Chapter 27: Divided We Stand

Chapter 27: Divided We Stand

Jermy was starting to regret his choice to sleep through most of the day. Now that it was night, he couldn’t drop if he wanted to.

The pikachu slumped, shivering a little in the cold night. The five of them were gathered in a circle underneath a tree, dark enough to keep them out of sight. Terrakion had proposed a small fire, but there was no way they could put one together without possibly alerting soldiers to their location.

That collapsed base was behind them now. OCEAN had almost certainly seen the display, so they couldn’t afford to remain there. The Swords, refreshed by oran berries from the Dwelling Bag, had guided and carried them to the north end of the dungeon. Half of the group was still missing, so they were quick to turn around for one more search. Keldeo was the only one not to follow — he was put on night watch for the five of them. The colt was a few paces off, marching around the perimeter of the tree’s shade.

While they waited, they were expected to get a nap in. Most everyone else in their group had better luck — Joey was snoring loudly, and the Solceans were clearly asleep too. But not him.

How in blazes was Jermy supposed to sleep after bearing his heart under Cobalion’s hoof?

At least he wasn’t the only one too tormented to shut his eyes. He kept locking eyes with the very awake Mathew. He sat in a crumpled, postureless position, eyes following the distant Keldeo as he pranced. Waiting for another ambush, Jermy assumed.

Sometimes, when they looked at each other, Mathew would take a breath, then stop short, snapping his mouth shut and turning away. Jermy wasn’t sure if the hesitation was because he didn’t want to wake the others, or if he couldn’t decide if he actually wanted to speak his mind.

“If you have something to say,” Jermy whispered to him, “then just belt it out.”

Mathew leaned back into a better position. Breathily, he asked, “Did you know, Jermy?” Another breath. “About Mark?”

Jermy could feel his ears droop. The answer to that wasn’t something he was proud of. “From day one.”

He groaned, bringing a hand to the side of his skull mask. He didn’t say anything.

“We were trying to figure out how to ease you into it,” Jermy continued. “That’s why we chose to let you stay in that condo — we realized you living in the apartment raised the chance that you’d run into him. David told Mark to stay away, but I don’t really think it worked that well. He really wanted you to get hired.”

Mathew pulled his hand away, and a fierceness overtook him. “You lied to me this whole time!” His whisper became a much louder hiss and he slung his arm out. “First about this insane power you could’ve used this whole time, and now about my own son!”

Jermy bowed his head. The group had already heard his whole spiel about how he would have preferred he never been given Shaymin’s Essence, and so he spent his days as if he didn’t have it prior to now. But there was no easy justification for Mark. “I know. I’m really sorry, Mathew. I—”

“You said that you were a fan. So why?” Mathew’s gaze could’ve bored holes through. “You let me think he was dead.”

“I’m not my sister, okay?! I can’t tell them no!”

Jermy’s paws reached straight for his mouth. That was definitely far too loud of a response. In the few seconds of silence, his gaze leapt from sleeper to sleeper, checking for signs of him disrupting their sleep. There was a hitch in Joey’s snores…but it didn’t last. The rhythmic rise and fall of Minichino’s chest went uninterrupted. Meowth was curled up and still.

Phew. At least he hadn’t woken any of them—

“I’m doing it again.”

He looked to Mathew. The cubone’s eyes were wide with fear. His other hand was high in the air, as if he’d pulled it away from something sharp.

“It’s like a reflex. I started getting angry, so I…I grabbed it.”

Jermy craned his neck to see around Mathew. There, on the ground below his hand, was his bone club.

Mathew buried his head in his hands, ashamed. “Why does this keep happening…?”

Jermy couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. It wasn’t peachy knowing Mathew was willing to do that, but in a situation like this? “It’s been a rotten night,” he sympathized, his voice back down to a whisper. “I wouldn’t blame anybody for being all wound up.”

Trying to make him feel better, Jermy patted his shoulder in a ‘there, there’ sort of fashion. Mathew recoiling at his touch made him immediately regret doing that.

“So.” Mathew hunted for a different conversation topic. “You said…you had a sister?”

Jermy nodded. “Jane. She used to be a pilot on Earth, but when OCEAN started scraping for new forces, she ended up joining us.” For a second he wanted to leave it at that, but then he realized there was nobody to punish him for saying the truth about what she did. “Six years ago, she scampered off with a few others. She found out something OCEAN didn’t want her to — I don’t really know what it was. But it was bad enough that she helped start an underground rebellion against us.”

Mathew seemed surprised. “She turncoated?”

“Yep. She and her friends converted a boatload of OCEAN members into FLARE ones.”

“FLARE…” The cubone chewed on that for a moment. “What does that stand for?”

“Apparently, nothing,” he admitted. “They just thought it sounded cool.”

Mathew blinked. “Huh.”

“We couldn’t let FLARE exist for too long. The whole plan to stop Arceus involved keeping our goals a secret from the world, but since FLARE was mostly made up of ex-OCEAN people, they knew everything. I’d wager the only reason they didn’t make a beeline for the press was because they knew what we’d do next.” Jermy half-mindedly tugged at the rim of his bandana. ”But that didn’t stop us. We organized this huge mission and…we wiped them out. We destroyed everything, even the bodies.”

Mathew’s mouth hung open. “Did you…fight your sister, Jermy?”

“No.” His voice was suddenly dry. “I’m a scientist, not a soldier. The division used the opportunity to test the weapons we were preparing to fight the Legendary Court with.”

The memories of that day came flooding back.

A wall of monitors towered over Jermy. Twenty five screens captured the mass-execution in the highest definition they could afford. David stood at the console managing it all, speaking only to answer communicator calls with those on the field.

An aerial view followed the billowing smoke overtaking the sky. A ground view showed the abandoned battle flag as the lava rolled over the hill and set it alight. One four-foot tower crumbled from creeping heat; another was caved in by an electrified cannonball flung from a distant trebuchet.

A crowd who had evacuated quickly were confronted by a squad of their elite. Civilians and rebels alike were pinned between the fire and OCEAN. Jermy could hear the grunts and cries through the console’s calls.

A few of FLARE’s best managed to give OCEAN a cost for their cruelty. A nimble bunnelby used his ears to fling a cofagrigus into the lava before she could do the same to him. A quiet ceruledge sat and accepted her death, content with having rendered a half-dozen of Emmons Labs’ projects unusable with her blades. A silvally leapt through the wavering air from rooftop to rooftop, seeking survivors trapped in the falling buildings. A bloodied espeon and a battered jolteon stood back-to-back, prepared to take out as many of the soldiers surrounding them as they could. An aggron roared as he guarded a few smaller pokémon from a barrage of icicles.

One camera stayed affixed to Jane every second of the attack. The air-surfer raichu soared through the sky using her tail as a mock-hoverboard. She gritted her teeth, barely able to make sense of the smoke-covered scene from above.

Emily’s voice came through the console. “You have sight of her?” She asked. The empoleon, far away from the action, was speaking to the pilot of the tall, turret-like machine.

“Yeah, I got it.” The turret pilot — a gengar, one of their own — answered.

“And you won’t lose it when she goes into the smoke?”

“Don’t worry. I can see her just fine.”

“On my signal, then.”

They waited for the right moment to strike. Just when Jane dipped down towards the ruined town, heading for the silvally, Emily flung her flipper forward.

“Now!”

The laser cut through the air like butter. The camera following her showed it tearing right into her side. She yelled as she tumbled into the smoke.

They never saw her again. Everyone else was picked off — the number of survivors on FLARE’s side was in the single digits, if there were any at all. OCEAN vanished into the shadows, and the world blamed a natural phenomenon for the deaths. They declared it a sound victory.

And what had Jermy done?

“I just…watched.”

“Goddamn,” Mathew whispered. “That’s an awful way to lose a loved one.”

“That’s the insane thing,” Jermy said. “I’ve played that moment back so many times. We knew that it wasn’t a kill-shot, but we thought she must’ve fallen to her death after. I lived in that reality for so long… And today, I learned it was wrong.”

Mathew seemed confused. “Wrong how?”

“Do you know who made ASHES, Mathew? Who helped sneak Politoed and Breloom into the Pick-it Up Club so they could get living proof of the recruitment process?” Jermy heaved. “It’s her. They told me when you went to snag your stuff. She’s still fighting.”

“Holy shit!” This time it was Mathew who was almost loud enough to wake the others. “I had no idea.”

“You couldn’t have known. I wasn’t bold enough to break out of OCEAN’s thumb. I mean, just look at how easily that watchog did his work on me! I’m better at burying myself behind a screen. The only screen Jane needed was a cockpit.”

Mathew sighed. “Two months versus five years… I guess they screwed both of us ov—”

“Waaah!”

Jermy jolted as his attention was snapped away from the cubone. That yell hadn’t come from Mathew — he had lurched just like Jermy. It was from Minichino, leaping up from her nap in a total panic. She burst out into a sprint, heading straight for the colt in the shadows. “Heeey! Keldeo!” she called far more loudly than she should’ve.

Her yell was enough to rouse the other sleepers. “I thought we were supposed to stay quiet,” Meowth mumbled as he uncurled.

Joey groaned as he sat up, eyes half-lidded. “What in tarnation is going on…?”

“Beats me,” Jermy admitted. He was asking the same question — What the hey had gotten her so freaked out?

The sound of galloping echoed from the forest’s edge as Keldeo barreled to meet her. “Woah, hey, is everything okay?!”

“Dude, remember when you said Gate messages feel like this freaky head pain?”

Keldeo skidded to a stop, the urgency sinking out of his posture. “Oh, uh, yeah. Why do you ask?”

“Because I think I’m feeling that right now…!”

Jermy was filled with a mix of relief and confusion. A Gate message was nothing dangerous, so Minichino was fine…but who could be calling her? Priests only had to ensure they could contact their respective Legendary Pokémon. But the other three Swords were only a short run away from them. Was there really something so urgent that they needed to contact them this way?

“What are you waiting for?!” Keldeo cried. “Answer it!”

“Right, got it!” Minichino calmed herself, stilling her body and her tail as she shut her eyes and focused. “This is Minichino speaking. Who the heck is—” Her focus was shattered as she gasped, wide-eyed. “No way! Dude, we’ve been worried about you! …Oh, no, we’re all safe-ish here too. The Swords are with us, and so are the humans and Meowth.”

Jermy squinted an eye, trying to figure out the person was she was talking to. One of their own? But none of them were Legendary…

Mathew seemed even more lost as he awkwardly approached Minichino. “Who’s on the other side?”

Minichino snapped her head back, as if she’d totally forgotten about everyone besides Keldeo. “Oh, right! Guys, check it out!”

She flicked her head forward, and just as the Swords had appeared to them in the Service Guild, a figure materialized in front of her. But it wasn’t any Legendary that stood before them.

The fuzzy, holographic Politoed turned toward Keldeo. “Guess we moved a little too slow for you,” he said apologetically to the colt.

“Nah, we were the ones too slow for you!” he said with a smile. “Sorry about that.”

Jermy zipped past the others towards Minichino and Keldeo, getting in the range where Politoed could see him at lightning speed. “Hey! You made it out in one piece!”

It was more like three pieces, between the frog himself, his King’s Rock, and his medallion, but Politoed indeed seemed alright. In fact, on closer inspection, Jermy started thinking he was too alright. Besides a stern expression and eyes strained from lack of sleep, there was hardly an injury on him. The Dwelling Bag with all their healing items was with Meowth… Had they found oran or sitrus berries in the wild while escaping OCEAN?

“Oh thank God!” Mathew, running towards the frog at a speed slower than lightning, didn’t leave Jermy time to consider this further. “Everyone else is okay, right?”

“Eheheheh!” Poliwrath’s laughter echoed from afar. “As if a couple ‘a troublemakers would be a problem for Chip and I!”

“We’re a bit busy right now setting up our shelter for the night, so we can’t give our full attention.” A half-formed chatot wing waved at them before retreating and vanishing. “But there’s nothing to worry about. Focus on your own safety.”

In contrast, another figure’s entire body stumbled into the unmarked circle. “Minichino…?”

The minccino was so happy, she almost squealed. “Mr. Persian!” She ran up to the cat and attempted to hug him, only to swing her arms at air and nearly fall over.

Mr. Persian stumbled back, seeming surprised by the no-touch nature of their communication. His happiness quickly gave way to mild desperation. “Is Meowth with you too? Please, tell me you both are safe.”

Meowth slowly prodded towards his father. “Emily didn’t take you out?”

“Terrakion helped me get away.” Mr. Persian looked to Meowth, and his expression warmed. “You’re unhurt… I’m so glad.”

He shrugged. “Not physically, yeah.”

Jermy backed away from the quickly crowding space. Although it was a little claustrophobic, it was nice to see that the ambush hadn’t brought them down for the count.

Although, now that he counted, there were two people still missing, weren’t there? One was ORB, which Jermy probably found more worrisome than the rest of the group. The other…

Joey took Jermy’s place in the crowd, a worried look spread on his maw. “Hey, is Breloom with y’all? She got healed up, right…?” he asked, looking left and right for her.

It was as if the totodile had torn open a mending wound. Grim expressions spread across Meowth and Minichino’s faces. Although Mathew’s face was still guarded by his mask and goggles, the sorrow reached his eyes. All of them saw what happened to Breloom.

What surprised Jermy was Politoed and Mr. Persian. They had a reaction, but not of sadness — rather, there was an air of anticipation. They looked expectantly in a direction away from any of them, beyond what their communication could show.

“Got healed up, yeah.” Politoed spoke slowly, seeming distracted. “Helping my brother and Chip with the camp right now. Uh…”

Joey squinted at the frog. “What’s got you so tongue-tied?”

Politoed’s attention stayed fixated outside the Gate. Jermy swore he saw Politoed’s bulbous fingers shift, but the rest of the group blocked enough of his body that the pikachu couldn’t make sense of it.

Suddenly, Politoed pulled himself back into attention. “Never mind. Nothing to worry about,” he said quickly.

“You’re absolutely sure Breloom is fine?” Mathew insisted.

Mr. Persian butted in. “She isn’t in the best mood right now,” he explained. “Earlier, she told us she didn’t want to join in on our call. We were struggling to figure out how to break that news to you. That’s all.” The cat cracked a wide smile that Jermy found endearing.

“She did kind of get her butt kicked, huh?” Minichino sympathized. “It’s no sweat. Just tell Breloom we’re thinking about her, okay?”

Politoed nodded. “Will do.”

“So we all lived?” Mathew threw his head back, stunned. “Goddamn. We are the luckiest people alive right now.”

Jermy bobbed his head in agreement. Compared to what he saw five years ago, this was surprisingly mild.

“It’s not luck — you had our help!” Keldeo boasted, before turning to Politoed. “Speaking of us, the other Swords are out looking for you in the forest right now.”

“Were looking. Sounds like you have it covered though!”

Terrakion’s voice took everyone by surprise. Indeed, the three Swords of Justice were approaching them at a leisurely, quiet pace.

“Hey guys!” Keldeo exclaimed, brightening up simply from their presence.

Jermy sighed, relieved there was no danger. “Whew! You almost scared the bejeebus outta me…”

“I don’t know what a ‘bejeebus’ is, but scaring you all was not our intent,” Cobalion proclaimed. He studied the fuzzy frog. “Did you arrange this call?”

“Yep,” Politoed answered. “Realized it was the best way to get in touch with Minichino after the fight.”

The stag seemed perturbed by that answer. It was a weaker emotion than the determined fury he showed Jermy, but it still caught the pikachu off-guard. What was so wrong about that?

“So, obviously, we didn’t find the rest of your group,” Virizion said.

This seemed to pull Cobalion out of it. “Right. We also didn’t encounter any of the soldiers from before.”

Joey seemed disappointed. “So resting on our laurels did no good?”

“Not true!” Terrakion came forward. “We found someone while we were out there. I’ve never seen a pokémon like him before, though. I’m not really sure if he’s with you, but he insists that he is, so…”

He turned to expose his side. Sure enough, a tiny, green figure stood out from the bovine’s hide. He gripped onto an orange spike with a single, curved claw.

“For once, I’m actually happy you gave me a claw arm.”

“Oh my gosh! ORB!” Jermy had never been happier to see his robot. He sped towards Terrakion to get a better look. “Here I was, worried you’d gotten torn up out there!”

“It was unlikely I’d be hit due to my size. After the dungeon shift, I went undetected. Thanks to Terrakion, I am able to live another day. Hooray.” As usual, ORB’s voice was entirely monotonous.

“So he is your friend, then!” Terrakion seemed happy, but his grin wavered and he shuffled in place a little. “Could you…take him off me, please? These spikes are kinda sensitive, you know.”

“Oh, sure!” Jermy promptly pulled ORB off of Terrakion and into a hug. “Missed you, buddy.”

“We were only separated for one hour, twenty minutes, and twelve seconds. Thirteen. Fourteen.”

“Still counts!” He put his robot down, giving him some space to move.

Joey turned towards the rest of the group. “Y’all, I know he’s a big hunk of metal,” he said, “but I’m kinda glad he didn’t get hurt. Ain’t that weird?”

“No shame in getting attached to a machine,” Mathew reassured him.

“I hate to break up this reunion,” Cobalion cut in, “but you told us you had important information, ‘ORB’.”

“Yes.” ORB wheeled into what best resembled the center of the gathering. “While I was carried here, I took the opportunity to scan the perimeter of the dungeon using my aura-detecting abilities.”

“You can do that?!” Keldeo exclaimed. “Woah…”

ORB ignored the excitable colt. “I can confirm with full confidence that OCEAN has left Bylaide Forest. We are alone.”

“Alone?” Jermy repeated, befuddled. The OCEAN of five years ago scorched the land trying to rid itself of FLARE, and that was when Jane and her team were at peak performance. Time hadn’t made the army division toothless, he was certain of that… So why retreat? There was only one reason that made sense.

Politoed tilted his head down sagely, eyes shut. “Guess they noticed we got separated — and decided we’re the easier targets. They’re after us.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Jermy said, a little impressed. Clearly, Politoed knew how OCEAN ticked as much as he did. Did he have Jane to thank for that?

Joey seemed very alarmed by this. “Where are y’all right now?! We gotta giddyup over there before they beat us to you!”

“None of us made it in time for the dungeon shift, so we couldn’t use it to get away,” Mr. Persian explained. “Politoed directed us to go east.”

“East?” Keldeo seemed surprised. “You mean towards the Raidissent Pass?”

Jermy remembered Politoed mentioning that dungeon on the way to Bylaide Forest. “Didn’t you say that dungeon was super mountainous?”

“And that it goes right around Vahle Village!” Minichino cried.

“Goes right around Vahle,” Politoed said, “but it is another path to Mithlline from this area. Lots more alcoves and tiny caves here, too. It’s no town, but it’s decent for taking shelter.”

“We have the Dwelling Bag.” Meowth raised his arm, showing it off. “Do you have food sources out there?”

“Enough to last us to Tagneanse,” Mr. Persian said. “We will make do.”

Minichino gave a sweeping look around the group, looking distraught. “Wait. So… We’re not getting back together?”

“No.” It was ORB who answered her. “Between the Swords and Jermy on our side, and the four fighters on their side, we can afford to force OCEAN to spread itself thin. They can pressure the green team now, but they will tire out navigating the more dangerous dungeon. Like a bad breakup, your chance of survivability increases with distance from your ex.”

“Green team?” Politoed sounded surprisingly insulted.

Jermy pondered ORB’s logic. He’d engineered him, so he of all people knew his conclusions were of good accuracy. But this still felt like an awful risk. The two groups were obviously imbalanced.

Terrakion looked away and grit his teeth, seeming to think the same. “I dunno if I like this plan… It’s five Essences to zero. Are you sure you can handle it?”

“Goodness’ sake, have some faith!” A distant Chip called.

“Three of us have trained for situations like this our whole lives.” Politoed raised a fist. “Don’t underestimate us.”

Cobalion craned his neck to ensure his glare reached the frog. “If you’re certain.”

Politoed did not waver.

Mr. Persian looked sorrowfully at Meowth. “I’m sorry to get pulled away so soon. I promise we won’t be long.”

The cat simply crossed his arms. “I’ve already waited six years. What’s a few more days at this point?”

Mr. Persian winced, eyes wavering.

Minichino brushed a paw across her face, as if to literally wipe her sadness away, then winked at the two of them. “See you on the other side, dudes.”

Politoed waved. “Let us know if you need anything!”

With that, the two pokémon fizzled away, and the group was left to themselves.

Cobalion pulled his head back, but his firmness remained. He gave a sweeping look over the five mortals. “Just who is that politoed?”

“Uh, he’s one of the Club members, just like the rest of us,” Joey said, seeming confused by the question.

“I’m not asking how you met him — I’m asking where he came from.” Cobalion firmly marched toward Minichino. “When you performed the tethering ceremony with Politoed, did he tell you who gave him that power?”

Minichino grinned awkwardly. “He uh…never actually told me which one. He wanted to keep some provisions in case we got caught, you know?”

Virizion grimaced disappointedly. “And you still trusted him…?”

Mathew gripped the side of his mask, seeming uncomfortable. “I’m lost. What’s a tethering ceremony?”

Jermy stepped in to explain. “It’s a ritual that forms a psychic bond between two pokémon. You have to do it before you can contact somebody through a Gate. Normally it’s between a mortal and a Legendary…”

“Yeah! When Minichino became my priest, we did the ceremony so she can call on us anytime!” Keldeo exclaimed.

“When me, Politoed, and Breloom decided we were gonna work together,” Minichino told them, “he suggested that the two of us perform the ceremony too, just in case.”

“But that should be impossible,” Cobalion informed them. “Two mortals can’t tether their souls unless both of them have previously performed the ritual with a Legendary Pokémon.” He closed his eyes in thought. “For him to have that ability, your friend must have been in-league with one.”

“Oh, golly, that’s a good point!” Jermy hadn’t thought twice about Politoed being capable of making contact that way. After all, he’d seen David use a Gate to speak with Emily all the time back when he was a rowlet. Before their technology improved and both of them got too busy to draw a Gate, it was their preferred communication method. To him, it seemed normal.

“Man, now I regret never asking…” Minichino said sheepishly. “There’s no way he’s a priest like me. Totally doesn’t act like one.”

Joey turned to Meowth. “I reckon you don’t know either?” he asked.

“No,” Meowth answered with a touch of gloom. “The years we spent as roommates didn’t change much. I don’t really know them.”

Terrakion intervened in the line of questioning. “Let’s worry about this later! We need to get you all to Vahle Village — I think all of you could use the rest.”

“Terrakion’s right.” Virizion turned her back to the group, then crouched down. “I can carry somebody there.”

Not two seconds later, Meowth was already climbing aboard. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”

“Oh! Joey, lemme carry you!” Keldeo nudged the totodile. “You’re kinda heavy, so you make great practice.”

“Uh, thanks?”

Cobalion offered Mathew room on his back. “I don’t think there’s room for all five of you.”

“Hey, I’ll walk!” Minichino said, jumping from one foot to the other. “I could go another mile, I’m so hyped up!”

“Wow,” ORB remarked, “Even Legendary Pokémon forget to count me.”

“Sorry, buddy!” Jermy called from atop Terrakion. “Maybe one day, I’ll make you taller! Then people might stop tripping over you!”

“You say that as if you aren’t number one on the ‘tripping on ORB’ leaderboard, with a total of twenty-eight trips.”

“That’s just because you’re around me all the time!” he snapped back.

ORB’s wheel glided along the ground soundlessly. “Do you want me to list the ‘tripping on things in ORB’s proximity that are not ORB’ leaderboard?”

“…I let you make one of those?”

The two’s bickering did not stop Minichino and the Swords from continuing their walk towards Vahle Village. They followed a dirt path that began just beyond the forest’s edge. The trees cleared, giving way to rolling hills directing them downward. Already, Jermy could see lights where a winding river met the base of the hills. The journey there wouldn’t be long.

Just ahead, Jermy could hear Mathew speaking to Cobalion in a soft voice. “Speaking of weird things… I wanted to ask you about something.”

“I will try to answer,” he said bluntly.

“Can a pokémon, like, project their voice into the air? And into somebody’s head?”

Cobalion quirked a nonexistent brow. “I don’t understand. Why do you ask?”

The cubone sighed. “There’s this voice that’s been talking to me, ever since we were in that cave. I think she’s…trying to help? But I don’t know who the hell she is.”

Meowth looked intrigued. “Is that what you heard earlier?”

“Yeah,” he said. “She led us to Jermy.”

Virizion straightened her head and looked out towards the hills shrouded by night. “That is strange. Could a psychic type be trailing us?”

Joey groaned, splaying out atop Keldeo. “Does this wild bullride ever end…?”

“We’ll keep an eye out,” Terrakion quickly assured him. “Don’t worry about it, alright?”

“Sure.” Mathew didn’t sound satisfied, but he accepted nonetheless. “Just be prepared. The first time she spoke to me…she imitated my voice, and pretended to voice my thoughts.”

…What?

Jermy’s breath hitched. He hugged Terrakion’s back tightly, trying to make sense of what he just heard.

That morning, at Misery Cave…there was somebody there who could fake thoughts.

OCEAN will never be the place you want it to be again. You have to find another way.

He knew there was something weird about that thought. That idea, that spark that drove him to fight back… Was it not his?