Chapter 6: Self Destruct

I ended up not going home that night. I wasn’t sure if Vix or Eve even wanted to see me. I wasn’t sure if they still wanted me on the team anymore. I was lost and confused. I had done the right thing, hadn’t I? Vix was in trouble because of the Hatred.  Kegan had been able to protect her, and despite what Eve thought, we weren’t.

Our first job had put us directly in the hands of Team Hatred. If I hadn’t sent Vix home before confronting Eve, they would have had her then and there. They would have had all three of us, and I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself. At least for as long as the Hatred let me live. I wasn’t sure what the penalty for crimes against the Hatred was, but based on what they had done to the rest of my family… it wasn’t anything less than death.

Kegan seemed to understand. He let me stay upstairs in the dorms reserved for those who wanted to join the expedition society, but didn’t have a team yet. Those new recruits were a social bunch. Most of them were younger than me, a few were much older. The young ones were seriously immature, it was no wonder why they hadn’t found a team yet. They stayed up late into the night talking, playing games, laughing. I didn’t join in.

I didn’t sleep that night. I didn’t know anything anymore. I didn’t know what the two most important people in my life thought of me. I tossed and turned all night, my thoughts moving a thousand miles an hour. I was trapped deep within my own head.

Either unfortunately or fortunately, the morning eventually came. As soon as the sun was up I left. It was killing me not to know. For better or worse, I had to know.

Mr. Gloom let me into the building, and the door to our apartment was unlocked. I took a deep breath and walked in, my stomach churning.

Eve was in the kitchen, her back to me. She was making breakfast: eggs, bacon, and pancakes using her Psychic powers to manipulate the utensils. She hummed while she cooked darting back and forth between each task. As I watched she stiffened, she knew she was being watched. Slowly, so slowly, she turned around.

“Oh, Slink. Good morning.”

“Er,” I mumbled taken aback, “Good morning. H-h-how are you?” I cringed. What was I talking about?

“I’m good.” She turned back to cooking. “Vix isn’t doing as well. I’m fairly certain I heard her crying last night.”

My stomach fell out. I had done that. “For what it’s worth, I talked with Kegan this morning. We will keep custody of Vix.” Eve was silent. “Actually, you will keep custody of Vix.”

Eve froze, the pancake she was levitating crashed onto the the stove with a splat. “What?”

I shook my head feeling a prickle in my throat and burning behind my eyes. “I said that I made you sole legal guardian of Vix. I…don’t trust myself to do it anymore.”

Hot tears ran down my cheeks as Eve slowly turned around. “Slink. Thank you.” Then she did something unexpected. She ran and hugged me.

“I know what I did, what I said…” I choked back a sob, “I don’t want to force Vix into protection if it will make her miserable!”

Eve laughed, although I could tell that she was crying too. “You couldn’t have realized that last night dumbass!? But I’m glad you realize what you did wrong.”

“I don’t ever want to make the same mistake again. That is why I gave the job to you.”

“And that is exactly why you should take the job back. We can have joint custody. That way I can block you when you make stupid choices.” She backed up and smiled at me. At least she had forgiven me.

She took a closer look at me and winced. “Slink you look awful. Did you sleep at all last night?”

I knew I looked a little haggard, but I didn’t think that it was that bad. “No,” I admitted softly.

“Go lay down for a while. Breakfast won’t be ready for about an hour. I got us a job for today, but we won’t have to leave until this afternoon. Get some rest.”

She practically forced me into our room and slammed the door behind me. I’ll be honest, my bed had never looked more inviting. My head had barely touched the pillow before I drifted off into a deep sleep.

---

I had a dream.

I was standing on a clifftop, a narrow bluff by a raging sea. Waves crashed thunderously against the white cliff face beneath me sending salty spray hundreds of feet in the air.

At the end of the cliff stood a temple, at least the ruins of one. Overgrown, red-stone pillars and crumbling walls were all that remained of what was probably once a grandiose building.

I felt myself walking forward. Through the overgrown courtyard, through the weatherbeaten archway. Something inside just kept pulling me forward. Ancient hieroglyphs were etched into the walls, but my dream self didn’t seem to pay them any mind. He was on a mission.

I eventually reached the center of the temple. This room was the most intact from what I had seen. It was perfectly round with a domed ceiling. The walls were covered in more etchings, as was the floor. The ceiling was perfectly smooth except the round skylight directly in the center. The floor sloped gradually downward like a bowl.

In the exact center of the room, directly underneath the skylight there was a perfect circle of what looked like obsidian. But at the same time, it didn’t. The best way I could describe it would be like a pool of oil, the way that colors danced across it, swirling and mixing in thousands of different forms, and yet that still wasn’t it.

For one it was solid, and for another I could also see myself in it. It was reflective. As the colors rippled across my face though, the reflection would distort. The world seemed to blur for a moment before everything snapped back together. Now the surface seemed to swirl hypnotically and the reflection inside, well it couldn’t be true. It showed me as a Delphox!

I glanced behind me? Was it reflecting someone else? No. And when I looked back, it had changed again. Now the color moved across it in waves, and it wasn’t a reflection anymore. It showed me reunited with my family. I blinked. In the zig-zag color I could see me, Vix, and Eve running through Dungeons together.

I stumbled back, tearing my eyes away. It was disorienting. I backed away, and suddenly someone else was there. It was the Umbreon, Shane, and yet it wasn’t. It was like somebody had dyed a Muk black and then poured him over an Umbreon. The overall shape was there, and his blue rings were there, but he seemed melty. He dripped thick black goo.

As I watched, he placed four objects on the ground. My dream self wouldn’t move to see them. The light in the room suddenly became almost blinding. The sun must be directly overhead I realized suddenly. The four objects began to glow as well. As the glow grew they began to lift off of the ground and slowly orbit around the room. In the back of my head, just at the edge of my hearing I could sense a high hum.

The glow became brighter, almost blinding as the four objects, or should I say pieces, suddenly snapped together. The humming I had been hearing became audible, and more discordant and unsettling. I heard the Umbreon say something, but I couldn’t discern his words. The sunlight streaming through the roof suddenly turned red, and with that the glowing object exploded.

I was awake in an instant, panting. I wasn’t sure weather the dream had forced me awake or if it was Eve’s gentle knocking on the door.

“Slink, breakfast is ready!”

“Uh,” I gasped trying to hide my panting, my shock. “Sure,” I choked, “be out in a minute.”

I tried to calm down, but the dream was burned into my mind. What was that, what had I seen? I couldn’t shake the feeling of looking into… whatever material that had been. I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, fixed a grin onto my face, and opened the door, where I immediately ran into Vix who was coming out of the bathroom.

“Hey watch it-” she said before she registered who she was talking too. She closed her eyes, took a shuddering breath and then turned her nose in the air and marched past me.

“So when’d Slink get back,” she asked Eve completely ignoring me.

“Er, this morning… about an hour ago.” Eve rolled her eyes. I raised an eyebrow at her. She shrugged giving me a look that said “hey it’s your problem, don’t look at me”.

I sighed and sat down at the table. “So you said you had work for us today. What’s the plan?”

“Well,” Eve said, “I got us a job, and before you ask I checked. All reports say that the Hatred is somewhere north of here, and we are headed south.  It’s in a small village in the foothills of the Scale Mountains. Only a day and a half journey.”

“Whoa, whoa whoa,” Vix said. “It’s going to take us two days to get there?”

“Yes,” Eve said patiently, “but not really because there is a dungeon in the way. With your help Vix we can be in and out in ten minutes.”

Vix huffed and glared at me for a minute. “Oh, sorry, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to use my powers anymore.”

“Vix I said I was sorry, I’m not sure what else I can-”

“-Anyway when are we leaving?” Vix interrupted me.

“I was thinking that we could leave here by eleven,” Eve said as though nothing had happened. “We should probably go to the market before we go, and then if we leave town by noon we should be good.”

“Alright that gives us about an hour and a half. I’ll go pack up and make sure we got everything.” I glanced at Eve and Vix, “you could help me if you want.”

Vix didn’t answer. Instead she walked to the couch and flopped down in front of the TV. “Hey Eve, tell Slink I’m busy okay.”

I opened my mouth to retaliate, but Eve shook her head.

“You know it’s going to be hard for her to forgive you. You can’t expect it to happen in a day. Especially with what you did.”

“I said I was sorry,” I grumbled, “Fine. I’ll be in our room packing if you need me.”

Honestly I couldn’t blame Vix, but it didn’t stop me from trying. I had apologized and fixed my mistake. What else did the child want me to do?! She didn’t have to forgive me, I just wanted her to speak to me. In the back of my mind a tiny voice made it even harder for me to get over it. You may have fixed your mistake, but The Hatred still wants Vix. She is still in danger.

I huffed to myself, but I quickly lost myself as I began reorganizing my bag.

“Er, Slink,” I jumped, a brief bolt of adrenaline arcing through my bloodstream.

“Eve,” I panted.

“Oh, sorry,” she giggled, “I didn’t mean to scare you.” Her voice suddenly became serious, “Can we talk for a minute.”

“Sure,” I said turning back to my bag. I knew Eve wouldn’t care if I continued to get ready.

“Slink, I need your help!” Something in her tone made me freeze. Something wasn’t right. “I… I uh-”

“Eve, it’s fine, what do you need help with?”

“I know that it is going to take a few days to get where we need. My problem is that I have no clue how big the Dungeon in the way is.”

“Okay,” I said not quite sure where this was going.

“I don’t know how long we’ll be in there, and this job has a time limit… I guess what I’m asking is… Slink, is there any way to stay in a Dungeon overnight?”

“Really? That is what you were afraid to ask?”

“Yes,” she nodded, but I felt a small flicker in the back of my head, the same place where my psychic powers lay dormant. Somehow I knew that Eve was lying. “I just thought that it was going to be impossible”

“Eve, the Expedition Society found a solution to that problem ages ago. I’ll show you when we get to the market. Besides, I know Vix was snarky earlier, but I know she’ll get us through that Dungeon with time to spare.”

Eve grinned. “I feel better Slink, thanks.”

An hour later we left the apartment, locked the door behind us and set off toward the market. I was the only one who had been here before, and even then it had been early. Now it was packed with dozens of Pokémon of all shapes and sizes creating barely contained chaos.

Thankfully the market was divided between food, homeware, and Mystery Dungeon Items. Dozens of tents and stands on either side of the street were filled with different looplets, ribbons, orbs, wands, and of course what I was looking for, discs.

The stand was run by a Kangaskhan who, despite her rambunctious child running around the back of the tent, was eager and willing to help. “See anything you like dears?” Without taking her eyes off of us she reached back and pulled the baby Kangaskhan away from the crates stacked behind the counter.

“What are these things?” Eve whispered to me examining the discs on the table. Each was perfectly round and about as thick as a coin. They were made of a silvery material like our badges, and stamped on either side were a variety of images, all glowing with a bright blue, electronic light.

Ignoring Eve for a moment, I scanned the table looking for what we wanted, but I couldn’t seem to find any. It didn’t help that I couldn’t remember what half of the symbols meant. “Er, do you have any small campsite discs? I don’t remember which is which?”

The Kangaskhan laughed and pointed out a row of disks with a single triangle stamped into them. “Right here sweetie. How many would you want then?”

“Let’s go with three small camps, a trap, a shop, and a hiding spot.”

“Sure dear. That will be…” she dumped the discs I had asked for in a small leather pouch while adding under her breath, “let’s say 200P.”

Eve glanced at me, and I nodded. Quickly she counted out the coins and slid them across the table to the Kangaskhan who unceremoniously tipped them into her pouch. “Here you go sweetie,” she said handing me the pouch, “you all be careful out there.”

“Thank you,” I called over my shoulder as we turned to go. Thankfully it was only about 12:30 so Eve wasn’t too worried about time. With the Expedition gadget to guide her, Eve lead us out of town.

It amazed me how quickly cities manifested. We had only been walking for twenty minutes, and already the bustling city had been reduced to small isolated farmhouses that were extremely sparse at some points. At some points we walked for several minutes before seeing another house.  And of course as we traveled farther down the road we finally reached the edge of civilization.

The road was well maintained, but the hills and plains we passed by were wilder, rougher than the immaculate farm lands we had been passing. Despite all logic I felt vulnerable out here. The Hatred could be literally anywhere. They could attack us now and nobody would notice. The thought made me shiver.

It was extremely hot that day. Thankfully Eve had planned ahead and grabbed a couple of canteens. As we marched along we took frequent breaks, stopping to drink and to have a few snacks. For some reason — I couldn’t imagine why — Vix was being a bit difficult. She seemed to call for a break every five minutes, and would complain loudly until we complied. After a couple hours of this even Eve was fed up and annoyed.

When we weren’t even to the Dungeon by four, Eve took Vix a little ways off for what I assumed was a talking to. I also assumed that my name came up quite a few times. When they came back Vix looked even grumpier than usual, but Eve seemed much calmer?

“No more breaks until we are inside the Dungeon!” She eyed both of us (like I was the problem) and continued to lead on.

Unfortunately it was five by the time we got to the Dungeon entrance marked by two triangular rocks that extended from the ground. “Vix do your thing,” Eve said, “how many floors are there?”

Vix took two steps into the Mystery Dungeon and closed her eyes, concentrating. “There are fifteen floors here.”

“Uncanny,” I whispered to Eve. She nodded, a bit uneasy.

“So if we hustle we should be able to-”

“Uh, no,” Vix interrupted looking back into the Dungeon. “Just looking at the first floor I can tell you that it is gonna take a while for us to get through. When’s sunset?”

“About seven according to the Expedition Gadget,” I reported.

“Yeah, it will definitely take us at least twenty minutes for us to get through just this floor.”

“So what?” Eve said. “Should we start, or should we just make camp here  tonight?”

“I don’t know,” Vix shrugged, “I’m not sure how long it will take us. Perhaps after we get past this floor we might breeze through in no time.”

“Even if we don’t make it, we do have the equipment to spend the night in there. I say we make some headway tonight and get started early tomorrow.”

“Alright,” Eve said stepping into the Dungeon as well. “Let’s go.”

Sure enough it took exactly twenty minutes for Vix to lead us to the portal, I timed it. Again all I could do was gaze at her in amazement. As we began the second floor all I could do was think about the Hatred. Vix could lead someone through a Dungeon like this perfectly on their first go, saving so much time. Currently Expedition Society experts who were studying the Hatred’s movements estimated that it took them an average of two days to move from village to village. If there was an unavoidable Mystery Dungeon in their way, a rule of thumb was to double that time. I tried to imagine a world where these evil creatures could move anywhere in about two days. The only reason why there were any Shinies left outside of the Hatred was because of warning and evacuation systems that took advantage of this travel delay.

The second floor proved shorter than the first, and on the third floor we miraculously landed only feet from the next portal.

But unfortunately we were only halfway across the fourth floor when an alarm we had set into the Expedition gadget went off. “Ten minutes until the sun sets,” Eve informed me with a nod.

I opened my bag and pulled out the small leather pouch and fished around until I found a disc with a triangle stamped into its surface. “Let’s try this.”

Eve and Vix watched fascinated as I worked the disc into a small slot in the top of my badge. Once it was inside the whole thing seemed to glow a little brighter. I reached a paw up to my badge, but then I hesitated.

“Er, I’m not sure how far this will extend. I’d feel a bit safer if you two stood next to me.” Eve complied quickly. Vix rolled her eyes and huffed, but she eventually joined us.

Quickly, but making sure to make each press distinct, I pushed my badge four times. On the fourth time there was a satisfying click. This time my badge did grow brighter, brighter, and brighter until it looked like a miniature star was sitting on my chest.

The light projected onto the ground in a small circle at my feet, but as the glow grew brighter the circle got bigger. Eve and Vix both shivered as the ring of light on the ground passed over them.

We were standing just on the edge of a corridor, and so as the ring of light grew bigger the strangest thing of this whole process happened. As the light met the wall, the wall seemed to crumble away, the ring and the rapidly forming dome of light around us seemed to be pushing the walls outward in order to create a perfect circle of perfectly flat terrain.

Finally when the dome was at least thirty feet across it stopped growing. There was a bright flash of blue light as the dome solidified, then both it and the light around my badge faded to only a dull glow.

I slowly walked the circumference of the dome like my father had taught me, checking to make sure that there were no openings or cracks. Once I was done I turned toward where the camp had appeared and instantly noticed that there was something wrong.

“Oh, good going Slink,” Vix said with as much sarcasm and sass that her tiny frame could hold. The campsite was actually quite lovely, a cheerily crackling campfire stood in between some sturdy, beautifully constructed, but somewhat small tents.

The issue was that there were only two of them. “I know I ordered small camp discs right?”

“Uh, sure,” Eve said sympathetically, “unfortunately these do look small.”

“No, no I remember camping with my dad and my sister as a kid, and we used small camp discs.” I shook my head. “I guess it has been a while, perhaps they changed them.”

I glanced at Eve and Vix. “Anywho, you two can take these and I’ll go over there and set up another campsite before…”

Everything suddenly darkened, and it took me a minute to realize that it was because the sun had finally sunk below the horizon. Almost as quickly, there was the rushing sound as the wind began to pick up. The tall grass flattened out around us, but in our bubble the blades of grass didn’t even twitch. The barrier seemed to brighten for a minute as the wind struck it, but otherwise everything seemed normal.

My favorite part came last in this whole process. Thick, viscous, silver fog began to flow in from seemingly every direction. The fog swirled, twisted and rolled over itself as it was pushed by the wind. It looked like storm clouds had begun to gather around our camp. As the fog hit our little barrier it flattened as if it had hit a wall, rolling upwards as more and more clouds gathered. Soon the dome was completely encased in the fog except for a small circle directly at the top. Nobody was leaving this bubble until morning.

“Well, there goes that. So how do we want to split off now? Girls in one tent and-”

“Mine,” Vix called as her six bushy tails disappeared into the mouth of the right tent.

I stepped forward to confront Vix about this, but Eve held me back.

“Just let it go. We will be fine.”

“Easy for you to say,” I grumbled to myself. “So I guess we go, you in the tent and me out here by the fire?”

“No,” Eve said, “you can have the tent, I will be fine out here.”

“Eve, really I insist. You can have the tent.”

“No. If you insist, we can share it.”

“Eve,” I protested, “this isn’t like the room back home. Seriously I’ll be fine. See you in the morning.”

“Come on Slink.” Eve whined playfully biting my ear and pulling me toward the tent. “I’ll feel bad if you’re out here and besides it’s not like we’re gonna do anything other than sleep, right?”

Honestly I wasn’t sure if she was joking. I let myself be dragged into the tent anyway. It was a tight fit even just standing up, I wasn’t sure there was enough floor space for us to sleep comfortably.

We lay down back to back, and we had barely enough room to stretch out comfortably. I knew that one of my limbs was going to fall asleep at some point during the night. I couldn’t wait! But eventually the combination of her warmth against my back and the rhythm of her steady breathing lulled me to sleep.

I’m not sure was woke me up the next morning, I just remember the return to consciousness. I didn’t fully wake up, there was still a bit of grogginess to my thoughts and I didn’t open my eyes. I was just too comfortable.

The pillows they had included with the tents were magical. They were slightly fuzzy covered in what felt like a thin down. They were also firmer than your average pillow, with an inherent squishiness to them that made them super comfortable. I nuzzled my face into it. Oh, and they smelled wonderful as well. A bit like oran berries, but with the tartness of cherri berries. Actually now that I thought about it that scent… was rather… familiar…

I opened my eyes, and temporarily forgot how to breathe. My head wasn’t resting on a pillow, I was laying on Eve! In the middle of the night I must have rolled over or something, and now here I was spooning Eve.

I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it to be honest. I wasn’t sure if it meant anything. All I knew was that I had to get up now.

I rolled to my feet, but I had forgotten briefly that we were in a tent. I bounced off of the roof of the tent and slammed back into the ground. I sat down and scooched as far away from her as I could in the small tent.

“What was that? What were you two doing?” I leapt about a foot in the air as Vix’s whisper filled the tent. Unfortunately this also made me lose my balance and I fell back into the canvas wall of the tent. This combined with my earlier jump was apparently too much for the tent poles and ropes keeping the tent up and it promptly collapsed.

I began clawing and kicking at the canvas that threatened to smother me. I rolled, I twisted trying to escape the grip of the fabric before it was promptly ripped away from me with all of the ceremony of a magician pulling away a tablecloth.

“Slink, there are better ways to wake me up in the morning. Tomorrow I’d prefer a ‘good morning’ if it’s all the same to you.” Eve winked at me before going over to her bag and fishing out some breakfast.

“But he- you were-” Vix stammered still obviously trying to comprehend what she had seen.

“Vix, I need your help over here,” I blurted trying to stop her from talking.

“But-” she said.

“Now,” I commanded, and for some reason today she obeyed.

I took her to the opposite side of the bubble and then when we were out of earshot I tried to explain. “Yes we shared a tent last night but nothing happened. I must have rolled over in the night, and I woke up like that. Eve has no idea and we are not telling her.”

“But you were snuggled up together,” Vix insisted, “I mean do you like her? Do you love her?” Her voice was somewhere between a child’s curiosity, and a teenage romantic. What was she hoping my answer would be?

“Look, I don’t know right now. I’m going to need some time to think about it. Which is why we are not telling her!”

“Okay, okay,” Vix replied petulantly, sounding like her normal self, “but if you do decide that you like or love her, please tell her.”

Vix had no idea that I was only going to be a part of this team until I found the Dreamstone. She couldn’t know that I was going to leave at some point, and therefore I couldn’t tell Eve. Instead I said, “Sure Vix, if that happens, I will.”

“So how does this work?” Eve asked pacing back in fourth at the edge of the bubble. “Does it collapse at a certain time or…?”

“Once my badge crosses the line it will collapse, and everything in here will vanish.” I looked around. “Make sure you have everything before we leave.”

Once we were packed, I had Eve and Vix cross out of the dome and leave me inside. I carefully did a final once-over before I slowly backed out of the dome. As soon as I left, the dome that had been almost invisible all night flared bright blue and then collapsed inward and vanished with a slight pop.

“Okay, let’s go!” Vix shouted excitedly turning to survey the Dungeon. She promptly collapsed.

“Vix,” Eve cried.

“I’m fine,” Vix said standing shakily, “I just… it was disorienting. A lot of information all at once.”

“Oh, sorry Vix,” I said, “the Dungeon shifted last night. Trying to read all of those changes must have been a lot to handle.”

“You’re telling me,” Vix grumbled. “I’m fine let’s go.”

The floor we were on took a bit longer than anticipated to navigate. It took Vix a few minutes to get oriented so we took a few wrong turns.

“When I went into the bubble I had the old Dungeon map in my head. When I woke up I still had the old Dungeon, and then when I left the bubble I was hit by the new map and they overlapped with each other and I couldn’t think for a minute.”

“Hmm, I hadn’t thought of that,” I said thinking, “The part of the world under the bubble must have still been a part of yesterday’s Dungeon.”

“No dip, Detective Pikachu,” Vix said rolling her eyes.

I was a bit confused. I thought that we had bonded over our secret from Eve. I thought she had gotten over my “betrayal”. Ugg. Females were weird.

From there it was rather smooth sailing, as soon as we made it to the next floor we breezed through the Dungeon.

On the thirteenth floor we had to weave around the floor for nearly an hour as we were being chased by a flock of disgruntled wild Pidgey, and on the fifteenth and final floor we had to go the long way around the floor as Eve refused to go by the Sviper’s nest that was next to the path.

We escaped the Dungeon about noon that day, and from there it was only a few hours from our destination. Surprisingly Eve called a break as soon as we were free of the Dungeon.

I flopped down by a fallen log near the path and pulled my canteen from my bag. It was nearly empty but I managed to scrounge up two large swallows of water. Eve sat down next to me.

“I thought you and Vix were getting better.” She said quietly.

“What?” I asked genuinely confused.

“You and Vix seemed to be really friendly this morning. I thought you had made up.”

“So had I,” I mumbled.

We started moving again, and about three hours and two breaks later we finally caught sight of the town nestled at the base of the mountains.

It was really just a small village as evidenced by the cozy cottages that lined the main street. There were a few restaurants, a hotel, a general store, all the essentials, but it didn’t have the lively feeling of Festive Town or the city I grew up in.

“Let’s get a hotel room for the night,” Eve said, “and then we can go get dinner. We will go do the job tomorrow.”

The room was a bit expensive, but it was rather large with two double beds and a small loveseat/sofa. Eve left her bag on one of the beds, and Vix would probably claim the other so I put my bag down on the sofa. Eve grabbed 100P from her bag, then we left for dinner.

We ended up at a small pizza place called Jack of Diamonds. The pizza was rather good; super thin crust with pepperoni is never bad. Of course this was the first time Vix tried pizza, and by the end she treated it like it was the second coming of Mew.

We walked up and down the Main Street, exploring for a while before we decided to head back to the hotel and call it a night.

Eve automatically climbed onto the bed that she had claimed earlier, and Vix did a flying leap into the other, almost instantly curling up. It was only as I settled on the couch that Eve seemed to realize that I didn’t have a bed.

“Slink, that’s where you’re sleeping?” Eve asked.

“Yeah,” I said. Honestly I had no problems with the arrangements.

“But-” Eve stopped for a moment like she was bracing herself to say something. “Look, it’s not fair that you have to sleep on the couch. I’ll sleep there-”

“Eve, really it’s fine.”

“No it’s not! If you won’t switch with me then we can share. It worked last night!”

Vix who had just been lying back enjoying our argument suddenly perked her head up. Her ears twitched with anticipation.

“Eve really, don’t be guilty. It really is fine. If it makes you feel better you can sleep on the couch in the next hotel.”

Eve huffed, annoyed, but she let it go. “I guess if you’re fine. Goodnight Slink.”

“Goodnight.”

I couldn’t sleep. My thoughts were swirling through my head impossibly fast. How did I feel about Eve? What did her insistence on fairness mean? Did she know about last night? Vix had tossed and turned for a while, but from her steady breathing I knew that she was now asleep. Eve on the other had was curled up with her face to me. Her eyes were closed, and her normally bright gem had only a slight glow to it. She was out too.

I couldn’t take it anymore. Slowly and quietly I got to my feet and leapt down with a soft thump. I froze for a moment and glanced at Vix and Eve. Neither moved. Neither made a sound. Perhaps I would pull out the Expedition Gadget and play with it for a while, but then I caught sight of Eve’s sleeping face in the moonlight.

Slowly I padded over to her and just watched her sleep for a moment. She took deep breaths in through her nose, and then slowly let it out through her mouth. Her eyelids and legs twitched occasionally and every once in awhile her gem would flare with light for a moment or two before fading.

What if I did love her? There was no way I could tell her. I was leaving as soon as I found the Dreamstone. Even if that took several years, I would still have to go, and it would kill me to have to break her heart.

That’s when I realized it. I was in love with Eve. That’s when I realized that she could never know. I had to tell her though. I had promised Vix. “I love you,” I whispered as loudly as I dared.

I heard a slight sound. The sharp intake of breath. I flinched and jerked my gaze up to where Vix was sitting up in bed staring at us. She had an impish grin on her face.

“Go to sleep,” I hissed at her. She shrugged and lay her head down, but her eyes were still open, watching me. “And not one word tomorrow, understand!”

---

The next morning, Eve got us up way earlier than we had expected. “Eve,” I protested as she turned on the lights, “the job will still be there later. Give us a break!”

Vix seemed to go feral for a moment as she just spat and hissed at the sudden light.

“Knock it off Vix, and no it might not be,” she chided. “I know I told you that this job is open to anyone, I didn’t book it! Besides we have to go through a Dungeon today and that could take a long time. Please let’s go!”

“Sure,” I relented rolling to my feet and grabbing my bag. Then I realized something. “One second.” I took off my badge and examined it for a second. “Just in case,” I mumbled as I pressed it and held it down. There was a small pulse of blue light, and the disc I had slotted in two days ago slid right out into my palm.

“What is that?” Eve asked glancing at the disc. I wanted to make a sarcastic comment, but I could understand where she was coming from.

Instead of the perfectly uniform disc that had gone into my badge, this one was marred by thick grey lines that almost looked like scorch marks. They split the face of the disc into thirds. The top left third had a large circular hole punched into it that went clear through the disc.

“You can use a disc more than once,” I explained. “It really depends on what kind. This one works three times, but I’ve seen some that can be used six times, and my dad had one that you could use unlimited times. The marks show how many times you’ve used it, and they also show buyers that it has been used. Pretty clever ay?”

Eve nodded, but her legs were bouncing and she kept shuffling her feet impatiently. Honestly it looked like she had to pee. “Okay, come on let’s go!”

“What do you see in her?” Vix whispered to me as we left the room.

“So what’s the job,” I called to Eve as she lead us up the Main Street.

“It should be rather simple. Apparently it has been raining here a lot, and that caused a mudslide that crashed into this guy’s home. This also brought a ley line close enough to the surface to create a Mystery Dungeon that basically swallowed his house. He said he’ll pay us 800P if we go in and find some of his important belongings.”

“Sounds good,” I said as we passed the last house and traveled up into the Scale mountains. “How far is it?”

“Not much farther,” Eve said, and sure enough just a few moments later we passed thick iron gate with lightning motifs with a grand road running through it. Secured to the side of the gate was a crude cardboard sign upon which someone had scrawled a rough drawing of what appeared to be the Expedition Society logo. The gates hung open revealing a path that lead into the dense woods.

“This is it,” Eve mentioned quite unnecessarily. Together we passed nervously through the gate.

At the edge of the tree line, two small tents were set up, not unlike the ones that were in our disc camp. As we approached, the larger of the two tents seemed to shiver before a great black mess of hair began to emerge. He moved slowly, but as a star tipped tail momentarily swung into view it became clear that it was a Luxray. Finally the Pokémon managed to escape the tent.

“Sorry about that. They don’t really make tents for Pokémon my size. He lifted his head to grin at us, and my heart nearly stopped. His huge, shaggy, black mane had been hiding his features earlier so I hadn’t noticed that instead of the normal blue fur of any other Luxray, his was bright yellow. This Luxray, whoever he was, was shiny!

“Run Vix,” I shouted jumping in front of the little fox, “go back to HQ and find Kegan! We will hold him off!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” the Luxray protested backing up a step, “calm down little guy. Trust me I’m not a part of the Hatred. I promise.”

“And why should I believe you?!” Vix hadn’t moved, and that annoyed me a little bit, and Eve had frozen with shock. Despite this I was ready to fight.

The second tent shook, and a small blue-and-black head emerged from it. “Papa? What’s going on?”

The big Luxray looked directly at me with a desperate, pleading look on his face. “Because if I was a part of the Hatred, I wouldn’t have a son.”

Honestly it was hard to argue with that logic. It was even Harder when Vix spat a small ember into my tail. It couldn’t damage me, but it definitely hurt.

“Get off of me weirdo!” Vix said.

“Er, Buzz,” the big Luxray said to his son, “why don’t you and, um…”

“Vix,” Eve prompted quietly.

“-yes, er, Vix go and play for a while while we, uh, talk business.”

Vix huffed, annoyed, but with one quick glare from Eve she complied.

“Come on kid,” Vix said, “let’s go, that is if you can keep up with me.”

“Hey,” the little guy said, “don’t call me that!”

“What?” Vix taunted her tails starting to wag.

“How old are you?” Buzz challenged.

“I’m nine,” Vix nearly shouted.

“Oh yeah, well I’m twelve, and that means that you can’t call me kid!”

“I’ll make you eat those words,” Vix yelled charging at him.

While they played, I moved over to talk to Eve.

“So what do you make of him?” I whispered glancing meaningfully at our employer.

“What do you mean?” Eve asked.

“You and I both know that you took a quick Psychic reading of him. I felt it. I’m a Psychic Type too ya know.” Eve blushed. I was right. “So. Is he a part of the Hatred?”

Eve hesitated. “No.”

“No?”

Eve bit her lip, “I found a slight connection to the Hatred, but I couldn’t see what it was.”

“Was he a member? Is he still a member?”

“I don’t know,” Eve snapped, “I told you I have no idea. I did find that Buzz is his son, and the mother wasn’t shiny.”

A sudden thought struck me. “Did the Hatred kill his mate? That would explain the Hatred connection.”

Eve hesitated. “I don’t think so.”

“So what do we do?” I whispered. “Should we take this job?”

“We can ask him,” Eve muttered, “as Expedition Society members we are entitled to ask any question about any job we take.”

“Will he answer honestly?” I challenged.

“If he doesn’t, we just don’t take the job.”

“Okay,” I said feeling just a bit better.

“Hey, you guys.” The Luxray was now talking directly to us. “Whenever you are ready, you can ask me about my connection to Team Hatred.”

He surprised me. Not because he knew that we knew (we were two Psychic types it was really inevitable), but because he was nonchalant about it all, like he expected it. “I’m sorry,” I said, and I meant it, “it’s just that who we are and what we have done… if the Hatred were to find out about us-”

“Yeah I understand. From the moment I saw that ring of fur on that young lady’s tail I understood. Team Hatred must be itching to get their paws on her.”

My stomach dropped out. I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. “Please. Don’t tell.” My voice was a thin rasp. It was all I could manage. “What even is your connection to the Hatred?!”

The Luxray shook his head. “Nothing, not anymore. Not for a while.”

Eve stepped forward trying to be diplomatic. “I think we got off on the wrong foot here. Can we at least get your name sir.”

The Luxray laughed a warm, jovial laugh. “It seems we did. I am Leopold, Leo. And you are.”

“Eve, the paranoid one over there is Slink (“hey!”), and she,” she pointed out to where Vix was pelting Buzz with embers as she chased him around, “is Vix.”

“I’m not paranoid, I’m cautious,” I protested. Neither Eve nor Leo seemed convinced. “So what’s your story Leo?”

“There isn’t much to tell really,” he said laying down so he was closer to eye-level, “I joined up when I was a Luxio, I was maybe fourteen. That was really the only choice for a shiny Pokémon back in those days. I was only ever a low level operative because I never really believed in their mission. It was just my job.

“I only ever had one solo mission, ten years in, and that was a simple reconnaissance mission to this town. Here I met my mate. She wasn’t shiny, so I couldn’t bring her back to Hatred HQ, so I stuck around, telling my superiors that I was on the trail of a huge secret until I was able to convince her to run away with me.

“Funnily enough we found what the Hatred was after just outside of town, so we moved back to town and built a house thinking that if the Hatred came looking we could just pay them off. Of course they never did.”

“And your mate?” Eve asked gently.

“I honestly don’t know.” Leo admitted. “She got sick shortly before we had Buzz. She laid the egg and then…” He trailed off, and finally I felt bad for him. “Anywho. Are you guys taking the job?”

“Of course we will,” I said, “so what is the job?”

Leo smiled. “It really is simple, but I was injured a few years ago when I went through a Dungeon and I can’t do it anymore. As I posted, our house was recently swallowed into a Mystery Dungeon. I need someone to go in and retrieve some important things for me. It really is a simple list. There really is only one potential problem. Buzz wants to go too.”

“What?” I asked not exactly sure what he had said.

“Buzz wants to go in as well and grab some of his things. I didn’t want to send him in alone. I figured I would have to convince whatever team came, but since you have someone as young as Vix…”

I bit my lip and looked at Eve. For the record she looked apprehensive as well. Adventuring with Vix, who we had legal custody of was one thing, but taking another child along… And that wasn’t considering Vix’s secret. Leo already knew, but he would be discreet. Buzz may not have been shiny, but who knew if he was going to encounter the Hatred in the future. If the Hatred was tracking us even now and ended up finding Leo and Buzz, Leo alone might be able to deny seeing us, but Buzz would more than likely give us away.

“You know that Mystery Dungeons are dangerous and unpredictable,” Eve began hesitantly, “even with Vix’s help we really don’t know what might happen. If something happens to one of us, well that’s our job. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to Buzz…”

“I completely understand,” Leo nodded, “but I have accepted the risks and explained them to Buzz, and he still insists on going. I also will not hold you or the Expedition Society liable for anything that happens.”

Uh-oh, my turn. I decided to go with honesty. “Leo, we just aren’t sure… when Vix reveals her powers in the Dungeon… can Buzz keep a secret?”

Leo looked confused. Then a realization dawned on his face. “Wait, Vix uses her navigational powers. Do you know how much danger that puts her in?”

“Tell me about it,” I grumbled.

“What Slink means is that she isn’t afraid of Team Hatred. Her powers are a source of pride for her. I doubt she’d quit out of fear. I’m honestly not sure that she has any fear.”

“That is a bit scary,” Leo said a bit perturbed, “anyways I will keep him discreet.”

Eve looked at me with a shrug that said, “your call.”

I sighed, hoping that I wasn’t about to regret this. “We’ll take Buzz.”

“Thank you,” Leo said. “BUZZ!” He called.

The Shinx looked over at us… at exactly the wrong time. Vix plowed him over with an honestly beautiful tackle. “Sorry,” I heard her say, but it didn’t feel like she was being honest.

“Coming dad,” Buzz called running over. Vix followed behind calmly. She seemed to be trying to act more mature than Buzz. She stuck close to Eve.

While Leo explained the situation to Buzz, I turned to face Eve and Vix. “Okay so here’s the plan. Vix you have be discreet with your powers. You can still use them, but just don’t tell us you are. Just tell us about the dungeon, okay?”

“Fine,” Vix grumbled.

“So I think, depending on how many floors this dungeon has, that we should find out the floor plan of the house and then split up and search. We should be fine.” Eve looked back and forth between Vix and me. I nodded. Seemed like a good plan.

“Okay,” Leo said, “whenever you are ready…” he gestured toward the forest and the mansion peeking up over the top.

“Buzz, you ready?” I asked.

He nodded excitedly. “Let’s go.”

We bid farewell to Leo, and we headed into the forest. A few minutes later we passed through into the Dungeon. “So, I wonder how many floors this Dungeon has?” I asked looking pointedly at Vix.

She huffed and rolled her eyes. “I’d guess that there are, oh about five floors here. But I also don’t think that this floor would have anything to do with the actual house. This floor is only the estate around this mansion.”

“Okay, so where are we going?” Buzz asked. “I think that we have to go this way,” he said turning towards the house.

“Actually,” Vix said with an air of superiority, “I think we have to go this way.” She turned left and began walking down a path surrounded with hedges.

“Oh, yeah,” Buzz retorted, “whose house is this? Who probably knows it better? Wait, where are you going wait up!” We had started down the other path following Vix, and he was forced to run and catch up.

We wandered through the honestly beautiful gardens for about ten minutes, passing weak, feral bug types as well as some grass types but none of them bothered us. Sure enough about fifteen minutes after we entered the Dungeon, Vix had lead us right to the front door of the house which incidentally was also the stone platform.

“What’s with that stone platform?” Buzz asked.

“It’s are the portal to the next floor,” I tried to explain. “We need to move to the next floor.” Buzz just shrugged. “Good job Vix,” I said, “at this rate we will be in and out of here in no time.”

“Thanks, Slink,” she replied scathingly, “you know how much I value your opinion!”

She pushed past me, stepped onto the stone platform and vanished. “Oh, cool!” Buzz shouted. He leapt onto the platform and disappeared too.

I sighed unhappily, but before I could move onto the next floor, Eve stopped me.

“I honestly thought that she would be over it by now.” She shook her head.

“Yeah, I did too,” I snapped angrily.

“Look, you two need to talk. Otherwise nothing is going to get any better. Please talk to her.”

“Eve, I’m not even sure I can, she doesn’t listen and she acts like I don’t exist whenever she doesn’t want to talk. I don’t know what to do!”

“When we search the next floor, I’ll take Buzz and you can talk to Vix alone. We won’t move on until you two talk.”

“Sure,” I said gritting my teeth.

“And hey, don’t yell at her. Or at least not enough to make things worse.”

We crossed onto the next floor and found Buzz and Vix waiting for us. “Took long enough you two-”

She was interrupted by a sudden loud tune. Somewhere a short tune was playing. “Eve, I think it’s coming from your bag.” I said.

She looked confused for a minute as she put her bag on the ground and began rooting through it. “Oh, I think its coming from the Expedition Gadget.” The music suddenly cut off as she pulled it out and read something off of the screen. “Slink come here, look at this.”

There was an envelope icon in the top crystal sphere, and the screen was full of text. It read:

To: All Expedition Society Members

  From: Kegan, Fire Continent HQ

  Attention all society members. There has been a severe accident within Society HQ. Nobody was hurt, but it did major damage to our Warp Landing room. Because of this, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT attempt to warp back to HQ, even if you are in mortal peril. If this requires that you delay your current contracts or missions the Society will reimburse you for any losses. We will do everything in our power to get the Warp system up and running again, but we predict at best we can have repairs done tomorrow.

T hank you,

Kegan

“Okay”, I said with a shrug, “so we walk home? Big deal.”

Eve nodded. “I was just making sure. So, Vix what is the floor plan here.”

Vix closed her eyes. “Umm, looks like there are really only four main rooms, and there are five small rooms.”

“That’s a lot, and we have to look through each one?” Buzz said.

“We should split up,” I suggested innocently, “that way we can cover more ground. Eve, you take Buzz and check out the larger rooms, Vix and I can cover the smaller rooms. Whoever finds the portal can signal the other where it is.”

Eve nodded. “ That’ll work. Just let us know when you are done.” With that she started off down the hall with Buzz in tow.

“Okay,” Vix said starting off in the opposite direction, “we have more rooms to check so let’s get going.”

“Alright,” I said bracing myself, “but first we have to talk.”

Vix froze for a moment as my words washed over her. She recovered quickly and just kept walking. “Sure, we can talk while we look,” she insisted nervously.

“No, Vix, we need to talk now. Face to face.”

“Come on,” Vix insisted sounding a bit more scared, “we have to look. We can talk later!”

I could feel my anger rising, but I pushed it down. “No, you aren’t going to avoid this. Stop and come talk to me!”

“I don’t want to talk,” Vix snapped. She was losing her patience faster than I was. She started walking faster.

“Vix,” I barked. She ignored me. She didn’t even look back. “Vix,” I said raising my voice a little. She continued to ignore me. “VIX, stop!” Nothing.

My anger finally boiled over. “VIX STOP WALKING!” I reached out with my Psychic and grabbed her, stopping her in her tracks.

“Hey,” she shouted wriggling and kicking to get free. I clamped down with my power, completely immobilizing her. I turned her around and pulled her so our faces were inches apart.

“We are going to have a conversation. Understand?” I growled through gritted teeth. “We need figure this out. I know I messed up, I understand that. I apologized, I did everything that I could to fix things. What do you want me to do?” I glared into Vix’s frozen face. I saw her usual cocky defiance, but in her eyes I noticed a gleam of fear and vulnerability.

I felt a tingle of guilt in my gut. I released her and she immediately flopped to the ground. She slowly worked her way back to sitting position, panting. “Vix, I’m sorry I overreacted, but my question still stands. What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing.” She snapped. “You said we were a family, and then you tried to give me away!”

“I was trying to keep you safe!” I protested, but at this point I didn’t even believe me.

“No,” Vix snapped, “you were just doing exactly what she did!”

“She?” I shot back, “Who is ‘she’?”

“It’s not important,” Vix said backpedaling rapidly, back on the defensive, “that isn’t the point.”

“Vix,” I shouted, “who is ‘she’?”

The little fox in front of me shook. In fear, in anger? I had no idea. Suddenly she exploded.

“MY MOTHER!” She screeched with everything she had. This beautiful girl that I had always seen as strong and fearless finally broke down and cried.

“Vix?” I said, genuinely concerned. She didn’t respond. I sat down in front of her and pulled her close. She buried her face in my chest and started to sob. I just held her as she cried.

“That – night – I,” she gasped as she spoke. Each word punctuated by a sob. For the first time in awhile I had to remind myself that she was a child. “I – mom – she told me – to stay there – they were after me -.” She hiccuped a few times before continuing. “She said she was – keeping – me – safe. I went after her – and – she – and they – the Hatred – they – to her.”

She fell silent for a moment, but I remembered. I felt even worse now for invading her mind to see that memory. They had killed her mother, right in front of her. The Ninetales hadn’t stood a chance. “Vix, I know, I understand.”

“No – they – no – she. She told me to stay there. I could have helped her. I could have saved her.”

“No, Vix, no. Vix you couldn’t have done anything.” But I knew the little fox wouldn’t believe me. I knew what I had to do.

“Vix, did I tell you how my parents died?”

She shook her head, keeping her face buried in my chest fur.

“I don’t know why they were there. But that night, Team Hatred had the house surrounded. They were trying to break in. My dad woke me up. He told me to hide, he pushed me into the hiding place. I was afraid, but I trusted my dad. I thought he would get us through it. So I stayed put. Then the Hatred entered, and they – did it. I was frozen by shock. They killed my sister too. I could have saved her. But I didn’t. But I also realize now that I couldn’t.”

Vix lifted her head to look at me. “What do you mean?”

“I have no idea why, but the Hatred is after me, just like they are after you. My family was protecting me, they made that decision. They could have saved themselves better than I could have. They died to protect me, just like how your mother died to protect you.”

“But-” Vix tried to protest, but I cut her off.

“Vix I was just trying to protect you. But now I truly realize how wrong I was. They say that the best way to show how much you love someone is to be willing to give up your life for theirs. Vix, I would die to save you, and that is how I’m going to keep you safe.”

Vix didn’t know what to say, so she put her face back into my chest. We sat like that for awhile in complete silence except for the slight sounds of Buzz and Eve exploring. It was a while, but eventually VIx spoke up.

“Slink? What happens after you find the Dreamstone?”

My blood ran cold, but thankfully I was saved from answering as Eve and Buzz came back.

I see you two had a nice conversation, Eve said into my head as she approached. Aloud she said,  “We found a few of the items, and we searched all of the rooms. Should we be on our way?”

“Good idea,” I said, “Vix? Where to next?”

She gave me a suspicious look, and I knew she wouldn’t forget how I dodged the question. “It should be just down that hallway. Let’s go.”

“Wait,” Buzz protested, “how does she know where to go? You two haven’t moved since we split up and my dad told me that nobody can predict the map of a Dungeon. She even knew how many rooms there were?!”

We all were silent for a moment before Vix looked at me. “I blame you.” Thankfully she was back to her sarcastic form of mean rather than the recent hateful variety.

“Buzz, Vix lived inside of a Mystery Dungeon up until about three days ago. She has an instinct you could say for predicting the patterns of Dungeons.” I stopped and took a breath. Honestly that was the smoothest lie I had ever told. Good job me.

“Okay,” Buzz said, “that makes sense. So on to the next floor then?”

From there thankfully there wasn’t much excitement. We passed through the third floor easily and we managed to find most of the items we were searching for. On the fourth floor we really didn’t find anything that we were particularly looking for. That is until we were almost to the exit.

In the second to last room I found myself drawn to a display case in the back corner. “Hey Buzz, what is this?” Inside on a small pedestal was what looked like a shard of a glass statue. I was fairly certain that it wasn’t glass, in fact it looked like some sort of crystal. It was a curved cylinder that had jagged protrusions all over it leading to a sharp point.

“I honestly have no idea,” Buzz said when I got his attention. “Dad always called it his ‘insurance policy’ whatever that means.”

I remembered what Leo had told me, about the special artifact that Team Hatred was after. Why? Was this it? That image from my dream flashed before my eyes. That drippy Umbreon setting out those four objects to… I don’t know.

“Hey can I take this?” I asked Buzz.

“I think so. It will just stay in the Dungeon otherwise. If my dad wanted it he would have put it on the list.” He finished looking around the room. “Hey guys I don’t think there is anything left here. The rest of the stuff on this list should be in the vault that we keep in the attic. We should move on.”

I nodded as I tried to pry the cabinet open, but it wouldn’t budge. I was a bit frustrated until I realized that I was standing inside of a Mystery Dungeon. Neither Leo or Buzz would ever see it again. I found what looked like a paperweight and hurled it at the glass with my power. I tried to lift the crystal out through the now broken glass, but it wouldn’t budge. I tried again, focusing all of my power on the crystal, but it still didn’t move.

“Hey, Eve,” I called. She wanered over avoidig the broken glass that was now strewn across the floor. “Can you lift that crystal?”

“Why?” Eve asked curiously. “Can’t you do it?”

“Actually no,” I replied, “but I wonder if you can do it.”

Eve closed her eyes, and the gem in her forehead started glowing with a bright purple light. A similar light gathered around the crystal, but before it could start working on the jewel the crystal seemed to suck up the light turning it briefly purple. The color faded almost instantly and that was it. Eve looked confused. “Well that is odd,” we said nearly at the same time.

Carefully I leapt up, using my Fire to melt any shards of glass in my way. My paw connected with the crystal and a jolt of energy went up my foreleg knocking me back. “Slink, are you okay?” Eve cried.

“I’m good.” I gasped. Strangely now that it was in my hand the crystal seemed like a normal object again. I slipped it into my bag as I caught my breath. “I’m fine, should we get going?”

Oddly enough, the stone platform was simply in the next room. When we landed on the next floor we found ourselves in a barren, wooden room that was roughly square-shaped with exits on either end.

“Okay,” Vix said. She concentrated for a moment. “There seems to mostly be hallways up here. There is one big room in the middle, and there are four places to exit.”

“Ooh,” Buzz said excitedly, “I bet that the vault is in the center huh?”

“I agree,” Eve said, but something seemed to be bothering her. “Slink can you feel that? I don’t think that we are alone up here.”

I closed my eyes and sent out a pulse of my power. I could feel Eve’s mind, Vix’s mind, and Buzz’s minds right next to me, but somewhere I felt another, less complex mind. “Eve is right.”

“The Hatred?” Vix asked. She sounded almost anxious. Not afraid, but also not uncaring.

“I don’t think so,” Eve said, “for starters there is only one. The only member of the Hatred who I know would come alone is Shane. And I would definitely know if it was him.”

“Probably just a feral who moved in,” I said calmly. “We will be fine.”

As we turned to go however I caught Eve’s eye. She let the kids get a good distance away before speaking. “What?”

“Were you serious that it wasn’t Shane, or were you just telling them that?”

“Slink, it isn’t Shane. I wouldn’t keep this a secret, especially since we can’t warp out. Trust me.”

Don’t tell her I said this, but there was honestly no one I trusted more.

Vix carefully lead us out of the room and into the hallway. No offense to Buzz or Leo, but their attic looked like the set of a horror movie. Despite the fact that it was day, the hallways in the attic were extremely dim and dusty. The wood paneling on the floor and walls was breaking down, so there were gaps everywhere. Feral Ratata scurried under the floorboards, and occasionally over them causing Eve or sometimes Buzz to let out a squeak. Any windows we passed were smeared with grime and dust, letting in only small patches of light.

“This should be it,” Vix said, “the vault should be in this room.”

I felt a tingle in the back of my head as we crossed over into the room. I closed my eyes and sent out a pulse of psychic power. I immediately felt Vix, Eve, and Buzz, but then there was a flash of light as the other mind appeared. Protect. Protect. Attack. The new mind shouted. I felt a pulse of electrical energy from the center of the room. Vix was still leading us deeper into the room, and she didn’t notice.

“Vix look out!” I dove forward and tackled Vix. I rolled us behind a weird wardrobe that was sitting in the corner. “Everyone, get down!”

There was a bright yellow flash of light and suddenly a burst of electricity blasted the floor right where we were standing, badly scorching it. Vix and I scrambled to our feet, both of us peering out from behind the wardrobe. Who was attacking us?

I saw a flash of red and white before another burst of yellow. “Move,” I shouted pushing Vix out of the way. Not a moment too soon, as the wardrobe exploded amid a burst of yellow, spitting sparks.

“Hey, over here,” I heard from the far side of the room. Eve was standing out in the open waving her tails in the air. I heard a growl that sounded like an Electric buzz. I broke cover for a moment to investigate. An Electrode rolled around the middle of the room in a fury. He was facing the still taunting Eve and was preparing another attack.

“No, over here,” I shouted. I took a deep breath, called up my rage, and let a Flamethrower attack pour from my mouth. Over the roar of flames I could barely detect the growl of pain from the feral Pokémon. Of course I didn’t want to kill him so I stopped my stream of Fire to check if he was unconscious.

He wasn’t.

He turned on me faster than I expected and before I could react he blasted me with Electricity. I was flung backwards and slammed into a wall. As the Electricity worked through my body I felt my muscles freeze. Paralysis. I was in trouble.

Obviously I was paralyzed for most of this, so bear with me. Vix and Eve filled me in with everything I missed. I put that together as best I could, so just go along with it.

“Slink,” I heard Eve cry, “Vix get Slink. Help him.”

Behind me, Vix leapt over the couch we had been using for cover and grabbed the nape of my neck with her sharp little teeth.

“Hey, careful” I protested through numb lips.

“Fine, I’ll leave you out here!” Vix’s muffled voice responded with absolutely no sympathy. Nonetheless she didn’t let go.

In the meantime Eve leapt up on the box she had been hiding behind. “Hey, bolt-brain, over here!” She charged up a Psy-shock attack. Splinters and larger shards of wood levitated off the ground, each bit of shrapnel encased in Psychic energy. Eve yelled as she thrust her forked tail toward the Electrode. The shards shot into the Electrode, each with the speed of a bullet. None of them penetrated his steel skin, but they left several nasty dents, and more importantly caught his attention.

“Vix,” I was forced to mumble, “I should have a Cherri berry somewhere in my bag.” She dragged me back behind a crate in the attic and somehow managed to pull my bag out from under me.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said nosing into it. “‘Would die for me’ my fourth tail.” She muttered as she dug around inside.

As the Electrode turned around he fired, a bolt of Electricity burning the wall. Just in time, Eve ducked into cover. “Buzz,” she hissed, “any ideas? My Psychic isn’t working, and Vix and Slink are a bit preoccupied.” Buzz looked terrified. He wasn’t going to be much help.

“Buzz, how vulnerable are Electric Types to Electricity?” Eve was grasping for an idea.

“Umm, not too bad. It will hurt us, but not that much. What are you thinking?”

“Something probably very stupid. Zap him if you need to, but watch my back.” Eve leapt back up on the box and closed her eyes. Her gem flared to life, glowing bright pink, but nothing appeared.

“Eve, what are you doing?!” Vix screamed. Unfortunately I couldn’t turn my head to look.

The Electrode turned to face her and grinned. It charged a lightning ball holding onto it as long as it could, sparks shooting off in every direction. He let go and it sped at Eve. But before it struck her there was a flash of pink light, and the ball of lightning rebounded, exploding against the Electrode. He rolled backwards from the force, and he looked a bit dazed.

The feral Pokémon growled, charging a Thunderbolt. As he released it through another flash of pink light bounced the  bolt back. This revealed a bright dome surrounding the Pokémon.

This really made him angry as he readied himself to unleash a devastating discharge attack. Before he could though, Eve clamped down on him with her power and lifted the ball off of the ground. He was losing it. His body was entirely flashing yellow. He discharged, but all of  it was contained. Unfortunately was the last straw for Eve. Her strength finally gave out.

The Electrode fell back to the ground, nearly drained, but he was still going. He charged his power, and Eve was far too exhausted to move.

“Vix,” I mumbled, “go help Eve! I’ll be fine!”

Vix nodded and leapt over the crate we were sheltered behind. She charged up for a moment before a thick stream of Fire exploded from her maw. With the last dregs of his strength the Electrode rolled to the side out of the Flames. He shot a thunderbolt at Vix before she could recover from her attack. She closed her eyes.

The thunderbolt shot closer before it struck…Buzz. He had thrown himself in front of Vix, absorbing the Electricity. His eyes flashed with lightning as he shot another thunderbolt at the Electrode, finally…finally knocking him out.

“Yeah,” Buzz called triumphantly before he collapsed.

“Buzz,” Eve cried, “Vix, I got him. How is Slink?”

“I’m fine,” I called out as I tried to levitate the Cherri berry to my mouth with Psychic. When Eve called out to me I turned my head to face her. I smiled as best I could with my numb frozen lips. As I looked though I noticed movement behind her. My concentration lapsed momentarily and I dropped the Cherri berry that rolled into the gap between the floorboards and was lost. But I was beyond caring at that moment because of what I could see behind my team. A light. A flash of light, coming from the Electrode.

Self destruct!

I couldn’t move, and I didn’t have time to call out to them. My blood felt cold  from the level of Psychic power flowing throughout my body, but the rush of adrenaline  I got along with my instinctual rush of heat from Fire began to warm me up. I struggled against the paralysis trying to get my muscles to work. Then just as the heat of Fire and the chill of Psychic evened out, something that would normally lead to them cancelling each other out, a warmth settled in my chest, slowly bleeding out into the rest of my body. In an instant my muscles unfroze. I dove forward as the Electrode began to flash faster and faster with a white light.

I felt the warmth leave me as I sprinted at my team. I felt the cold of Psychic wash over me as I saw the Electrode flare solid white for a instant. I threw up a Psychic shield around my team as I dove for them.

Whoom!

 I was blind. The whole world was white and my ears were ringing, drowning out any other sound. Yet despite the pain my body refused to stop. My brain refused to let me pass out. I felt something touch my shoulder, nudge it, push against it.

“S…k!” I could barely make it out. I blinked, but I couldn’t see a thing. I swung my head around toward the sound.

“Sl..k,” the garbled voice came again. My head was pounding. Dull shapes began appearing in my vision, but I was still mostly blind.

“Sli.k, plea..,” there was the voice again. There was the touch on my shoulder again, but instead of the pain I expected, a great numbing sensation oozed outward from the paw. Relief. I probably didn’t hear it all that well, but I know that I groaned out in ecstasy as the pain vanished.

As the wave of relief washed over my head, my vision and hearing snapped back into gear. Honestly I wished they hadn’t. The attic was in flames. Each wooden surface was engulfed in flame. The ceiling the walls and worst of all, the floor.

I shook my head and struggled to my feet. The soothing touch slipped from my shoulder, and I almost collapsed as the wave of pain washed over me. “Wuzzat?” I mumbled turning towards where that soothing touch had been and was met with a bright light. I leapt back in shock, thinking that it was a flame, but slowly the light faded away revealing Eve.

“Morning Sun,” she explained quickly, “you and Buzz were unconscious. Now we need to move!”

I shook my head trying to get my mind in gear. Vix came up to me and rubbed along my side trying to get me to move. “Eve, he still isn’t doing well. We need to stop and heal him. Or find him an Oran berry. Something!”
“Vix we don’t have time,” she shouted as she dodged a falling, flaming, plank of wood. “We need to get out of here now!”

Vix reached up to my chest, aiming for my badge. “Lets just send him back to HQ. We can warp back home after… Both Eve and I grabbed her paw and forced it away from my badge.

“No!” Eve said. “They are fixing the warp system. You press his badge and who knows where you will send him! Now hurry, get on his left, I will get on his right. Where is the nearest exit?”

Vix moved to my side and ran three of her tails across my belly and used them to lift me up slightly. It made it much easier to move. “Just down that hall.” Then she froze. Her tails dropped suddenly sending a new wave of pain through my body. “Wait one second! Where is Buzz?”

Eve froze, and I heard it. A thin, quiet rasp. “Help!”

In an instant my pain was forgotten. I had made a promise to Leo, and I was going to keep it! I used my Psychic to pick up some of my weight as I sprinted across the attic.  “Buzz,” I called, “Buzz!”

Then I spotted it, a blue paw sticking out from a pile of debris that had fallen from the ceiling. The flames were spreading closer. I concentrated and began prying the boards up one by one with my power.

“Slink, watch out!” Eve shouted. Huh? I looked up and saw one of the major beams holding up the roof directly overhead. It was also on Fire. It was also falling. Without a second thought I latched onto Buzz with my thoughts and rolled out of the way. No matter what, Buzz was coming with me.

Crash! The floor split as the timber crashed through it. Flames flared up, and the gap got bigger. I could easily jump across, but Buzz wasn’t looking so good. “My leg!” he cried clutching at his back left leg. I nearly lost consciousness once again at the sight of his leg. It definitely wasn’t supposed to bend that way. Especially as it was nearly bent back on itself.  I used my Psychic solely on him to levitate him onto my back. I dug through my bag as I hobbled for the door. I bit into the first berry I encountered. Thankfully it was an Oran berry, and I immediately felt much better.

“Slink… exit… left… right…” the roar of the flames drowned out Vix’s voice. I wasn’t worried about her anymore. Me on the other hand…

“Buzz, I promise I will get us out of here!” I said limping down the corridor. Damn, today was the day that the warp system needed to be repaired?

The roaring flames weren’t that much of an issue. They wouldn’t hurt me unless I went and stood within them for several minutes on end. Buzz on the other hand was definitely much more flammable. I needed an exit, and I needed it now.

I tried to follow what little of Vix’s instructions that I could. Left turn as soon as I could, right at the next intersection. But then I hit a dead end. I had no idea where I was going. I slowly eased Buzz to the floor and took a minute to breathe (which was getting harder. The flames couldn’t bother me but the smoke certainly did) before I reached inward and found the stem of my Psychic power. Then… what I did is hard to describe for anyone who isn’t a Psychic type. I reached backwards through my mind, following my Psychic power. From there I searched around until I felt something familiar.

Eve I shouted out as loud as I could through my mind.

Slink? Her voice was panicked and sad. Slink, say something!

Eve, talk to Vix. We are at a dead end. We need help. We need a way out!

Okay, okay, she responded, I will talk with Vix. She went silent for a long moment.

Slink? Her voice suddenly came again.

I’m here I shouted.

Vix can’t find you. The smoke and fire are throwing off her senses. Can you use a disk to hunker down for a few minutes?

No, I nearly screamed, those camps aren’t airtight. We may avoid the fire, but we will asphyxiate.

Okay, okay, Eve said, so you are in a dead end. Vix says go right.

I levitated Buzz back onto my back. He was completely out of it at this point, which was probably best. Right? Okay now what?

Go straight, and then take the third left. I charged ahead walking as quickly as I could, but before I made it to my next turn a thought struck me.

Wait, Vix can still sense the Dungeon. She is guiding me through? ARE YOU STILL IN THE DUNGEON!?

Eve sent me a reproachful expression through my head. Of course we are. We aren’t leaving you behind.

Get out! As I made the turn I was filled with panic. Get out! I will find my way out. You two need to go!

Next left. Eve paused. You nearly died twice today, just for us. We need to risk for you too.

I turned once more, but the fire was spreading faster and faster. Things were starting to get even warmer. Please promise me that when you are in danger, you will leave!

But- Eve tried to protest.

No, this isn’t negotiable. Get out when the time comes!

Fine, Eve grumbled, third left and then the next right. That should be it. All you have to do-

There was a moment of what I would call static in her head. One thing was communicated. Fear.

Eve, get out! Get Vix and get OUT! I broke the connection. I took a deep breath and then turned the corner. This hall was in flames, the air nearly opaque from smoke.

Buzz started thrashing and choking on my back. He was still only barely conscious, but that also means that he was taking normal breaths in this toxic environment. I took the right turn. There it was, a bright window at the end of the hall.

I braced myself, then I pushed. I ran full tilt as fast as I could. I felt muscles burn and tear. My vision narrowed to this one goal. The window. I think this is how feral Pokémon see the world. This fractured whole. This exhaustive pain.

Buzz went limp on my back. It was now or never! I leapt up at the window. I ducked my head. I felt the crash, and then my body gave out.

I only remember dull flashes from there on. “Slink! Buzz!” It was Eve I was certain of that. Then I heard a short gasp.

The next thing I remember she was cradling my head and seemingly screaming into the air. “We are back behind the house hurry up. Neither of them look good. I gave Buzz every berry I had, but he is still in bad condition.” She paused for a moment.

“No I can’t use Morning Sun. Not now!” As I spiraled back into darkness I realized that it must be night.

From there it was truly only fragmented moments. Leo was there delicately cradling Buzz. Vix was there, curled against my chest, crying.

I was spinning, I was moving. The world vanished in a flash of light. Kegan was there, but then he was gone.

When I came to for good I was in a soft bed in a stone room. There was a bank of windows across from me and dozens of other beds in the room. I lifted my head from the pillow and gasped. Not from pain, but because it no longer hurt to move.

“Slink?” I heard the voice, then running footsteps. A great weight landed on my stomach and a flurry of fur filled my vision.

“Vix?” I mumbled into her fur. The little fox was clutching me with a death grip, as though someone was going to take me away at any second. Instead of pushing her off, or trying to move to get some air, I wrapped my front legs around her and nuzzled into her.

“I’m so sorry Slink. I should have forgiven you the morning after. I would hate myself if you had died, and I hadn’t forgiven you. I do Slink. I do forgive you. And I don’t care what you do after you find the Dreamstone! We are family!” Eve came up the side of the bed as I clutched the nearly hysterical Vulpix.

I tried to smile at her, and she half smiled back. Her face was still tight with worry and anger. “I am so glad you’re safe.”

Vix had calmed down a bit, so she just laid on my chest. As soon as she was settled I asked the most important question on my mind. “Is Buzz okay?”

Eve grimaced for a moment before relaxing. “He’s fine. Or at least he will be. He sustained some burns, and his leg was nearly shattered beyond repair, but he will make a full recovery. He’s over there actually.”

I rolled over. Five beds down I was just able to make out a small, fuzzy, blue form in one of the beds. Leo was there too. He sat somberly at his son’s bedside. He glanced up at us and nodded. I wasn’t sure if it was simply acknowledgement or a basic sign of gratitude. I knew though that we were going to have a talk.

“Oh, thank Arceus! Now where are we?”

“Back at Society HQ,” Vix chirped happily.

“How?” I looked at Eve. “I thought the warp system was down.”

“It is, er was. I managed to get a call through to Kegan on the Expedition Gadget when I found you outside the house. I told him where we were. He zapped straight to us, took one look at the situation, and came back to get some help. When he came back, Leo and Vix had found us. They brought us all back and they have been spending Arceus knows how long trying to heal you.”

“How long was I out?”

Vix bit her lip. “About three days.”

I closed my eyes remembering how much I had hurt before in the attic. I had done that much damage to myself. How?

“He-hem.” It was a girly fake cough. We all jumped, turning to face the Blissey that was standing at the foot of my bed. “This patient needs rest,” she said sweetly, “visiting hours are over. It is time for you to leave.”

“But-” I protested but the Blissey just plowed on.

“I’m sorry but it is Hospital policy. You have to leave!”

“No.” I’m not sure who was more surprised. Me or Vix. Eve was staring down the nurse and holding her ground. “He just woke up and we are not leaving his side for anything. Understand?”

“Ma’am,” the Blissey said looking a bit less sure, “he will be perfectly safe overnight. I’m sure you and your friend would rather go home tonight as well.”

“Not really,” Vix replied. She hadn’t moved at all since laying down on top of me. “I’m pretty comfortable right here.”

“Besides,” Eve argued, “If we are here he will be that much safer.”

“The patient must be tired. He needs his rest!”

“I feel fine,” I protested, “and besides I want them here. Just let them stay.”

The Blissey was about to argue, but another familiar voice interrupted her. “Candice they have my permission to stay overnight. So does the Luxray over there. They all may come and go from here as they please.” Kegan to the rescue once again.

The Blissey, Candace apparently, stormed off in a huff. Kegan pulled up a chair and sat by my bed. He sat there casually, like it was perfectly normal for him to be there.

“So, hell of a day to break the teleportation system huh?” I was trying to break the ice. At least Kegan chuckled.

“Why did you even go in there?” He said still laughing. “Did you not get my message?”

“Uh, we were already in the Dungeon when you sent that message. And it wasn’t like we had planned on getting attacked by an Electrode.”

Kegan stopped laughing. “I guess so. Umm, young ladies, may I speak with Slink alone for a moment.”

Vix seemed like she wanted to argue, but Eve quickly escorted her away.

Kegan looked at me for a long moment before he closed his eyes and shook his head. “You are eighteen,” he said in disbelief. “Slink, you are eighteen years old, but you are so much braver than many of the adult members of the society. Your friends told me what happened. I am so impressed and proud of you.”

I was a bit taken aback at his words. They hadn’t been what I was expecting.

“I do believe though that this leads to another important topic. You told me… that morning that you wanted Eve to have custody of Vix, and she has told me that you both want joint custody. I am fine with this and I will fill out the paperwork for you, but before I turn it in… What is your plan for protecting Vix from the Hatred?”

Well this conversation had just taken a sharp left turn. “Ummm, why?”

Kegan pursed his lips as if he had just been force fed sour candy. “When I sent in a report detailing Vix’s position, and threats made against her to the leaders of the Society, well they didn’t take kindly to it. One of them, a really old Ampharos, said that he was once in the same situation as you are, but he ignored the danger and he lost one of the kids that he was supposed to look out for. He says that he would rather make Vix miserable, than have you or Eve make his mistake.”

There was a pregnant pause as I tried to process everything. “So what this means is…?”

Kegan sighed, “Ampharos added a clause to the Expedition Society charter. The Society now has the legal obligation to remove any child from someone’s custody when they can’t defend against a known, ongoing threat.” He looked directly into my eye. “This means that if you can prove that you can protect Vix, you can keep the custody.”

What? And he was just springing this on me now? I had no plan. Were we going to lose Vix?

I had no plan. I was powerless. It reminded me a lot of when I was lying paralyzed on the floor of the attic. But the more I thought of that, the more I thought about that Electrode. What had his plan been?

He was determined to defend his territory, but after he had been defeated, he did the one thing that would ensure that he defeated us. Self Destruct. A last ditch move for lost causes.

I had an idea. Quickly I explained the particulars to Kegan who signed off on it, giving his full approval. He also agreed to get me the supplies that I needed. He stopped to talk to Eve on the way out, but then he was gone.

That little talk and eureka moment had been oddly mentally taxing. “You know that nurse might be right. I think I’m gonna go to bed. Will you two please stay.”

“Of course Slink,” Eve said with a smile. “Sweet dreams.”

The next morning I have no idea what woke me. From how I felt, I knew that I should still be unconscious. I sat up and rubbed my eyes trying to wake up at least enough to understand why I was awake.

In the bed to my right, Eve and Vix had curled up together. Both were lying on their stomachs, using Vix’s tails as a blanket. Both of them were facing me, but they were both still asleep.

I turned left to see if Buzz and Leo were awake, only to find a mass of thick black fur. “Leo?” I whispered, trying to find the yellow face in the mass of fur.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” He turned and I finally saw his face. His expression was completely neutral so I couldn’t even guess what he was going to say next.

“Yes,” I admitted, “but it’s fine. Did you want something?”

“I do. We need to talk.” His voice was completely silent.

“What about?” I said nervously, just barely managing to keep my voice even.

“I need to thank you,” the big guy said. Honestly I wasn’t expecting that.

“For what?”

Leo looked at me, he really looked at me, as if he was searching for a weakness. “You saved Buzz. From what he and your friends have told me, you saved his life several times.”

I shrugged at his praise. “He saved Vix, Eve saved him a few times. That is just what you do in a Dungeon.”

The big guy shook his head. “No, I have seen Expedition Society teams abandon each other. The Hatred has a greater good ideal where any weakness is purged. I know that this isn’t just a common courtesy. Eve may have saved my son, and he may have saved Vix, but both times each party was in relatively little danger.

“Slink… do you know how close you came to dying? How hurt you were when you went to save my son? You had at least six broken ribs, a heavy concussion, and a huge amount of internal bleeding. If Eve hadn’t found you when she had, you wouldn’t still be here. You nearly died to save a near stranger, and I won’t forget that.”

“I was just doing what was right. What my father taught me to do.” I shook my head. “I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I hadn’t saved him.”

“That only makes me appreciate what you did more. Look, Eve told me a bit about your parents, at least enough to establish why you didn’t trust me at first. I don’t know why the Hatred attacked you, but I still have one or two friends that are still a part of the organization. I could do some digging. Seriously if you need anything at all just ask me. I will find out and tell you everything I can.”

I was stunned at his gratitude. I could only nod. He smiled at me before ruffling my hair with one of his huge paws. He turned and started walking back to Buzz’s bed.

“Wait,” I said probably a bit louder than I intended. I had just seen my bag on my bedside table. “Did Buzz tell you about the crystal I took?” Leo flinched, then turned around. “It wasn’t on the list, and it would eventually be lost when the Dungeon shifted. Buzz said I could have it…”

Leo turned to face me. He didn’t look mad, but he did look a bit worried. “Was that the item that the Hatred was after? Your ‘insurance policy’?”

The big lion nodded slowly. “I was going to just let that thing disappear. I didn’t expect you to keep it. Be warned, the Hatred will be after you if you keep it.”

I shrugged. “Can it be any worse than it is now?”

Leo couldn’t help but smile. “I guess not.” He turned to go again, but another question shot into my head.

“Does this have anything to do with the Dreamstone?” Leo didn’t turn around this time.

“What is that?” He responded.

I guess it wasn’t, or at least he had no idea if it was or not. “Never mind. Thanks.”

I slumped backwards onto my pillow. Two steps forward, one step back. That’s how it always went.

Before I could settle back to sleep, the main doors creaked open and Kegan poked his head in. He spotted me, saw that I was awake, and then comically tip-toed over to my bed. He was holding a brown paper bag in his left hand that swung a little with every step he took.

“Glad you are awake,” he muttered, “here it is. The stone was easy enough to find, every other rock out there seems to be one. The band on the other hand seems a little odd. Is it supposed to be a bracelet?”

“Trust me,” I muttered glancing over at Eve who began to stir, “it will work. Thank you.”

“What was that?” Eve groaned as she stretched, careful to escape Vix’s tails without waking her.

Instead of answering I tried to stand up. My legs were a bit shaky, but I felt perfectly fine. “Can we go for a quick walk. I’ve been in bed for four days now.”

“Uh,” Eve said with raised eyebrows, “sure.” I took a few steps before I felt my back left knee buckle. Eve ran over and I leaned against her for support. “You don’t look so good. Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Let’s just go,” I muttered. We limped what felt like a good distance away before I spoke again. “Kegan told me last night that we can’t keep custody of Vix unless we can for 100 percent keep her safe from Team Hatred.”

“What?” Eve nearly shouted.

“Shhhhh!” I hissed.

“I don’t care! I’m going down there and I am giving Kegan a piece of my mind-” she ranted for a while. I was a bit shocked. I had never seen this “mama-bear” side of Eve before. I kinda liked it. “- and shove it so far up his…”

“Eve, calm down. We figured it out!” She immediately stopped talking. In an instant I felt all of that rage projected towards me.

“Are you about to do something stupid again because so help me if you make her cry again I will-”

“-Whoa, calm down. I promise this is a simple fix that will protect her but also still allow her to be a full member of our team.”

“What?” Eve snapped. “How do you plan on doing that?”

Over by my bed I could see Vix stirring. “By giving her her own Self Destruct move.”

Eve gave me a skeptical look. “Fine. So what?”

“Do you want me to tell her, or do you?”

Eve scowled at me, obviously still angry. “Oh no, buddy boy, this is your plan. You are explaining this!”

“Hey, guys!” Vix shouted across the room. “What is going on? What’s in this bag?”

“Don’t open it yet,” I called, “we’ll be over in a minute.”

We stumbled back over to my bed. It had only been a short walk, but I already felt a bit out of breath. I flopped back onto the bed.

“What is going on?” Vix asked.

This was either going to go extremely well, or she was going to kill me. Just saying. “So Kegan talked to me last night, and he told me that Eve and I can’t keep taking care of you unless we can protect you from Team Hatred.”

“But-” Vix prompted.

“But, I think I came up with a solution.” I reached over and picked up the paper bag and handed it to Vix. She ripped open the top and pulled out a beautiful gold circle with a vibrant red and orange gem in it.

“I don’t get it.” Vix admitted staring at the ring.

“That stone,” I said carefully, “is a Firestone. If you are touching it and you choose to, you can absorb it and you will evolve into a Ninetales. I have no clue what new powers will arise, but it will remove your ability to navigate Dungeons.”

“Oh, I get it.” Eve smiled.

“I don’t,” Vix snapped.

“You wear it,” I explained, “and if something happens and the Hatred captures you, you can evolve. They won’t be able to use you anymore and they will let you go.”

Vix stared at the ring for a moment before she slowly slipped it onto her right front leg. It immediately slipped off. “I think you measured this wrong.”

“Actually,” I said with an impish grin, “I sized it to go around one of your tails. I figured it would be easy enough to hide and a bit more comfortable for you. We can get it resized if you want.”

She tackled me with a hug, leaping between the beds. “I love it. Thank you.”

It was a rather uneventful day. The most we did was play a few games of Psychic basketball with two trash cans on either side of the ward, made even more complicated as Vix was constantly switching teams and batting the ball out of the air at random.

We only stopped when Candace came out screaming that we had to stop. Threatening to make Vix and Eve leave.

We calmed down and stopped. Eve ran out at one point and brought us all back food, even Buzz and Leo. The little guy woke up just long enough to eat before he slumped back into unconsciousness.

It got late, and eventually even nurse Blissey went home, turning the lights out as she left. Vix fell asleep curled against my back. I could feel the hard ring on her second tail digging into my back.

“We need to talk.” I nearly jumped. I could have sworn that Eve was asleep on the other bed. Apparently not.

“Okay,” I said softly, “let’s talk.”

“Slink, what is your plan?” She said it calmly, as if she had simply asked about the weather. I shivered. I had been dreading this talk.

“What?” I asked trying to bide for time

“You know exactly what I mean,” she snapped. “You say you are only in this until we find the Dreamstone.”

“I am,” I said, but even I didn’t believe me.

“You tell Vix all this stuff about being a family. About how we always have to be there for eachother! And you just plan on bailing once you get what you want!”

“I don’t know.” I snapped back.

“You keep talking about how we need to stick together. Is that just crap? You nearly died for us, several times, but then you are going to bail on us just like that? Tell me Slink, what are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” I nearly shouted. “Eve, I don’t care what you think about me. But I truly do care about you, and I certainly care about Vix. But things are more complex than that.”

“How?”

“Eve, what happens after I find the Dreamstone? I bring my family back, and then what? Do I say to them, ‘Hey so I have these friends and this job halfway across the Continent so I’m going to leave you even though you just came back. So bye’?”

“No,” Eve admitted, “but you can’t just play around with us and then leave.”

“I’m not,” I argued, “I don’t know.” I shook my head and took a deep breath. “Eve, I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. I don’t know what will happen in a week. In a year who knows where we will be. Whatever happens, whatever might happen, whenever we may find the Dreamstone, trust me. I will never willingly do anything to hurt you or Vix. I would never purposely hurt either of you. You are my best friends. You are family. I love you, I love you both.” I shuddered, fighting back tears. “I know that this is hard Eve, I do. There isn’t a right answer. I can’t argue this.”

She was looking down. I knew she didn’t really want to look at me, but I needed her to. “So what do we do?”

I took a deep breath. “Forget about this? Lock this memory as deep within your mind as possible. We aren’t anywhere close to finding the Dreamstone. Can we just try and forget this problem, ignore it? Maybe by the time we face it again, we will have found a solution.”

Eve met my gaze. Her deep lavender eyes staring deep into mine. “Ignoring a problem doesn’t make it go away.”

“I know,” I sighed, “but it is the only solution I have. Are you with me?”

She laughed and shook her head. “If it keeps this team together, I will do anything.” She closed her eyes and focused her thoughts inward. I followed closely behind.

The box that I had stored my traumatic memories in was still in the back of my mind. I destroyed it with a thought. For what I had in mind, I’d need something sturdier. I created a gigantic, titanium box with reinforced edges. I carefully placed the dilemma I was facing within before I slammed the heavy lid shut and welded it shut with my brain. I prepared a Psychic lock so that nobody but me could unlock it before I heard a voice.

Wait, it was Eve’s voice. I glanced around and sensed a pink energy, a mental probe. Let me lock it. You lock mine. That way we can only return when we are both ready.

I nodded. Instead of focusing on my mind, I leapt over, digging a mental probe into Eve’s mind. I wriggled back until I found a large box, wrapped in chains and rope. I created a Psychic lock, a glowing orange padlock, sticking it onto the box. I created a key, also bright orange, and slipped it into the lock.

On three okay?

One… I bit my lip.

Two… I looked over my shoulder wondering if I was making a mistake. One of Eve’s memories caught my eye. It was me, suddenly appearing above from behind a stack of crates. I saw myself project a pink-purple dome over Vix, Buzz, and of course Eve. I saw my upper body enter the dome before there was a flash of bright light.

I knew that both Eve and Vix would trust me with their lives. Now it was my turn to trust them.

Three…! I said turning the key and hearing a satisfying click. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. I couldn’t help but smile. Eve opened her eyes too and grinned back at me. There were plainly tears in her eyes.

“Hey, uh, there is still plenty of room over here. Come on. I don’t mind.” Eve blushed slightly, but she still got up and joined Vix and me on the bed. She curled up against my chest and purred softly. I used my powers to turn off my light.

I fell asleep happy that night, the two people I cared about most on either side of me. But before I finally drifted off, I saw Eve turn to look at me.

“The next time you tell me that you love me, do it when I’m awake.”