, but I still could not find him. And then, when your parents died in that horrible accident... Well, I was getting on a bit in years, but I did not hesitate to take care of you, child, and give you too the childhood I should have given my own son.”

Sofia gave him a hug. “You always were wonderful to me, grandfather. You were always sweet and patient, even if you'd raised three generations in a row.”

The Weavile smiled gently. “I did it gladly, child. Still,” he chuckled, “I suppose I should count myself lucky there's little chance of you and Larissa adding a fourth generation to that, hmm?”

Sofia froze.

Her grandfather frowned. “That said, I should like to have a word with her; she clearly hasn't been taking very good care of you. Look at you, child, you're skin and bone!”

Sofia sighed, feeling the tears sting again. “She's dead, grandfather...”

He closed his arms around her tightly. “Oh, child. I'm so sorry that you've had to go through that at your age. I know there's nothing I can do to truly make it better, but I wish I'd been there for you at least...”

“I had Catarina and Pedro, grandfather. I wasn't alone, in the end...”

Sofia's cousins had been quiet for a long time. Their great-grandfather looked at them sadly now. “The way I treated your grandfather was the greatest mistake of my life. I don't think I shall ever forgive myself, yet I hope you can at least talk to me.”

Sofia had finally begun sawing as her cousins exchanged a look. “Well,” Catarina said cautiously, “I'm not cool with how you treated granddad... But at least you're sorry about it. And you're still family. I guess we should give you a chance?” she exchanged another look with Pedro.

“Yeah,” said the Snorunt. “Plus, you seemed pretty cool earlier.”

“Thank you,” their great-grandfather said. “I... I just wish it wasn't too late for me to talk to Mauricio...”

At last, Sofia sawed through the fence. “Done! You're free, grandfather!”

“Now, how will we get out?” Catarina asked. “Unless you brought wings for all of us, we'll have to leave through the door. I don't think we can easily get past the guards...”

“No problem,” Sofia smirked. “Just free everyone here as fast as you can. I'm going to cause a massive distraction that's sure to give them a lot more to worry about than your escape.”

Sofia handed off the saw and was helped back up through the ceiling by the others. She flew up once again, climbing as rapidly as she could to get out of the light. She landed on the tower easily; she really was getting better at this. Quickly making her way down to the powder room, she sat down on a keg and waited. While the building the prisoners were being kept in was probably far enough away that they weren't in any danger, it still wouldn't do to blow the tower up while pokémon were still in chains. She's give all of them a chance to escape, if she could. So she waited. And while she waited, she began to feel guilty. Pokémon were patrolling around the tower all the time. They could easily be killed when she blew it up. Part of her thought it was their own fault, for all the pokémon they were forcing to work and kept chained up. And yet she felt sorry for them, and hated herself for being about to kill again. Maybe she could warn everyone somehow, give them time to get clear...

“Hold on,” she exclaimed. “Why am I being stupid?” She could just set the fire at the top of the tower. That way, they'd have time to run before the explosion and wouldn't linger about. It'd also give Sofia more time to escape herself, and probably make a bigger distraction.

Figuring it was time, she made a little heap of papers upstairs and felt in her pocket for her lighter... “Oh no...” She had left it with her other stuff. She shone her torch around to see if there was anything she could use instead. No, obviously a tower full of gunpowder wouldn't have anything to make a fire with. Except... Maybe she could short-circuit her torch? No, she'd be working in the dark, and her battery would never have enough power to make more than a tiny spark.

It was a good idea, though; she just needed to short-circuit something else: the lights! She quickly rushed downstairs to get some of the equipment used for making the gunpowder, and then got to work. She only hoped no-one was checking in on the prisoners... She worked fast, and soon enough had two long, torn wires running out from one of the lamps. She carefully touched their open ends to each other, just barely above the pile of paper she'd made. There was a flash, a bang, a scent of ozone, and then a surge of heat as the paper ignited. Sofia giggled and quickly unfolded her wings as the fire began to spread. In fact, it spread rather faster than she'd expected. She jumped off the tower's edge, soaring on the wind and looking back to see the fire already danced on the roof.

The pokémon down there hadn't seen it yet. They were talking to each other, or patrolling or doing other things and weren't looking up. A flash of Lubyanka's corpse chilled Sofia. She couldn't kill even more pokémon... “FIRE!!!” she shrieked. The guards looked up in surprise. “Run, get out of here!”

An ice beam zoomed right past her, but the pokémon had at least seen the fire now. They were doing the smart thing and fleeing. Sofia did the same; she went into a bit of a dive to speed up and get away, while the attacks continued to fly past her. She looked back and saw the entire tower was now ablaze, base to top. Suddenly, a powerful beam tore right through her left wing, quite near her body. She instantly lurched downward in that direction. Screaming, she tried to correct with her other wing, while trying to somehow cover the hole with her hands, but she started spinning rapidly while the ground got closer and closer. She had no control at all, couldn't even slow down or stop the nauseating spiral of death.

There was a great impact as she hit the ground at full speed, and then an even bigger one as the tower exploded and a hot, powerful shockwave washed over her. Everything continued spinning as it went dark.

–

Sofia woke up with a massive headache. Everything was moving... No, hold on, someone was carrying her in his arms. Opening her eyes, she discovered it was a Rhydon. “Hi!” she greeted him. “What's going on?”

“You're awake!” he said, stating the obvious. “She's awake!” he called to someone.

“Yeah, yeah, I am,” Sofia said.

“Sofia!” Catarina, running along, said. “Glad you're still with us; we were worried about you!”Now that Sofia looked about, she saw they were running with a large group of pokémon through the clearing. Burning rubble lay everywhere, and a bunch of unfriendly pokémon were chasing the group.

“Did I miss something?” Sofia wondered.

“Quite a lot,” Catarina said, “but I'll tell you- bugger.”

Their way was barred by another group of pokémon. While there were more of them, most of the captives were in no condition to fight. Sofia hopped out of the Rhydon's arms. Her wings were a twisted and broken mess and she had a big, painful lump on her head, but she thought she was alright otherwise.

“Which one of you,” a Scyther spat furiously, “started the fire?!”

Sofia stepped forward, a bit shakily. “It was me.”

Suddenly, within the blink of an eye, the Scyther stood in front of her and there was the burning pain of a thin, shallow cut on Sofia's right cheek. “Then you die,” the insect spat. “The rest of you are lucky you're still useful. You'll get to work building a brand new tower right away. None of you will be allowed to sleep, eat, or drink until it's done. As for this Kirlia...” he lifted his scythe up high.

Suddenly he screamed as he was hit by four ice beams at once: three of them from Sofia's relatives. The fourth, which hit him right in the scythe, came from behind. “I'm afraid I can't let you do that,” said a smooth voice. A Glaceon and a Vaporeon had entered the lights of the clearing, and stood there, casually at ease like they were just making a friendly visit.

The Scyther recovered after a moment. “That's all?” he sneered. “You're the big rescue? Two pokémon?”

Aqua smirked. “For now.”

Boreas nodded. “But two's enough.”

“Really?” The Scyther boasted. “You think you can handle us all with just the two of you and some half-dead slaves?”

Boreas laughed. “Of course I don't. I never said it two was enough to defeat you.”

“You did!”

“Didn't. I just said it was enough.”

The Scyther frowned. “Fine, I'll bite. Enough for what?”

Aqua and Boreas exchanged an amused glance. “Haven't you figured that out yet?” the Vaporeon smirked.

“You get one more chance to talk, then I have my troops kill you.”

“Fine, fine,” Boreas said. “We're enough to keep you talking until the actual big rescue shows up.”

A worried whisper went through the enemy crowd. “What?”

“Oh yeah,” Boreas said. “You see, we just happened to be in town.”

“Getting ready to go to sleep, in fact,” Aqua continued, “when we were alerted by that explosion. Who did that, anyway?”

“I did!” Sofia chirped.

“Very good,” Aqua smiled. “It led us right here.”

“What about the rescue?” The Scyther impatiently asked.

“We're getting to that,” Boreas said impishly, “if only you would stop interrupting. As it happens, we're both wanted by the constabulary. They followed us right into this city, you know. And I figure, if the explosion attracted us, it probably attracted them too. And I suspect they'll be a little more concerned with the pokémon who enslaved a whole bunch of others right before their eyes than the two comparatively innocent fugitives they've chased across Fournaria, don't you?”

“It's a bluff!” the Scyther said, full of obvious worry. “Kill them! Kill them!”

As if on cue, a furious-looking Bisharp strode into the clearing, followed by dozens of others. While they all wore black scarves, Sofia didn't get the impression they were malicious or thuggish, like most of the pokémon she'd met who wore those. “Under the authority vested in me by the government of Fournaria,” Stewart spoke loudly, “all of you are under arrest.”

The Scyther smirked. “Stand down, colonel,” he said. “We're conducting a secret operation under the orders of prime minister Tacito himself. You are all ordered to put yourself under my command and help me recapture my workforce.”

The colonel raised a metal eyebrow. “I don't get the impression your workforce wants to continue their work.”

“He enslaved us!” someone shouted.

“They beat us! Liguria died last week!”

“We're a special unit,” the Scyther explained, “answerable only to the prime minister himself. Our work here is necessary to keep the peace in Fournaria. Stand down.”

The colonel took a step forward. Sofia's heart chilled as it looked like he was about to shake the other's hand. But then, instead, he hit the Scyther right on the head, knocking him out immediately. “You are all under arrest,” the Bisharp repeated calmly. “Charges will be brought against the prime minister for ordering your unconstitutional and unethical conduct once I find out exactly what you've been doing.”

The other constables rushed forward. A battle started as some of the pokémon tried to resist, but they were outnumbered and leaderless.

“Colonel Stewart,” Boreas said happily. “I knew you'd eventually see reason.”

“You and your wife are still under arrest,” the Bisharp said.

“What?!” Boreas exclaimed. “Even now?”

“I've told you before: no matter what the prime minister did, Aqua still tried to assassinate him.”

Sofia stepped forward. “Colonel? I found this letter in the tower. It might b-be interesting to you. It's signed by the Shadow, but I think you'll recognise the writing as the prime minister's. Plus, didn't they say they took their orders from him?”

The Bisharp looked quickly through the letter. He was quiet for a time.

“Colonel,” Aqua said. “The evidence is mounting.”

The Bisharp closed his eyes in thought, then took off his scarf. “I will share this with my men once we're done here. We shall have to consider carefully... But for now, you may consider yourselves free pokémon. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a battle to win.”

Sofia would've cheered. Her family was rescued, they had made a new friend, and all these nasty pokémon were getting arrested, rapidly losing the battle. But seeing Boreas again weighed heavily on her heart. In her anger, she had said many horrible things to him, blamed him for surviving. Now she saw how childish and awful she'd been to him, how much her behaviour towards him was related to her violent outbursts. “B-Boreas?” she stepped forward. “Er, can we talk?”

Boreas gave her a somewhat guilty look. “Sure,” he said, not very enthusiastically.

Sofia wanted to talk in private, so they walked away from the commotion a bit. Now that the last of the Shadow's pokémon had been arrested, all the captives were celebrating and thanking the police. When they had gone far enough to be alone, Sofia awkwardly stood there, unsure of what to say. “B-Boreas, I shouldn't – that is, I don't think – I mean – I want to -” she took a deep breath. “I'm sorry. I was really unfair to you. It's not your fault that Larissa d-died.”

Boreas sighed, giving a weak smile. “I've tried to tell myself that for the past three months.”

“I-I just want to say... I don't blame you any more. It would've been even worse if you'd died too, andand I was childish to get angry at you. I'm sorry.”

“I'm sorry too,” Boreas said. “I'm sorry for what you had to go through. I know it's not my fault, but... Well, it's hard not to play the blame game when you lose someone.”

Sofia nodded. “I noticed...” There was another thing she wanted to talk about, but she didn't know if it was a good idea. It might tear open the barely-healed wound in her heart. Boreas might take offence, or say no... “I-I wanted to ask you something too...”

“Yes?” Boreas said.

“It's-It's... Well, er... I-I never really got to say goodbye. To her. I-I didn't know she was going to die. Andand she doesn't even have a grave... I... I wasn't there for her when she died. Andand, well, I'm a psychic type, even if my powers are weak... And you were there. I-I wanted to ask – and you should say no if you don't want, b-because I won't be angry or sad since it's your prerogative – I wanted to ask if I can look at your memory of her death.”

“I see.” It was impossible to read Boreas' expression.

“I won't look at anything else!” she squeaked. “Andandand if I do, you can easily kick me out of your mind.”

“I know,” Boreas said, “I've been attacked by psychics in the past. This would be the first time I submitted voluntarily, though.”

Sofia was quiet, waiting for his answer with bated breath.

He smiled. “Alright. If you think it'll help you, I'll do it.”

“Thank you!” Sofia squeaked. “Thank you, thank you!” But she quickly felt fear coming too. She wasn't sure whether she really wanted to see it...

“I take it I just open my mind to you and think of the memory to show you?” Boreas asked.

Sofia nodded. They sat down and she put her hands to his temples. She focussed, and suddenly she was in his mind. The rapid, stormy thoughts and powerful emotions were surprisingly familiar to Sofia; it was a lot more like her own mind than Larissa's had been. There was the memory, coming up surrounded by painful regret. Sofia swallowed her fear and let Boreas' mind take her into it.

Suddenly, she was in an underground room lit with a deep red glow. She was a Glaceon! Boreas comfortably stood on all fours, his hearing and sense of smell were much sharper than Sofia's, and there was a very pleasant cold inside him. More than any of that, however, Sofia noticed an incredibly strong mental power forcing Boreas to comply, to fight Larissa. Nothing could go against that kind of might... Nothing except Larissa. Step by step, she walked towards the Shadow, her iron will resisting his mental powers. She pounced in a cloak of flame, slashing and biting at the Shadow, who screamed and was thrown off his seat. Then she burned the seat itself, made the metal glow, and the powerful mental force distorted, pulsated, screamed in Boreas' mind. There was a final scream in Boreas' mind that came with a momentary blip of a different mental power, one that reminded Sofia terribly of the times when she'd touched Larissa's mind, and then the world cleared.

The memory changed, went faster, skipped over the details. Sofia felt Boreas' terrible pain and regret through their mental link and almost retreated from it as it added to her own feelings, watching Larissa get taken down by the Shadow and kicked again and again by his metal foot.

The memory returned to full details as Boreas approached Larissa's fallen, terribly wounded form. "S... Snowman," she rattled, opening her steel-grey eyes a little bit. The corners of her mouth arced up a little in what could only be described as a peaceful smile. "I did it... Saved them... Prae... Clara is safe..."

Boreas nodded, and Sofia knew she was crying. "You did... Well,” Boreas said. “I... I couldn't-"

A trembling front paw touched Boreas' own. "I know. It was... Hard. T-tell my brothers-"

"No!" Boreas interrupted. "No, you tell them whatever it is! I can save you! I-I can cool down your wounds! Help prevent blood loss! You're going to be alright, I can save you!" Sofia felt his desperation.

Larissa laughed very weakly. "Can you?"

Boreas looked over her. Both he and Sofia knew it was hopeless. "...No..."

"It's... Alright," she wheezed. "Just... Tell my brothers... Tell Sofia... Tell them I died a quick and... Easy death."

"No!" Boreas cried. "No, I won't! You - you're not going to die! Evolve! Become a Typhlosion, right now! The- the process, it will heal your wounds - it saved my friend once and-"

"Not this friend..." Larissa whispered, still with a tiny smile. "I'm too weak... Just... Tell them. And... Tell Sofia... Oh, she knows... Of course she knows... My sweet, clever Sofia... Just... Wish I'd told her myself..." for the first time, Larissa looked regretful. "Tell her I love her... I love her so much... And this changes nothing... I would've... Stayed with her until my death... Either way..." As the words left on her last breath, Larissa's eyes slowly closed.

–

Sofia stood on a cliff near the sea. The setting Sun bathed the cliff in deep red light, and blossoms and flowers everywhere showed it was high spring. This was no memory any more, she realised, looking around. She was a Kirlia again, and Boreas' thoughts were gone... But she wasn't in Praeclara. Just what was going on?

Then she saw her, standing behind her, a happy smile on her face and a loving light in her grey eyes. “Hello, Sofe.”

Sofia stood as frozen. She couldn't look away, she couldn't take a single step, she couldn't think, she couldn't talk. At last, she found her voice. “Larissa?” she squeaked.

Larissa closed her eyes and nodded, her smile full of love.

Sofia's breathing became fast and hectic. It couldn't be true. She knew it was impossible, yet here she stood, far more real than the memories she'd seen in Boreas' mind, the wind gently blowing through the fluffy fur between her ears. Sofia took a wibbly step toward her, unsure how to use her legs properly. “That's impossible,” she whispered.

Larissa shook her head. “Just very improbable.”

As Sofia took a few more steps to Larissa, her legs finally gave way and she fell down on her knees right in front of her. Her knees smarted immediately, but it barely registered. Sofia raised a trembling hand to Larissa's face, terrified that she could just be an illusion. But there was the gentle touch of warm fur on her hand. “B-but how... You're dead...”

For the first time, Sofia could see the sadness in Larissa's smile as she nodded again. “Yes, Sofe, I am. I'm so sorry.”

Sofia choked on sudden tears and hugged herself tightly to Larissa, feeling immensely supported as she folded her strong, warm paws around her back. “Wh-what are you?” she squeaked. “How can you be here? Where are we?”

Larissa gently brushed her paws through Sofia's hair. “I'm not sure,” she whispered. “You're the smart one, remember? I only just woke up here myself... But... I think we can make an educated guess. When I killed what was left of Mewtwo, I think the psychic link briefly short-circuited, and my mind and Boreas' briefly touched... I think it left some kind of imprint of me in his mind, dormant and inactive on its own. I doubt if he ever noticed it. But then you touched his mind... And you must've had some small imprint of my mind as well from the times you touched my mind. I think the two connected, activated each other, and here I am... It'd explain why I know all this stuff, doesn't it?”

Sofia's mind was abuzz with ideas. “Y-you mean Mewtwo's powers messing up as it died, and me not being very good at using them well have allowed you to come b-back?”

Sofia could feel a teardrop hit the shoulder where Larissa was holding her. “Only for a little while, I think... I expect I will disappear when the connection between you and Boreas is broken.”

“Then I won't break it!” Sofia said, letting go of Larissa to look her in the face. “I'll stay with you!”

She shook her head. “I can already feel myself disappearing. I don't have long either way.”

“No!” Sofia said, “No, I'm not letting you die again! I-I will find a way, Larissa, I will-”

“Larissa is already dead, Sofe,” she whispered gently. “I'm no more than a footprint on the beach, less than a dream. There's nothing you can do. And if these are my final moments... I want to spend them with you.”

Sofia swallowed, the red light on Larissa's beautiful face refracted everywhere by the tears in her eyes. She hugged Larissa again, very tightly. “I understand, 'Rissa... How long do we have?”

“Not long,” Larissa whispered, gently petting her back.

Sofia cried in Larissa's warm fur, feeling so very safe once more. They were silent for a long time, simply relishing in the opportunity to see and hold each other one last time and supporting each other. “I miss you,” Sofia whispered.

Larissa softly petted her back. “I know, Sofe...” she whispered. “I'm so sorry. I had to do it. So many lives were... I-I-”

Sofia looked up and kissed Larissa softly on the cheek. “I know,” she said, drying a tear running down Larissa's face. “I understand.”

“I love you,” Larissa said, her voice trembling. “Sofe, I love you so much...”

Sofia nodded. “I-I love you too, Larissa... I just wish we'd had more time together...”

“Me too,” Larissa squeaked, tears in her eyes. “I wanted to grow old with you. Become two little old ladies who embarrass and gross out everyone by snogging each other in public.”

Sofia giggled. “We would've b-been the most embarrassing old grannies you'd ever seen.”

Larissa lovingly caressed her cheek. “If only. We'll have to make do with the few months we had together.”

Sofia found herself smiling. “I think... I think I can do that. At- at least those few months were wonderful.”

“The best of my life,” Larissa cried. “The very best, my sweet Sofe, despite all the rotten things I went through. We use-used every single day well, didn't we?”

“All of them,” Sofia whispered, tears trickling down her face as she tightly entwined her hands with Larissa's front paws.

Larissa nodded. “Now p-please, Sofia. I-I know you've finally begun to recover. Don't stop. I died... But I couldn't take the idea that you'd stop living as well. So p-please, my beautiful, sweet Sofia... Live. Don't mourn me. I chose my fate, and it's a good one. Live, Sofe. Laugh, and do your science, and enthuse about your interests until people's ears fall off. Forget the grumpy old Quilava you once loved. Make friends, maybe fall in love again and marry some incredibly lucky girl. Or don't: stay single and happy and see the wonders of the universe that so fascinates you with friends. Either way, Sofe, when you're very old and happy, think of me again. Remember the good times we had, and marvel at how different your life could've been.”

“I will,” Sofia said through a haze of happy tears. “I will, Larissa...”

Their final kiss was soft, tender, and full of love, just like their first. They both knew it was time. They touched their foreheads together for a few seconds, and then Sofia finally got up.

“Thank you, Larissa,” she said, looking at her one last time. “Thank you for this goodbye. It's... What I've wished for more than anything else...”

“Goodbye, my lovely Sofia,” Larissa gently said, her voice beginning to blend in with the wind.

“Goodbye, Larissa,” Sofia whispered. She closed her eyes, then opened them again. The sunset cliffs were gone, replaced by the clearing. She was in Praeclara, and it was early autumn, not spring.

“What happened?” Boreas gasped. “I-I blacked out for a while, I think. Are you-” he was interrupted by Sofia's tight hug. He hesitated, but then hugged her back. “Hey, what's the matter? Did something go wrong?”

“No,” Sofia smiled, her cheeks wet with tears. “It couldn't have gone better. Thank you.”

“Sofia,” Boreas said with compassion, “I'm sorry that made you cry...”

“Don't be,” Sofia whispered. “These are good tears.”

Larissa was dead, but the memories of her were as alive as anything. And so was Sofia. They'd had three wonderful months together, and nothing could ever take the happiness of those days away from her.

 

[apenpaap]

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Plan

Past

The area between the ruins of the original Praeclara and New Praeclara were some of the flattest, easiest lands in all of Fournaria. There was a lot of open farmland here, as well as hills here, but no mountains; as a result, it was rather warm. Especially considering it was the end of August and Boreas and Aqua were locked up in a wooden box on wheels all day long. There wasn't much to do all day, and Boreas played up the claustrophobia he grudgingly had to admit he might have caught a touch of. Whenever he felt himself starting to get uncomfortable and edgy about the small cell, he would overact his fear until he was let out. Part of the reason was that it allowed him to go outside, feel the wind on his face, and stretch his legs. But more importantly, he was lulling his captors into a false sense of security by behaving like the perfect prisoner and not even making the slightest attempt at escape, even when he honestly believed he stood a chance. It also allowed him to talk to Stewart from time to time. The Bisharp clearly agreed with him on some points, yet would insist Tacito had legitimate reasons for all his tyrannical behaviour and was just handling the emergency as well as he could. Nor would he ever agree about taking action. Boreas found it difficult to keep his patience sometimes, but kept doing his best to stay calm and make the colonel see sense either way.

“He's not setting us free,” Boreas whispered to Aqua on the seventh evening in their cage. They were lying close together, ready to sleep, so they could whisper softly enough not to risk being overheard. The only sound that came from outside was the nearby river's rapid flow as it broke on rocks and fells down many a small waterfall.

“I didn't expect he would,” Aqua whispered back. “Still, worth a try.”

“He would've been very useful to have on our side, but we don't have any more time to convince him; we'll be in New Praeclara tomorrow. So, time to get out. I'll have a panic attack in the morning and set you free. I think they trust me not to escape fairly well by this point, especially when I overdo it a bit.”

“It's going to be as easy as that, is it?” Aqua sounded sceptical.

Boreas shrugged. “I'll think of a way to get you out, don't worry.”

“Maybe you should escape alone.”

“What? And leave you behind?”

“They'll need to pursue you, right? So they won't go to New Praeclara; they'll follow you and take me along, and we can figure out how I get out later.”

Boreas shook his head. “We're only a day away from New Praeclara. I'll bet Stewart would just split them up and have some of his men take you to the city while the rest pursues me.”

Aqua sighed. “Yeah, I guess. But look: I'm a tough girl. I can handle Diego, and I can probably escape his clutches myself. No sense in getting both of us captured when you've got a perfectly good opportunity to escape alone.”

“You're right,” Boreas smiled. “I'm still not leaving you behind, though.”

“I'm not afraid of Diego,” Aqua defiantly said.

Boreas chuckled. “I know that. But I'd rather you meet him on your terms, not his.”

“Yes, but if that's impossible-”

“Then I'm still going to try. I'll escape alone if I really can't think of anything, but you know me; I'll figure something out. Probably something stupid, but something at least. Anyway, I'm not sure I could subject you to prison food after the really quite fantastic cooking we've had the past week.”

“Well, you never know,” Aqua smirked. “Maybe all prisoners in Fournaria get delicious gourmet meals, not just those lucky enough to get captured by a unit with an excellent cook who doesn't want to bother making separate dishes for his colleagues and prisoners.”

Boreas smirked. “Even worse; you'd get too heavy to move.”

“You jerk,” Aqua laughed and gave him a shove, then pounced on top of him. “I'll get you for that!”

They began to play-fight, but Boreas hit his head on the wooden wall almost immediately in the tight quarters. “Oof!”

Aqua laughed. “Maybe not enough space for that.”

“No...” Boreas groaned, rubbing the bump on his head.

–

“Help! Help! Let me out! Let me out! The walls are going to crush me! Please, help!”

“Already?” said the slightly bored voice of a Virini, the Vigoroth who usually guarded them. “Alright, you can come on out if you don't get in the way.”

“Thank you, thank you!” Boreas rushed outside, panting rapidly as the door was briefly opened. He played out a heavy panic attack while cautiously taking in the situation. The camp was busy being broken up, and, as he expected, no-one was paying him too much attention while he was hamming up the panic. He could probably escape, but he'd meant what he'd told Aqua. He already knew no part of their cell would snap-freeze easily, and Virini, who had the key, had gone, so stealing it wouldn't work either. Freezing the lock's inside to create a key of ice tended to work less well than you'd expect, as a thin sliver of ice was barely ever strong enough to turn a lock. Boreas looked around him, squinting against the low morning Sun reflecting off the rapidly flowing river. He grinned.

Cautious no-one was watching, he very quickly took the breaks off the cell's wheels and whipped up a mighty stormwind that pushed against the cell. It slowly began to roll towards the river, accelerating as it hit the sloped riverbank. A tent was torn off the ground by the wind and flew off. Hail crystallised in the air and pelted the camp. Someone shouted, and Boreas knew he had been noticed. He ran after the cell rolling downhill, jumped, giving himself a bit of a boost with a powerful updraught, and scrambled onto its roof. “Hang on, love, it's going to get a little bumpy!”

“Stop it!” Aqua protested. “You'll get us both killed!”

Boreas blew several chasing constables off their feet. “I'm getting us out of here!”

“Not like this! You'll drown and I'll be smashed to bits!”

“That's a problem for future us!” Boreas said, “Hold on tight!”

The cell crashed into the wild river with a mighty splash, and Boreas had to dig his nails into the wood to avoid being thrown off. A great wall of water rose up on the one side and quickly began pushing it over. The roar of small waterfalls and the river breaking on rocks was deafening. As Aqua's wooden cage fell over, into the river onto its long side, Boreas scrambled to stay on top, as he was sure to be crushed against a rock in his current position. The only way he was able to hold on against the mighty force of rushing water was by freezing his paws to the wood one by one. He couldn't breathe and could barely see as the river flowed right into his face.

A great shock almost threw him off as the cell hit a rock at high speed and made a quick half-rotation in passing. Suddenly, Boreas was above the surface, and greedily drank in precious air. They had already floated pretty far downstream and were going through rough terrain as the river meandered through a rocky forest, but their pursuers weren't giving up.

Boreas was weightless for a moment as they fell off a small waterfall and hit the deep water underneath with the cell's short end. The cell precariously balanced, up straight for a moment as it already began to shoot up under its own floatatiousness. Unfortunately, Boreas was still frozen to one end, and, as the cell shot up, it fell in his direction. He took a deep breath before his back hit the water with an ear-popping impact as the cell above him pressed him deep down. The current pulled hard on him, now this way then the other, and he had no choice but to let go if he didn't want to either drown or be crushed. The current swept him away from Aqua's cell in an instant.

He tried to swim up, to the air his lungs begged for, through the dark, muddy chaos of water. A severe, dull pain went through him as he hit a rock sideways, his hips aching as he swam up, getting nauseous as the current spun him around and around. He had a quick bite of air, then he was dragged under once more, scraped over the rough, sharp stones of the riverbed. He tried to push himself up, but couldn't get to the surface. He was the river's plaything, powerless against its mighty currents as he was swept away; he didn't even know what side was up any more, and he was about to give in to his breathing reflex. The water was moving too fast to freeze, even if that would have solved anything.

Suddenly, he was grabbed by strong paws and a kiss found his lips, pushing much-needed air into his burning lungs. Aqua held him and swam through the wild river with him, taking him to the surface at last. She dragged him through the powerful current and deposited him on the rocky riverbank, where he spat out the water he'd taken in and gasped for air.

“You idiot,” Aqua snapped. “You could've killed us both!”

“Sorry,” Boreas coughed. “I didn't think it'd be quite that dangerous. Good thing you got out.”

“Only because I was lucky enough the door broke down when it hit a rock hard. Anyway, if you were hoping to get away with that stunt, we didn't. We need to go right now; they'll be right after us.”

Boreas got up, still panting. “Perfect!”

“Not perfect, we have to run!”

“I know! And they'll be right behind us. They'll follow us right to Praeclara!”

As they ran, Aqua looked at him. “You're hoping to convince Stewart with whatever we find there.”

“I don't think we can beat Diego on our own. He's too powerful. We need allies if we're going to do anything about him.”

–

Present

As Sofia walked off, tears still in her eyes, she left Boreas confused. He had no idea why he'd blacked out for a while, but at least seeing his memories had clearly helped Sofia. In any case, he had no time to dwell on it. Right now, Stewart probably didn't have a plan yet. He had a narrow window of opportunity to influence him. The constables were busy imprisoning their many captives into the same building those very captives had used to house their slaves. “I don't think you should imprison that Krokorok, colonel,” Boreas said with a grin. “He's the one who led us here in the first place.”

“Took you long enough,” Obnard snapped, pulling his arm free from the Charmeleon holding it with an ugly look. “When I have directions for you put on posters, I mean now, not in a week or five.”

“A defector?” the colonel asked.

“Yes, he is,” said Aqua. “If you look at some of the posters with my rather cute mug on them, you'll see a little message scrawled for me.”

“Yeah” Obnard complained, “a message I had some guys put on them six weeks ago, lady. Did you take a vacation or something?”

“Yeah, I took a vacation to your old workplace, where I rescued Boreas. No thanks to you, by the way, who never bothered to tell me a thing about his whereabouts.”

“I was busy,” Obnard snapped. “Plus, everyone said he was dead.”

Boreas scraped his throat. “Anyway, what are you going to do next, colonel?”

The Bisharp frowned in thought.

“I do hope,” Boreas continued, “you're not about to say something stupid like 'take the captives back to New Praeclara to be put on trial and press charges against the prime minister'. You know that won't work, right?”

Stewart sighed. “And why, pray tell, won't it?”

“Because Tacito is a tyrant and won't allow you. Or he'll rig the trial. Either way, you won't accomplish anything.”

“You are so sure of yourself.”

“Not at all,” Boreas said. “I'm sure of him, though. I've fought that Zoroark several times before, and still I made the mistake of underestimating him. But not this time. I've got a plan.”

Others had joined the conversation and were listening in. Several constables and captives, as well as Sofia, her eyes still a bit red, and her cousins. “What would you do, then?” Virini asked.

“Well,” Boreas smiled, “that's up to you, ultimately. All of you Fournarians, I mean.”

“Us?” Sofia asked.

“Yes, all of you. When we beat Diego, Aqua and I will just leave. You lot will have to live with whatever solution to the problem we use.”

“Get to the suggestion, love,” Aqua said.

“Alright. My suggestion is revolution.”

“I beg your pardon?” asked Stewart. “You expect us to take up arms against the legitima- well, the government?”

“Arms?” Boreas said. “Not at all. In fact, I'd advice you to avoid as much violence as you can. You don't get rid of people like Diego using violence and fear; those are his weapons. Sure, you can use them too, but that's attacking him on his strong points. You probably can't do it better than him, so you'll fail. And if you do manage to get rid of him like that, it'll require overwhelming force. Which not only means a giant waste of effort on your end, but also a giant waste of life on everyone's end, as things don't get pretty that way. And even if you succeed... Do you really want your reborn Fournaria to be built on foundations of blood? That's a poor way to start off.”

“How would you do it, then?”

Boreas shrugged. “Well, that's the question. If anyone has any suggestions...”

“There's no limit to what a clever and creative mind can do,” Sofia piped up. “If we outsmart the Shadow, infiltrate his side, show people the facts so they can make up their own minds, he won't have a shoe to stand on!”

“That's pretty good,” Catarina said, “but I think we can do better. We should focus on rallying everyone, inspiring them, unite them all against Tacito. If everyone wants him gone, removing him is only a formality.”

“Pokémon like Diego are their own worst enemy,” Aqua said. “There would be a revolution sooner or later, whether we start it or not. So I say: let's use his own greed against him. Find the pokémon he's hurt and help them, get them to join us.”

“We should show everyone Tacito's losing,” Pedro said, “organise strikes, demonstrations, disobey him in every way we possibly can. Let all Fournaria feel he's on his way out, get the revolutionary spirit going!”

“You're all thinking way too soft,” Obnard said. “He's too powerful; you won't get rid of him without taking some actual action. I say we find out who he really needs, the ones he depends on most, and we ensure they have a tragic accident.”

Aqua rolled her eyes. “What part of bloodless revolution didn't you get?”

“Lady, you're fooling yourself if you think you can beat the Shadow by holding hands and singing songs. I'm not saying we should start massacres, but the fact is that just because you don't take proper action, doesn't mean your revolution will be bloodless. In fact, I think quite a lot of blood will be spilled as it's crushed into the ground. All I'm saying is: remove a few key players. Make sure the Shadow doesn't have his most reliable lackeys any more. If he has to rely on a bunch of inept weaklings with no taste for blood, you're already halfway there. It'll make a world of difference.”

“It certainly will make a world of difference,” Aqua snapped, “it'll lead us down the same self-destructive path Diego is on.”

“No-one shall kill anyone on my watch,” colonel Stewart stated firmly.

“It's gonna send the wrong message,” Catarina said, “it'll tell people we're a bunch of murderers. Plus, you'll achieve much more, without bloodshed, if you inspire a lot of people and make a stand together.”

“I don't think it's such a b-bad idea, actually...” A small voice said. All looked at Sofia in surprise. She blushed and seemed shocked that she said it, herself. “J-just as a last resort! I really don't want anyone to b-be killed, it's the last thing I want, andand we should only use it if there's absolutely no other way, but I think we'd be foolish not to use... M-murder as a tool if it's all we can do to stop the Shadow...”

Aqua frowned. “There is such a thing as having principles, you know. It's very important we do this the right way.”

Sofia spoke up a bit, putting her hands on her hips with a frown. “Well, I think it's important we do this at all. We must b-be sensible and logical about it. If it really is the best way to go about it, we shouldn't shy away from awful means to liberate Fournaria. There's too much at stake.”

“Tell me,” Aqua said darkly, “what's the road to Hell paved with again?”

“Clichés?” Sofia bit back.

“Please,” Boreas intervened. “I think all your ideas have great merit, and if we're going to dethrone Diego, we'll have to approach the problem from all sides. Even,” he said with emphasis, over Aqua's beginning protest, “Obnard's suggestion has some merit, although like Sofia said, we should stay away from it unless we have no other choice.”

“Thanks,” Obnard said. “I got more ideas, y'know. We should team up with Desiderio's remaining troops in our old hide-out. From what I can tell, Desiderio's been sending them out every now and then to attack something and spook everyone so the Shadow can claim more power to protect them from it. But they've been having a lot of desertion and changes of heart. They don't even think they're working for the Shadow any more, yet they're still being used as a scapegoat. That's gotta hurt morale. I think we could convince a lot of them to join us instead.”

“Murderers and traitors,” Stewart sniffed. “You would have us ally with those who willingly aided the Shadow in the past, and even now continue to do so?”

Boreas shrugged. “It'd turn an enemy into an ally. I don't think we can afford to be picky about our allies.”

“Necessity is the grandfather of strange bedfellows, I guess...” Sofia said.

“You said it,” Obnard said, “I'll leave tomorrow morning to go get them.”

“Now wait just one minute!” Stewart protested. “I still do not agree with this course of action!”

“Aww, muffin,” Obnard sneered. “Things not going your way?”

“Shut up,” Aqua said. “Look, colonel, I'm not entirely happy with it myself, but you're not in charge here. I don't think anyone is. Obnard, rotten though he is, is as much a part of this as you. That said,” she said to Obnard, “I want you to make it very clear to your colleagues, and to yourself as well, that there's to be no violence. Even if we're going to consider it in necessary situations, you won't be the ones who determine what's necessary. Understood?”

“Make it clear to myself?” Obnard said.

“Shut up,” Aqua said flustered. “Just remember that, alright?”

“Fine.”

“I think we should talk more in the morning,” Boreas said. “Get some more ideas in. Everyone's tired right now, so we could all use a good rest.”

Sofia yawned. “Good idea. I hadn't even thought of it, but I'm knackered. Anyway, follow me; there's this hardware store I used as my workshop, where I sleep...”

Catarina chuckled. “No need. We gave those jerks our sleeping quarters; we can take theirs.”

“Good one!” Sofia piped. “Much easier than walking through the ruins in the dark... Still, I was hoping I'd get to go back there again, maybe even rebuild my ornithopter. I guess we'll have to leave soon, though...”

The colonel sighed. “Indeed. It's good to be back here, even if it's for a brief time.”

“Why was the city abandoned?” Sofia asked. “Why didn't anyone try to rebuild?”

Stewart sighed. “Conditions were considerably harsher after the catastrophe. Fires were still raging, several fissures were oozing lava, and the dust made it almost impossible to breathe. We had to leave. The worst part is, we probably left a lot of wounded survivors behind...”

“Nothing you could've done,” Boreas said, “if things were that bad.”

“And now they're among the dead lying around, rotting, dishonoured. How did it come to this? We didn't even go back to bury the bodies... Left this great city worse than a graveyard...”

Aqua smiled. “You know it doesn't have to stay like that, right? A start has already been made rebuilding it. I think this would make a good headquarters for our revolution, and while it serves as such, more of it can be rebuilt, more of the dead disposed of.”

“Hmm. That's not a bad idea. Rebuild Praeclara as we rebuild Fournaria? Mind you, it's a monumental task, but we hardly need restore the entire city at once.”

“Small steps,” Boreas said. “That's the general approach we'll have to take anyway. I've made the mistake of rushing in too fast and unprepared a little too often, and usually I'm smart and lucky enough to get away with it. But not always.”

The Bisharp nodded. “In any case: I'll discuss things with my men.”

There was a murmur of support. “I think everyone'll be behind you, sir,” Virini said.

“Well,” Stewart said, “that may be so, but I will give anyone who disagrees with me leave to go. For obvious reasons, I can't order any of you to fight minister Tacito, tyrant or not.”

“Good,” Boreas said, “we can hardly expect pokémon who don't want to help out to join us.”

The colonel frowned in thought. “Good... I'm still not sure I truly want to help your revolution myself... But, I know it's the only way to truly help Fournaria at this point.”

“Took you long enough...” Boreas muttered a bit too loudly. “Er, sorry.”

The Bisharp frowned sharply. “This choice would be considered treason by many. Only a fool would take it lightly. And, I can assure you, I will prevent Fournaria from falling into anarchy at your hands.”

“My hands?” Boreas blurted out. “My hands?! My hands?! What makes you think I have any intention of making Fournaria fall into anarchy, or into anything at all, for that matter? All I'm interested in is getting rid of Diego. I'm not going to hold your hand and force you to do things in any kind of way; when Diego is done for, you, and everyone else who lives here, can figure out what you want to do yourselves.”

“Look,” Aqua said, “it's really getting too late for this. It's time for us all to sleep.”

“Quite right, quite right,” said the colonel as the group began to disperse.

As Boreas started thinking of finding a place to sleep for himself, he had another idea. “Wait! Everyone, come back, there's something we haven't discussed yet.”

There were a lot of sighs and groans as they turned back. Boreas figured he'd better be quick about it. “Remember the letter Sofia found? Diego is going to 'take total control' in October, and he'll need help with it. Help we prevented from coming.”

“Almost forgot that,” Aqua said. “What do you think 'take total control' means?”

“Well, I can't be certain,” Boreas said, “but consider the direction he's been moving Fournaria. With every passing day, he's becoming more and more of a dictator, but he still pretends his government is a democracy. But he can't keep postponing elections forever and keep grabbing emergency powers. He'll have to drop the pretence eventually. And that is what I think he'll do in early October.”

One of Stewart's men sniffed. “He'll never get away with it.”

Boreas smirked. “Not without help, certainly. That's why he ordered the pokémon here to come to his aid. He'd probably use them both to beat down protests, as well as to pretend they're rebels, painting our side as dangerous, violent lunatics. Sow some fear, pretend he's the reasonable one. Hence the gunpowder.”

“Despicable,” Stewart muttered.

“Well, it's not going to happen the way he thinks. He's expecting reinforcements from Fournaria, but he's going to get enemies instead. That's why we play along until that time.”

Aqua raised an eyebrow quizzically. “What do you mean, love? Pretend we haven't taken over the city?”

“Precisely! We send him a reply to his letter, saying he can expect our help and asking for further orders. When his messengers come to deliver more letters, we act like we're his lackeys. We don't start riling people up quite yet. Make him think he's won. And then, when the big day comes and he openly takes absolute power, he won't get support, but a revolution! Maybe we can get rid of him that very day, but even if we can't, it should finally expose him as a power-mad tyrant at least. After that, we should have little trouble convincing pokémon he's an evil nutter.”

“There is but one problem,” colonel Stewart said, “Tacito expects us to catch you and your wife at some point. It's already taken us weeks to do so. He will most definitely get suspicious by October.”

Boreas frowned. “Hmm. That's a problem, but it does give me an idea. Colonel, send him a message explaining we fled into the southern mountains or something, and that you're still in pursuit. Keep sending him messages every few days. That should buy you time. And then, when the time comes, tell him you've arrested us.”

“Arrested you?”

“Yes. Colonel, you're going to take the wifey and me back to New Praeclara, just in time for Diego's self-coup. We're arriving there the very same day. And when he starts his plan, we start ours and all spring into action. It'll give all of us a legitimate reason to be in the city, which could've been a bit of a problem otherwise.”

“Yes,” the colonel said pensively, “yes, that might work. Hmm, we'll have to work out the precise route you escaped to, to keep it as convincing as possible. If we do it properly, he shouldn't get too suspicious by the time I send him the news of your capture.”

Boreas grinned. For the first time since he'd been buried alive, he had an idea of how he was going to beat Diego.

 

[apenpaap]

Chapter Twenty-Six: Fournaria Awakens

This was it, the big day. The day he would finally drop the charade, the day he could stop putting on a show and appease the weak. In a few minutes, he'd go out there and tell Fournaria he now ruled them – as if it wasn't blindingly obvious before already. The crowd would get furious; he had chosen the way his speech had been announced in such a way to draw as many pokémon opposed to him as possible. They'd protest, and then the army would sweep in and make a clear statement to anyone else who intended to disobey him. And Ricardo's pokémon were on stand-by, ready to finish the job if the army wasn't enough. Diego looked into his mirror, and Tacito grinned back at him.

Everything was coming together today. Boreas and Aqua had even been arrested, and would arrive in New Praeclara today; perhaps they'd even get to see Diego crown himself, truly realise they had lost. And then, later today, Diego would have them killed. They'd escaped often enough – Boreas' escape from the oubliette was especially embarrassing, but in hindsight perhaps to be expected. The Glaceon had always had a knack for getting out of trouble. Well, not like he could do anything now. He had lost, and couldn't possibly do anything to stop Diego this time. He'd still kill the Glaceon, though. Just in case.

His knees ached dully, an unpleasant reminder of his advancing age, so he quickly sat down to give them a rest. Leaving Boreas alive, but buried, was but a minor mistake. He'd done worse that day. He balled his metal hand into a fist with anger. Look at me, he thought, happy I get to be emperor of Fournaria... When I could've been emperor of the Earth by now.

The stupid girl he'd used to spy on Boreas had turned out to have a backbone, and ruined his plan by taking the brilliantly created mind-control machine away from him by killing Mewtwo's brain inside. It had taken him years to figure out a way to control Mewtwo's power, to plan its abduction. He'd taken an enormous risk himself that day, even if he was immune to its powers. Years of hard work destroyed in a few seconds by some nobody. If not for Larissa, he'd be rapidly conquering the world now, crushing down any resistance by turning the very ground on which they stood into their worst enemy. Sure, he'd had a back-up plan, but it still hurt. He could still rule Fournaria... But not the world. There would be no conquests using Groudon as a weapon. He'd got to use it only twice. At least if it had been Boreas who had stopped him it'd have felt somewhat appropriate; that was something he had considered possible.

Enough thinking about the past. He had underestimated the girl, and there was nothing he could change about that now. It was nearly time for his speech, and he didn't want to keep the rabble waiting. He took another look in the mirror, making sure the illusion of minister Tacito's appearance was perfect, and then stepped out onto the balcony. A great crowd of all kinds of pokémon awaited him, looking up to him full of expectation. A great amount of noise washed over him; cheers, shouts, but also plenty of boos. Diego masked a malicious grin as he thought of those naysayers being butchered in a few minutes as a gracious smile. He gestured for the crowd to be quiet.

“My friends,” he began. “My friends, please, settle down. Thank you. I come before you today to discuss the problems Fournaria is in. I know all of you share my concern. We have good reason to worry. Most of our government was wiped out by the terrible catastrophe our most hated enemies inflicted on us. I was forced to serve you as your prime minister with a woefully incomplete government, and no chance to hold elections. After all, any idiot can see that to hold elections would be to introduce even more chaos and instability, which would play right into our enemy's hands!”

Diego spoke a little louder as the crowd got noisier. “The situation cannot continue like this, my friends. The current government is incomplete, elections are impossible, and Fournaria is under constant attack from within. That's why I have decided on a solution. Until the present crisis is over, Fournaria will be reorganised to allow your lawfully elected leader to serve you better. The reforms will give me the power I need to protect you, as well as the ability to fully form a new government without the instability of elections, which are officially postponed indefinitely. To better deal with the traitorous element in our society, treason and sedition now carry the penalty of death. While these reforms are in effect, I will use the title of emperor.”

Many voices shouted out, some in approval, but most in protest. That was alright. It would only make the statement the army was about to make clearer if there wasn't too much collateral damage. “My friends, I know that this decision is bound to be controversial. And I haven't taken it without the gravest misgivings, would never have even considered it if it wasn't absolutely necessary. Fournaria is on the edge of the abyss. Any fool can see that a change in leadership in the near future would introduce enough doubt and conflict to push it over the edge. As soon as I have solved our problems, I will of course step down. I love democracy, and I love freedom. But for now, we need the strong rule of a single leader, not the whims of change, to guide us into a bright future. I promise you this, my friends: when the old Fournaria returns, when elections are allowed once more, I will retire from politics. I will not participate in the elections to ensure they are conducted fairly and result in a change of leadership. Oh, how I look forward to that day. But right now, our enemies force me, against my will, to continue to lead you as your emperor.”

Diego smiled. “My friends, I know you will understand the need to make short-term sacrifices to guarantee our long-term stability and security. Remember, there are those who would seek to destroy Fournaria, our whole way of life. We can't allow that to happen. Thank you for your help. Your emperor loves you.”

And there they were. The shouts and anger, the pokémon starting to chant some kind of slogan. A few pokémon meekly left as the order was given to clear the square, but most stayed right where they were. So did Diego. He leaned on the balcony's edge and watched their anger with a smile. He'd hoped for a bit more support, but he'd settle for making a bigger example out of them. He could hear the rapid footsteps of his bodyguard, hidden by an illusion as usual, running out onto the balcony. “Sir, sir! Sir, please get inside. You're in danger here.”

Diego ignored the Jolteon. He looked down at the angry rabble, a lot of whom looked back up to him. “My friends,” he said loudly, and unable to keep his glee out of his voice, “you were ordered to leave the square, and you did not obey! You remain here, and you protest my words, think you know better than your emperor. Do you know what that makes you?” Diego paused as he listened to the crowd's furious shouts. “Traitors. All of you are traitors. Allow me to demonstrate how I will protect Fournaria from treason.”

Right on cue, soldiers came flooding in from one of the two exists of the square, tearing into the crowd and arresting or killing as many as they could. Panic quickly broke out. Diego watched the pokémon flee towards the other exit of the square, to his right. And there came another division of the army. They advanced right into the fleeing crowd. Some pokémon decided to resist; they were killed. A lot them tried to flee back in the square, colliding with the pokémon who fled from the other side of the square. Diego watched a whole bunch of pokémon get trampled or crushed in the middle. General Lupo had accounted for the pokémon trying to flee by flying away as well; a special flying squad was taking them down overhead. Diego watched the proceedings from the balcony. He was surprised how few pokémon surrendered and let themselves be arrested. He supposed it was his fault; he'd announced traitors would be put to death, after all. Still, a quick beheading would be better than getting trampled in the panic.

And there, just in time, came a third group from the left of the square. Diego grinned. He'd known Stewart and his troops would reach New Praeclara today, but he hadn't expected their timing to be quite this impressive. Good. Today would show everyone who wanted to challenge Diego's power what the price was. His grin widened as Stewart joined the fray.

But hold on – they weren't attacking the crowd, but his other troops! He gritted his teeth as he saw his own pokémon caught between the crowd and Stewart's traitors. He took a deep breath. It was alright; he had Ricardo ready for just such a problem. He summoned a Spearow and barked some orders at it. It flew off quickly to alert Ricardo. Diego took a closer look at the traitors; he could clearly see Boreas and Aqua fighting among them. So they'd convinced Stewart, then? Perfect. They'd all be caught together.

The moment Ricardo's troops showed up, he realised things were horribly wrong. They hadn't come from behind Stewart, as he'd ordered, but from the right side of the square, behind the troops that weren't flanked yet. He couldn't recognise any of the pokémon in Ricardo's group, and cursed as they engaged his troops as well. On the left side of the square, Stewart had already won, and it looked like Boreas was holding some kind of speech to the rabble. “Marco!” he snapped at his bodyguard as he walked back inside. “Warn general Lupo, tell him to mobilize every soldier in the city and beat down the rabble! I want it announced all over the city that curfew is in action immediately!”

“But sir, I should keep you sa-”

“GO!” Diego snapped. “And have him send some pokémon to Praeclara to investigate.” So, Boreas had some aces up his sleeve, did he? Diego should've expected it. But he had plenty more soldiers. This was a nasty surprise, but nothing that seriously endangered his rule.

–

“Attention: rebels supported by the Shadow have attempted to seize control of the city. The emperor has asked all citizens to return to their homes calmly and wait for further news. The curfew has started. Your police force will quickly arrest the traitors with your help. Your emperor loves you.”

It was at least the tenth time they'd heard the message as they ran and fled through the city. “I can't believe we lost!” Pedro, being dragged along by his sister due to his short legs, complained. “All those pokémon on the square... Why didn't we just storm Tacito's home and get rid of him?!”

“Lost?” Boreas said, as he gestured for part of the group to split off and hide. There were only a dozen of them left now; most of the others should be safely hiding out in the homes of their new allies. “Pedro, today was never about getting Diego off his throne. It was just about exposing him. And he did it all for us.”

“This way!” Aqua said, leading a could of the other pokémon into a side road.

“Yeah,” Pedro muttered, “and we barely did anything.”

“We saved thousands of pokémon today, and most of them will now be very sympathetic towards us for getting them out of that death trap. I call that a victory.”

“I guess... I really though we were going to free Fournaria right away. I think we could've done it if we'd fought for it...”

“We weren't nearly as powerful as you might think,” Boreas said. “There were too many black scarves on their way.”

“Cheer up, Pedro,” Catarina said, “we let our voice be heard. Plus, Tacito showed his true face! Besides,” she muttered, “you don't have to carry your little brother while you're running...”

They were in a safe backwater of the city by now, their pursuers long lost, so they stopped running to catch their breaths. “What do we do now?” asked a Dustox they'd picked up at the square.

“Spread the word,” Boreas said. “Diego is sure to try and put a spin on today's events, portray us as the monsters. We have to counter it with the truth.”

“And I've got just the song!” Catarina said.

“We have,” Pedro added.

“Right, sorry.”

“The rest of Fournaria needs to know what happened today. Word can spread through this city fast enough, but Diego will have a big advantage getting the news to other places.”

–

Wanted

Dead or alive

Boreas

Species: Glaceon

Wanted for treason, sedition, murder, arson, insulting the emperor, inducing others to commit crimes, and faking his death.

Boreas is a henchman of the Shadow. He is to be considered extremely dangerous, and a substantial reward will be offered for any tips that lead to his arrest.

Boreas frowned as he tore the poster off the wall. “Henchman of the Shadow? Henchman of the Shadow?! Henchman of the Shadow?! I'll take that as an insult, Diego.”

–

“My friends, I come to you with grave news today. Our hated enemies have committed many a cowardly attack against us all lately. I need only point towards the demonstrations, which were so unruly and violent that many deaths fell while the police gently attempted to break them up. Even worse was the wanton destruction of government buildings. Thankfully, the Shadow seems to have accidentally timed these during moments when the buildings happened to be empty, such as during the night, and none of the hundreds of fatalities these violent anarchists no doubt aimed for came to pass. We must thank our luck, but we can't keep relying on it. These moves by our enemies have forced me to apply extreme measures in order to keep the peace.

It is with the greatest regret that I must prohibit all unsanctioned gatherings of three or more pokémon. Curfew has been expanded to include all hours between sunset and sunrise. In order to more easily catch these vile traitors, any accusation or record of a pokémon expressing disloyalty to Fournaria or its emperor is grounds for arrest.

This scum has wilfully attacked us, taken innocent lives, plotted against the state and its emperor. As a result, they shouldn't count on receiving the same kind, merciful treatment any loyal citizen would get from society. There is no need to waste the judge's time with these traitors. There is a clear penalty for treason.

I beg those behind these recent attacks to consider what they are doing! This continuing unrest destabilises Fournaria, our very lives! We won't stand for these cowardly attacks. Destroying our capital wasn't enough for them; they feel the need to destroy all of Fournaria! The Shadow, and his henchman Boreas, will not be content until we are all dead, but they will not win as long as I protect you, my friends! The sooner these malcontents and murderers are dealt with, the sooner Fournaria will know peace and democracy once more.”

–

“Hi there. Out for a nice walk, are you?” Francisco jumped with a shock as three pokémon with black scarves and nasty grins barred his way. His eyes flitted through the street, but everyone else around quickened their pace and averted their eyes. There were a lot of them around, but he might as well be completely alone.

“I-I was just on the way to work,” he said, quite terrified. He hadn't done anything wrong, but they didn't seem to agree... And he was too old to outrun them...

“On your way to work?” the Electabuzz sneered. “Isn't that nice, guys? Look, we've got a fine, upstanding Floatzel here!”

“Yeah,” said the Ambipom, “except fine, upstanding Floatzels don't hate the emperor, do they?”

“But I don't!” Francisco stammered. “I don't hate Tacito, I'm – Ow!”

He barely saw the Ambipom's arm move as it hit him in the face. “You can't lie to us, traitor.”

“Yeah,” the Meganium said, “we've got reports you've been smearing the emperor's name, supporting the Shadow.”

“I did no such thing! Yeah, I said he shouldn't be allowed to crown himself emperor, but- Ow!” he was knocked to the ground.

“Who's supposed to 'allow' it, eh? You? The Shadow?”

“Fournaria was a democracy once! And now I can't even say it shouldn't have an emperor without being beaten up?”

“Oh, we're gonna do worse to you than beat you up, scum,” the Ambipom said. “We're gonna lock you up, and then you've got an appointment with the guillo-gah!”

“It's pronounced-” the Meganium began, but then it suddenly dodged out of the way of a similar ice beam to the one that had just hit the Ambipom in the neck. “Hey, you!”

A scruffy-looking Glaceon had appeared behind Francisco's assailants. He waved his paw to make a small shockwave that absorbed a beam of electricity Electabuzz fired at him, but was hit right away by a whirlwind of sharp leaves from the Meganium. Francisco didn't hesitate a moment and created a big wave about him, letting it carry him and slam him into the Electabuzz from behind, his weight and the water's power knocking it down. The Glaceon quickly beat the Meganium, making it slip on a pool of ice and then, when it was unable to dodge, using an ice beam.

Francisco stood up, a bit shocked to recognise his rescuer. “It's you! I've heard people talk about you. You were at Tacito's coronation!”

The Glaceon grinned. A few cuts were all Francisco's attackers had given him. “The liberation of Fournaria has begun,” he said, not just to Francisco, but also to the gaping onlookers who had gathered around. “You've seen how Tacito rules Fournaria, and it's not going to get any better. If you want to save yourself, then get your family and head for old Praeclara. You will be safe there. But if you want to stop Tacito, to help liberate Fournaria from its oppressor, come with me.”

Francisco nodded. “I owe you my life. I will do whatever I can to help.”

–

“...Why don't you listen to the people, your majesty?

Why don't you offer some amnesty?

Why don't you give us a choice?

Are you that afraid of our voice?”

Catarina plunked wildly on her guitar's strings, playing her solo to the cheers of the crowd. There were so many pokémon watching! They couldn't have dreamt of anything like this a few months ago, but speaking out against Tacito these days attracted quite a crowd. She exchanged a grin with her brother, playing next to her, as the crowd cheered loudly for them. Catarina took a deep breath to begin singing the next verse, and-

Those weren't cheers, those were screams. Catarina could see the bright light of flames burning behind the crowd on her left side, could hear the screams and sounds of violence, even if most of the crowd hadn't realised it yet. “The cops! Get out of here!” she screamed, abruptly cutting off as a Charizard swooped low over the crowd, breathing a deadly plume of fire down at them. It cut a deadly path of incineration through the crowd as it headed straight for Catarina. She instinctively pulled Pedro behind her and wildly waved her hands about, making little pulses of frozen air to try and parry the flames somehow, the way Boreas could. She found she had no idea how it was done, though, and she took in her last breath as the dragon approached...

It changed course. It was no longer coming for her. She almost cheered before she realised it had changed course to fly a longer path over the fleeing crowd, to burn as many of them as it could. Other pokémon followed it on the ground, mercilessly cutting into those they caught, no matter whether they surrendered, fled, or fought. Catarina clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, little snowflakes beginning to fall around her.

“Sis?” Pedro said, touching her hand. “We should run.”

Catarina reluctantly nodded, but not without aiming an ice beam at one of the Charizard's wings. She didn't succeed in taking it down, only gave it a momentary pause. Accepting, as much as she hated it, that there was nothing she could do, she held on to Pedro so she wouldn't lose him in the crowd. That was a good thing, as the moment she started running, everyone was crashing into her as she joined their panicked stampede through the streets. It was tight, far too warm, everyone was breathing rapidly. Screams, and sometimes searing flames, came from behind. Terror for the murderous pokémon behind her began to overtake Catarina just as much as the pokémon around her. She could be incinerated at any moment if she didn't run faster! The Venusaur in front of her was far too slow; she had to squeeze past it! At last she was going fast, and her pursuers were too busy with the pokémon in the back to catch up to the ones in front. They were escaping! They were free!

Just as Catarina was about to run past a side street, another group of pokémon wearing black scarves poured out of it, crashing into the fleeing crowd. Catarina was caught right in the fray. She had no idea what was happening; she was caught in a horrid nightmare of blood, panic, and pokémon killing each other. She was firing ice beams left and right at anyone who looked like they might do something evil. A Cacturne smashed its spiky arms right into the faces of running pokémon. A Zangoose lopped off someone's arm. Someone fired large boulders into the crowd that crushed several pokémon at once, just in front of Catarina. Something sharp sliced into her side. She unleashed a powerful blast of ice in that direction as she kept running, feeling her cold blood flow down her body.

Suddenly, she tripped over something. The ground's impact was almost immediately followed by heavy feet stepping on her. It felt like being kicked all over. A sharp edge pressed into her arm, someone walked over her back, another foot only barely missed her head as she scrambled to her feet, her whole body terribly sore. Someone crashed into her, and she only barely stopped herself falling over again. She limped on, and as the violence around her began to subside and the crowd began to thin, the haze of terror also began to lift slowly.

She couldn't go on any more. She limped onto a small, dark street and sank against a wall, trembling and clutching her side as she sat down to give her bruised body some rest. She let Pedro go at last; she had clutched his hand so hard her fingers were cramped. The Snorunt had some bruises and his hat was a mess, but he was in better condition than his sister.

“Sis, are you alright?” Pedro said, shock in his voice as he examined the dark, red stain of blood down Catarina's side.

“N-no,” Catarina whispered. “That was horrible. They didn't even try to arrest anyone. They-they just killed them!”

Pedro nodded, a hollow look in his beady eyes. “And they came only to listen to us...”

Catarina's wounds were not as bad as they looked; the cut in her side would be fairly innocuous after she washed the blood away. But she felt horrible on the inside. When she blinked, she saw the horrible slaughter again. “Do-do you think it was our fault?” she whispered.

“I don't know...” Pedro said.

Catarina wanted to hug him very tightly, but her bruised body protested, so she gave him a very weak hug instead, trembling.

–

“Oy, Boreas!”

Boreas blinked and looked into the alley. He could see a shape beckoning him, in what he clearly thought was a discreet manner. Boreas rolled his eyes and walked to him. “Hanging around in dark alleys now, Obnard? There is such a thing as being too predictable.”

“I just wanted to talk to you,” the Krokorok said, “and I need to do it in a place we won't get overheard.”

“Well, here we are,” Boreas said, deciding not to mention the fact that pokémon presumably lived in the houses on both sides of the alley. “What'd you want to talk to me about?”

“General Lupo.”

“Lupo?”

“Lupo. He's the reason the Shadow keeps beating down all your efforts so violently. He's the commander of the army, y'know. He's the one who keeps ordering his men to start killing whenever you lot start a demonstration or whatever. The Shadow makes the rules, but it's Lupo who gives the orders themselves.”

“I know,” Boreas said, starting to get a feeling where this was going. Only a few days ago, Catarina and Pedro had returned to Praeclara, too terrified to dare perform more music on the street. The massacre that had traumatised them so badly was but the latest example of the butchery Lupo tended to order at every major sign of resistance.

“Plus,” Obnard continued, “the Shadow knows he can trust him completely. I knew that Walrein myself when he wasn't so high-up yet. He could match Lubyanka for bloodthirstiness, but unlike her he's also got the wits to back up his violent streak. It couldn't be worse for you than Lupo commanding the army.”

“I know where you're going with this,” Boreas began.

“Then hear me out! Say something were to happen to 'im. Let's say he accidentally brutally cuts his head off while trimming his moustache. The most likely candidate to succeed him in the job is general Marino. He's an old cop, not one of the Shadow's own men. He's not much worse than your buddy Stewart. Sure, he's an old git and a stickler for the rules, but he's unlikely to give orders that involve the snapping of necks, if you get my drift.”

“I do get your drift,” Boreas sighed, “and the answer is no. I'm not ordering anyone's death unless I absolutely have to.”

“Y'know, I don't get you. You talk about liberation and stuff, about helping people, but when it comes down to it, when you're presented with a chance to save the lives of thousands and probably speed up your revolution a whole lot, you back out.”

“Yeah, it's called having morals,” Boreas muttered.

Obnard rolled his eyes. “Don't let those keep you from doing what's right. You never seemed like the type to play by the rules anyway.”

“I'm not, but-”

“And you wouldn't even have to get your own hands dirty. I know a guy who'll do it for us. You don't even have to give the word, if you'd prefer not to say it. All I need is for you not to forbid it, and I'll take your silence as a cue to get the problem taken care of.”

“No, you won't,” Boreas said resolutely. “If I want you to proceed, I'll give you a clear yes. I'm not going to hide behind technicalities. Anyway, if you're so eager to take a lack of a no as a yes, why'd you even bother coming to me? Why not just do it?”

Obnard smirked. “Do I hear a 'I wanted this to happen but I don't want to be personally responsible'?”

“You hear curiosity,” Boreas said sharply.

“Alright. I asked you 'cause I want to know what kind of leader you are.”

“I'm not our leader.”

“You're the closest thing we have. See, this 'I'm not in charge, we're all working together equally' stuff might work on your buddies, but it's not gonna work on mine. I'm here to see if you've got the balls to actually do something about our mutual problem, or if you'd rather hold hands and sing songs. I'm here to see if you're worth following.”

Boreas frowned. “So what you're telling me is, if I don't give the order, you and your colleagues who used to serve Diego are striking off on your own?”

Obnard grinned. “You know I'm loyal-”

Boreas snorted.

“-but the others, well, they don't know you, except as our enemy. If you can't show them you mean business by making good choices, if you're too scared of the dark to fight it, well, they're unlikely to stick around.”

Boreas sighed and closed his eyes. “The truth is, you're not telling me anything new. I know we have to get rid of Lupo; our every openly move results in a bloodbath with him in command. I've been trying to think of a way to remove him – and that's not a euphemism. I've tried to figure out a plan to kidnap him, keep him locked up in Praeclara until we finish the revolution.”

“And?”

“Impossible. He's too well-guarded. Getting at him might be doable, but getting out with him? Can't be done, and I don't say that lightly. So yes, I have been considering an assassination.”

“You surprise me. I didn't think you had it in you.”

“Neither did I,” Boreas sighed. “And I certainly didn't think I had it in me to order one... I guess we were both wrong.”

Obnard blinked. “You're telling me to go ahead?”

“Yes,” Boreas said gravely, “I am. Kill him. Avoid killing any of his guards if you can, and make sure you leave no evidence that can be traced to the revolution. I'm sure we'll be blamed for it either way, but there's no need to make it easy.”

Obnard smirked. “Good. Don't worry about the details. I'll arrange it all.”

Boreas nodded and began to walk away, his heart heavy with guilt. He'd killed someone before, but it had been different. Maybe it was because he'd done it himself instead of just giving the order, because he'd hung on to the last edge of life himself, or because the results were more immediate. If he hadn't killed Ghetsis, the battle would've been lost immediately, all of his friends dead. If he didn't kill Lupo, their defeat would be much slower and more protracted. Whatever the reason, he felt miserable. But it had to be done; Obnard was right. Lupo couldn't be allowed to keep slaughtering pokémon whenever they came in action.

–

“New letter for you, boss!”

Desiderio quickly grabbed the letter out of the Lopunny's hands. As expected, it had the Shadow's seal on it. After the incident with Ricardo's troops, the Shadow had decreed their mutual communication had to be impossible to replicate by their enemies, even if it made the letter's sender easier to identify. Desiderio sighed as he opened it and read through the letter. He scowled.

“Good news, boss?” Flavia asked with a bright smile. Ricardo hadn't even noticed she'd stuck around after giving him the letter. He was supposed to kill her now, in case she'd noticed the letter was the Shadow's, but by now it was an open secret who they took their orders from anyway, thanks to Obnard.

Desiderio crumpled the letter into a ball and threw it through the door opening into the empty, dark tunnel behind. “Not if your name is Desiderio, it isn't.”

“What's the problem, boss?” Flavia asked, still smiling.

“Problem?” Desiderio snapped. “Only that the master seems to think I've got a massive army under my command! Look at what he's ordered! A bombing in Murtalia, sabotaging the rebels in old Praeclara, attacks on a bunch of towns, a fake assassination attempt on him, another bombing in New Praeclara...” he sighed. “How many do we have left?”

Flavia squinted as she thought. “Well, Dora and Ghiorso never came back from that robbery they were supposed to do. I think they probably deserted.”

“Just like everyone else,” Desiderio snapped.

“Not everyone. Marco didn't desert.”

Desiderio rolled his eyes. “Yeah, he blew himself up. Always was a complete maniac; I won't miss him. Anyway, who do we have left? Who hasn't deserted or got themselves killed?”

“Wwwwell...” Flavia smiled nervously. “Er, the base is very big, and we don't have that many pokémon left. Theoretically, there could be dozens of us, if they're just lost somewhere in the depths of the tunnels.”

“Always thought it was way too big,” Desiderio muttered. “We used barely a quarter of it even when we were at full force. Anyway, how many pokémon do we have left who you actually know are still with us?”

“Well, counting you and me, we've got... five.”

“FIVE?!” Desiderio bellowed.

The Lopunny's nervous smile got wider and wider. “Uhhh, yeah, I think Lara-”

“I don't care if Lara decided to pursue a career as a world-class living statue! What am I going to tell the Shadow?! I can't tell him Obnard made everyone who hadn't left already switch to our enemies! He'll kill me...” Desiderio sank into his chair and slumped onto the desk. “He'll kill me. I'm a dead Accelgor... The Shadow's plan is going to fail, and it'll all be my fault. What am I going to do?”

He felt a hand at his back. “Why don't we desert too?”

“What?” he sat up straight and looked at Flavia.

“Well, if we're in trouble anyway despite giving our best shot, maybe we should just leave? We could go together, if you'd like.”

“You're an idiot, Flavia,” Desiderio said, “but it's the best idea I've heard. C'mon, let's get the others. We'll get out of here, lie low, and let the Shadow figure out what happened himself.”

–

Her cell wasn't especially small or uncomfortable. It was a bit cold, but no more than could be expected in November with rain streaming down the barred window. Cassandra had half-expected to be thrown into some dank, icy dungeon deep underground when she was arrested. She supposed those were still being dug out.

How could she have been so blind for so long? She made a face as she remembered her own cheers when Tacito crowned himself emperor. Nina had told her the truth time and again, but had she listened to her sister? Not until Nina's big mouth had got them both in trouble... Cassandra got a lump in her throat as she remembered waking up a few nights ago to her sister's screams as she was dragged out of her cell next door... And then she had been executed on the square in front of the prison. Until that moment, even in jail, she'd held out some stupid hope that their arrest might just be an accident, the result of some clumsy clerk mixing up his paperwork or an overworked policeman seeing treason everywhere. But that hope had vanished forever when she'd seen those bastards hold up her big sister's head to the crowd...

Keys rinkling. She knew what that meant. There was only one reason they'd open the door; food and water came through the hatch. Terror's icy claw seized her around the throat. She couldn't die, she still had so much to live for! She instinctively backed into a corner and resolved to defend herself. It wouldn't do her any good, but it was better than following them meekly to the guillotine. She was a Breloom, dammit, they wouldn't get her head into the guillotine while she had her tail and feet to defend herself with!

But the moment the metal door opened, she was overcome with a terrible drowsiness. She began to sink through her knees, no matter how hard she tried to stay on her feet. She wobbled, trying her best to stay on one knee and face the Hypno guard, but she was so tired... Her vision went black as she fell to the ground.

She woke up with her tail tied to her back, and her legs chained together, just enough slack in the chain to let her take small steps. She was hoist to her feet by strong arms. She tried to kick, to run, but the chains just dug into her shins. She glanced, horrified, between the faces of the guards dragging her out of her cell. “W-what are you going to do to me?”

They didn't respond. There was no pity on their faces. Cassandra tried to stop herself, plant her chained feet firmly on the ground, but it just made her trip as they dragged her on. She couldn't stop their march through the prison's bare corridors. She became frozen with terror as she realised her every rapid breath brought her closer to her last; that her life was going to end on the square outside. “Please,” she whispered. “Please, have mercy on me... I didn't do anything wrong...”

And then she was outside. Behind fences, a large crowd looked on. Far more pokémon had come to watch her execution than her sister's. Her eyes were drawn to the guillotine. Tall, black, and with a horrifyingly sharp blade waiting to fall. She had never been more terrified in her life and gave a final, desperate, pointless struggle. She'd never appreciated her head's attachment to her neck so much. Her life would end with a sudden, severe pain. How long would she survive as just a head? How many seconds had Nina existed like that, unable to do anything but blink as the world slowly faded away?

She was forced to kneel down and place her head in the clamp at the guillotine's base. She breathed heavily, squeezed her eyes shut as she waited for the blade to fall. But one of the guards began a small speech to the crowd, and somehow the wait was even more horrible than if they'd chopped her head off immediately. She couldn't listen to him, she could only listen to her heart's loud throbbing. And then she realised he'd stopped talking, and suddenly she wished he'd continue after all. A terrified whimper escaped her as she thought of the heavy, razor-sharp blade waiting to fall.

There was a loud bang and a gasp of shock went through the crowd, but there was no pain. She could still twinkle her toes. She opened her eyes. A thick fog had set in despite the heavy rain, and it was spreading very rapidly. A large, dark, winged shape flew through the rain, and then the fog – no, it was smoke – was too thick to see it, or anything else. She thought she could make out the crowd pushing the fences over, but then everything was smoke.

There were shouts and a few more bangs, and she heard running footsteps. The sound of someone falling, and some kind of beam flying by. A great whoosh, and then she saw a dark shape through the smoke. It was the winged creature, landed just before her, its massive wings spread. Its dark silhouette stepped closer and knelt down. She was not expecting to see the friendly, wide-eyed face of a Kirlia. “Hi! I'm Sofia!” She started messing about with the lock on the guillotine's head-clamp, just outside a bewildered Cassandra's vision.

“Wh-what?” Cassandra stammered. “What? They were about to - You – You have wings. You were flying. And what's this smoke?”

“Smoke b-bombs!” Sofia said happily. “And my wings are good, aren't they? Made them myself! Anyway, don't worry, I'll have you out of this thing in... There!”

Cassandra's neck was suddenly free and she got up, quivery and dizzy. “Thank you,” she said numbly. Only then did she really feel it. She was alive! “Thank you! Thank you so much, they were going to kill me!”

“You're welcome! Better get out of here before they try again.”

Cassandra gasped for air, relief flooding over her. “I-I can't believe it... You saved me... I-I can't breathe!”

Sofia nodded knowingly. “Yeah, that'll be the smoke. Another good reason to leave. B-but seriously; don't hang around. My friends will have the prison empty before you know it, but when the smoke clears, the bad guys will be back.”

Cassandra nodded and began to walk away, then she stopped. She owed her life to the winged Kirlia, and... They had killed Nina. Nina, who'd been right all along. She took a deep breath, and turned around, going back to the guillotine. The Kirlia had gone, but she could still make out the wings' silhouette through the smoke. Cassandra ran after her. “Sofia! Sofia!”

“Yes?” Sofia turned around with a smile.

“I want to join you,” Cassandra said. “I-I know who you people are, and I think it's about time I helped you.”

“Great!” suddenly, Sofia gave her a hug. “Well, then, come along, help me free your fellow inmates!”

–

Diego sat down at the head of the great table. All the other pokémon there looked at him with a bit of fear they tried to hide. Good.

“Sir,” began a Tropius. Diego fixed him with a frown. The boss of some entertainment company, he thought, though he couldn't recall his name. “Um. I-I wanted to know if anything will be done about these recent strikes.”

Diego slowly let his gaze drift from one pokémon to the next. This was the closest to loyal servants he had left, he wryly thought. They were those who'd had the insight and skill to make use of his reforms, those who had benefited the most from his rule and had the most to lose if he fell. Businessmen, leaders of companies, the rich and the opportunistic. He had no illusions about their true loyalty to him, but he couldn't help but approve of how they'd grasped the situation with both hands. At last he spoke. “I would like to know the same thing. I seem to recall I outlawed any strikes and other illegal gatherings and seditious behaviour. General Marino, why have you not dealt with them?”

The old Unfezant stiffened as Diego turned to him. “Sir, I am doing my best. I have had it made clear that if the strikes continue, those responsible will be punished. We have broken up their demonstrations. However, if I may make a suggestion: why are our already thinly-stretched police forces asked to deal with this problem? Naturally, it's our duty to maintain order, but surely simply negotiating with the-”

“Why,” Diego whispered dangerously, “haven't you dragged the striking traitors out of their homes and made an example of them?”

“Sir?”

With a calm façade, Diego explained, raging inside at the loss of Lupo. Boreas would regret that. “Your predecessor knew how to deal with treason, general. I have no need for a commander too weak to deal with rebels.”

“With all due respect, sir, I don't believe these are rebels, merely citizens dissatisfied with-”

“Believe me, general, they have been put up to this by the rebels, if they're not rebels themselves. Deal with them. Have the whole lot arrested and executed, if you must. Now, can you do that, or am I charging you with dereliction of duty?”

“It will be dealt with, sir...”

“Good. Anything else?” Diego looked around the table again.

“Yeah!” a Loudred said. “With Cervuxula occupied, my mines there are closed down!”

Diego scowled. He'd had a brilliant plan to deal with that, and if Desiderio hadn't betrayed him... “General,” he sighed, “please deal with the Cervuxula situation.”

“But sir, we don't have enough-”

“Deal. With. It.”

“Yes, sir.”

A Tangrowth scraped its throat. Or whatever Tangrowths scraped. “What about the stealing of food from my magazines? When will-”

“General Marino will take care of it,” Diego hissed.

The silence around the table was broken by a Seviper. “Sssir, if I may make a sssugessstion. Why don't you attack the rebel headquartersss? We all know they're resssponsssible, and we all know they come from Praeclara.”

Diego sighed. “I tried that the day I found out where they were. So much trouble started up everywhere as the army was heading towards it, that we had no choice but to pull them back.”

“You mean you can't destroy the rebels, even though you know where they are?” the Loudred blurted out.

Diego scowled. “Meeting adjourned.”

Diego was left alone as the others all left quickly, sensing his dangerous mood. He had nowhere near enough soldiers to deal with Boreas' rebels; in fact, a lot of them had joined him too. He hadn't truly realised he was losing until now. Boreas had him. His carefully laid plans were coming apart on all sides. Six years of his life wasted. He was feeling his age; he didn't have time for a do-over somewhere else. He had lost.

His scowl turned to a grin as he thought of Lubyanka's final gift. If he had lost, it was about time to use it, he supposed. He'd kept it safe, as an extra stick behind the door, for a situation just like this. Boreas could try to liberate Fournaria all he liked. He wouldn't enjoy it for long. Diego got up and quickly walked to the room where he secretly kept it. There it was, a beautiful blue orb, with wavy light like the sea itself insight. He smirked. Lubyanka would've loved the idea of him using it. She'd always been brutal and mad, which was what had made her so useful.

–

Praeclara was covered under a thick blanket of snow. It was lovely. The clearing had expanded greatly since Boreas' last visit, many restored or rebuilt buildings inside it. Even so, it was only a small part of the vast ruins. He loved to see the progress their allies here had made, while the rest of them had been busy preparing Fournaria for its revolution. He stepped through the beautiful, snowy city. Not long now until it was once again the capital of a free Fournaria. The revolution was proceeding well, and nothing could go wrong any more-

“Boreas!” Catarina ran towards him, almost perfectly camouflaged in the snowy landscape. She was clutching a letter. “Boreas, we got a letter for you!”

“For me?” Boreas did a double-take.

“Yeah, it's from the Shadow! Er, we opened it already, since you weren't here, and-”

“That's fine,” Boreas said, quickly taking the letter.

Dear Boreas,

You've been making quite the mess of my Fournaria lately. You've done a good job of it, I have to admit. However, it's about time you stopped. You shall tell your allies to stand down and submit to the authorities. I am willing to offer some of you amnesty, provided your rebellion ends. You and Aqua will leave Fournaria once this is done, never to return.

If you don't comply to these demands, I'm afraid I'll be forced to use the blue orb to awaken Groudon. Why don't you ask around? I'm sure you've got some pokémon there who can confirm Lubyanka found it for me. Look around you. See what I could make Groudon do simply by controlling its dreams. Then make the wise choice and agree to my terms.

Sincerely,

Diego

Boreas' heart grew cold with fear. “The fool...”

“It's terrible...” Catarina nodded. “We can't let him control Groudon...”

Boreas chuckled mirthlessly. “Control Groudon? That's not what the blue orb will do. The blue orb controls Kyogre. Diego may think it'll get him Groudon, but all it'll do is enrage it! He'll send that thing on a rampage through Fournaria in his lust for power...”

 

[apenpaap]

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Fall of New Praeclara

A grave, pensive silence hung in the large room, the howling of the wind outside all there was to be heard. Boreas was gathered with a bunch of pokémon in one of the rebuilt homes in Praeclara to discuss Diego's letter. Things had been going so well for them, more pokémon joining their cause every day while Diego had massive desertion to deal with. They had all felt their victory approaching until this threw an entire toolbox in the works.

“Are you sure?” asked a Galvantula.

“Sure?” Boreas said. “About what?”

“About the blue orb,” she clarified. “How do you even know it'll enrage Groudon, not control it?”

“Well, there's the colour for one,” Boreas said. “Obviously, Groudon is controlled by a red orb, not a blue one. But more importantly, it's a rather famous story outside Fournaria. A few years before I was born, two humans in Hoenn tried to control Kyogre and Groudon. I have no idea if that was the same Groudon that we're dealing with – though I suspect it to be a different one. Either way, the humans tried to use orbs to control Kyogre and Groudon, but they had the wrong orbs, and it almost resulted in a massive disaster as the pokémon became enraged, their destructive potential unleashed on the world and each other.”

“But this is good news,” Doctor William said. “If they were indeed enraged, then evidently they must have been stopped somehow, hmm?”

Boreas nodded. “I heard someone got Rayquaza to intervene, but I also hear using the proper orbs calmed them down again. I'm not sure. Either way, unless any of you has any clue where to find Rayquaza or the red orb, their solution won't work for us. And if we play it smart, we won't need a solution at all. I think our top priority should be to steal that orb from Diego, or at least make sure he doesn't leave New Praeclara. I doubt he'd let someone else use the orb, and he actually needs to get to Groudon to use it, so as long as we keep an eye on him, we should be safe.”

A Chatot nodded firmly. “I'll fly ahead to New Praeclara, let our friends there know.”

“Excellent,” Boreas said. “Make sure they realise how important it is to stop Diego if he tries to leave the city. That should be our top-priority even over the revolution. Send Diego a letter explaining the truth as well. I doubt he'll believe it, but if there's any chance of making him see he's going to be in just as much danger as the rest of us, it's worth it.”

“We're counting on Tacito being reasonable now?” Catarina said. “Good luck with that. Maybe we can ask him to resign while we're at it?”

“It's not very likely to work, I'll give you that,” Boreas said, “but we should give it a try. I really have to stress how much danger we're all in if he awakes that thing. In fact, I think we should postpone the revolution until we can secure the orb.”

“Except we can't,” Catarina argued. “He probably keeps it in his manor, and if we could get in there, the whole revolution would've come a lot easier.”

Boreas pinched his forehead. “I know, I know. Look, I'm going to New Praeclara as soon as we're done talking. I'll try to figure something out. It may take a while, but if we just lie low until then, let Diego think he's won, then maybe...”

“There's one problem,” Catarina said. “I don't think lying low is on the agenda of most of our allies. Excited letters have been arriving over the past few weeks from all over. The revolution's never done this well; Fournaria is ready to rise up. Even Tacito's own cops are on our side now – they don't want to serve a mad, butchering tyrant either! If you ask me, nothing can stop the tide any more.”

Boreas nodded. “I know. And I don't want to; I just want to keep it out a little longer. We need to send word to as many cities as we can; they have to just wait a little while.”

“We'll do our best,” said an Arbok.

Boreas nodded as he got up. “So will I. Tell them the delay won't be long. I'll figure out a way to stop Diego... I have to.”

Catarina got up too. “I'll help you. I'm coming along.”

“Child,” Doctor William said, “are you quite sure you want to? You went through a terrible experience.”

Catarina nodded. “I know, great-granddad, but that's hardly a reason to hide away and let Tacito win, is it? If this is gonna be the big one, I wanna be there. Besides, I'm feeling much better already.”

The Weavile nodded. “I shall tell your brother.”

“Thanks, great-granddad. He'd want to come with us, pneumonia or not.”

“Indeed. Now, be careful, child.”

“I will, great-granddad.”

“Time to go,” Boreas said, “we'll have to hurry.”

They said a quick goodbye to the others and set out into the snow-covered ruins. Boreas hadn't expected to be travelling with Catarina; he hadn't spoken to her much in the past, and didn't really know what to say to her. He wished Aqua was here. He hadn't seen her for far too long, as she had been busy leading the revolution in Cervuxula. She didn't even know that he'd ordered general Lupo's death yet...

After an hour's walking through the ruins, Boreas realised what good speed they were making. Both of them had feet well-adapted to walking through snow, so they barely sunk into it. “You know,” Boreas said, “this is nice. Two ice-types on a journey through the snow.”

Catarina smiled. “I know what you mean. No complaining about the cold.”

Boreas nodded. “Always the complaining. Some pokémon do it when it's not even freezing.”

“Quite a lot of them, actually,” Catarina chuckled. “If you ask me, some pokémon think winter's mere existence is horrible. Hating on every day that's not unusually warm, groaning at the slightest bit of wind or frost! I've heard pokémon complain about the cold when it was twenty degrees! Twenty! I consider that annoyingly warm.”

Boreas blew a snowflake off his nose. “Yeah. In summer, when there's at last a day that gives some cooling, they're whining again!” he laughed. “I've been all over the world, and it's like that everywhere. Barely anyone can appreciate the delights of winter.”

The world was becoming darker; the Sun was setting behind the clouds already. That was no problem; the snow would make the night bright enough to continue for a while. “Have you ever been to that place you talked about?” Catarina asked. “Hoenn?”

Boreas nodded. “Too much water, and a bit warm for my taste, but it was a lovely, colourful place. Aqua loved it. Well, so did I.”

“How... How is it recovering? From what happened with Kyogre and Groudon?”

Boreas saw why she was asking about Hoenn now. “Oh, it's doing just fine. No problems; they only way you'd know it happened at all is by the stories everyone tells. I saw a statue of the humans who solved the problem, actually, they're considered heroes.”

“Humans... You mentioned those before. Are they pokémon?”

Boreas chuckled. “They're bald apes who with big heads. Quite a resourceful lot, really. You know, I think I've actually grown to miss them a bit lately. Don't tell Aqua, she's not exactly fond of them.”

“I won't.”

“I had a human friend when I was your age, you know. Great guy, bit of an idiot; usually got in trouble and then Octa and I got him out of it. At least until...” he found his voice almost breaking as he remembered, so he quickly moved on. “Anyway, I think we should try and continue for a few more kilometres. Get out of the city before we stop for the night at least.”

–

“Sofia, wake up!”

Sofia floated in a soft, warm, snuggly world, weightless and happy. “Mmmhhhfiveminutes...”

“Sofia, the revolution has started!”

Sofia cuddled her pillow, her eyes still closed. “...Don't worry, I've already got one...” After another moment, she opened one eye widely. “Did you say the revolution has started?”

“Yes,” Cassandra said, “the crowd is rising up against Tacito! C'mon, you have to get up!”

Sofia couldn't agree more; she jumped out of bed. “B-but they're supposed to wait! If we're not careful, the Shadow will-”

“I know that,” the Breloom snapped, “but I guess they don't.”

Sofia rushed about the safe house, which was crammed full of beds, tables, stuff belonging to pokémon, plans, and tools of all kinds. She pulled her ornithopter from the attic and began putting on its flight harness, thoughts racing through her mind. “What happened? Why now?”

Cassandra shrugged. “From what I hear, it wasn't even one of us who started it. They tried to arrest some old Beartic, she put up a big fight, other pokémon joined in, more cops came, and before anyone knew what was happening the entire city was up in arms. Stewart and his lot are rushing about to try and stop it.”

Sofia got stuck in her flight harness with surprise. “Stopping it?! Has he gone mad? This is just the kind of thing we've b-been waiting for! Dammit, where'd the neck-hole go?”

“That was before the news about the orb,” Cassandra's voice came from outside.

“Yeah, well, we shouldn't let ourselves be- Woo, found it!” she stuck her head out of the flight harness. “We shouldn't let threats stop us. We'll just have to keep a close eye on the Shadow.”

“Are you sure?” Cassandra asked, worried. “If it goes wrong...”

“Cassie, Tacito kills pokémon every day. We may not get another chance like this for months, if ever. By the way, could you tell anyone who comes asking for instructions to go ahead and do what they can?”

Cassandra sighed. “Sure.”

“Good!” Sofia shuffled sideways through the door. She could already hear the sounds of large, angry groups of pokémon in the distance. “I'll find and convince Stewart! We're dethroning the Shadow today!” She took a running start, jumped, and soared up into the air.

It looked like a warm, sunny day, but Sofia immediately wished she had thought to put on a scarf and some gloves. The rapid wind as she flew was frigidly cold and chilled her to the bone. Genius, going out for a flight when there's snow on the roofs... She clutched her arms around herself to try and keep warm as she looked about. There were several large, protesting groups about. She could see much smaller groups opposing them, or running away. But the one she was most interested in finding were Stewart and his men. She found them, trying to disperse an angry mob only a few streets away. Sofia landed right by the Bisharp himself. “Hi, colonel!”

“...Please, return to your homes! Today is not the day to bring down the emperor. Yes, Sofia, what is it? I'm really quite busy.”

“Busy doing the wrong thing, colonel!” Sofia said. “We should b-be joining them, not stopping them.”

The Bisharp sighed. “In case you've forgotten-”

“Yeah, yeah, orb. I'm heading for the Shadow's manor myself to keep an eye on him.”

“And what if you miss him?”

“What if we lose all momentum?” Sofia countered. “If this revolt gets stopped, not only will a whole lot of these pokémon die, but the Shadow will b-be in a much stronger position. We, on the other hand, will probably lose a lot of credibility if we just sit back. We've been telling everyone to resist Tacito for months, and now we tell them to back down and wait.”

“It's better than risking all of Fournaria, no, the world!”

Impatience and passion burned inside Sofia and warmed her up with every rapid heartbeat. “But you are risking all of Fournaria! How often will a chance like this come around? It's now or never, Stewart! We don't have the luxury of waiting for another opportunity, if it ever comes. We'll lose all momentum if we stop now.”

The Bisharp was silent, in thought.

“Pokémon die every day under Tacito, colonel. We have to risk it. Besides, I don't know if we can stop it.”

Finally, he nodded. “Yes. Yes, I believe you are right.”

“Woo!” Sofia cheered. “Well, then I'll let you work it all out here! I've got an emperor to keep an eye on!” She took flight again, shivering in the icy wind as she turned towards the centre. She swooped low over a large group that stood opposed to only a few of the Shadow's troops, none of whom looked very eager to fight. She shouted some encouragements before flying on. A winged Kirlia was pretty easy to recognise, so she knew she'd gained quite some fame in the city. That'd help them, encourage them more.

She flew over one sign of revolution after another. The mostly empty police station was being stormed by the crowd. Elsewhere, a big bonfire had started, from what looked like black scarves and the many, many posters the city had been stamped full with in the past few months. Sofia even saw celebrations erupting on a square in the west of town, the music faintly audible over the icy wind's rush. She turned that way, swooped down, and executed a gracious landing on a low roof, to the crowd's cheers and applause. Suddenly, she realised just how many of them there were, and her voice caught in her throat. To buy herself some time to collect her thoughts, she bowed, earning more applause.

“Er, h-hi...” she began. “T-today is when we liberate Fournaria once and for all!” she wished her voice sounded a little less squeaky. “B-b-but it's still too early to celebrate! Let's- let's go to Tacito's manor, and show him just what we think of him! Andand then we can have a party!”

To her relief, the suggestion was mostly met with more cheers. “R-right, follow me! We're going to liberate New Prae- no, Valadares!” another great applause. “We'll call it Valadares again! Andand then we'll liberate the rest of Fournaria! Well, come along! Let's dethrone the emperor!”

She took a sprint, jumped off the roof, and flew, with a great whoop from the crowd. Her cheeks burnt from the applause and the cold wind. She flew east, over streets that led to the main square, rising up a bit so the crowd could still see her when she was ahead of them. In the distance, she saw the prison being stormed a second time, the guillotine in front of it on fire.

Like most of the old city, Tacito's manor was made of brown-reddish bricks. Where old Praeclara had been exuberant and wild in its endless variety of styles, Valadares had stuck mostly to a single style before Tacito's rebuilding. Most of the city consisted of the tall, dark red brick buildings, which were often decorated with little statues and frescoes in the walls.

The remnant of the army - those that hadn't already deserted, nor had been in different parts of the city when the revolution erupted - were keeping the angry crowds off the main square. But Sofia had just guided a massive mob here, far too big to stop; she grinned as she thought of the Shadow, caught in his manor. He'd probably try to flee. Sofia gained a lot of height and started making slow, deliberate circles over the square, keeping her eyes peeled for any suspicious movement around the manor.

–

Diego waited, cradling the blue orb in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. He could hear the rabble shouting outside. The rest of New Praeclara had probably fallen by now, and the rest of Fournaria would follow soon. He had only a few pokémon who were still loyal to him. One of them came flying into the window, his usually spotless feathers unusually haggard.

“Sir,” general Marino said laboriously, “there is very little still to be done. I have found perhaps two dozen pokémon still loyal to you. I will endeavour to protect you myself, but-”

“Did you order them to wait for me at the city's eastern edge, like I ordered?” Diego asked calmly.

“Yes, but sir-”

“Good,” he sighed. “You know, general, I'll miss this. Being able to control all of Fournaria from a comfy chair. Being emperor Tacito. It was fun.”

“Sir, please, you must understand: we are surrounded by the mob. I can't fly you out. You are-”

“Don't worry, general,” Diego said, downing his last glass of wine as he got up. “I'll see myself out.” He changed his illusion to one of an beaten-up Audino, making sure to give himself some barely-healed scars and bruises.

General Marino gasped and jumped back. “You- You-”

“Oh,” Diego chuckled at Marino's face. “That was dumb. I suppose I shouldn't have drunk that wine.”

The Unfezant began to recover. “You- Stewart sent me a letter claiming you were a Zoroark! I-I didn't want to believe him, but-”

Diego shrugged. “And don't you feel stupid now? I suppose you're going to stop being an obedient little birdie now?”

He spread his wings aggressively. “I will-”

“Yeah, that's what I thought. Marco?” Diego gestured lazily. His bonsai tree came to life and attacked the Unfezant. Diego dropped the illusion, as it was making him dizzy to see the tree walking about and shooting lightning. The Jolteon jumped onto the downed bird, continuing to shock him again and again, frying him as Diego watched. “You can stop now,” he said after a while. He gave the charred general a prod. “Pity, I think you killed him. I guess he really does feel stupid now.”

“I'm sorry, sir,” Marco grinned.

“Could've used him,” Diego mused. “Anyway, I'll disguise you too. Just follow my lead and let me do the talking.”

Diego was swaying a little as he walked, but that would only help the disguise seem real. He put only a minor illusion over Marco, keeping him looking like a Jolteon but adding some wounds. He took one last look about his room before setting off through the corridors of the manor, to the barred front door. The rabble was trying to open it, so why not make it easy for them? He quickly unbarred the door, and it flew open, confronting the furious mob with something they hadn't expected.

“Thank Zekrom you came!” he squeaked, in a high-pitched, terrified voice. “It was horrible! The emperor kept us prisoner in a special, secret dungeon for weeks! He hurt us whenever he felt angry or upset, or just felt like it...”

An utterly predictable wave of anger and disgust went through the mob. “Where is he?” asked a Venusaur furiously.

“H-he took refuge in the same dungeon! That's how I escaped! J-just search the manor; you can't miss it!” Diego and Marco quickly pushed through the crowd, who were too preoccupied with storming the manor to worry about the Audino feeling like a Zoroark if they bumped into him. Diego struggled to keep a smug grin off his face as he thought of the imbeciles searching the manor while he was well on his way to mt. Jund. He gleefully clutched the blue orb in his hand – masked with an illusion as an ordinary pebble. He casually walked off the square, into the streets. They could enjoy their revolution all they liked. They could never win as long as Diego had the orb.

–

Sofia felt a grin come to her face as she became surer and surer she'd spotted the Shadow. She'd spotted the Audino and the Jolteon as they left the manor and followed them, suspicious. The Audino had a far more self-assured walk than the rest of its behaviour would suggest, and now she could clearly recognise its dark grin: the same grin she'd seen on the Shadow, back on that horrible day, and on Tacito during his speeches. She would be the one to catch him. She'd get to avenge Larissa, and all of Fournaria. She wanted to swoop down at the bastard, get out her knife, and-

Except she didn't have a knife any more. She supposed she shouldn't use it anyway, even if she had it. But she would. Swearing off violence was one thing... But she'd still make the Shadow himself pay for murdering Larissa. The shrill whistle starting to sound was a bad sign, she knew, but she was fully prepared to give in and kill him. As quickly as she could, she landed and picked up a big, heavy roof tile. Dropped from a height, it should do the trick just as well as the knife.

She took off again, pedalling much harder as the tile weighed her down. For one terrifying moment, she thought she'd lost the Shadow, but then she saw him. She waited and observed for a while, just in case they were a different Audino and Jolteon, but she was certain. She carefully positioned herself above them, flying low enough that she could aim properly. She found herself oddly hesitant to drop it, even as her anger burnt in her veins. She took a deep breath, aimed carefully, and let go.

“Sir, look out!”

The Shadow jumped back at the last moment, the tile shattering harmlessly on the ground. Sofia cursed, dived and banked, barely dodging a massive spark of lightning aimed her way. She had to get up higher, she was far too vulnerable to the Jolteon, she-

A bolt of lightning tore straight through her right wing, giving her a small shock. She instantly plummeted from the sky, spinning, and made a painful, hard landing on the stone street. The next thing she knew, a powerful hand lifted her by the throat. She looked straight into the Zoroark's malicious, purple eyes, the only illusion remaining the one that made him look younger and more intact than he really was. He was very tall and strong; at least twice as tall as Sofia, and she could only squirm uselessly, suspended in the air by his hand.

“You tried to kill me,” the Shadow whispered.

“You deserved it!” Sofia snapped. She had no illusions she was going to survive this, and it made things a lot simpler. Instead of focussing on trying to survive, she could simply try to die in the best way. She found she was barely even scared.

The Shadow smirked a little. “Such aggressive talk. I thought Boreas told all of you not to use violence.”

“You didn't kill the love of Boreas' life,” she said. “Although not for lack of trying, I hear.”

The Zoroark rolled his eyes. “Life is hard. The strong rule, the weak die. You Fournarians needed to learn that. You should thank me for it.”

“Larissa was stronger than you'll ever b-be,” Sofia spat, “she defied you and your mind control, ruined your plan!”

“Oh,” the Shadow was taken aback, “oh, I see. You're that Kirlia.”

Sofia's pride couldn't help but bristle at the way he said it. “Yes,” she said, “I'm the Kirlia who freed your slaves in Praeclara and caused your servants there to b-be captured. Whose clever science dug up Boreas from his underground cell. Who k-killed Lubyanka! I'm also the Kirlia without whom Larissa probably wouldn't have survived to stop you. More importantly, without whom her final months would've been spent depressed and lonely! I don't think someone like you will ever know or understand love, and that makes you far, far less than me, or anyone else!”

The grip on her throat tightened, but Sofia was determined not to let the Shadow notice her pain. “You... Killed Lubyanka?”

“Yes,” Sofia snapped, unwilling to dwell on the subject. “Face it, Sha- Diego. I may b-be weak, according to you, but I've played a huge role in your downfall. I-”

“You killed Lubyanka?” There was fury in the Shadow's eyes now, and something else too. Maybe even grief? Probably just annoyance at losing someone useful.

The grip on Sofia's throat was too tight to do anything but try to nod, while defiantly meeting those hateful purple eyes.

“Tell me, flying Kirlia,” the Shadow whispered, “can you give me any reason I should let you live?”

Sofia smirked as she had an idea. “Yes,” she croaked, “that thing in your hand.”

“The blue orb?”

The grip on her throat was relaxed enough that she could talk. “Yes. It won't do what you think it will. It'll awake Groudon, but you won't be able to control it. That's the red orb, idiot. The blue one will just infuriate it. You're powerless, and your best shot might be to take me hostage, because you'll never control Groudon.”

The reaction wasn't what she expected. The Shadow smiled. “I know.”

“Wh-what?”

“It's obvious, isn't it? I'm not colour blind. The blue orb goes with the blue pokémon. I got this from a museum, where it was on exhibit. I could've stolen it at any point; I didn't need to go through the whole business with Mewtwo. But you just hit the nail on the head: it wouldn't give me control. It'd just unleash a mass of destruction. Not what I was looking for. I wanted to rule the world, or Fournaria at the very least, and that's not so easy when it's been destroyed. But now... Well, I've lost either way. Nothing I can do about that. But that doesn't mean my enemies won. I can still unleash Groudon. Consider it my retribution to the pokémon who threw me out. You can enjoy your brand of so-called 'freedom', the kind that always favours the weak and restricts the strong. You can enjoy it for about a week, when you all die.”

“B-”

The Shadow threw Sofia down hard onto the pavement. She refused to let out a groan of pain and tried to get up, but the massive impact of a great, metal foot to her stomach threw her back to the ground, crumpled on top of her wings. It hit her again, and she couldn't suppress a groan this time.

“I suppose,” the Shadow said with glee, “I know the answer my own question. I'll let you live so you can tell Boreas. I'd hate for him to die thinking this was all a mistake on my part.”

“You're patheti- OWWW!” Sofia had tried to stand up, but was caught by the heavy foot again, thrown back, and hit her head on the hard stones behind her. Feeling the world spin, she kept still. The Shadow lifted her head and opened her eyelids with his hand, checking whether she was really unconscious. She kept her eyes very still and blankly staring. The Shadow dropped her, and she could hear him and his bodyguard walking off.

That's when she jumped to her feet. Or tried to, anyway. A great stab of pain stopped her, and she stood up more slowly, examining herself. No broken bones. She very quickly took off her flight harness; her wings were useless and would only get in the way. As she set off in pursuit, she scribbled a message for Boreas on a piece of paper in her pocket. She had no time to warn anyone, unless she ran into them. She had to follow the Shadow, keep an eye on him so they could recognise him despite his illusionary powers.

–

Valadares was celebrating, free at last. The streets were happy, festive, chaotic. There wasn't a sign of black scarves or of posters with Tacito's smug grin on them. The loudspeakers on the roofs were quiet, and nobody was planning to go home despite curfew nearing. Pokémon were dancing, partying, drinking on the street. It was a total mess, but there wasn't a face without a smile on it. None, except Boreas'. He walked quickly through the crowds, Catarina barely able to keep up with him. He quickly shrugged off a hug by some Combusken and made his way to the emperor's manor. Several of its windows had been broken, and pokémon had written large phrases celebrating the revolution's success on the wall. Boreas burst into the manor, walking upstairs and finding a familiar Bisharp.

“Stewart,” Boreas said sharply, “where is Diego?”

“Good evening to you too,” Stewart said. “I'm trying to find out the very same thing. He hasn't been seen since this morning, as far as I can tell.”

Boreas groaned. “Then he's on his way to mt. Jund by now... Why didn't you listen to me? I gave strict instructions not to start-”

Stewart interrupted him. “I did not start anything. It quite simply happened. Besides which, if you had wanted complete control, you shouldn't have-”

“Yes, yes, I know. I'm sorry. Congratulations on the victory; I'll be sure to feel ecstatic about it as soon as we've got Diego. Are you quite sure he's gone?”

Stewart scowled. “Have you seen the state this city is in? No, of course I'm not sure, and I don't think I shall be until the city stops being a cross between a massive party and a collision! Besides, you were the one claiming him to be gone, not me.”

“Right, sorry.”

“Sir?” Catarina asked. “What about Sofia? Have you seen her?”

“This morning. She flew about town and proved quite an inspiring figure for all concerned. Convinced me to join in, as a matter of fact.”

“Good,” Boreas muttered, distracted. “Now, I have to go on to mt. Jund immediately. If Diego is heading there, I might be able to catch up to him. Colonel, make sure to send word of the revolution's success to the rest of Fournaria.”

“Already did,” the Bisharp said. “I believe many cities were waiting for exactly this moment, and won't take long to follow suit.”

“Good. Well, colonel, I'll just see if I can keep your free Fournaria in one piece, shan't I?”

Catarina sighed. “I'll come with you again. Pity, though. I'd love to join the party...”

–

Aqua walked quickly through a tired, but free city sleeping in after its celebrations. She had left Cervuxula for Valadares the moment she felt the city was secure, its governor overthrown and almost everyone, even the police force, firmly on the side of the revolution. She had planned to stay longer, but she too had received the message about Diego having the blue orb, and she knew Boreas would try to steal the orb. She also knew he'd need her Besides... It had been ages since they'd last seen each other, and she missed him.

Nobody had slept on the streets tonight, for the first time in half a year. The city was a mess, but a happy mess. Now, this revolution could mean only two things: either Diego had been captured or killed, or he was currently racing Boreas to mt. Jund. As Aqua walked to Diego's manor through the eastern parts of the city, a creeping tension began to come over her. The problem with Boreas following Diego to mt. Jund was that he was a colossal idiot who made up for it by being extremely smart. Now, if-

Torn and twisted remains of two artificial wings, connected to the back of a garment that had once been part of a blue dress. “Sofia!” Aqua gasped, rushing to investigate. The state of the wings made it obvious she had crashed, as did the thankfully small bloodstains on the flight harness. The Kirlia herself was nowhere to be seen, so Aqua assumed she had survived and left her destroyed wings behind. Why, though? She was very proud of them, and wouldn't have just left them in the street like trash if she hadn't needed to. Perhaps-

There was a piece of paper half-crumbled, half-wedged into the crack between two of the brown bricks of the wall behind the ornithopter. Aqua carefully, but quickly, took it out, managing not to tear it. “Hi Boreas! The Shadow is on his way to mt. Jund with the blue orb. I'm following him and keeping an eye on him. He knows what the blue orb does, and is still going to use it. Hurry up and follow us! Sofia.”

Aqua's stomach turned with disgust. 'He knows what the blue orb does, and is still going to use it.' The shameful memories bubbled up in her as she turned and began to walk to the city's edge. She'd thought Diego was her friend once, let him turn her against Boreas. She'd trusted him. But even now, she hadn't thought he was capable of something as evil as this.

–

Sofia shivered as evening set in on the snowy mountain flanks. If only she could make a fire... But that would alert the Shadow to her following him. She was just about frozen after all these days of travelling through the mountains in clothes that were too thin, of digging holes into the snow to sleep in some warmth. But she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight anyway. There were too many memories on this particular plateau, too much at stake tomorrow.

The tall peak of mt. Jund arose on the other side of the valley below. It was a sight she'd seen several times... And the first time had been her final night with Larissa. Even now, she couldn't help but wish she could go back six months, tell the two girls who'd lain here looking at the stars together something to change what happened. She breathed slowly to stay calm. She couldn't afford getting stuck in the past when the future was so unsure.

The Shadow would reach mt. Jund tomorrow, there was no doubt of it. She had hoped Boreas would catch up in time, have some way to stop him, but it was too late now. There was only Sofia against the Shadow and the twenty-odd pokémon still loyal to him. Even if she had her tools and could think of something brilliant, those were tall odds. As it was, she had nothing but a pencil and a torch. She paced through the snow. What could she do? She had considered sneaking in at night and stealing the orb before, but the Shadow was guarded too well. Maybe she could create an avalanche tomorrow as they were descending into the valley? It was her best shot, but it seemed unlikely to work. A brilliant, tinkering Kirlia wasn't much use if she didn't have anything to tinker with.

She stared morosely at mt. Jund. If only she had tools, she could find some way to barricade the entrances to the caves, perhaps... “Wait!” Sofia clasped her hands to her mouth to keep herself quiet. There were tools and materials inside the caves! There was a whole abandoned hideout in there, and unless they had taken their tools, there was plenty Sofia could use! Giddy, she immediately set off through the snow, towards the path down into the valley. She didn't have long to prepare, but at least it wasn't completely hopeless.

 

[apenpaap]

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Glaceon and the Shadow

Boreas knew now was the time to talk. Catarina was scouting ahead, leaving him walking through the snow alone with Aqua. When his wife had suddenly caught up to them last evening, they had been too busy discussing Diego's plans to talk about the past, but now he had no excuse to wait any longer. “I have to tell you something.”

“Uh oh,” Aqua said jocularly. She quickly became serious when she saw Boreas' grave face. “What's wrong, love?”

“I had general Lupo killed.”

Aqua raised an eyebrow. “That went from zero to a hundred quickly.”

“I just... Wanted you to know,” Boreas said.

Aqua silently walked on.

“He had to be stopped. As long as he was in command of Diego's army, our every move resulted in a bloodbath. Poor Catarina, for example, almost got killed and had to return to Praeclara to calm her nerves after he broke up the crowd at one of her performances. Obnard told me he knew someone who could kill Lupo, so I gave him the go-ahead.”

“You're telling me you had no choice?”

Boreas sighed. “Far from it. Of course I had a choice, and I made that choice. I'm not trying to excuse that choice, only to explain it. I thought I made the right choice at the time, but... Well, I don't know. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if we couldn't have done it differently. Whether I really exhausted all other options, or just picked the easy way out. I don't suppose I'll ever know for sure.”

“I expected it was you when I heard the news,” Aqua said.

“...I thought you might.”

A heavy silence fell between them, which Boreas was the first to break. “I know you don't approve... And neither do I. It keeps going through my mind. The doubt, the worry I made the wrong choice.”

“I understand. I won't pretend I approve of what you did, but for what it's worth, I think it helped more pokémon than it harmed. It's your own conscience you'll have to convince, not mine. I can forgive you if you can.”

“That's perhaps the worst part,” Boreas said, “I think I can. I worry, but not nearly enough. I felt horrible when I first gave the order, but since then I haven't felt that bad about it, even as I question it more. I don't know if that makes sense, but it doesn't feel that special, to have ordered someone's death. Yet I know I shouldn't be fine.”

Aqua's tail gently touched his shoulder. “Boreas, you're not fine; that much is obvious.”

“Only because I worry I'm not worried enough...”

“When you put it like that, isn't it obvious you're overthinking it? You obviously do feel guilty, just in a different way than you expected.”

“I guess...”

“You've been through a lot lately. So have I. We just need a rest.”

Boreas nodded slowly. “I suppose you're right. I do need a rest. A good, long rest in a peaceful place, with friends. No travelling, no adventures... At least, for a while.”

Aqua smiled. “I never thought I'd hear you say that.”

“Me neither. I... I guess I'm just looking forward to going home.”

–

Diego and the eighteen pokémon still loyal to him stood in the snow in front of the entrance to their old hideout. Diego had hoped to get it over with quickly: get to Groudon, wake it up, get as far away as possible, watch Fournaria wither and regret ever opposing him. He had not expected to find the entrance blocked.

“Uhh, sir?” asked the scarred Conkeldurr.

“Yes?”

“The tunnel seems to have collapsed...”

“You don't say. You'd better start clearing it, then.”

“Yes, sir...”

Just a minor delay, Diego supposed as his underlings got busy. A Sandslash and a Rhydon were among them, so they'd make short work of the blockade. But... Diego took a few steps back, looking carefully through the snow-white valley. It seemed a little bit too convenient. The cave-in could just be the result of an earthquake, of course. On the other hand, Boreas might have beaten him here and barricaded the caves. If the Kirlia had woken up quickly and told Boreas right away, the Glaceon could've been on his tail all along...

“Berylla,” he said to the Exploud, “stay outside. Keep careful watch and shout as hard as you can if you see anyone.”

“Of course, sir.”

Diego awaited nervously. If he was being watched, he was presenting a clear target, a black Zoroark in a white landscape. Changing illusions now would only make it worse, though.

“We're through, sir,” said Anafenza, the Sandslash. The entrance to the tunnel still had a mound of rubble in it, but enough had been moved out of the way to allow entrance into the darkness beyond.

“Good work. Get inside, but be on your guard.”

The Blaziken was the first to go through, his long legs allowing him to easily scale the rubble in a single step. He shuddered as he put his clawed foot inside. “Bit of moisture building up in here.”

“Get on with it,” Anafenza said, “it probably just rained in before the collapse.”

“Fine, fine.” The Blaziken breathed out a small fireball and held it in his hand, shedding some light inside as he entered, the others following one by one. The first corridor was empty, other than the few centimetres of water covering the floor. Diego's metal leg, handy though it was, didn't leave him with quite the balance or sure-footedness to safely get inside on his own, so he let himself be helped in by the pokémon behind him.

Just as Diego was lifted up by the arms, a small figure jumped out of a side-passage in the distance. There was a bright blue flash, and the five pokémon already inside all fell down, twitching and convulsing from the powerful current that ran through the water, electrifying them. Diego cursed and pulled back; his foot was already almost touching the water.

He saw the thin figure sprint away, her rapid footfalls echoing, and aimed a dark pulse at her. She shrieked and fell out of sight, around the corner, as he hit her in the leg. He pulled back, fixing his servants outside with an angry scowl. “Someone's trapped the place, put a cut wire into the water. Marco, get it out and kill our new friend!”

“Right away, sir.” The Jolteon leapt over the heap of rubble and cringed as the electricity pumped into his body as well. His fur stood even more on end as usual, sparks of lightning dancing between its various points and tips, lighting up the dark corridor as he took step by laboured step, gritting his teeth. Meanwhile, the light, rapid footfalls of the intruder could be heard running away around the corner.

At last, Marco got to the cable, pulled it out of the water, and took it back into the other room. “It's safe!” he called after a moment.

Diego and the others entered. “Thank you, Marco. I want that Kirlia dead. Find and kill her, but I want all of you to be cautious for any more traps.”

“She won't stand a chance, sir.” Marco sprinted off after the Kirlia, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

A massive, roaring sound bellowed through the tunnels, shaking dust out of the ceiling and piercing Diego's ears. As he clutched them in pain, he realised it wasn't just any noise; it was Berylla producing the loudest shout he'd ever heard. “INTRUDER!!! INTRUDER!!! WE'RE BEING FOLLOWED!!!”

“Shut up! We're only a few metres away!” rubbing his ears, he regained his temper and hearing. “What kind of intruder?”

“Sorry, sir... It's a Vaporeon.”

Diego grinned. “Looks like today might get interesting after all. We'll split up. Half of you, remain here and stop Aqua. The other half, come with me.”

–

Sofia ran. This was all wrong. She hadn't counted on the Shadow getting through her first trap that quickly, nor on getting hurt herself. Now she didn't have the time to get her other traps and inventions from the various side-rooms; she had to run, run, run despite her wounded leg, run through dark corridors lit only by her torch. Suddenly, the world exploded into light and sound as a lightning bolt hit the wall right next to her. Sofia broke out in a sprint, thanking her own foresight for putting on thick rubber soles as another one hit the ceiling.

She turned around a corner, leaving the Jolteon behind for a moment, and went into a tunnel already partially lit by a small flame in a hanging oil lamp at the far end. The entire tunnel stunk of a thin layer of oil on the ground, ready to erupt into a sea of flame if Sofia could just reach the lamp before the electric fox caught her. She stretched out her hand to the lamp... And was floored by a kick into the small of her back as the Jolteon pounced her to the ground at full speed. She skidded on over the slick, oily ground, with the Jolteon on her back.

Sofia's world erupted in pain and light as he electrocuted her, her soles no longer protecting her. She screamed and tried to get her twitching muscles under control to throw off her assailant, but the torment only continued, leaving her helpless. Her bones hurt from her own muscles pulling on them feverishly, almost tearing themselves apart. She lay face-down and powerless when it finally stopped, her body smoking where the electricity had burnt her.

“Good work, Marco,” the Shadow's hated voice said.

She felt Marco's weight lift off her. “I aim to please, sir. I think the little pixie was just about to spring another trap of hers, but don't you worry about it. I'll take care of it.”

Sofia managed to roll onto her back to get a better look. The Shadow and several of his pokémon were approaching through the tunnel, careful not to slip on the oil, while Marco was standing up on two legs, taking the burning lamp Sofia had prepared off its hook on the ceiling. Inspiration struck her like another lightning bolt as she realised she could still stop them. She had more strength left than Marco thought; she could surprise him, make him drop the lamp and immolate the oil.

Unfortunately, she was covered in oil herself. Terror's icy claw seemed to seize her around the throat. The Shadow had to be stopped, but to die like that, right now? She couldn't... Except the world was at stake. She was all that stood between the Shadow and Groudon, between Fournaria and deadly drought and more earthquakes; maybe even the only person that could prevent the Earth from ending up like Venus.

She remembered Larissa's face as she'd last seen it in real life: a somewhat sad smile on her face, as if she already knew what was happening, what she'd do. I understand now, Larissa... She kept focussing on Larissa's face as she pushed herself to her feet. She briefly reflected with a humourless smile how she had felt ready to die for months and lived through it, but now that she at last felt like she had a reason to live, she was about to die. She took a deep breath as she jumped forward. The Shadow shouted something, and something painful hit her side, but it was already too late to stop her. As she hit the Jolteon and the burning lamp fell from his paws, she squeezed her eyes shut in fear. She heard glass shatter, and then there was terrible heat and light behind her closed eyelids.

–

“Come on, I'll take all of you!” Aqua boasted loudly. “In fact, go get some more pokémon; you don't stand a chance with only ten of you!”

There was a bit of uncertainty in Aqua's voice, and Boreas didn't blame her. He was just as worried, and he'd love to stay and help her, but the fact was that she was the only member of their little party who wasn't naturally camouflaged in snow. It just made sense to have Aqua be the distraction while Boreas and Catarina sneaked into the base.

Aqua surrounded herself with a great wave, the water rendering most of the attacks against her harmless. “I know you won't believe me,” she said, “but the Shadow can't control Groudon. He doesn't even want to!”

Boreas looked around worriedly as he reached the entrance to the caves. Aqua was way outnumbered, but she met his gaze and nodded at him encouragingly. Taking a deep breath, he and Catarina broke out in a run through the water-logged tunnels, splashing water with every footstep. They had to move fast to catch up to Diego. This part of the base was mostly linear, a single corridor with many rooms on it, so there wasn't much chance of getting lost.

They turned into a corridor full of a nasty oil-scent stinging their nostrils, as well as full of pokémon. There were Diego, Sofia, and several others, but most notable was the Jolteon Sofia was tackling. He dropped something that was on fire as she hit him. It shattered on the ground, and a blazing sea of flame erupted immediately, engulfing the entire corridor. Boreas let out a surprisingly double-voiced cry of shock and horror, Catarina's reaction much the same as his.

They were running forward, into the fire without even thinking about it. Boreas didn't have a plan; he just knew he had to get Sofia out of the inferno. They radiated every little bit of cold they could find within themselves, creating a powerful aura that tempered the flames near them. The fire withered away as the ice types came near, rushing quickly past panicked, burning pokémon, but it was far from perfect. Sudden gusts of burning hot air would sneak through and hit them, scorching Boreas' fur.

There she was! A small figure, lying on the ground, completely enveloped by fire. Boreas didn't hesitate a moment and drove the cold around him onto her instead, smothering the fire with a great, and very localised snowstorm as his own tail caught fire. Gritting his teeth, he helped Catarina carry her cousin out of the fire, quickly extinguishing the flames whenever they caught hold of her once more. Once out of the sea of flame, he dropped to the ground, rolling and cooling himself down to douse the fire that had caught his tail. He could hear a footstep and a metal klunk take turns ahead, but dealing with Diego's escape would have to wait.

“Sofia,” he gasped, using large handfuls of snow to smother the final flames on her and soothe her burns. “Why'd you do that?! Come on, breathe, please...”

Catarina put her head to Sofia's chest. “Sh-she's alive!”

Boreas wished his heart would stop beating so fast and his head would clear. “Good! I-I have to follow Diego, try cooling down her wounds, and-”

“Got it, go! I'll take care of her!”

Boreas ran on, trying to take deep breaths to calm himself down. Sofia had been on fire for only a few seconds; her injuries were unlikely to be life-threatening, or permanent. He didn't need to worry about her, only about catching up to Diego. The noise of his metal leg was easy to follow, but moved very fast, deeper and deeper into the caves. Boreas took a long time to catch up, still out of breath from the fire.

He emerged into a massive cave. The path continued as one of several bridges over an abyss, meeting one of the other bridges halfway. The bridges went criss-cross through the great hall, at different heights and directions, connecting a dozen different exits. There was nothing but darkness below the lowest bridge, a great underground abyss.

He was too busy taking it all in to realise he could neither see nor hear Diego ahead of him until it was almost too late. He threw himself flat the moment he did, and was therefore only scraped by Diego's metal foot when the Zoroark jumped from his hiding place in the entrance to the massive cavern. Boreas rolled back to his feet in a single move, instantly whipping up the winds in the cave to a snowstorm, whirling around him.

“Give me the orb, Diego,” he said.

Diego rolled his eyes. “...And you'll let me leave Fournaria and rot away wherever I like?”

“No,” Boreas said. “It's too late for that. I'll give you to the Fournarians, let them decide what to do with you. You killed half a million of them and subjected the rest to tyranny. I wouldn't take whatever they figure works as justice for that away from them.”

“Not much incentive to surrender.”

“It'd save you the beating I'll give you otherwise. Besides, even if I let you go, you wouldn't take it, would you?”

Diego grinned. “Of course not.”

“Why, Diego? What's the point? You won't gain anything by unleashing that thing!”

Diego stamped his metal foot, its clang echoing through the great cave. “Revenge! Revenge on you, and on all the stinking pokémon who brought me down.”

Boreas cautiously took a step back in case Diego suddenly lunged at him. “If you release Groudon, you'll die too. Think about what you're doing.”

“I'm old,” Diego snapped, “I've got a few years left, and you've taken care to ensure I won't get another opportunity to wield this kind of power in that time. If I die a little earlier, at least I'll take you, and every pokémon who opposed me, along!”

“Who wouldn't oppose you? Face it, you were an awful leader. It wasn't just that you were a tyrant, you were actually really bad at being a tyrant. You act like the Fournarians are spoilt children, but look at what you did to them!”

“They rose up against me! I had the right to defend myself!”

“You had five hundred thousand of them killed! Listen to yourself, you pathetic, over-entitled git! What gave you the right?”

“Just the kind of stupid question I expected from you,” Diego snarled. “I don't need the 'right', that's not how it works. If you have the power to do something, you can, and I had that power.”

“Then I had the power to bring you down. If it's all just a question of power, why take revenge? Clearly, you weren't powerful enough, so it's all your fault.”

“But I still have power. I have the power to do this, to let Groudon destroy you all!”

“You've got a glowy, old stone! That's all your 'power' is!”

“You're wrong. I've got the guts to use it. That's what real power is. The stone is just a tool. If I didn't have it, I would've found another way.”

“Your 'power' is your willingness to kill everyone in a tantrum? You've changed, Diego. You always were an awful bastard, but you were utilitarian at least. You had friends once, maybe you really cared for them somewhere deep in that black heart.”

Diego glowered. “I had friends, but you killed them. Ghetsis, Lubyanka, Lupo, Marco-”

“N?” Boreas asked.

“You killed them all! Consider this my retribution.”

Suddenly, a bright beam blasted at Boreas, but he was prepared for Diego using an illusion and instead of dodging, he aimed an ice beam right at the Zoroark's chest, hitting him as he pounced forward. He jumped on the Zoroark, lashing out with powerful pulses of cold and capitalising on this chance to end it quickly. The illusion presenting Diego as young and without metal limbs faltered, the Zoroark's scarred, one-eyed face reappearing.

A mighty steel hand knocked Boreas off his enemy, throwing him across the bridge. He got up, cautiously whipping up the winds again as he and Diego stared each other down. Without his illusion, it was old, grey, one-eyed Diego with his unsightly metal limbs. All Boreas had to do was blow him off the bridge, but that'd take time and he'd leave himself too open to attack. They paused for a moment, seizing each other up. Boreas made a movement as if he was about to talk again.

An ice beam and a dark pulse met each other right in the middle, between them, annihilating each other. Another two beams from each side were parried by the other. Diego chuckled, looking as if he was about to talk too. Boreas did the same, pretending to let his guard down and joining in the bluff.

A great pulse of cold parried crackling, dark lightning coming for Boreas. Diego exhaled a deep breath of fire, the flames bursting towards Boreas, who saw his chance. He put his all into a mighty gale, which howled through the cave as the flames licked heel, pelting Diego with icy hail and droplets of liquid air and blowing him over, off the edge of the bridge.

Extinguishing himself for the second time that day, Boreas looked over to see what happened to Diego. The Zoroark had landed on a lower bridge, and was quickly running towards the other side of the cave. With a grunt of annoyance, Boreas unleashed the storm's fury upon him, covering the bridge in snow and ice, but the Zoroark managed to keep going. Recognising he needed to take a more personal hand in it, he jumped down, landing on the bridge right in front of his enemy.

That was a mistake. The agonising dark lightning erupted from Diego's hand, too quick to parry. Boreas' skin burnt wherever it touched him, but he couldn't afford to be taken down. He hit Diego in the stomach with an ice beam, the larger fox doubling over in pain. Then a second ice beam, aimed right for his head this time.

Diego blocked was just fast enough to block the ice beam, a dark pulse meeting it between them. But neither of them gave up; they both kept their attacks going, the energy between them building up and crackling dangerously. It built and built as the dark storm raged around them, deafening, thunderous.

The energy suddenly exploded, throwing both the foxes into the air. Boreas fell deep, landing hard on his shoulder on the lowest bridge. He looked up: Diego had been lucky enough to land on the same bridge, now far above Boreas, and was already standing up. Boreas aimed an ice beam at his grinning face, but it was very easy for Diego to take cover behind the very bridge he stood on. Boreas groaned in frustrated fear as the Zoroark began to walk off, no way for Boreas to stop him. Except... He remembered a day from his youth, the very first time he'd ever played an active part in a serious battle. He was but an Eevee, running for his life from a deadly Chandelure in a smoky cave, smaller than this one. He had been helpless, until he thought to look up and realised there was a weapon her could use.

Stalactites on the roof of the cave! Boreas fired an ice beam at one of the thinnest ones, hitting it near its base and breaking it off. The great stone projectile fell, crashed down right on the unaware Diego, who didn't get up again. Boreas didn't waste any time; he ran off, out of the cave and into the semi-dark tunnels to find a way back onto Diego's bridge. If he'd had more strength, he might've tried to jump and blow himself onto it instead, but that was a bad idea in his current state. He navigated the maze, crossing this way and then that, until he emerged into the cave again, on Diego's bridge.

The Zoroark was gone. Halfway across the bridge lay a single metal arm, crushed underneath a giant stone dagger. A trail of occasional blood spats trailed off into the exit at the other end of the bridge. Boreas cursed and followed it at a sprint, deeper and deeper into the base. He soon came into familiar territory, deep within the caves, and he still hadn't caught up... And here was Diego's old room. Boreas entered with a heavy heart, expecting to find-

Not Larissa. He did a double-take and his heart skipped a beat to find the Quilava standing at the room's far end, near the great window that showed the statuesque, sleeping Groudon down in the red cave beyond. But there was an utterly unfitting grin on her face, and her grey eyes shone with a spark of malicious purple.

“Why?” Boreas asked. “All this, just to hurt me?”

Larissa turned into an old, one-armed Zoroark holding a brilliantly shining blue orb. “Yes,” he said, “after all you've done to me, there are no limits to what I'd go through to see you hurt.”

“Alright then. I surrender.”

The Zoroark blinked. “What?”

“If you want to hurt me, go ahead. Leave the rest of the world out of it, put the orb down. If it stops you from releasing Groudon, go ahead and kill me.”

Diego grinned maliciously. “Too late. Should've thought of that before you deposed me, I'd have taken the offer.” He began to lift the hand with the orb in it.

“Zeph!” Boreas blurted out.

Diego hesitated for a moment. “What?”

“Zeph. You pretended to be my brother for two months. If there was any truth to anything you did in that time, if the warmth I felt was anything but a complete act, don't do this.”

“You know,” Diego said, “I did think there might be something to it. I wondered about it, I was confused. But you know, pokémon don't really change. I looked deep inside myself, and you know what I found I was? This. This is what I am, Bore- ARGH!”

Boreas' ice beam had hit him right in the wrist, making him drop the blue orb. Boreas and Diego jumped for it at the same time. Boreas was the first to grab it, Diego's great weight and strength hitting him a moment later. Even with only one arm, the Zoroark was mighty, and when he tried to pull the orb from Boreas' paw, he felt his claws give way easily.

He laid his other paw right on Diego's throat, pumping cold into it. Diego gagged and let go, giving Boreas a vicious punch in the face instead. The world faded in and out as Diego yanked the orb out of his paw. Boreas pounced the Zoroark as he got up, trying to freeze him down, to stop him, but he was thrown off once more.

Diego stood up and held the orb high. There was a great flash that lit everything in stark blue, and then a couple more. The Earth shook with a mighty roar as Diego let out a cry of triumph. Groudon's eyes lit up as it stirred, began to move, the dust of the ages crackling and falling off, revealing the bright red colour of its scales. The great window between them and it shattered with the shaking of the Earth.

–

Five of Aqua's foes were still standing when she suddenly realised she was feeling awfully warm. The weak winter Sun burnt on her back like she'd never felt before, actively painful and stinging terribly. “Stop!” she cried out, cloaking herself in water for protection. Wherever the Sun's harsh rays touched the surface, it bubbled and boiled.

Her enemies had noticed it too. They looked around at the steaming snow, squinting their eyes against the blinding brightness of the world. “What's going on? Who did this?”

“Groudon,” Aqua said, “your boss has awakened it, and it's gone berserk! I told you!”

Five voices began to argue with her and each other, but Aqua could feel the awful heat and light penetrate deep into her skin with each second, painful and itchy, as if her fur was slowly being torn off. “No time! Quick, get inside, drag your unconscious buddies along! They're dead if you leave them out here.”

The temperature was surging up rapidly. The thick layer of snow was boiling off, and Aqua didn't want to know how hot it would get once it was gone. She helped her enemies take the others inside, where it was a lot cooler without the Sun beating down. Diego's pokémon whispered in trembly tones to one another, just beginning to realise the mistake they'd made.

Just as they were all safe inside, two small figures appeared at the far end of the tunnel, leaning on each other. Catarina was supporting Sofia, whose clothes were badly burnt, although the burns on her skin were thankfully minor. She smelled like a fire in a chemical factory.

“Uhhh...” Catarina looked from one of Diego's pokémon to the other, her eyes wide. “Wwwhat's going on?”

“Groudon,” Aqua said. “We decided on a truce. What about Sofia?”

“I-I'm alright,” Sofia said in a small voice.

“Well, you will be.” Aqua created an aqua ring around her to help her burns recover. The Kirlia flinched in shock as a blob of water appeared around her, then calmed down as she found her burns soothed.

“We didn't know...” said a Granbull. “He said he'd have it under control... We didn't expect... He said-”

“And you were dumb enough to believe him,” Aqua interrupted. “Catarina, take care of Sofia. I have to see if there's anything I can do about Groudon.”

–

The clouds dissolved in a wider and wider area, rapidly spreading over Fournaria. Pokémon in New Praeclara were happy to greet a warm day, only to realise the blazing light reddened their skin within a minute and boiled their cool drinks. It wasn't long before even the hardiest fire-type sought refuge in buildings and shadows. The dissolving clouds had left an empty sky the colour of salmon. The Sun itself was no longer the weak, cool winter Sun; despite being barely above the horizon, it had become a bright, blazing fireball that withered anything its rays touched. Seas and rivers boiled wherever the light spread, plants withered, the earth cracked and dried out. Snow vapourised and wood began to smoulder in a few minutes.

The thick pack of snow that covered Fournaria had melted by now, but hadn't caused any flooding as the water boiled off instantly. Plants withered as soon as the deadly, intense light struck them. Evergreen trees began dropping their needles, brown and dead, while the bald deciduous trees slowly turned into dead wood. Even with the snow melted, the landscape was blindingly bright wherever the merciless Sun shone. No-one was stupid enough to stay outside for long, but those caught without hope of cover found themselves crushed by intense heat and terribly sunburnt after only a few minutes.

–

Diego cackled with glee as Groudon moved for the first time in aeons, shaking the Earth with every muscle it contracted. Boreas felt his strength leave him as he watched it. He had lost. There was nothing he could do to stop a creature that had wiped out a city in a dream. If he tried to fight it, he'd simply be evaporated. But then again, fighting something head-on had never been his style. Not when he could use trickery instead. He found a grin coming to his face as a plan came to his mind. It was a longshot, but worth trying.

“What're you smiling at?” Diego asked warily.

“Me?” Boreas said. “Oh, nothing.”

“There's nothing you can do,” Diego said, more to himself than to Boreas, “you've lost. Stop smiling.”

“Of course I have. Of course. By the way, I take it you haven't done your research about the incident in Hoenn, have you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Diego unleashed his dark lightning on Boreas. He put up a mock defence, but let himself be hit, grinding his teeth against the pain. He had to put up a bit of a show. “Aargh! Alright, alright, I'll tell you! Please, stop!”

Diego's eye flashed dangerously, reflecting the lightning. “Tell me, and I'll stop.”

“Fine! Not like you can do anything with it! Releasing Groudon alone isn't enough! It's not going to do much on its own!”

Diego stopped the lightning. “What do you mean?”

Boreas grinned. “You really didn't do the research, did you? Everyone's always talking about Kyogre and Groudon almost destroying the world, but that was when they were both unleashed. But they weren't awoken simultaneously. Groudon got released first, also by an idiot with a blue orb. And what did it do? Nothing. It didn't do a thing until Kyogre woke as well.”

“Shut up! Th-that's not- That's not how it happened.”

Boreas shrugged. “You must've done some research, or you wouldn't know about the wrong stone sending Groudon into a rage. Groudon awoke first, but didn't do anything until Kyogre joined it. You can't argue with the facts. Face it: all your great plan for revenge did was release that creature to wander around a bit. But hey, if some travellers cross its path, it might step on them. So maybe your revenge amounted to something after all.”

Diego laughed. “I see. I see what you're doing. You're trying to trick me into disguising myself as Kyogre and going in there, thus getting myself killed, aren't you?”

“No, no, of course not, I wouldn't-”

“Did you forget that I can use my illusions at a distance? I don't need to put myself in harm's way to stir Groudon up. But thanks. You're right, and I hadn't thought of that.” Down below, a great, blue, whale-like creature appeared out of thin air. Groudon roared as it saw the fake Kyogre float by. Small stones and dust fell from the ceiling as the earthquake intensified. A giant, intense beam emanated from Groudon, pierced through the illusion, and melted the rock behind it. Groudon roared furiously and the ground below it glowed, cracked, and melted, turning into magma. The great behemoth didn't seem to care at all about its feet sinking.

Boreas laughed. “Thank you, that's just what I wanted of you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Haven't you wondered why the wrong orb enrages it? Because I have. And I think the answer is: it's Kyogre's orb. Groudon is enraged because you've just told it Kyogre is near. And then you sent an illusion to confirm it.” The cave shook again. “It doesn't sound happy, does it?”

As he saw understanding dawn on Diego's face, Boreas froze the orb to his hand with an ice beam. Diego cursed in pain and responded with a dark pulse right to Boreas' stomach. The Zoroark sprinted at him, cloaked in pure midnight. An ice beam to the face was effortlessly absorbed by the roiling darkness, so Boreas instead froze the ground right in front of him. The Zoroark slipped and fell, the darkness dissipating like a cloud of smoke. Boreas jumped onto him, ready to end it, but was met with a powerful leg that sent him flying and gasping for air.

They got up at the same time, their attacks meeting in the middle. Beams flashed back and forth, either annihilating each other or getting parried once they were close to their target. A blizzard raged around them, freezing and howling as the Earth shook along. Dark shadows reached forth and tore at Boreas, slashing at him with invisible claws.

Boreas flinched back as Diego breathed out a sea of flame, surrounding him with crackling fire. He tried to back off further, but found himself cornered against the wall. He tried to extinguish the flames while defending against the dark pulses coming through from the other side.

“You won't get me, Boreas,” came the snide voice from behind the flames, “and you don't have the guts to kill me anyway.”

Boreas built up power for a moment, trying not to panic despite the flames licking closer and closer and the wall behind his back. “Don't I?”

“You swore to kill me when you were just a kid, but you failed every time it came down to it! You either lost or you had mercy on me! You're weak!”

An explosion of ice-cold air blew out from Boreas, popping his ears and blowing both the flames and Diego away. The Zoroark came to a halt near the edge, above the raging legendary pokémon, and Boreas immediately followed up with an ice beam to his throat. As the Zoroark struggled to get up, Boreas buffeted him with a great blizzard that rained drops of liquid air onto him, blowing him back down. Boreas kept it up, hitting Diego with ice beam after ice beam while his blizzard raged. Finally, Diego stopped trying to get up. He lay there, shivering. Boreas stepped towards him, almost feeling pity.

“Maybe you're right,” he said, somberly. “Maybe I have been too merciful in the past. All I know is, I've given you far too many second chances. Not this time. Goodbye, Diego.”

Diego gave him a last, hateful look with his single eye, which faded to a blank stare as Boreas applied an ice beam to his forehead for several seconds. He stood up.

“Boreas.” Aqua stood in the door. Boreas took a few steps back, allowing her to create a large wave that washed through the room, dragging Diego's body along with it. The edge into Groudon's magma pit became a waterfall, filling it with steam and infuriating the behemoth. The body, still frozen to the blue orb, fell into the pit. Groudon roared with fury like an erupting volcano and seized upon the intruder, shaking the Earth heavier than before as it destroyed the burning body in a single, blinding attack. The blue orb sank fell into the magma, slowly sinking into it. Calmth came over Groudon. It looked around its molten caldera, made an almost shrug-like movement, and closed its eyes once more. The earth rumbled, but the shocks ceased along with Groudon's movement as it went back to its endless sleep. The slowly cooling magma and the shattered window were the only evidence it had ever woken up.

Boreas found himself sombrely staring at the sleeping creature as Aqua came to stand next to him, touching his shoulder affectionately. “What happened, love? Why'd it stop?”

“Groudon was enraged because the orb felt like Kyogre to it, especially after I tricked Diego into showing it an illusion of Kyogre.”

“So Groudon thought Diego's body was Kyogre?”

Boreas shrugged. “Must have. The orb's aura must've been strong enough to make Diego feel like Kyogre to it. I suppose the wave of water you sent in with him helped too.”

“Diego always did love power, but I don't think even he expected to die a Kyogre.”

Boreas nodded, unable to muster a smile.

“You did the right thing, Boreas.”

Boreas sighed. “I suppose so.”

Together, they walked to the exit in silence. Aqua was just telling Boreas what had happened outside when they reached the exit. Diego's pokémon were nowhere to be seen.

“C'mon, Sofia, you need to rest!”

Sofia was wandering around outside, her hair cut short and wearing what looked like some kind of carpet as if it was a toga. She was looking up excitedly, while Catarina was trying to calm her down. “B-but I'm fine! Just look at how fast clouds are forming! Have you ever seen them grow like that? This is fascinating! I'll bet this is a unique phenomenon, caused by so much water vaporising!”

The rain suddenly came pouring down in a thick curtain of big, cold drops as Sofia squeaked and ran inside.

 

[apenpaap]

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Journey Home

They had come to the first buildings marking the edge of Valadares, their dark red bricks sharply contrasted against the white, snowy landscape. The city lay before them, no longer a dangerous enemy bulwark and the roost of the Shadow, but a city as peaceful and free as any other in Fournaria.

“Well, girls,” Boreas said, as he and Aqua stopped walking, “it's time for us to say goodbye.”

Sofia turned as if she'd been stung by a bee. “Wh-what? Now? Where are you going?”

“Back to Unova,” Boreas said. “We decided a while ago that we'd stick around until Diego was defeated, no longer.”

“B-but don't you want to stay? Fournaria is free again, you can stay here andand won't need to worry about fighting, and it'll be fun, and-”

“Sofia,” Aqua said, “we want to go back to our home. Well, the closest we've got anyway.”

“Besides,” Boreas said, “we've been in Fournaria for almost a year already.”

“Ten months,” Sofia muttered, looking at her feet.

“Ten months. It's a lot longer than we've ever stayed in a single place. We'd be travelling on even if we weren't going back to Unova. I don't think we'll stay there forever either. After a while, I just get this burning desire to go somewhere else, to see what's over the horizon, you see; always have.”

“How do you know we've won?” Catarina asked. “If you don't come with us into Valadares, you don't know if Tacito's buddies didn't retake it. Maybe the revolution failed after all.”

Boreas grinned wryly. “I think I'll just have faith in the pokémon of Fournaria.”

“You know,” Sofia said, a twinkle in her green eyes, “you could stay just a little longer. I'll bet you'd be welcomed in Valadares as heroes, with a big party in your honour, a delicious feast, etcetera.”

“We'll pass,” Boreas said.

“C'mon,” Catarina said, “I already missed the victory parties because I came along with you. Least you can do is help us start a new one.”

“Alright,” Aqua said, “we can wait one more day.”

“But love,” Boreas said, “I don't want to...”

“They just want to thank us, love. Besides, it's cold today. I could do with a warm drink and a meal.”

“Alright, fine.”

“Yaaay!” Sofia cheered.

Boreas rolled his eyes. “I'll come into the city, but only if we agree not make too much of a fuss. I'm fine with having a small party, but we don't need to let the whole city know we're here. They'll put us into some kind of ceremony, you know.”

“Agreed,” Aqua said, as the four of them headed into town, “believe me, I'm not looking for that either.

The parties were over, it was business as usual in Valadares. Except business as usual hadn't looked like this in months. No more pokémon living on the street, no-one was afraid to even look at gatherings, no shouty posters, and no black scarves. The extravagantly large homes and businesses built by Tacito were being turned into multiple smaller homes to allow everyone a place to live in this cold winter. The pokémon looked cautiously happy, as if they still weren't quite able to believe the nightmare was over.

Something green shot out of a side road and collided with Boreas, knocking him down. “Oy, look out where you're going, you stupid kid! Have some respect for your elders, and- Hey, don't I know you? Boreas!”

As Boreas got up, he found himself looking at an old Gogoat. His brain blanked for a moment, until he recalled him as one of the Diamarinan refugees. “Oh, it's you. Um... Wolfgang, wasn't it?”

“That's me!” Wolfgang said. “I heard about you and your revolution, boy! What took you so long? Back in the old days, we wouldn't have let Tacito boss us around for half a year first!”

“Right,” Boreas said, “very good of you. Anyway, it was nice seeing you ag-”

“Oh, hey, was it you stopping the freak weather too? Y'know, they said it was Groudon causing that, and that you were after Tacito, and I can put two and two together, and-”

“Yeah, it was us. Now, if you'll excuse-”

“I knew it! Didn't I tell you? I told you, didn't I?”

Boreas frowned. “I'm... Sure you did?”

“I knew it! I told you: you'll go far some day, boy. Hey, everyone, these pokémon brought down Tacito and then stopped him destroying the world, and I showed 'em how!”

“So much for not making a fuss...” Aqua said.

–

An impromptu party had started up on the main square within a few minutes of Wolfgang recognising Boreas. Everyone wanted to talk to Boreas, Aqua, Sofia, and Catarina, or offer them food or drink, or ask questions of them. They submitted themselves to it, figuring there was no way back, so they might as well have as much fun as possible. The pokémon of New Praeclara had had preciously little to celebrate lately, so they grabbed every chance with both hands.

Boreas spotted Obnard on the edge of the crowd and quickly excused himself, moving through the crowd rapidly and only briefly engaging pokémon in conversations until he reached Obnard. The Krokorok was slurping from a fizzy, brown drink. “Did you kill him?” he asked.

“Good afternoon to you too,” Boreas said. “Yes, I did.”

“Pity. I had some money on you being too weak to do it. But, congrats!” Obnard stuck out his hand, but Boreas didn't take it. “You're stronger than I thought.”

“I don't get you, Obnard,” Boreas said. “You're always advocating killing as a solution, you act like it's a mark of strength. And yet you claim you turned your back on the Shadow because he ordered you to kill the pokémon in Capinha.”

Obnard rolled his eyes. “Say you wanna build a house for someone. So you take a hammer. You don't go knocking holes in the walls with it just because you can, but that doesn't mean you don't use it. You'd be an idiot to get all whiny about having to hammer down some nails. It's the same with death. Used properly, it's just a tool, y'know.”

Boreas didn't want to get into a moral discussion. At this point, he could hardly claim the high ground anyway. “If you say so. But I'd like you to take a message from me to your buddies: they're not going to use that tool again.”

Obnard sipped his drink with an impassive face. “Why would they? The Shadow's dead, isn't he?”

“Yes, he is. But let's not forget your buddies supported him for quite a while. They may not have agreed with his methods, but they mostly agreed with his goals. Some of them might find themselves disappointed with the reversal of the changes he made. Maybe they'll be tempted to try and pick up their hammer again, start hitting some nails. Maybe it would interest them to know I made a list of their identities while we were all working together. Just in case I forgot their names, you know, I have a terrible memory.”

Obnard sipped his drink. “Did you, now?”

Boreas nodded. “I'm afraid Stewart somehow got a hold of it, though. Knowing him, he'll have made several copies and distributed them to his colleagues, just in case trouble arises and they need to find you. That man really can be awfully paranoid. But I don't suppose he'll ever need that list.”

“No,” Obnard said, finishing his drink, “I don't suppose he will. Would you excuse me? I need to have a talk with someone.”

Boreas grinned. “Of course.”

Aqua raised a questioning eyebrow as Boreas returned through the happy crowd. “Had a nice chat?”

“Oh yeah,” Boreas said, “just saying goodbye to Obnard, making clear he - What is that?”

Sofia had rejoined them with a bright blue drink. She was blowing bubbles in it through a crazy straw, utterly enchanted. She looked up, and then peered into her drink curiously. “Hmm? Well... It's... It's blue.”

“Is it?” Aqua asked.

“Yeah. It tastes pretty good, though, and - Hi, Pedro! Long time no see!”

The Snorunt looked rather grumpy as he joined them, most of the crowd taller than him. “Hi. Where's Catarina?”

“She's dancing with a Lucario over there,” Sofia said. “Oh, never mind, here she is.”

“Hey, sis!” Pedro called.

“Pedro!” As Catarina came back their way, a little flustered, she made to hug her brother, but he rebuffed her.

“You left me behind! I missed the whole adventure!”

Catarina chuckled. “You had pneumonia, we could hardly drag you around.”

“It wasn't that bad...”

Catarina stuck out her tongue. “If it wasn't, then why didn't you just come after us yourself?”

“Because I stopped him, child.”

Sofia ran for the old Weavile as she saw him, giving him a tight hug. “Grandfather!”

“Oof, child be a little more gentle to an old man, hmm? My bones aren't quite as sturdy as they used to be.”

Sofia let go of him, beaming. “Sorry, grandfather. How are you?”

“Oh, I've been fine, child. Now, what about you, hmm? What have you been up to? I've been hearing all sorts of stories about a winged Kirlia leading the revolution!”

Sofia blushed. “I-I just gave it a little push, that's all, grandfather.”

“And where have you been since? I've been very worried about you! And what happened to your hair, hmm?”

Sofia giggled. “It's a long story, b-but I'll try to explain it all.”

Boreas was starting to walk away, looking for a drink himself, when the doctor's walking stick softly touched his shoulder. “Just one moment, please, young man.”

Boreas sighed and turned. “Look, I'm sorry I let your great-granddaughters put themselves in danger.”

The Weavile chuckled. “Hmm? No, it's not about that at all. I wanted to thank you.”

“Thank me?”

“Yes, for everything you've done for Fournaria and my family. I do believe my great-granddaughters, despite, or perhaps because of, the danger they have found themselves in, have both grown a lot.”

“Just them?” Pedro muttered.

Catarina smirked. “Yeah, you're still just a little brat.”

“On the other hand,” the doctor said, “perhaps that is just wishful thinking, hmm? In any case, I owe you a debt of gratitude for all you've done.”

“Well, it was hardly all me. Don't forget to thank Aqua. Or Sofia, for that matter; I don't think we'd have won if it wasn't for her.”

Sofia blushed and giggled, blowing some bubbles into her drink. “I didn't do that much...”

Boreas smiled. “Nonsense. Anyway, I'll leave you lot to catch up together; I'm going to try and find a drink.”

Boreas didn't move very fast, as just about everyone wanted to have a chat with him. He engaged them in polite, but brief conversation, generally deflecting the uncomfortable questions about what happened to the shadow.

“Ah, there you are,” a stiff voice said.

“Hi, what- Colonel Stewart!” Boreas said. “How are you?”

“Brigadier Stewart once again, actually,” the Bisharp said with a proud smile, “but just between you and me: it might be Major General Stewart soon.”

“You deserve it,” Boreas said. “If you hadn't given up your pig-headedness, we would never have got this revolution started.”

“Hmm, quite,” the brigadier said. “What about the Shadow?”

“Dead,” Boreas said.

“Good. You can tell me the whole story later.”

“Right,” Boreas said, “later. How have you been?”

“Extremely busy organising a nation of celebrating revolutionaries into something resembling an orderly state once more. In between, organising the upcoming elections and the move of the capital back to Praeclara.”

“That seems a bit wasteful,” Boreas said. “Couldn't Valadares just stay the capital for now?”

The Bisharp shook his head. “Too many bad memories, you see. The association with Tacito's regime is too strong. A return to Praeclara is a powerful symbolic move, if nothing else. And it will presumably result in more work being put into the city's restoration.”

“That's something at least.”

“Indeed. Now, if you will excuse me, I'm afraid I have got more work to do. No time to party.”

As the Bisharp started walking away, Boreas followed him. “Brigadier?”

“Yes?”

“Well, I feel like you might be the best person to talk to, seeing as you're probably going to be prime minister and all-”

“Actually, I have had more than enough of governing already. I'm not running for election. I shall be returning to the constabulary.”

“Oh. Well, I suppose you're still a good person to talk to, since your voice will probably carry a lot of weight. Here's the thing... They're probably going to make a statue of us.”

The Bisharp raised an eyebrow, his face blank otherwise.

“I'm just guessing, not asking! It's not specifically about statues anyway, more about how people will remember things in general, but let's stick with statues for now. What I wanted to ask is: if they build a statue... Please make sure they don't put me in it. Or if they have to, put me somewhere at the side, not prominently in the middle like this was all my doing. I just – look, what I'm trying to say is: pokémon are going to tell stories, and maybe they'll talk about me like I was some conquering hero. But that's not really what happened. There were so many other pokémon involved, some of them more important than me, and I don't like the idea of them being forgotten. Especially Larissa. She gave her life to stop Diego, and if she hadn't, his rule would've been far, far worse than it was, but because she died before the revolution started, I think she might get forgotten. Just... Try to make sure that doesn't happen. Sofia can tell you everything about that part of the story.”

The brigadier nodded. “I will do my best. She will not be forgotten when... The statues are created.”

“Thank you.”

“In any case,” he said, “you'll have plenty of opportunity to tell the world about her yourself in your various acceptance speeches.”

“Ac... ceptance speeches?”

“For the various honours that will undoubtedly be bestowed upon you. Did you not expect Fournaria to reward you for your services? Naturally, it will be for the new government to decide, but once they have been elected, I have little doubt they will.”

Boreas strained a smile. “Ah, of course. Well, why don't we talk about it later, then? I'll let you get back to work now.”

–

Boreas and Aqua got up well before the Sun the next day, sneaking out of the former emperor's manor, where they had been given a room for the night. Neither of them was looking forward to a lot of ceremony and goodbyes, so it was easier to just leave. The party would have to suffice as a goodbye. The city was still asleep, no-one noticing them in the bitter cold pre-dawn darkness. The occasional tiny snowflake drifted down slowly, and-

“Wait up, you guys!” A small, backpacked figure running after them disturbed the night's peace.

“Sofia?”

She caught up, panting a bit, her breath forming white clouds of steam. “Wow, I didn't expect you to leave this early! The Sun isn't even up. Of course, it's winter, and- anyway, to make a short story shorter: here I am. Where do we go?”

“We?” Boreas said.

Sofia nodded and grinned. “We. I already told grandfather yesterday, don't worry.”

“How'd you know we'd leave this morning?” Aqua asked.

Sofia shrugged. “Just that I know you, and I know you're eager to leave and avoid all the pomp. Also, I know you want to go back to your friends, and then on to more adventure, which is really understandable, b-because there's so much to see out there and-” she took a breath. “Anyway, I'm coming with you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeyeyeye, I want to say goodbye to you two properly. It wouldn't be right otherwise, after so long, would it? I'm seeing you off to your boat.”

Boreas and Aqua exchanged a glance. “Alright,” Boreas said. “That'll be nice. One final journey together.”

–

They travelled in the direction of Praeclara, through the central flatlands of Fournaria, but didn't go to the city itself. When they were near, they left the main road and instead took a path up into the mountains, the very same one they'd come down from, all those months ago.

As they got higher up, the trees eventually parted and showed a grand view of the city below. The winter Sun shone brightly on the sea and the city's many hills. The rebuilt parts of Praeclara, beautiful, diverse, and green, coruscated amidst the vast expanse of ruins. But even in the ruins, there was life. The signs of restoration and rebuilding were everywhere, and it was likely to get even busier when spring came.

Sofia smiled as she looked over it. “We're going to live there again, you know. Grandfather, Catarina, Pedro, and me, I mean.”

“Really?” Aqua asked.

She nodded. “The university's being rebuilt already, you can see it over there. I guess we can thank the Shadow for kidnapping half the scientists before destroying the city. Grandfather and his colleagues have b-been busy over the past few months. I'll be able to continue my studies, and grandfather can return to work.”

“That's great news,” Boreas said.

Sofia smiled. “It is! I thought we'd probably end up living in Valadares, you know. Which I don't think I would've liked... I've got some bad memories of the place. But my cousins' old home was demolished, so none of us really have that much to go back to anyway.”

They left onto the snow-covered plateau together, travelling into the mountains, covering the plateau quickly, without a whole stream of refugees slowing them down. Soon enough, they descended back into the valley, following it against the river's rapid current. They passed the forest where Boreas and Aqua had first met Sofia after her run-in with Larissa. It was odd for Boreas to look at the Kirlia now and recall how suspicious, and then dismissive he'd been of her.

As they continued their journey, they reached the lake that had once been Diamarina. Other than a piece of flotsam that lay on the lake's shore, nothing of the town was still visible; it was an ordinary mountain lake at the bottom of a great waterfall as far as anyone would've guessed. They climbed a path up onto the mountain, getting to the old river bed, where Boreas and Aqua had spotted the town under attack and hatched a hasty plan to help it out.

And now came the final leg of their journey, as they went through tall mountains to the coast. Boreas and Aqua had been all alone among these uninhabited peaks the first time, hadn't met anyone until Diamarina. At last they could hear the smooth, low, almost hissing sounds of the sea. The boat lay on a lonely, rocky beach at the foot of a steep chalk cliff, abandoned and snowed under. “Is that how you came here?” Sofia asked.

“Hey,” Boreas said, “it's just looking like that because we left it lying about longer than expected.”

“Speaking of,” Aqua said, “we should probably check it before we set sail.”

“Ooh!” Sofia said. “I'll help you!”

With the three of them, they checked the boat and readied it, making it seaworthy once more. As usual, Sofia's tools came in very useful. When they were done, Aqua let the sea wash up onto the rocky beach, lift up the boat, and gently take it out to sea. Boreas' heart soared, seeing it bob up and down on the cold waves.

“Well, Sofia,” Aqua said, “I suppose this is goodbye.”

Sofia nodded tremulously, a little startled, and gave Aqua a hug. “I-I'll miss you,” she said, tears in her eyes.

Boreas smiled as Sofia let go of Aqua and turned to him. “Actually, Sofia, would you like to come with us?”

Sofia almost tripped over her own feet. “C-come with you?”

Boreas shrugged. “If you want.”

“I... I thought I did,” she said.

“I know,” Boreas said. “It's why you went with us this far, isn't it?”

“Well, not just that. I thought maybe I wanted to come with you, b-but I also just wanted to say goodbye, andand well, I wanted to see the world, but-” she took a deep breath. “I-I don't think I'll come with you. I should stay. I want to stay.”

“Are you sure?” Boreas asked.

“N-no. There's so much to see out there, b-but there's also so much to see back home.” A smile came to her face. “I'm a scientist. I don't need to travel the world to discover it. I mean, I can. And I've been thinking, I can still travel, even if it's not with you. If I want to see what's out there a few years from now, I still can.”

“Alright,” Boreas said. “It's a shame, it would've been fun.”

“It would!” Sofia said, as she gave Boreas a hug. “It really would. Say hi to your friends from me, won't you?”

“Of course we will,” Boreas said, letting her go and walking into frigid sea, climbing aboard the boat. Aqua was already inside, rubbing her cold feet. Boreas smiled back at the Kirlia on the beach as the boat came in motion. “Well, Sofia, go on and be a fantastic scientist.”

“I will! Bye!” The wind caught their sails, and as they moved into the calm ocean, the tiny figure waving them goodbye enthusiastically on the beach began to disappear, become indistinguishable from the great cliffs. Boreas smiled wistfully as their final view of Fournaria sank below the horizon. “You know, I really think I'll miss that place.”

–

The months passed as Fournaria slowly recovered from the time of the Shadow. Sofia was happy in her new home in Praeclara, with her family. The time she'd spent with Larissa was now the blissful memory it should have been from the start, only a little bit of pain mixed in. She still wished every day that she could've had more time with her, that things had gone differently... But she could live with it. She studied at day, learning new things about the very workings of the universe, and soon she'd graduate and officially be a scientist. During weekends and when she had free time, she often hung out with her cousins, who were gathering new band members.

And yet, even though her heart had moved on, her dreams lingered in the past. She still regularly saw Larissa in her dreams; often in happy ones, but sometimes they were horrible nightmares. One night, she was flying in her ornithopter when she noticed the landscape that stretched out below her was the valley at the foot of mt. Jund. The Sun shone high overhead, its summery heat filling the green vale. Suddenly, she saw something that stood out: a small, far too thin figure, dark circles beneath her large, tormented eyes as she worked a seismograph she'd cobbled together herself. From her vantage point in the sky, Sofia could see the sound waves travel through the transparent Earth, hitting chambers and corridors and bouncing back to the seismograph. She could see the long, maze-like tunnels, Groudon's great room, and the small, disconnected cube where Boreas was imprisoned.

But she saw something else, something she hadn't thought of at the time. She saw the 'shadow' cast by the hideout, the way the rooms absorbed the sound waves, preventing them from travelling on. She saw parts of the hideout that were never hit by the sound waves, hidden behind other parts. And there, she saw another lone cube of air, buried deep beneath the Earth, not connected to any part of the hideout, but hidden from the seismograph by it. And in there, a Typhlosion sat on her own, buried alive, softly calling Sofia's name.

Sofia awoke with a shock, thoughts racing through her mind. She looked at the picture of two smiling, cuddling girls on her nightstand. There was one last possibility she hadn't thought of, one last chance. As the emotions of the dream started to disappear, she recognised it was a longshot, that it was almost certainly just a stupid dream. But she had to check; she had nothing to lose with it, and even if she didn't find any more mysterious empty rooms, it'd at least help her move on.

–

They moored the boat near the mouth of the river, within sight of Castelia City's skyline. Boreas gave Aqua a hug as she tensed a bit, seeing the skyscrapers and the great supports of Skyarrow Bridge. She never had liked humans and their cities much, and something about Castelia, even from this distance, clearly showed it was inhabited by humans, not pokémon. Perhaps it was the similarity of the buildings, which were created for a single species rather than 721.

Unova had changed. It took Boreas and Aqua a while to realise; after having spent so many months in Fournaria, it was easy to overlook it, but there were pokémon everywhere. That had always been the case, but now some of the pokémon didn't belong to any trainer. As they rode the train to Crimson Village, their impression of change was reinforced. It wasn't the first time they'd travelled by train without a trainer, but a lot of humans had looked at them a bit oddly in the past when they had done so, while now it seemed to be pretty unremarkable.

The train passed quickly through the desert, and stopped in Nimbasa for a while, the great city's vast expanses passing by outside. A little stab of pain went through Boreas' tail, followed by a stab of guilt in his heart. He took a deep breath, trying to forget Diego. The Zoroark wasn't worth feeling guilt over. He was nevertheless glad when the train left the city and moved through thick forests full of blossoming trees.

Boreas' heart lifted and Aqua cuddled him as the train crossed the great, metal structure of the Driftveil drawbridge, the river gleaming in the sunlight. There, on that dock, was where they had left Unova. The happy memories of his first meeting with Aqua were enough to drive away most of the bad ones that tried to start gnawing at him as the train passed Driftveil and crossed the hilly country to its north, passing by a great lake.

They passed Mistralton, great fields of tall grass and other plants stretching out everywhere. Pollen hung thick in the air and flowers grew everywhere. The train pulled into the station of a small village with bright red rooftops, and Boreas and Aqua got out. Boreas felt an almost floaty sensation, as if his feet weren't really touching the ground as he walked through Crimson Village.

“Boreas, look,” Aqua said, picking up a newspaper that lay half-crumpled on the ground.

“'Champion Cheren Places Second In World Championship'” Boreas read. Below the title was a picture of a neatly-dressed human in his twenties smiling nervously at the camera, surrounded by his pokémon. Boreas' eye was drawn by the proudly grinning Houndoom, and the ruffled, grey-feathered Honchkrow sitting on his shoulder, affectionately giving his ear a nibble. Boreas' grin almost matched Lucius' in the paper.

They walked on, out of the village and over a stone path surrounded by tall grasses. After a while, they got to a pompous mansion. Boreas' heart skipped a beat when the path turned a corner and they were suddenly faced with a young Vileplume.

“A good day to you,” she spoke, her high-pitched voice oddly eloquent. “What brings you to the land of the most noble house of Equinox?”

“Toxica?!” Boreas said. “Wh-what happened to your accent?!”

The Vileplume and Aqua both burst out in a fit of laughter. “I don't think that's Toxica, love,” Aqua said.

Blushing with shame, Boreas realised she was right. His memory was just playing tricks on him. “Uh... Sorry. I, er, mistook you for a friend of mine.”

Once she'd regained her composure, the Vileplume spoke again. “My name is Capella of the house of Equinox. Hihi, er, I think mum might consider your mistake a compliment.”

“Mum?!” Aqua said. “Wait, you're Toxica's daughter?”

Capella nodded. “Indeed I am. My descendance from lord Equinox is patrilateral. I am-” suddenly, her eyes grew wide as she looked from Boreas to Aqua. “Hang on! Are you by any chance... Boreas and Aqua?”

“That's us.”

She clutched her flower with her hands. “Moltres' toenails, mum and dad told me so much about you! Oh, it's so good to meet you at last!”

“It's mutual. Can you take us to them?”

“Of course, of course!” Capella said. “Come, follow me. They don't live in our ancestral home any more, they have their own cottage, but it's not that far.”

They followed Capella, back off the path, through the tall grass as she rambled excitedly. After a few minutes, the grass cleared to show a wooden cottage amid a large, beautifully kept, flowery garden. “Mum! Dad!” Capella called. “You've got visitors! Look who I brought?”

Boreas and Aqua froze when the door opened, unable to take another step. A Serperior slithered out, as an older Vileplume popped up from among the flowers in the back. “Who is it?” Toxica said. Her eyes grew large in recognition. “B-blimey!”

Octa, Toxica, Boreas, and Aqua, were all stunned silent as they looked at their old friends again. Boreas felt tears begin to sting in his eyes. “My dear fellow,” Octa whispered.

“Well,” Boreas said, “we're back.”




The End.

 

[apenpaap]

Thank you very much for reading The Glaceon and the Shadow! I'm pleased to announce my next project, The Journey of the Tsar. It's an original fantasy story set in a world inspired by the late 17th century. You can find it on Blogger and deviantArt. Since it's not a pokémon story, I won't be posting it on bulbagarden.

 

[Wispy Willow]

Well, I rather enjoyed that. Granted, I do prefer the first one, but that doesn't change the fact that I enjoyed it. Plus, I may have been a tad overcritical (or whatever you want to call it) here...

Oh, and I wish you luck with your that origonal work of yours. *Bookmarks the first chapter*