Ranger HQ Ranger Union HQ

[Jackie Cat]

"What's wrong with adventure stuff? Someone tell you you can't read that if you want? Anyone who'd whine about that's not worth the time it takes to tell 'em to get lost."

Leona grimaced, seemingly out of embarrassment.

"Guess it feels... dumb. But so does feeling dumb about it. Augh."

She spoke exactly like a young adult cringing at herself for having ever been a kid with hobbies and interests. She seemed... a little younger than Seth, maybe? No dragged out long-war against Cipher. Fresh off her victory, but still restless, still vigilant...

As Leaf talked, Leona led her upwards, towards ground level.

"You already did a ton of that earning back in Orre. Doesn't make sense to beat yourself up about... about a Cipher from a whole other universe forcing a bunch of super-powered despair into your head. How's literally anybody supposed to see that coming, right? I think that if sometimes you need to take it easy and go somewhere else for a while, that's fair, and nobody oughta give you crap about it. And at least there are plenty of people still working on finding that happy ending here, too. Sybil and Sinopa and the rest of us. Doesn't all have to be on you."

Out of the shade of the plaza, a little sun fell on Leona's muzzle. She didn't flinch, but she squinted agaisnt the brightness. Breathed in fresher air with a low huff.

"I know," she said, quietly. With restraint. "I get it. I really do. It's not like I'm blaming myself for getting plucked outta my timeline and dumped in a cage – I didn't fuck up. What I'm getting at is... what they did to me, it— I just can't help seeing things differently. Worse, more pessimistic. It's like a disease. My own happy ending that I earned just feels far away. Imaginary. Stupid."

Leona made a gagging, growling noise of frustration.

"Seth kinda gets it, you know. His whole thing right now is, like, even allowing himself to believe anything can go right, instead of hedging every bet and expecting everything to be a slugfest no matter what. Which, good for him, but it's not really the same shit I'm dealing with. Things went right for me. Just feels like the other shoe just dropped, and I was a stupid kid the whole time for thinking I'd get what I wanted, thinking I'd got it. 'Cause now it's gone."

Leona turned her head to the watchtower. She stamped one paw, and Sinopa obligingly popped out a narrow staircase of stone to allow it to be climbed.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Leaf followed Leona up the stairs as they folded themselves out of the wall. She lagged just slightly behind, still thinking.

"I guess it makes sense that you'd still feel like you're... stuck," she tried. "They put you there and you're stuck, and..." She trailed off, not sure where the line was between acknowledging it and beating it into the ground. "But it's not permanent. You are a lot better than you were when we found you. And your happy ending's not gone; it's still out there. Cipher screwing you up doesn't take away that your girls are still back home waiting for you. And you're still here to make it back to them." ...somehow. Not that she understood how. (Probably just stupid to say that.) But. "They brought you here, and we know they can go back and forth, so that has to mean that you can, too, right? We just have to find their other base and figure out how to work those portal things." There. That made sense, right. Try to help Leona focus on moving forward. (Try to keep herself focused on it.)

 

[Jackie Cat]

Leona nodded, and made a strangled noise in her throat. She kept her head low as she ascended the watchtower's stone pillar.

"What if I never make it back?" she asked, in a small, haunted voice. "What if... What if I'm trapped?"

Still trapped. On some level, psychologically, Leona never made it out of that glass box.

"The Shadow makes it so fucking hard to think or feel anything good," she growled, bitterly. "I'm just like those Shadow 'mon I snatched. Raging and snapping at the world. Hurting. Afraid."

Leaf knew by now that Leona had helped those pokémon. Opened their hearts, cured them...

And wait – had Leona just admitted to feeling afraid? That was new...

 

[Phoenixsong]

"We're going to find a way to send you back. You and Seth and anyone who needs it." Leaf stomped emphatically on the stairs. Didn't matter that she didn't know how they'd do it. (Couldn't matter.) "We'll figure it out," she added, possibly to herself as much as Leona.

Scared...? She almost stopped, for just a second. The stories Leona'd felt like sharing before made it hard to imagine someone as tough and angry as her scared. Sure as hell didn't seem like someone who'd want to admit it.

"Well... what'd you do when the shadow pokémon were scared? What helped them, while you were working on curing them?" Maybe it'd help to have something more concrete and actionable to think about. Maybe it was something they could still do here, for her and all the others.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Leona's brow furrowed, her tail low and her paws leaden.

"I... uh. It depended...? Some liked battles best, they opened up, rode the adrenaline. If they frenzied, I'd call out to them, snap 'em out of it, make them remember they had a name, that they weren't just fighters. Or we'd spend time together, cleaning them up all nice, Rui used to help with that. Sometimes it just took time..."

The day-wolf swallowed, like something was stuck in her chest.

"...I don't want to wait, I want to be free."
At last they'd reached the top. The little crow's-nest cupola for looking out across the wide, wild Soja'. Rust-red and honey-gold for miles and miles and miles...

"We used to go for a ride," murmured Leona. "Across the desert, on my bike. Beautiful, perfect, piece-a-shit machine. No matter what, it always felt like we were free."

The wind picked up, whipping Leona's mane about. She looked down – sixty, seventy feet below.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Leaf smiled wistfully as Leona went through her list. "Sounds like some of the stuff that helps Minerva, sometimes." And Mewtwo, not that they'd admit it.

She hadn't been up to the lookout much, on account of, y'know, normally it was just a ladder, and other Rangers were usually quicker to volunteer for watchtower work. Actually looking at the Soja' from this height... yeah, she could get why. Seventy feet didn't sound super tall in her head, but the distance you could see from up here was something else. Almost like you could see forever.

Wasn't the same as really being out there, though.

"Y'know," Leaf said, "the desert here's fantastic for when you just want to move. Wide open, incredible view, and nobody's out there if you time it right—especially not in a place like this, a time like this I guess, not like when we're from where the road'd be covered in cars." She gestured with her horn in the direction of the highway, and the horizon beyond it. "I go running out there all the time. Never ridden a bike, so I dunno exactly what that's like—" although look into motorcycles was now definitely on the agenda for when she got home; she wasn't too far off being able to get a license, right? Not that close, young lady, don't you dare—! "—but like this? I'm fast as hell. And just tearing across the desert's, like, one of the most amazing things I've gotten to do here. Just feel the wind and see the sunset and not think about anything and go." Usually not think about anything. Worked, like, ninety-nine percent of the time.

"I know being a pokémon's weird and all, but lycanroc are supposed to be pretty quick. Might be kinda close to a ride?" She couldn't help grinning a little. "Maybe you could even keep up with me."

 

[Jackie Cat]

For a few seconds there, Leona had been staring down at a fatal drop, and the escape it represented.

But as Leaf talked – about the freedom of the open wild, letting loose for fun, the blowing wind and setting sun – Leona looked up. And she saw the joys she'd been searching for in Leaf's face. Maybe the thing she needed to remember those feelings – the missing key to open that side of her – was just to see that part of herself in someone else... and match it.

When the Rapidash challenged her to a race, for the first time since the Lycanroc had stepped foot on Forlas, Leona smiled.

"Oh, I'm fuckin' undefeatable," bragged Leona, something burning in her eyes. "You're on, kid. First to get her paws wet in the Silver?"

Lycanroc Leona wants to race!

 

[Phoenixsong]

Huh, look at that. Leona was smiling; the shadow reverb in her voice was faltering. That was new. That was good.

"Hmmm. I dunno. I guess I could, if you're really suuuuuure..." Leaf glanced over her shoulder like she needed to double-check the distance, tone mock-wavering, tail swishing thoughtfully—and then lunged forward with "Threetwoonego!" and took off back down the stairs who-cared-how-many at a time.

Bottom of the ladder-stairs, hard corner around the guest pueblos, through an open space in the plaza. She could've thought about the last time she'd run through here: about stupid decisions, about panicking, about failing. She didn't, though. No room for that when there was something to do, somewhere to go (and nowhere to go), a challenge to take on. And win. (And with Leona smiling, cocky, confident, it'd still feel like winning even if she didn't.)

 

[Jackie Cat]

Leona actually laughed at Leaf's playful juke, and chased after her with intense, deeply competitive focus. This was a wolf who liked to win, after all – and damn but she was fast. She didn't even spare the breath to yell trash-talk!

The pueblos parted to allow a shallow-sloping ramp up and out of the plaza, in the direction of the nearest bend in the Silver. It wouldn't be that far – maybe a mile or so – but that might still be far enough for stamina to come into play.

Hot on Leaf's hooves, Leona barked in enthusiastic challenge.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Leaf couldn't resist jumping off the end of the slope Sinopa'd shaped for them. Not that it was that steep or anything, but c'mon, she was a rapidash, she didn't need that if she wanted to catch some air. Just a little bit of flying, as a treat, y'know?

Then they were thundering out of the plaza and into the open, really open, Leona still right on her tail. Damn, she was pretty fast, wasn't she? Focused like nothing else, too, if the quick glance over her shoulder was anything to go by. "Not bad!" she called back, grinning even wider. "But if you really wanna win, you're gonna have to try harder than thaa~aat!" She threw herself into a quick attack, now she didn't have to worry about crashing into the library's outdoor shelves. Just one, for now, no need to go all out yet. Just enough to make sure Leona knew who she was dealing with.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Leona took the hit with a yelp, not expecting an attack mid-race. To her credit she rallied at once, tumbling back onto her feet and sprinting to close the distance – head down, tail back, paws pounding the dry earth. Her fur glowed as she surged forward in an attack—

"—Gyaah!"

Leona used Accelerock!

That was Rock-type energy. Not Shadow.

Leona's Shd is low...!

This was different. Better. Not just lucid but winning against the corruption. If this kept up, if it stuck, could the Celebi Relic... work?

 

[Phoenixsong]

The stone caught Leaf in the flank and she flinched, staggered, lost a little ground—but it wasn't that bad. Not like last time, no searing, crushing pain, nothing trying to claw its way into her head. Just a little rock. Just a race. A good one.

"That all you got?" she laughed. Seeing Leona pull ahead only made her grin harder. "C'mon, gonna have to swing like you mean it if you wanna slow me down!"

They were getting closer, she could smell the water just up ahead, but there was still a stretch of rough terrain to go. No Sinopa out here to mold them a neat little race track. Not that she needed that, either.

Leaf used Trailblaze! +1 Spd!

She sideswiped Leona and surged forward, over the cracked ground and through the scraggly brush and down the riverbank. Almost there... (Almost there.)

 

[Jackie Cat]

"Ye— yeah! I'll fuckin'— I'll fuckin' get you—!"

Leona took another solid – super-effective – whack from the Rapidash's flank. Stumbled – recovered. Pushed harder—

Leaf just about reached the silt-and-sand rivershore, when the Lycanroc barrelled fully into her, sending them both crashing into the waters. There came a splash, then Leona's yelp. A moment of concern as the wolf checked around herself for Leaf. Then, more laughter.

This bend of the Silver was a lazy, shallow distributary off the main river, not deep enough to panic. Leona stood up, and aggressively shook herself off.

"I have no idea who won," she gasped, "and I don't give a shit. This is the best I've ever felt on this fucking world. Gods."

She blinked at Leaf, and her muzzle parted in a manic grin that looked so like Seth's.

"I wanna try the Relic again before the Shadow picks up again. Race you back?"

 

[Phoenixsong]

And then they were in the water, and for a second Leaf had no idea what even was going on. Didn't matter. Leona was laughing, like for real with no reverb at all, and so she could laugh, too.

She stood up, stomped in the water a few more times to splash and cool off a bit of the heat from running, then nodded. "You're on. Threetwoone—"

---

It'd been neck and neck again most of the way back—a good race, a real one—but, deeply tragically, Leona'd wised up to Leaf's tricks even faster than she'd anticipated, and by the time they'd hit the plaza again the lycanroc was a nose ahead, dammit.

...eh. Let her have it. Leona had won the part that mattered, anyway; only fair that she got to have her day. (This time.)

They slowed down as they neared the Heart, pueblos and passageways reconfiguring themselves as needed. Leaf gave Leona a nod. "Hey. You got this." She grinned at her friend, excited, confident. "Kick the shadow's ass, yeah?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Still breathing hard from exertion, Leona nodded forcefully, eyes wide with adrenaline.

"We're doing this," she barked

We, not 'I'. Something she was used to saying as a trainer, maybe...

The wolf didn't linger. She just stepped forward, through the opening door. Sinopa waited on the other side, her sky-eyes bright.

"Ready?" asked the Espeon spirit.

One last glance at Leaf. Leona's eyes were willful, grateful, hopeful.

"Yeah. Here goes nothing."

No hesitation. Leona's paw connected with the Relic... and her fur glowed like the sun.

Underground, in the dungeon heart, dawn broke around Leona.

Leona opened the door to her heart!

 

[Phoenixsong]

For just a moment, even down here in the quiet dimness of the Heart, it was bright as it'd been outside. Leaf hadn't actually seen anyone use the Relic Stone before—technically still hadn't all the way through, on account of having to close her eyes for a sec, whoops—but she hadn't been expecting the light show. Flecks of gold still drifted around Leona's coat even after the flash had settled. She still looked like she was glowing. Not even just literally.

"Feels... feels better, right?" she asked, moving closer, hesitant at first, but then excited, borderline bouncing. Had it worked? It looked like it had worked. That was too pretty to not have worked, right?

"We should celebrate! Get something to eat, whatever your favorite is!" As the last of the dawn light settled—just the beginning of the warmth, though—it felt good to know that, whatever she decided, Leona would finally, finally be able to relax and enjoy herself.

<><><><><>​

 

[Phoenixsong]

Leona probably already knew that one last (please last) big raid against Cipher and Alexander was on its way. Chief Ayda and the other Rangers had agreed to help out, after all, and having a ton of dungeons to lock down meant having to do a ton of prep; likely impossible not to hear about it. But it felt wrong not to check in anyway. Had to make sure she knew that the Wayfarers were going to shut both of these shadow disasters down once and for all.

So, with Miror B. and his peanut gallery put away for now and all the fingers she no longer had mentally crossed that they'd stay there, Leaf rode the waypoints back to HQ a little while later. Archie'd had a similar idea, seemed like—Seth was still hanging around the Rangers these days, too, wasn't he—so they'd hit the waypoint for the pueblos at the same time. Then it'd just been a matter of Sinopa shuffling a few things around to make it easier to bring them and the two lycanroc together.

"We're gonna be heading back to Malantau soon," the rapidash explained, looking past the watchtower and to the north, as if she could see it there. Snow, and mountains, and a killer horse, and whatever terrible things were waiting for them at Terminal One. "Got a shortcut set up and everything. Won't be long before we're shoving them all back through their stupid portal." (And hopefully, hopefully, someone'd figure out how to use that portal to send Leona back to her own home, and her girls, and an open desert perfect for long motorcycle rides.)

 

[Weazel]

It was all coming down to this, then. The final assault on Cipher was just around the corner. That meant they’d be sending their assorted collection of captured personnel back through their portal to their own world… And it also meant saying goodbye to Seth. The Lycanroc had to get home to his Eevees – still on their home world so far as Dakim knew, at least. Hopefully the man would be able to rescue them himself while the organization was licking its wounds, it didn’t seem like they’d be able to assist in the endeavor. The moment felt bittersweet, but he put on a brave smile all the same.

“Means you’ll be headed home soon too, right?” He asked the red Lycanroc, “Make sure you kick their asses on that side of the portal, too.”

 

[Jackie Cat]

Seth reclined in his sunny spot – a comfy beanbag on a pueblo's rooftop terrace – with his paws behind his head, and scoffed.

"'Course. Heh, what do you take me for? After the drubbings we've been giving them this side of the void, and after this next one, I'll fuckin' clean house back Earth-side. Especially if half their leadership is still stuck rotting in some cell on Forlas."

His 'relaxed' pose hardly lasted as long as it took him to reply. He leaned forward, his knee tapping, restless.

"Though all this yap about it being bad for the planet to have 'em here... I dunno. I don't like to think of it. Back when I was gettin' nightly dreams from Powehi, I could... feel the pressure that guy was under, trying to figure out some way of giving 'em all the boot."

Something dark flickered in Seth's eyes. What he didn't say was that they could take Dakim and Venus to Terminal One – they couldn't, not really. They'd have to get them across thousands of miles of land and water with only mundane transportation, which they didn't really have time for, and they'd risk losing control of them besides. They hadn't been nearly so cooperative as their scientifically-oriented colleagues.

What he also didn't say was what alternatives might be worth considering.

Leona looked around from her own perch, her forepaws crossed and her chest resting on the terrace wall.

"Let the local law decide what to do with them," she said, as if it were obvious. "Razael told me, now that Ignatius is gone gone, and there'll be an actual elected mayor at last, they'll get actual trials and all that. It's not up to us."

Seth tutted, and blew air sharply, the pfft flicking his own over-long head fur. "Whatever. The law here is hardly more useful than it is in Orre."

But he didn't object, exactly. He'd killed Cipher agents before, and it hadn't sat easily with him – now that he'd been pulled back from his ruthless, gritty persona, he'd stopped boasting about visiting unlimited violence upon his enemies.

Leona turned back to gaze north-east in the same direction as Leaf. "I'll be there too," she said.

Not that Leona's Earth was waiting for her on the other side of Cipher's portal. Just Seth's.

 

[Weazel]

Archie folded his arms, leaning back on his heels as he thought. It was true that they couldn’t exactly afford to drag the already captured Admins all the way to the portal. Dakim had some honor and could maybe be trusted to not try anything funny, and Miror B. clearly had some interest in getting to Terminal One himself, but who knew about Venus? Worst case scenario, the trio could all decide to cooperate for the trip, only to turn on them when it came time to actually confront Nascour. That was already a risk they were taking with two Admins, five would be unacceptable. And that wasn’t including the lesser Peons and the like they’d also rounded up in the aftermath of the Terminal Two raid.

“If only we could move them through the dungeon anchorpoints, then all we’d have to do is find the heart of Eremus Fault and we could teleport them all there,” Archie sighed. Unfortunately, things couldn’t be that easy. “We’ll have to hope that once we’ve closed the portal and no more offworlders are coming through, the world is able to recover and absorb the ones who’ve had to remain.”

He shot Seth a glance during the wolf’s particularly pregnant pause, catching the look in the red Lycanroc’s eyes. Of course, The Wolf would prefer to cut the Gordian knot, perhaps a soul departed by means other than the portal would also lessen the strain on the world. But that wasn’t Seth anymore, and even though he openly groused about the uselessness of Forlasan law enforcement, Archie thought he caught a hint of relief in the Lycanroc’s voice that they wouldn’t be considering darker options.

“Once we’ve dealt with Alexander and Cipher, I wonder if that’ll be the end of our mission here, as well,” he said, then he looked at the two Lycanrocs again, “Speaking of, do you to think you’ll be up for facing that Hydreigon, if it comes to it?”