Young.

  About her height.

  Surfer blond hair.

  William, as he had introduced himself.

  She knew him.

  Probably.

  Cynthia studied the Ranger in front of her for what felt like the tenth time since they started walking.

  The only question was where she knew him from.

  Celestic?

  She tried to place him among the handful of semi-famous trainers back home and came up empty. A fact that, honestly, should have ruled out anyone from Celestic entirely. Sure, he was older than her—five, maybe six years—which made it unlikely she’d known him personally, but that wasn’t the point. She should know him if he were a Ranger. If someone that young made the cut, it would’ve been big news. He would’ve shown up in the local paper at least once.

  So he was someone she recognized, familiar enough to itch at her memory, just not from Celestic.

  …Maybe one of the trips she’d taken with her grandmother?

  Her gaze shifted to his Pokémon instead: a large Donphan who looked positively grizzled. For a moment she just stared, trying to remember if any of the younger Rangers who’d been part of the escort had owned a Donphan.

  Nobody came to mind.

  Or, well—nobody the right age. There had been a Ranger with one, but unless he’d secretly discovered the cure to immortality, that guy had been about forty years too old.

  She paused, feeling herself cringe as a sudden memory surfaced.

  And, honestly, she had a feeling that that Ranger would also have run the second he saw her. She might have been, as her grandmother put it, a little too enthusiastic when asking for advice.

  Still, what did that leave?

  A Ranger she was familiar with, but not from back home, nor someone she’d met through her grandmother…

  She was probably thinking about this the wrong way, wasn’t she?

  He was young—young enough that she might not know him as a Ranger, and that meant…

  The Conference?

  She considered it for barely a second.

  Donphan.

  Young.

  Blond.

  Oh.

  Her eyes widened as a name came to mind. In an instant her mouth opened, but before she could say anything, Volkner’s voice rang out first.

  “You’re William Twinleaf, aren’t you?” He asked, almost hesitant.

  William paused mid–power walk, glancing back over his shoulder.

  “I am… and considering your tone, I take it you’re a fan.” He flashed a lazy smile. “Want an autograph?”

  Cynthia resisted the urge to smash her palm into her face. No wonder he was familiar.

  Stupid. She was stupid. She had freaking studied him, had spent hours on the way he had optimized his use of ground-type moves.

  Like seriously—how did she not realize it instantly?

  Beside her Myst glanced at her, finally looking away from the Swadloon he had decided to carry in his arms.

  “You okay?” he whispered.

  Cynthia shot him a quick look, twisted her annoyance into something more neutral, and forced herself to nod.

  “Yeah.” She whispered back, a little harsher than she meant to.

  Myst gave her a weird look, before glancing back to Volkner who seemed to finally manage to form more words.

  “If you—” Volkner began, then stopped, like he suddenly realized he was about to trip over his own words. He took a breath and tried again. “I mean, I would love one. I’ve followed you since your circuit days, even before you got into the Conference. I’m a huge fan.”

  William’s smile fell. He blinked, then lifted his orange goggles, revealing the rest of a face Cynthia really should have placed earlier.

  “You were following me even then? That’s pretty rare. I wasn’t exactly considered a prospect early on.”

  Volkner shrugged awkwardly, his normally calm face suddenly looking almost sheepish. “I was in the audience when you were taking on the Sunnyshore Gym. Collected enough gold stars at the orphanage, so I got to go with the matron.”

  William stopped moving entirely. For a full second he just stood there, staring at Volkner—genuine surprise written all over his face.

  His Donphan, who’d been leading them, glanced back at its trainer, but William didn’t notice. He turned fully around.

  “The Sunnyshore Gym? But that was my—"

  He cut himself off.

  “Never mind. You know what? No problem, I’ll give you an autograph when we get back to base. But in exchange…” He paused, scanning all of them. “I was going to wait until we returned, but since we’ve already stopped—” He turned slightly toward his Donphan. “Donphan, we’re alone, right? Nothing is going to intrude on us at the worst possible moment?”

  The Donphan let out a small confirming toot, and William nodded, before turning back with a overly cheerful smile.

  “So, as I was saying, in exchange for the autograph I have a couple of questions.”

  Volkner blinked. “Okay?”

  “Great.” William said happily, “Well then—first off,” his smile dropped from his face, “what the hell were you thinking?”

  A beat.

  Then Myst slowly opened his mouth.

  “What?”

  William turned towards Myst and then stared at him like he was dumb.

  “What. Were. You. Thinking.” He said, emphasizing each point like he was speaking to a child.

  Myst flicked a glance at Cynthia and Volkner before looking back.

  “Okay, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you mean why we came in here,” he said mildly. “And honestly, it’s not that complicated. We didn’t want to be stuck at the halfway house for weeks, so we decided to… not be.” He waved a hand vaguely. “If you know what I mean.”

  William stared at him for a couple of seconds, then glanced over at Volkner.

  “You’re my fan,” He started flatly. “And, as my fan, I’m going to need you to tell me that is not the reason you three walked into a place an entire squad of Rangers couldn’t handle. That you didn’t just charge in here because you didn’t feel like waiting a week.”

  Volkner blinked, opened his mouth, then closed it again. Like he couldn’t figure out which response would be the least terrible.

  William tilted his head back toward the sky.

  “I guess that’s my answer. Fantastic. Amazing. You risked your lives because you were bored. I can’t decide if that’s brave or…” He paused, then let out a humorless laugh, before tilting his head back. “No. No, honestly, it’s just fucking dumb.”

  Volkner flinched at the words, but even as he tried to gather himself, Myst stepped forward.

  His usual casual demeanor slipped at William’s words, and when he opened his mouth again, his voice had gone cool.

  “You really seem to know us well, huh? Just confidently announcing exactly what we were thinking two days ago. Wow.” He tilted his head slightly. “Guess Rangers get mind-reading skills the moment they enlist.”

  William gave him a dismissive look.

  “I don’t need one. I have eyes. And they can tell your age—which is, in this case, more than enough.”

  Myst’s eyes sharpened at that, but before he could fire back, Cynthia snapped a hand out in front of him.

  “You, of all people, should know we didn’t decide to enter because we were bored. Maybe it wasn’t the best decision, but it wasn’t like we were doing it for fun either.” She said.

  William flicked his eyes toward her. “Oh? I’m wrong? Great. Enlighten me. What’s your big, fantastic reason for forcing your way into a place like this?” His voice dripped with even more sarcasm than Myst’s.

  Cynthia didn’t back up.

  “We don’t have time to wait a couple of more weeks for help to arrive. If we don’t show up to the next gym soon, people will move on. Start focusing on other trainers. And you know all about that, don’t you? How important it is to have eyes on you while you’re clearing gyms.”

  William lifted an eyebrow.

  “In the last five years, you’re the only trainer who made it to the semis straight off the circuit. But before that? You were almost completely unknown—all because you had a slow start. I read about it, how you didn’t finish your fifth gym until nearly the sixth month, and how that meant every sponsor you talked to didn’t bother giving you the time of day, even though you had the skills.”

  He crossed his arms.

  She didn’t stop talking.

  “We’re already over two months into the season,” she continued sharply, “and because this place has been locked down for almost a month, all of us only have two badges. That means we need to clear at least three badges in the next three months if we don’t want to get completely passed over when sponsors start looking in month five. You keep saying we could just wait—but this might literally decide whether we can become full-time Pokémon trainers. Can you seriously tell me you wouldn’t try the same thing?”

  “Obviously I would have.” He replied instantly. “I am not saying I don’t get it. The circuit, keeping up with your goals… it probably feels like the most important thing in the world right now.” For half a beat he sounded understanding—

  Then his eyes sharpened again, the softness vanishing like a trick of the light. “But that’s the fucking problem. I do understand. I would have made the same choice. You might think you are talented, hell, you might even be talented—but right now?”

  His tone dropped, gaining a razor’s edge. “You have two badges. Two. We sent Clayton out because he was too weak—and that guy had six. He could barely get away from a fight against a Royal Guard even with his whole team backing him up. You think this is about you being able to become Pokémon trainers? It’s not.”

  She opened her mouth.

  He plowed straight through her attempt.

  “It’s about being responsible.” He swept his gaze over all of them, before returning back to her. “What if you had met one of the Royal Guard instead of just regular Trevenant? Do you think you would have been captured? Because I can tell you right now, you almost certainly wouldn’t have. You would have just died. A Royal Guard wouldn’t even have to try to kill you, it would literally happen by accident.”

  He gestured sharply at the trees, frustration bleeding through.

  “I get it. Clayton talked to you, whatever that idiot said wasn’t serious enough, so you figured this place was just a bunch of unusually strong Pokémon. But I can tell you right now, the only reason this place isn’t swarming with Rangers or Gym Leaders is because it’s contained. Because it’s far from cities or regular people. Because for as terrifying as this place is, the reality is that a Geodude Migration rolling over a city would cause a hundred times the damage.”

  William took a step forward.

  She forced herself not to take a step back.

  “But don’t get me wrong. For you? This place is a deathtrap. The so-called Royal Guard have literally lost their minds. They’re so overcharged on Grass-type energy, so freaking exhausted from being unable to sleep that even when the leader of this place isn’t directly controlling them, most of them can barely function. Half of them can’t even stay with the tribes they used to lead. You look at them wrong, make one wrong sound, and they could decide to splatter you like an insect that’s buzzing around them.”

  He stepped even closer.

  Myst moved in front of her, glaring at him.

  William didn’t seem to care or notice.

  “But, honestly? I don’t even really care about if you died. Because that’s not the problem.” he hissed.

  Cynthia looked up and met green eyes that seemed to want to burn her alive.

  “If you want to take risks, fine. That’s your choice.” His gaze didn’t waver. “But you aren’t just yourself, are you?”

  He stabbed a finger into Myst’s chest.

  “You have your Pokémon. Your teams. You’re responsible for more than just you now. You don’t get to make decisions like you’re the only one who matters. You have to actually think, fucking think, about what could go wrong.”

  He punctuated every sentence with a poke to Myst’s chest, even as his eyes never left Cynthia’s. Then for a second he just stood there, before he seemingly tore his eyes away. Breathing heavy for a couple of seconds, he slowly calmed himself down.

  “Just remember okay?” He continued, almost mumbling, before he looked back at them, something between anger and sorrow flickering in his eyes. “Right now, you are the ones that make the mistakes… but you’re not necessarily the ones who are going to get hurt.”

  …

  The next ten minutes they traveled in completely silence.

  Well, not that it wasn’t understandable.

  She glanced at William, and instantly a dozen retorts to his arguments sprang to her lips. That the first Ranger they spoke to hadn’t made it sound that dangerous. That the way he talked almost made it seem like he wanted them to try. That they had Johanna with them, and she’d figured an eight-badge trainer would be able to protect them.

  None of those excuses had made it past her lips—then or now.

  She clenched her fist slightly.

  After all, none of them really mattered.

  In the end, he was right. They had been captured. They had escaped due to luck. And, most importantly, they had ended up calling for help.

  At the time that had felt bad, like taking a handout she didn’t deserve.

  Now?

  It felt like she was swallowing a stone.

  She let a hand drop to Queenie’s ball, squeezing it lightly.

  Why couldn’t she just—

  “Should we talk to him about our suspicions?” Myst asked.

  Cynthia snapped her head toward him. He was still cradling the now sleeping Swadloon in his arms, looking absurdly calm compared to the storm churning inside her.

  “What?”

  He lowered his voice slightly.

  “Calyrex. About what you talked about. How weird this whole place is.”

  She stared at him, taking in his expression. He looked almost completely unaffected by William’s lecture—like he couldn’t care less. Then again, she wasn’t sure if that was because he didn’t care, or because he’d simply decided not to care about it right now.

  After all, if there was one thing Myst was good at…

  Pursing her lips at him, she forced herself to ignore the thought and instead looked toward William.

  “I don’t think we need to talk about the whole society thing.” She started slowly, “They would have figured it out way before me, that’s more or less all they do after all, and as for it being a Legendary who is responsible…” She hesitated before nodding slowly. “We should mention it, since it fits too well to ignore. But I’ll say I read about it, okay? And let’s talk to whoever’s actually in charge of the Rangers here. I don’t think William’s going to hear us out.”

  Myst gave her a teasing smile. “I see, trying to take credit?”

  She rolled her eyes. “That, or maybe I’m just trying not to get my boyfriend in trouble. Me knowing it? I can come up with a million excuses. You knowing it? For some reason I don’t think ‘amnesia’ is going to fly too well with them.”

  Myst just grinned back at her, dumbly pleased.

  She lifted an eyebrow.

  “What?”

  His smile widened.

  “Nothing.”

  Her brows furrowed, but before she could figure out what had suddenly put him in an actual good mood, William spoke up.

  “We are here.”

  She stopped short, then glanced toward where the Ranger stood—only to blink.

  It was a…

  Hill?

  She stared for a couple of seconds before realizing he was pulling aside a curtain of vines, revealing a hollow tunnel carved straight into the earth and down into the hill.

  “You want to wait outside or what?” William asked again, shaking the vines pointedly.

  Myst shrugged, tugging her along as he awkwardly maneuvered Swadloon to hold it with one hand.

  “Just surprised. Didn’t realize you guys were hiding away in a hole in the ground.” He said, ducking in under the vines.

  William didn’t bother responding. They walked past him, but the second he lifted his other hand to return Donphan, he slipped back in front, taking the lead again. For a few seconds they simply followed, until the narrow passage bent right—and opened up.

  The cramped dirt corridor widened into a surprisingly large chamber carved straight into the hill. Lanterns hung from makeshift vine hooks, casting warm light over stacked supplies and a few scattered bedrolls.

  “I’m back—and found some stowaways! Who wants to take them home?” William called out with a grin.

  Several Rangers snapped their heads toward him, eyes immediately locking onto the three of them.

  “More?” one of them groaned.

  William grinned. “Yup, and you guys said Clayton wou—”

  Then he paused.

  “Wait, what do you mean more?”

  The Ranger who’d spoken waved toward something just behind them, and Cynthia turned to follow the gesture—

  A blur slammed into her from the side.

  Before she could even register what was happening, arms clamped around her, and a sound somewhere between a wail and a shriek tore through the air right beside her ear.

  Cynthia let out a low groan as Johanna buried her face in her shoulder, shaking.

  Beside her William did a double take, his eyes widening slightly at the sight.

  Johanna didn’t even notice his existence.

  “You’re fin—” She choked on the word. “Oh god, you’re actually all fine—I thought you… I—” Johanna’s voice cracked before she could finish anything and like she had no other choice she just clamped down harder.

  Cynthia let out a noise disturbingly similar to one of her younger sister’s squeaky toys, the crushing hug squeezing the air out of her lungs as she flailed her arms, trying to pry the smaller woman off. When she failed, she shot a desperate look toward Myst and Volkner, who both stood there smiling at her in equal parts relief and amusement.

  She glared at Myst.

  He held up a hand in surrender, then walked over and gently pried one of Johanna’s arms back just enough to let Cynthia breathe—and to get Johanna’s attention.

  Johanna jerked back slightly, wild-eyed.

  “Good to see you too,” Myst said, grinning.

  Her eyes immediately misting over again.

  She reached toward his still-bloody hair with one hand, then let it drop uselessly, looking for all the world like a drenched Glameow.

  “You’re fine… you’re all fine.”

  For a moment it looked like she might actually pull herself together—and then her composure crumpled instantly. Her eyes became teary again, her lips wobbling.

  “I— I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so—”

  Myst’s smile dropped, his calm shattering as he suddenly realized just how upset Johanna actually was. He immediately shot Cynthia a panicked look over Johanna’s shoulder.

  She met it with her own equally panicked one.

  Still, before either of them could figure out how to handle the situation, a familiar voice rang out.

  “And here I thought you’d be happy to see them, Johanna,” Flint said, shaking his head. “Seriously, you heard what they said, right? Even the Rangers think you holding off the Royal Guard long enough to escape with me was a freaking miracle. You did your best.”

  He paused, then started walking over with a crooked smile.

  “And didn’t I tell you? They were gonna be fine. The Rangers saying they couldn’t help, that there was no point, that’s just them being dramatic.”

  Cynthia kept patting Johanna’s back as Flint made his way over.

  He didn’t seem much less tense than Johanna had been. Every step he took seemed to unwind him, like layers of stress were peeling off one by one. By the time he stopped in front of Volkner, he simply stood there, taking him in for a few long seconds — before his grin sharpened into something brilliant, pure relief spreading across his face.

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  “Nice seeing you, bro. You look like shit,” he said.

  Volkner raised an eyebrow, tapping under his eyes before sending Flint a flat expression.

  “You too.”

  Flint rolled his eyes and then, without any further warning, pulled Volkner into a hug.

  “Still, it’s just damn good to see you mate. Wasn’t worried for a second of course, but still,” he said, voice almost quivering.

  Volkner held onto him for a couple of seconds before pulling away fast, face slightly red.

  “You managed to get out of the forest I guess?” He asked, scratching his neck.

  Flint gave a shrug.

  “‘We’ are strong words. I was completely loopy. Johanna more or less dragged me out…” He paused, then added, “Or, well—me and all the other guys.”

  Volkner tilted his head just slightly.

  “All the other guys?”

  Flint nodded with a sigh and waved vaguely toward the same corner of the room the Ranger had pointed to earlier.

  “Yeah. The other guys.”

  Cynthia, having finally managed to pry Johanna off her and redirect her into glomping Myst instead, took a fresh breath, before she turned to follow Flint’s gesture.

  And froze.

  How?

  Ten.

  Fifteen.

  Twenty—seven?

  Twenty-seven other people made it through the forest?

  …What.

  At her side, William dragged his eyes away from Johanna—only for his expression to go from sour to downright thunderous the instant he registered the same thing she had. His head snapped back towards his colleagues, and glaring he croaked out a single, demanding:

  “How?”

  The Rangers looked at each other. One raised a finger, then hesitated and lowered it again, glancing at the others. For a second they all just stared at one another, but before either of them could decide who was going to explain, a loud voice rang out.

  “I guess you are the ones she wanted to go off to rescue then?”

  Cynthia snapped around, only to see a man step out from one of the other tunnels, staring straight at them.

  Myst, still trying desperately to balance the Swadloon in one hand and Johanna in the other, jerked his head toward the man, then paused.

  “Us?” he asked.

  The man, or maybe old man was more accurate, gave a single, steady nod.

  “Yes, you. After all, you’re her companions, aren’t you?” he asked, nodding toward Johanna.

  Myst looked down at the woman draped off his limbs like a limp towel. He took a moment to just stare at her, before he made a face.

  “Can I say no?”

  Johanna froze at his words, then straightened abruptly. Using a moment she scrubbed at her eyes before glaring at him.

  “You want to repeat that?”

  Cynthia just sighed.

  Idiot.

  “We are.” She said.

  Johanna stared at Myst for a couple more seconds, then glanced toward the Captain—only to stop short when her eyes landed on William instead.

  Cynthia didn’t notice the way she suddenly stilled.

  “Thought so.” The Captain said simply before turning his attention to her side.

  William stood there almost shaking as he glanced between the room containing the trainers, them and his Captain.

  “Captain, what the hell is going on?” William burst out. “I’m not dreaming, right? I was just gone for a day, right? Because I thought I’d just found the biggest idiots on the planet, but why the hell does it look like half the people from the halfway house are in—” He jabbed a finger toward the adjacent room. “There.”

  The Captain pursed his lips.

  William just threw up his hands.

  “I mean, sorry, but what the fuck did Clayton even say? Because we did give him orders to be completely explicit that people were not allowed to come here, right? Or am I imagining that too?”

  The Captain simply stared at him.

  “First off, language,” he said.

  William didn’t even acknowledge the rebuke.

  The Captain sighed.

  “Secondly, as for your point.” He hesitated for the briefest moment before continuing. “Clayton may have… misinterpreted what I wanted him to say.”.

  “Misinterpreted,” William repeated instantly. “How do you misinterpret ‘tell them this place is a deathtrap’?”

  The Captain sighed again.

  “We haven’t gone into detail about his exact wording yet. Been too busy constructing the room for them. Still, from what they’ve said so far, while he did tell them the place was dangerous… he might not have used your preferred phrasing.”

  William blinked half a dozen times.

  “Phrasing. He didn’t like my phrasing? That…”

  He paused, opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, then closed it a second time. Like a fish gasping for air, or a lion trying to stop itself from biting someone’s head off, he couldn’t seem to decide what to do with the information.

  So Cynthia spoke up instead.

  “Sorry,” she said, raising a hand. “I know this isn’t really what you guys were asking about. But I sort of have to ask… how did this many people get through the forest?”

  She glanced toward the group, only to realize some of them had already picked up that something was happening in the main room. Dozens of them now stood clustered near the entrance, clearly listening in.

  She instantly bit back her next words.

  After all, she would’ve assumed most of them weren’t strong enough to make it through.

  She couldn’t recognize everyone, but even a quick scan told her most of them were around her age. In other words, most of them were also on their first circuit. In other other words, they were all trainers with a maximum of two badges. And… well, that didn’t automatically make them weak or anything. There were always people like Volkner and Flint, after all.

  The problem was that she’d fought a lot of them.

  The problem was that the battles had been—

  Something.

  Like, sure, a few had managed a decent showing, but in the end… well, there was a reason she only ever sparred seriously with Myst, Volkner, and Flint. Most of the others were fine, perfectly okay trainers. They just weren’t remarkable.

  So how the hell did they get through the forest?

  Before either Johanna or the Captain could answer her question, a young woman with a blond ponytail, probably Johanna’s age, shoved an elbow between two boys and tried to squeeze through the gap.

  Neither of them moved. They simply pushed back, blocking her.

  She glared.

  “Dunderheads, it’s me,” she snapped.

  Both boys jolted in surprise, then scrambled to make space. She shot them a withering look before shaking her head and stepping forward.

  “You asked how these idiots got through?” she said bluntly. “It’s pretty much my bad.” She waved vaguely in Cynthia’s direction. “She wanted to take some kids for a trip in the forest, so I got inspired. Obviously a stupid idea in hindsight, but at the time I figured since I had a friend with me, we could handle anything wild Pokémon could throw at us.”

  Cynthia blinked.

  “Huh? Me?”

  “Yes, you,” the blonde woman said—then immediately rolled her eyes. “No. Obviously I meant Johanna.”

  Johanna rubbed her eyes one more time, before sighing.

  “Knock it off Cecilia. Don’t blame this one on me, and don’t take it out on Cynthia.”

  Cecilia stared for a couple of seconds, then sighed.

  “Yeah. Sorry. I’m just a little on edge. Anyway, my bad... or, well, my bad and Oliver’s.” She paused, glancing behind herself.

  “He’s sleeping, sis,” another voice said.

  Cynthia blinked when another girl, almost identical to the first, stepped up beside her.

  Cecilia glanced down at her miniature copy and sighed again.

  “Who is apparently sleeping. Still, the point is that Oliver and I are both Contest trainers, and because my little sister asked me, I agreed to help guard her while she took a crack at it. Obviously, I didn’t realize how scary the whole forest actually was. So yeah, we kind of just forced our way through like you guys did.”

  She paused.

  “Well, maybe not exactly like you did—we met less resistance. I think you guys maybe gave their whole defensive scheme a bigger blow than you realized. Honestly, we barely ran into any Pokémon that were actual threats. Just a couple of Trevenants and some random Grass-types we could take out pretty easily. So things were mostly going well.” She shot Johanna a look. “At least until then you came running, dragging a whole train behind you.”

  William clapped his hands.

  “Great. Okay. I got it. Nice information. But can we get back to the things that actually matter right now? Like how we’re going to get all these civilians out of here?”

  William stared at his Captain intently.

  “Because that’s still the plan, right? We’re not seriously thinking of going ahead with our hamfisted attempt while all these people are here?”

  The Captain stared back.

  William’s expression cracked.

  “You got to be fucking kidding me.”

  “You have to admit,” the Captain replied calmly, “this does present a somewhat unique opportunity.”

  ….

  Honestly, for some reason the day seemed to become more and more surreal the longer it went on.

  Cynthia stared blankly at the long stone table and the chairs surrounding it.

  Escaping prison.

  Running into a Royal Guard.

  Teleport away from said Royal Guard.

  Throwing up.

  Contacting a Ranger.

  Having said ranger led them to this place.

  She went over the events in her head. It felt like enough for a whole day to pass… but how long had all of that actually taken?

  Four hours?

  Five?

  She kept staring at the table, and for a moment she seriously wondered if she could ask to have the meeting later. But before she could let the thought win, the Captain gave a single nod toward the table, then glanced at William’s Golem.

  “Excellent work, as always.”

  The Golem grinned happily and rubbed its head against William’s palm before he returned it, giving it a few pats as the red light drew it in.

  “So I guess we’re taking seats, or what?”

  The Captain nodded. “Correct.” He swept his gaze over the crowd that he had directed to file into the room that was apparently his office. “If you would.”

  Cecilia and her little sister sat first, followed a moment later by a scruffy, tanned man who practically folded over the table.

  Next the two Rangers sat down at the same side, as close to the edge as possible, leaving the lone seat at the head of the table open for the Captain.

  William sighed once more at the sight but didn’t complain, walking over and sitting on the right-hand side of the Captain’s chair. Johanna followed a moment later, slipping into the seat beside him.

  Cynthia blinked, then glanced to her side, where a crowd had stood a moment ago, only to find no one there. Then, before she could process the fact that everybody had moved Myst grabbed her hand and tugged her along toward the same side.

  “After this, we are asking if anybody has any medical training.” He mumbled to her.

  Cynthia blinked at him.

  “What?”

  He simply shook his head, not bothering to explain as the Captain sat down.

  Why did they need—

  “My name is Graham Densuke and, as you have all probably gathered, I am the Captain of this Ranger team.” He started, cutting off her thoughts.

  Cynthia forced her attention away from Myst and focused on the Captain.

  “And first off,” the Captain said, “I want to apologize to the trainers here. Not only have we failed to resolve this situation, but I am also responsible for sending Clayton to the halfway house with… somewhat non-optimal orders.”

  At his side, William scowled.

  The Captain glanced at him, but when William didn’t speak, he continued. “Still, seeing that you’re all here, I’ll be frank. We would like your help. So, while you haven’t been in the forest long, I’d like to know whether you gathered any information during your trip through it.”

  He paused, eyes settling on Cynthia.

  “Especially,” he added, “I’d like to know how you managed to escape the Royal Guard.”

  He looked back to the rest of the table.

  “But in general, anything you believe is relevant would be appreciated. The forest you crossed isn’t something we’ve been able to explore at all—it appeared after we established this base, so we have very little information on it.”

  The Captain paused.

  Then, as the silence stretched into several seconds, William let out a sigh.

  “That’s him wanting you guys to share. He’s not trying to figure out what to say—he’s just done.”

  Cecilia blinked, then let out a low laugh.

  “Damn, I guess we know how Clayton ended up being so wishy-washy about this place, huh?”

  The Captain didn’t even twitch at the jab. He just leveled her a flat look.

  Her smile immediately died.

  “Okay. Yeah, not funny.” She cleared her throat. “But information, huh…”

  She hesitated, glancing at her little sister and the boy beside her before continuing. “We honestly didn’t get to know too much. I mean, we didn’t get to talk much since we spent most of the time fighting and running—” She nodded at Johanna. “—but compared to them it sounded like our trip was almost a walk in the park. Then again because of that, there are actually a couple things we noticed.”

  She held up two fingers.

  “First, you have probably all noticed the Grass-boosting effect, but you might not have realized it isn’t actually constant. It fluctuates, and a lot.” She paused, “Or, well not a lot in the sense it does it a lot. What I mean is that the swings are huge. Double to triple and down to nothing in strength.”

  Cecilia lowered one finger, while one of the Rangers on her side shot the other a victorious look, like some internal bet just got confirmed.

  “Second—”

  “Sorry,” Cynthia cut in, “I have a Roselia, but he never reported sensing anything like that.”

  Cecilia didn’t answer. Instead, she glanced down at her little sister.

  The younger girl flushed bright red. But instead of freezing up, she took a steadying breath and pushed herself to speak.

  “Uh. So—so, I just need to say, it wasn’t me who figured it out. It was my friend, so I might get something wrong.” Her fingers twisted together over the table. “But basically, his starter noticed the boost suddenly vanished for a couple of minutes while he was training. So my friend started testing it, and he figured out that while the boost usually stays around the same level, it does constantly vary in strength.”

  She swallowed before continuing. “Most of the time the shifts are tiny, but sometimes it just goes crazy for a couple of seconds, shooting sky high and then dropping to nothing before it stabilizes again. But since the spikes only last a few seconds, unless a Pokémon happens to use a move right then, they don’t really notice when the boost disappears.”

  She winced, like she wasn’t sure she explained it well.

  “But… yeah. That’s what he found out.”

  Cynthia nodded slowly at that.

  “Okay, got it. Thanks for explaining.”

  Cecilia shot her little sister a proud smile before nodding and turning back to the table.

  “Secondly, when we were going through the forest, we ran into what I can only describe as a village of Cherrim and Cherubi. And I don’t mean that figuratively either, they were literally building a village.” She motioned loosely over the table. “Little houses shaped like themselves, neat little plots, the whole shebang. At first we didn’t think much of it. Pokémon can be weird after all, so we were more focused on figuring out how to sneak past them. But then we got spotted.”

  Her expression took on a bizarre tinge.

  “We geared up for a fight. They didn’t care. Didn’t even look at us. Even when we walked right into their village, they were all completely focused on building. So we kind of decided we’d try talking to them, and I sent in—” she patted the boy beside her on the back, “—our resident natural psychic.”

  She paused. “Not gonna lie, I half thought they were going to turn on him the second he got close.”

  She shrugged.

  “But it turned out fine.” She continued, “And, more importantly, the Cherubi were actually pretty happy to talk. Still, the stuff they said was really freaking weird. Basically, they explained that they were being forced to work by the Majesty. Said that if we’d met them anywhere else they would’ve attacked us, but since they were building, that took priority.”

  She shook her head slightly, the confusion still written across her face.

  “But the weirdest part? When we asked why they were being forced to build, they said they had no idea. They’d never met the Majesty or whatever, didn’t know what they were building, and didn’t plan on living in the houses afterward. Nothing. They just… couldn’t disobey.” She let out a sigh. “We kind of decided after that the place was creepy, so we kept going. In hindsight? Probably should’ve taken that as a sign to turn around.” She finished with a helpless shrug.

  A beat passed in silence before the Captain slowly nodded at her words.

  “Okay. Your account is interesting,” he said, then turned his gaze toward Cynthia. “Do you have anything new to add?”

  Cynthia stared at Cecilia, and then slowly opened her mouth.

  “We ran into something similar. But more… elementary, I guess.” She shook her head. “But you probably already know how strange the structure of this place is, right? How unlike normal Pokémon behavior all of this is?”

  The Rangers looked at each other.

  “Pretty much.” Said one of the ones sitting on the other side.

  Cynthia nodded, having already suspected they would understand. She opened her mouth, about to continue—

  “Wait, what do you mean?” Cecilia asked, hurriedly. “I mean, Pokémon forming communities isn’t that weird right?”

  Cynthia paused.

  “It isn’t.” She admitted, before taking a breath. “But this isn’t really a community. It’s more like a Kingdom, with the different clans of Pokémon being vassals having to do as commanded.”

  Cecilia stared blankly back.

  “And that’s weird because?”

  Cynthia sighed.

  “Do you know the leading theory for why Humans have survived, even though we are this much weaker than Pokémon?” She threw back.

  Cecilia pursed her lips.

  “No?”

  “It’s because we form actual societies.” Cynthia explained, “Because we can do things for people we don’t like, do jobs even when we have no idea what the point of them is…” She didn’t bother finishing, from the look on Cecilia’s face she understood what she was getting at.

  Cecilia shot a look at the Captain.

  He simply nodded.

  “She’s right. And that’s one of the things we want to understand. How this Majesty seems to have a very different understanding of how to build a society. But for now—let’s focus. Anything more you learned?”

  Cynthia nodded.

  “Two more things. First, when we were captured by the Royal Guard, the reason we didn’t get immediately attacked seemed to be because Myst has a Kirlia. The Royal Guard, a really big Trevenant, used her to fight off whatever was controlling it. More importantly though, because of that, it seemed to be somewhat lucid, so Navi—uh, the Kirlia—managed to have Myst communicate with it. And through that, we ended up askin—"

  William cut her off.

  “Impossible.” He said.

  Cynthia frowned, turning toward him.

  “I know you don’t think we could handle a Royal Guard, but it’s not like we were fighting it. The only reason we—”

  William shook his head sharply. “Not that part. The communication.” His eyes slid toward Myst. “No offense, but my Claydol couldn’t do more than barely scrape a Royal Guard’s surface thoughts after it spent hours with it. A Kirlia at second-badge level? It shouldn’t even be able to sense more than basic surface feelings. And that’s me being generous, taking into account their natural empathy.”

  Cynthia didn’t bother arguing. She just glanced at Myst.

  “I mean, normally you’d be right,” he said lightly. Then he shrugged. “But honestly, it’s probably just because Navi is better than your Claydol at telepathy.”

  William stared at him, then hiked up an eyebrow.

  Myst, completely unfazed, met his look head-on. “Her Ability. It’s Telepathy.”

  “Ability.” William repeated.

  Myst nodded. “Simply put, she has a huge natural advantage when it comes to that sort of thing.”

  William tapped the table a couple of times, thinking it over, then glanced at Johanna.

  She nodded.

  He made a brief grimace before forcing his expression back to neutral.

  “Okay, I guess I can see it. Never heard of that Ability, but sure—I’ll accept it.”

  Cynthia let out a breath.

  “Then I guess I can continue?”

  Nobody objected, so she pressed on. “Anyway, the point is that because we could communicate with it. And even though it was almost incomprehensible, we still managed to get a few things out of it. First off, that Johanna and Flint were alive. But secondly, it mentioned something about the und—”

  She stopped.

  For some reason the second she was about to mention it, she suddenly realized what she was about to say.

  Talking about the Underground with Volkner had felt easy; she’d known he would keep it quiet. But here, with a table full of strangers…

  Byron’s warning echoed in her head.

  The Underground was supposed to be a secret. It contained rare Pokémon, rare resources. People knowing about it could be catastrophic. And, sure. she could trust the Rangers… but trusting Cecilia and her whole group was another story entirely.

  “Mentioned something about…?” the Captain prompted slowly.

  Her mouth moved before she could stop it.

  “About how the Majesty doesn’t remember,” she blurted out.

  Silence.

  Then the Captain raised an eyebrow.

  “You’re suggesting it may not have memories of something? That it might be confused?”

  She flushed hard.

  “Maybe? Or maybe it has Amnesia? I don’t know, I just thought it might be useful.”

  Beside her, Myst suddenly went still, but Cynthia waved her hands quickly.

  “Anyway, let’s move on to the third thing. This is just a guess, okay? But if I’m right, we should think really carefully about what we do.” The words came out in a rush.

  Everyone stared at her. Her face only burned hotter. Desperately, she coughed and tried to force her expression to calm down.

  “Right. So, I need to ask—do you guys know anything about what Pokémon the Majesty could be?”

  The Captain raised an eyebrow.

  “Not its exact species, no. But we do have a few pieces of information.”

  Cynthia looked at him.

  He didn’t elaborate.

  “O…kay…” She took a deep breath and forcibly exhaled. “Again, this is just something I read about in my grandmother’s library. I don’t know much about it beyond it’s description. But based on the scale of all this, and what’s been happening, it could definitely be responsible.”

  Her cheeks were still hot, but the thought of her next words chilled them instantly.

  “There is a Legenda—”

  She didn’t get to finish.

  “No.”

  The Captain’s voice cut through her words like a blade, harsh enough to slam them back in her throat.

  She paused, then glanced at him.

  “I know it might sound…”

  He cut her off again.

  “It’s not a Legendary.” He stated, eyes locked on hers.

  For a couple of seconds, they just stared at each other before William sighed from the side.

  “Okay. Captain, calm down a little. I get where she is coming from. Before joining the Rangers, most people don’t really understand the scale Legendaries operate on.”

  The Captain forced his eyes towards William, and then let out a slow breath.

  “You’re right…” He closed his eyes for a split second, then opened them and swept his gaze across the table. “Did anybody else suspect a Legendary might be the cause?”

  A beat passed.

  Then Cecilia slowly raised her hand. Her little sister and the young man beside her followed, and one by one, everyone except the Rangers and Myst lifted their hands.

  The Captain sighed.

  “Okay then, to calm your fears I’ll be blunt: whatever this is, it’s not a Legendary. This situation, as bad as it might be, is nowhere near that scale. Not even close. I won’t go into detail, I’m not permitted to, but understand this; even the weakest Legend is not something any of you could comprehend. Instead, this is far more likely to be caused by a mere fragment of their power. A relic, if you will.”

  Myst blinked beside Cynthia, the only person who hadn’t raised his hand, like he’d only now realized they were talking about something important. He glanced at the Captain, then slowly opened his mouth, clearly about to start listing off Legendaries he thought counted as “weak,” relics he thought fit the bill, or something equally idiotic.

  Cynthia’s hand shot over to his thigh and pinched.

  His face twisted, but when he met her eyes and saw her glare, he froze, lifted a hand in surrender, and looked down at his lap to focus on the Swadloon sleeping there.

  The Captain shook his head.

  “Anyway. That was all?” he asked.

  Silence greeted him.

  “Well. Then we can move on to the second part.”

  For a moment, he didn’t continue. Then he slowly opened his mouth.

  “We would like you to fight with us.”

  Cynthia stiffened, tearing her eyes away from Myst.

  “Now, I understand this is a great deal to ask. And, of course, participation would be entirely voluntary. Still, I am officially requesting your assistance in handling the current situation.”

  A beat.

  Then William’s hands smashed into the table.

  “You cannot be serious. This is what you gathered us here for?”

  The Captain didn’t even glance at him.

  “Now, before we get into the details, I want to make it clear that what we’re asking of you will not be complex or excessively dangerous. But at the same time, we cannot resolve this without your he—”

  William cut him off.

  “How are we supposed to get into the inner sanctum? Never mind that none of these trainers can hold up to a Royal Guard, never mind that you sent your nephew, a Ranger, away because it was too dangerous—but how are we supposed to get past the Pokémon surrounding the sanctum?”

  The Captain slowly closed his mouth, then leveled a cold look at his right-hand man.

  “Do you not remember your own words? What they asked for in exchange for letting us through on the first day of your negotiations? We can give them back their leader, but that’s just half of it.”

  William just glared back at him.

  The Captain sighed, then turned toward Myst before lowering his eyes to the Swadloon still sleeping in his lap.

  “Boy, the Swadloon you’re holding—you found it inside this Grass Kingdom, correct?”

  Myst blinked.

  “Huh? I mean, yeah. But…” He trailed off. “Oh.”

  The Captain nodded, as if he’d expected the answer. Then he glanced at William.

  “I’ll allow you to explain.”

  William looked at him, and for a second Cynthia honestly thought he was going to refuse outright. Instead he just let out a breath.

  “What the Captain is hinting at,” he began tightly, “is that the Pokémon surrounding the lair, or capital, or whatever you want to call the place the Majesty is hiding in, is a swarm of Sewaddle, Swadloon, and Leavanny.”

  He rubbed his temple, like just mentioning this brought him pain.

  “The first time we took out a Royal Guard, we thought we’d defeated the Majesty itself, because it was an extra-large Leavanny, and its entire tribe was stationed around what we now call the ‘inner sanctum.’” He pursed his lips, “Obviously we were wrong.”

  Cynthia glanced back at Myst.

  “But because of that, we learned something interesting. For some reason, probably because of their Bug-typing, the Sewaddle line is somewhat resistant to the large-scale control affecting the rest of the kingdom. In other words, we could actually talk to them.”

  For every word William spoke his face seemed to grow calmer and calmer.

  “So the Captain sent me in to negotiate with them with Claydol acting as a translator. What we learned is that they were completely ready to help us if you handed them back their leader… and if we found their princess.”

  His eyes dropped to the Swadloon in Myst’s lap.

  “Apparently she’s a smaller-than-average, just-evolved Swadloon who somehow managed to waltz off after they all arrived here.”

  Myst stared back at him.

  William instantly sighed.

  “Hey, don’t look at me like you’re planning on figuring out how to dissect me. I am fundamentally opposed to any plan that involves you guys.” He paused, then shot the Captain a sharp look. “Because really—what is your plan? Okay, let’s say we get through the protection of a million Sewaddle or whatever, but what happens when we actually get inside?”

  He gestured broadly at the group.

  “Why does it sound like you want to bring everybody? I mean—I get Johanna, and maybe those two—” he waved at Cecilia and Oliver, “—but the rest? Their Pokémon can’t even take a single hit from any of the Royal Guards stationed in there. Even if you lump them all together into one big group, with this kind of power difference, it’d still be like sending grass into a fire. Moreover, aren’t we…”

  William paused, eyes flickering like mentally counting each head at the table.

  “No way.”

  The Captain let out a slow sigh.

  “According to the Sewaddle tribe, there are four Royal Guards who remain inside the sanctum at all times,” he began, speaking carefully. He glanced around the table. “You can safely subdue one on your own, William. Brian and Clara can hold out against another for a while. But what about the last one? What about Her Majesty herself?”

  His gaze shifted to Johanna, then to Cecilia and Oliver.

  “If we have you three”—he nodded toward them—“and every willing trainer helping from a distance with disruption attacks, can’t we hold off one more? That would give me enough time to engage Her Majesty alone and subdue her, effectively ending this in one fell swoop.”

  “That’s complete gambling,” William said.

  His voice wasn’t loud. No, it was about the quietest it had been so far.

  Cynthia still felt the hair on her arms raise slightly.

  “You know it isn’t. Or do you think I won’t be able to subdue a mere wild Pokemon?” The Captain said slowly back.

  Willliam didn’t even seem to breathe as he stared back at his captain.

  The Captain exhaled once, then shook his head.

  “William might make it sound like he thinks I’m the one most likely to lose,” he said, glancing toward Cecilia, “but I’m confident for a reason. The Sewaddle tribe didn’t know much about Her Majesty, but what they did know was very telling. In simple terms—she wasn’t always this powerful. Once, she was simply a normal Pokémon. Strong, yes, but nowhere near the level of any of the thirteen leaders.”

  His posture leaned forward, his voice lowering with a quiet intensity.

  “And then, almost overnight, her strength spiked. It was as if she had… ‘evolved,’ so to speak—jumping from merely formidable to nearly untouchable.”

  He let the silence stretch, watching their faces as if measuring each reaction, before leaning a little.

  “Now, that may sound alarming,” he continued, his tone warming in a way Cynthia couldn’t quite place, “but it actually tells us the opposite. It means she is far weaker than what this place suggests. It means she’s relying on power that isn’t her own—and power she clearly cannot fully control.”

  At those words, some of the tension drained from Cecilia’s face.

  The Captain’s smile returned—small, knowing, with something else flickering just behind it.

  “Of course, I understand it’s difficult to reconcile that with the fact she appears to command Pokémon far stronger than herself. But even that is nothing more than a trick. She isn’t controlling them directly—William confirmed as much when he captured the former leader of the Sewaddle tribe.”

  He stopped sending purposeful look to his right.

  William stoic expression didn’t change, but after a moment he still nodded begrudgingly.

  Once he did, the Captain resumed without missing a beat.

  “So the real reason her Majesty can control any of them isn’t overwhelming strength. Even boosted, she wasn’t strong enough to control them directly. Instead, she wore them down over time, preventing them from sleeping. Weeks, months… long enough that even the strongest wills eventually crumble. Their minds being pushed past exhaustion, and then even further beyond.”

  Cecilia’s little sister shifted nervously in her seat.

  “As for how she stopped them from sleeping?” the Captain asked rhetorically. “While we don’t know the exact method, we can still make an educated guess. Most likely, she used a altered form of the move Worry Seed, somehow applying the trait of sleeplessness without any of the normal safeguards built into the move.

  He let out a short chuckle, smile widening slightly.

  “That’s why the Royal Guards’ eyes are bloodshot. Not because they’re resisting her influence, or because they’re corrupted in some dramatic way—but simply because they’re sleep-deprived.”

  Nobody else smiled back, and after a moment his smile dropped completely off his face.

  She still got the sense he was more satisfied with them not smiling than smiling.

  “Either way, this—” he nodded toward Cecilia “—and your observations about the fluctuating Grass-type power boost have fully convinced me. She is not in full control of her powers. In other words, the likelihood that this entire situation was caused by her stumbling upon a relic has gone from merely highly likely to beyond all reasonable doubt.”

  He paused, long enough that Cynthia realized he’d gone still, like a wire pulled taut. But before anyone could comment, he continued, his voice deliberately steady.

  “More importantly… based on what we’ve seen, I’ve determined which relic it is.”

  His tone shifted, subtle, almost feverish, a strange intensity lighting in his eyes.

  “There is only one Legendary relic that fits what’s happening here. Only one the Rangers have documented being used to create a similar phenomenon to this grassy forest.”

  He let out a breath.

  “The mythical Shaymin’s flower.”

  A moment passed in complete silence. For a second nobody seemed to know how to take it. Or maybe it was just nobody even knew what a relic signified. After all, it was even the first time she had heard about something called relics.

  Then slowly Cecilia opened her mouth.

  “And even with this relic, you are confident you can defeat Her Majesty?” she asked.

  The fire in the Captain’s eyes vanished like it had never been there.

  “Yes,” he said. Absolute confidence radiated from him. “I am.”

  Cecilia glanced at her two companions, then nodded.

  “Okay. Then we’re in, at least.” She tilted her head toward Johanna. “You too, right?”

  Johanna hesitated, glancing toward Cynthia and Myst.

  Cecilia gave her a crooked smile. “C’mon. I let you sleep in my room, didn’t I? And all the snacks I shared with you?”

  Johanna didn’t react, her eyes still locked on Cynthia and Myst.

  Cynthia bit her lip, then turned to her boyfriend.

  A million things ran in her mind at the same time, but in the end none of them were as important as one.

  Her eyes dropped to the Swadloon in his lap, then up to meet his.

  Myst glanced down, then looked up again and shook his head. She stared.

  He gave a bitter smile, before he started to move his mouth.

  Can’t.

  Anyway.

  He didn’t speak aloud.

  Won’t.

  Separate.

  Her.

  From.

  Family.

  She understood anyway.

  Fight.

  You.

  Choose.

  Cynthia turned back toward the table.

  “We’d be ready to try—as long as we form a good enough plan.” she said.

  Johanna exhaled, then nodded gently. “Then… I’m in too.”

  The Captain smiled.

  “Grae—"

  “What do you do if I refuse?” William said suddenly, his voice shearing through the room. He wasn’t shouting, just staring directly at his Captain, eyes sharp enough to cut. “If I decide not to obey your orders.”

  The Captain glanced at him, raising one eyebrow.

  “Can you afford to?”

  William’s face twisted into something unpleasant.