Candy

Another score! but no babies thx Baumina is u there?

Yeah I think it’s illogical for these Elite af trainers to keep their mons in their cells. Heather’s salamance could’ve meteor mashed the heck out of them metal bars. I guess one can say the bars are made of unbreakable material but I think it’s just as realistic as the kidnappers keeping their hostages’ Pokémon me thinks (just that in the latter, one needs to assume they get their Pokémon back during their escape lol). Jasmin has an obsession with Vanilla because she feels capturing and getting her properly tried would make her legendary somehow (because Vanilla was the one who got away, and the police and judiciary system all turned a blind eye to her obvious crime, so she’d be accomplishing something not even her father could do). There’s also a second reason why capturing Vanilla = ending the Defiance, but I think I’ll keep that a secret for when we reach the Everland arc

He does but he got his pokemon taken away prior to being thrown into a cell (I think Team Meteor usually does that or all those Gym leaders that get captured would also bust themselves out easily ) I forgot what Majin Buu was like other than being a pink blob that becomes ripped lmao

From Everland to Reborn ~ Imprisoned Another "spin-off" before we get on with the rest of Vanilla's story. It was mentioned in passing a couple episodes back that Aladdin got taken hostage by Team Meteor, and you-know-who is already there so I figured why not have them interact in some form, right? "You know, I found something... intriguing in your apartment." Those words greeted me when I returned to my apartment in Ametrine. Jasmin waved an envelope that was clearly open, and I instantly perceived just how much trouble I was in. Yet, either she couldn’t tell what I perceived, or wanted to humiliate me regardless, because she took the letter out of the envelope and started reading it aloud. “Dear Vanilla Leiderhosen. If you’re reading this-” “Jasmin, please. I know what’s written on it. You know what’s on it. If you’ll kill me for treason, just do it. If you’d rather take me back for a proper trial, just do that.” “I don’t get tired of reading this letter,” she said and laughed. “When I realize the extent to which you betrayed me, it’s almost comical. I couldn’t stop laughing the first time I read it, even though I knew, on the back of my mind, that this was how you felt for quite some time.” She looked back down on the piece of paper, and carried on reading it. “If you’re reading this, you must’ve found my room key in Wolfie’s diary. I hope that I have fulfilled my role by then, and am no longer living. Leaving a note like this, intended to be read post-mortem, may seem pathetic, but there were some things that I needed to tell you, Vanilla, which I was too cowardly to say while I was alive.” “Stop it,” I said. I had intended to say it strongly, but instead my voice cracked. “It’s been many months now since I left Everland to chase you in Reborn, and even more since that fateful day, but I still haven’t been able to sort my feelings completely. How could doing the right thing feel so wrong? I don’t know if I’ll ever understand. But what I do know now is that I regretted involving myself in Underworld politics. I regretted being the cause that the people I once shared a meal with, died. But most importantly, I regretted betraying your trust.” I slumped down on a chair. I wanted to cover my ears but I knew that if I did that, Jasmin would only read with a louder voice to still make me listen. So I covered my face instead. Jasmin saw my action and laughed before continuing to read. “If I ever found the Genie in the lamp, I wouldn’t care to make three wishes. I’d only wish to go back in time, so that I could prevent this tragic timeline and love you honestly, as you’d deserved from the very beginning,” she read. “Yours truly, Aladdin Ababwa.” I didn’t raise my head when she was done. I heard her crushing the paper and throwing it into the trash bin. “You’re right. Leaving this note behind was pathetic,” I heard her say. “You meant to confess your love after you died? I can’t help laughing at how dumb that is. But I’ve gotten to know you fairly well the past year to be aware that being a coward isn’t anything unusual for you.” “Sure, Jasmin. Call me what you see fit. I know better than you or anyone else, who I am.” “A coward unable to make any concrete decisions, that’s what you are. Well, that’s exactly why you were useful to me all this time, though, so I wouldn’t consider it entirely bad,” she said. “Now, though, you’re useless to me.” “What are you going to do? I’m assuming you’re not going to let me walk out of here like nothing happened.” Jasmin laughed. “Of course not, silly. Now that I think about it… I lied. You’ll be useful to me one last time.” She then stretched the ribbon on her head quickly, and wrapped around my wrists first, then all around my torso, leaving me no opening at all to struggle for freedom. Not that I wanted to struggle, though. I was so drained by my own existence that I just let her wrap me like a human cocoon as she wanted. I was transported but I couldn’t see where we were headed to until Jasmin let go of me in a very grey-ish room. There were some cells, one of which was open and I was pushed inside it unceremoniously. The bars slid and locked. Jasmin was still standing in the room, alongside two people in dark grey uniforms. I hadn’t seen them in a while, but I remembered seeing some people wearing them when Vanilla came to Ametrine City. That gave me a big hint on where I currently was, but I found myself still paralyzed with disbelief. “Why are we here?” I asked Jasmin. “Since now I’m on my own searching for Vanilla, I figured it was an opportune time as ever to ask for help,” she said. “Team Meteor’s goal and mine happen to be in agreement. They want to get rid of their enemies, of which Vanilla is a big one. And I want to take Vanilla to Everland. We couldn’t get the Reborn police department to help us, but they wouldn’t have been nearly as useful as Team Meteor, anyway. I only wished I’d have known to ask them for support earlier.” “Have you lost your mind? Out of all people, I didn’t think you’d be one to ask a terrorist group for help. Don’t you see the irony? That you’re hunting a terrorist by borrowing another terrorist’s hand?” “That’s ironic, coming from you, who used a Defiance group to take out Vanilla’s. You should know, just like I do, that whether I take Vanilla to Everland alone or with their help is the same result for these terrorists. I’m neither supplying them with military equipment nor information. I’m merely speeding up the inevitable.” “But-” She cut me right there. Gone was her disparaging smile, and instead she was looking at me with deep wrinkles on her brow. “Besides,” she said. “I’ve told you before. The ends justify the means. The Defiance will end, and I’ll be the one to put an end to it, at any cost.” I gulped. Even now, when there was nothing else to lose, I still felt intimidated by her look. “I… I understand. May I ask one last question?” “What is it?” “You said I would be useful to you one last time,” I said. “But you’ve brought me here and locked me behind bars. What’s the meaning of it?” Her disparaging smile returned, and my shoulders could relax. “I’ve brought you here to give me an advantage when I meet her soon. I’m hoping that she’ll be at least somewhat discomposed if I tell her that her ex-boyfriend has been taken hostage.” “I doubt that’ll work on her,” I said. “She doesn’t care one bit about me anymore. Don't raise your expectations.” “We’ll see about that. At the very least, keeping you behind bars will ensure you don’t sabotage me anymore.” She then left the key to the guards and exited the room. I reclined my back on a wall and sighed. I thought that the natural reaction of a person who is locked behind bars like I was would be to shout to demand freedom and to shake the bars that wouldn’t budge under such minuscule force. However, I just didn’t feel like doing any of that. Even if they told me I’d have to live the rest of my life shut away from the world, I wouldn’t even try to escape that fate. You’re just glad that you no longer have to take a side, I heard the voice of my subconscious say. You can keep existing, without getting in the way of anyone, or betraying anyone, anymore. “It’s almost… comfortable.” I closed my eyes and would’ve drowned myself in thoughts and recollections, were it not for a sudden voice that didn’t come from within me. “Uh, excuse me,” the voice said. “I believe I have met you before.” “Have we?” I couldn’t quite remember whether I had heard their voice before, and I wasn’t paying attention to the neighboring cell when I was brought in. “My name is Aya. I am… was the poison type Gym leader. I believe we had a battle a while back.” The sight of a pale girl with striking purple hair scraped my memory. I had tried taking on the League Challenge as part of training up a pokemon team and searching for Vanilla, but I had quit when I wasn’t able to beat her, the poison type Gym leader. “I remember you now,” I said. “But what are you doing here? Are you held hostage by Team Meteor?” “Yeah, something like that.” “I’m sorry to hear it. I hope they haven’t treated you poorly.” “It depends on who’s on guard duty. Some guards are nastier than others. The amenities of each cell aren’t great either. The mattress we must use as a bed is hard, the sheets feel like plastic, everytime I want to go to the bathroom, I have to get a guard to escort me, and don’t expect anything from the food. It’s plain disgusting. But other than that, I wouldn’t say I’ve been treated poorly,” she said. “What about you? I overheard something about Vanilla. Are you... acquainted with her?” “Are you acquainted with her too?” I responded to her questions with a question, because I was taken aback. I didn’t expect to meet Aya here, but I also didn’t expect her to know Vanilla… though, on better thought, I should’ve expected it, since I knew she had joined forces with the Gym leaders of this region. “Yeah, we met once or twice in the past,” she said. “And you are, if the girl from earlier wasn’t bluffing, Vanilla’s ex?” I coughed. How much did I wish Jasmin had a little more filter when speaking. “I guess. It’s a long story.” “You don’t need to tell me. I’m not interested in poking my nose in people’s private affairs,” she said. “It makes no difference whether I get information about Vanilla’s lover or her enemy, since I’m not going to be able to do anything with it, as long as I’m kept behind bars.” “Thank you. I wouldn’t hesitate to tell the story, were it not because it’s not a pretty one to tell. Besides, there’s no way I could tell it without being accused of bias. If anyone has the right to tell it, it’s Vanilla.” We were silent for a while after that. I took the opportunity to move things around my cell, mainly just the mattress, because I noticed that the floor was damp underneath it. I pushed it against the wall that separated Aya’s and my cells. I sat on it and reclined against the wall again. “Have you tried escaping from here?” I whispered so that the guard couldn’t hear us. “No,” she replied. “You said you are escorted out to the bathrooms,” I said. “Have you seen what it’s like out of this room? No chance of escaping?” “Are you going to attempt escaping?” “No, I was asking, in case I could help you devise an escape plan for yourself.” “No need. I wasn’t planning on leaving either.” “What? Why? I’d judged you didn’t like being stuck in here, from what you told me.” “It’s not the best place I could be in, that’s for sure,” she said. “But at the same time, it’s the most comfortable.” I raised an eyebrow at this. I was curious to know what her reasons for feeling that way were. “I don’t know if you’re at all concerned with the politics of this region, but most Gym Leaders have united to fight off the terrorists. If I weren’t in here, I’d be fighting too.” “Yeah, though neither of us has really involved ourselves with either side- or at least I don’t think in a major way- I have been following what was happening even before coming here. I think you’re pretty even so far, but that balance could tip anytime. Either Calcenon gets destroyed beyond salvation, or the Gym Leaders find a way to get across the barrier.” “That’s right. I’ve been stuck here for so long. I didn’t even get to do anything to help, like at all,” she explained. “But the longer I thought about it, the more it became clear to me that being here was helping both the Gym Leaders and me. Realistically, what could I do to help? I’m new to pokemon battling, and all I do is be unhappy about everything. It’s a blessing, really, that they forgot I’m even here.” “You’re new to pokemon battling?” I asked. “I didn’t even notice, because I lost to you.” “That’s only because you had the disadvanta-” she cut her sentence abruptly. “Did something happen?” I asked after she remained silent for an unnatural amount of time. “No. Nothing happened, I just remembered something,” she said. “I was going to downplay my victory again, because in my mind, I won due to unfair advantage.” “Well, I had a psychic type in my team, which should’ve given me some advantage. I could’ve battled you with a full team of 6, but judged my team was complete with the 5 I had. Those are decisions I made, which impacted the result of our battle. You could always list the external things that might’ve led you to win, and downplay your judgement’s role in all of it. But the truth is, I gave what I thought was enough to win, but it wasn’t enough. You put effort into your battle, and came on top. You’re a stronger pokemon trainer than you give yourself credit for, and you have every right to take pride in your victories.” “Is that something Vanilla taught you?” “Vanilla? Why do you ask?” “Because she told me something similar. To keep giving my best, and that as long as I was giving my best, I should take pride in my accomplishments, however small.” I laughed. I should’ve known she had told her that already. She was never one to shy away from speaking her mind, whether what came out of her mouth was helpful or rude. “Vanilla hates people who do things half-heartedly. I’ve known her for years, but I’ve never seen her do something without her full determination. That’s why she hates me with all her might, and probably why I… care about her.” “Care about her? Or love her?” she asked. “Actually, never mind. You don’t need to answer that.” I didn’t answer, because she retracted her question, but also, because I hadn’t intended to answer at all. “You should leave this room and fight alongside your allies,” I said. “I must admit, I haven’t interacted with many Gym Leaders. Only 2 before I met you- Julia and Florinia- but they seemed to care about the cause greatly. I also met Heather, who I think is also fighting alongside you. She wanted to help even people she didn’t know personally. I don’t think they’re the type that would forget about an ally that got taken hostage.” “I don’t know them.” “But outside there are people who care about you, aren’t there?” Aya didn’t respond to my question, so I interpreted her silence as affirmative. “As long as there are people outside who care for you, they’ll be looking for a way to liberate you. We should also see if we can get you out of here by ourselves, in case they can’t find a way in.” “For you too, right?” I shook my head, but remembering that she wouldn’t be able to see that, I put it in words: “Sure.”

oh noes I literally come here once a blue moon ice cream and you've gott me I'ma guess Evi Crystal is next

Yeah that's a good line, I wonder why past me omitted it lol I'd actually say she feels sad herself, rather than being particularly aware of her surroundings lol Vanini gave her an executive order to stay away from the castle, basically to show how she's appreciating Julia more, and also because I didn't daydream Julia doing anything even if she stayed. Yeah I really would've liked to have the whole sequence with Amaria talking with MC underwater in my story but the physics bugged my brain a tad bit too much. I can live with people climbing longass waterfalls or not being affected by being electrocuted, even diving for more than 1 minute lol but talking under water? nahhh Julia come on you're tied 3rd place in Vanini's ratings, why do you forsake her thus T_T And great insight on Tania. I'm also a fan of flawed characters, especially those who are a hot mess despite trying to do "the right thing", of which club I'd say she's a part of lol

I expected you wouldn't care for relationship points with her But also morale of the story: always carry ice cream to sweeten peepos days uwu Nice getting lore for irl characters hehe

Lolol have y'all ever been on a float with someone and been thrown off because they started moving like a my madman? No? Well, it's p fun so y'all should try it xD I'd have time to think, "oh no, I'ma fall bois" and then really fall. Ah I miss waterparks. I feel Tania being merciless with Team Meteor and her relationship with Amaria are separate. She might be cruel for the sake of being cruel with the former, but she's an accidental antagonist in the latter me thinks. The additional AU content only amplified what was already there. Yeahhh! Crazy how time flies. What happens in canon E18 and in my story may be slightly different (there's this long part which I think I'll be shortening a tad (I say that, but then maybe I'll add extra stuff, making it longer cause that's how I roll )). Anyway, hope you get to play it too sometime~ If it wasn't clear with my selection of protagonist, I'm a fan of baddie heroes lol It's one of my favorite things in fan games, since canon games usually have all be super selfless and good and it's boworing. Tbh the more I can hate the character as a person, the more I enjoy the story xD I think Vanilla is at the same level of merciless as Titania or Saphira, but that isn't well-appreciated in the pokemon setting since you don't really have to kill someone to "win", as in-game Candy reminds us earlier on. Tania and Saphira still do it, but Vanini doesn't find incentive in putting effort when it's not necessary. This might change once the setting is moved out of Reborn, but I do plan on swinging God's hammer in, what I think, is the most cruel way ever to reward the sinners... Why am I a sadist when writing?

LOL me too but now it's back to 2 months wait The gauntlet I don't think will be as interesting as the Tourmaline saga but given a certain character is involved in it, it might have its unique charm. Yeah lol I'm proud of my babies growing to accept their differences, even if one's evidently better at it than the other xD

Yeah, when I hadn't played E17 and people were saying "Amaria tried to drown me", I actually imagined her taking us by the shoulders/neck and pushing us into the water while we struggled in vain xD but after playing, I realized the next scene with Amaria and Titania arguing about her "supposed" murder attempt doesn't work if Titania actually saw Amaria trying to drown us. The version I chose is much less dramathicc than my initial imagination, but well, Vanini did almost drown just by being pulled into the water the other time, and she was within reach distance of the pondside then

Lol I just can't imagine Titania making it in time to save Vanilla in the canon way of drowning (the thing is like a maze down there, how did Tania know protagonist was trapped down there?) so realistically speaking, she'd die which ain't what I need lmaoo The method I chose is more "visible" when Tania comes into the arena, and I did drop the hint a few chapters back that Vanini doesn't know how to swim, especially while wearing normal clothes

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 88 Well, usually I don't have this sort of thing but I felt this song kinda went well with this episode so I'ma link it: The inside of Fiore Mansion was full of water, just as I’d left it. Amaria was mopping the hardwood floor around the pool, somehow not bothered by the fact that the majority of the room, and practically all their wooden furniture and electronics had been destroyed by the flooding. “Tania?” She raised her head in response to us opening the door, but looked disappointed that we didn’t enter with Titania. “Hi hi~ Amy. How are you feeling?” “I’m good, thank you, Julia,” she said. “And you are… Vanilla, was it?” “Yeah.” “I see. Welcome. Please make yourselves at home,” she said dryly. “Tania will come soon,” Julia said. “Vanini made her promise that she’d come, so don’t be so gloomy.” She shook her pom-poms to cheer for her friend, but it had no effect on Amaria’s mood. Particularly, the glances she sent me made me question whether I had personally done something to piss her off. “Thanks, Julia. I’ll go for a swim, to relax myself while I wait for Tania to show up.” She propped the mop on a wall, and entered the enclosed area that housed her Gym. “She didn’t even let me ask her for a Gym battle,” I said. “Maybe you can go tell her now. You can do the battle while we wait for Tania.” That seemed like a plan I could get behind, so I changed up my team to battle a water-type leader and headed into the Gym area. The Gym area was a gigantic pool on which a few large, unstable boards floated. This much, I had expected, ever since Titania broke the floor and a tsunami of water gushed into their living room. Of course, battling in water was the most tactically logical thing for a water-type trainer: most pokemon couldn’t hold their breaths underneath water, so pulling them down would be enough to cause great damage. I waited a couple of minutes for Amaria to come back to the surface for some air, but she never did. I worried, knowing that she was prone to suicidal thoughts and behaviors, she may have gone ahead and drowned herself while I prepared my team. I sent out Kame and hopped on his back. “Let’s dive and find Amaria,” I told him. Kame growled loudly and dipped us in the water. I wouldn’t have guessed it unless I saw it, but the pool was so deep that I almost thought the entire Ametrine Mountain’s altitude could sink in it. Perhaps that was an exaggeration, but it was deep enough that I found a light show illuminating the glass floor, which was not visible from the water surface. Colors after colors of light showered us as we navigated a maze of glass-enclosed rooms. It was somewhat scary, because if one forgot where the exit was, one could be trapped down there forever. Yet, I continued my search, hoping that at the end of it, I wouldn’t have to pull up a soggy corpse. About 10 minutes elapsed. We had to go to the surface to re-oxygenate our lungs, and had just come back down to the depths when we found Amaria. She was swimming with an oxygen tank on her back. No wonder she never came up to get a breath of air, but more than anything, I was relieved that she hadn’t drowned. We couldn’t talk underneath the water, so I couldn’t directly communicate to her that I wanted a pokemon battle. She tried to carry on swimming, but I blocked her way a few times until she, probably unwillingly, understood my meaning and exited the maze with me. She took off her gear and squeezed her hair after she had pulled herself up one of the unstable boards. I also pulled myself up from the other side of the same board, so that we could keep the board somewhat balanced. The water weighed me down, especially because the bubblegum dress had soaked up a lot of it. “So you were saying? I don’t want to be rude, but I don’t like to be bothered during my swim sessions,” Amaria said. “I came for a Gym battle,” I said. “I won’t bother you anymore once we’re done with that.” “I see. So you’re a League challenger,” she said. “In that case, I really wished Ame wouldn’t have re-opened it. We were all doing just fine without it, so what’s the point?” “What’s done is done. We all have had things not go the way we want them to. There’s no point in regretting the past, if you’re not going to make an effort to move forward.” “You’re wrong. I don’t regret the past; I regret the present. I regret that you’re standing in front of me right this second, without understanding how Tania has moved farther and farther from me, ever since you appeared in our lives.” What? So her hostility… is because of that? “Your cause and effect is distorted. I had nothing to… or if I did play a role, it was a minor one. Sooner or later, the result would’ve been the same, whether I had come into your lives or not.” “You say that to escape responsibility. But that’s fine. I didn’t expect more from the antagonist of my story,” she said. “If you don’t understand it, I’ll show you… I’ll show you my pain. Then you’ll understand how it feels to be losing one’s air.” Before I could restate that I am not her antagonist, or ask what she meant by the last bit of her speech, she jumped up and landed on the same spot, making the board we were on shake vigorously. I tried balancing so as to not be thrown overboard, but she kept jumping on the opposite edge, nullifying my efforts. “Hey, stop that!” I felt myself lose balance backwards when my muscles could not hold the weight of my head, and I quickly made a decision to throw Pikachu to the board so that he would not drown with me. Amaria kept jumping, and the waves resulting from it didn’t help me because they bumped into my face and made it harder for me to keep breathing. I wasn’t sure if this was just imagination stemming from distress, but I felt as though my dress wrapped around my legs, making it even more challenging to keep kicking myself afloat. I saw Amaria’s blue silhouette approach me, but if she said something, I couldn’t hear her through the sound of splashing water. When I had drunk enough water from both mouth and nose, I felt my conscience slipping, and, though there were thoughts that could’ve been much more fitting to the situation, my last thought was whether this would be the last time I ever lost consciousness. It probably would not be, since I woke eventually, proving that I still wasn’t dead. I woke up because I heard voices arguing very loudly, and found Pikachu resting on my stomach. Then, I looked to my side and saw the pair whose voices had awoken me. One look and I assumed I understood why they were arguing… but no, I wasn’t quite right. “You f*cking tried to kill Vanilla!” Titania shouted. Really? She’s angry because Amaria tried to kill me? “I don’t know what happened,” Amaria replied. “Vanilla was standing on the board when I left her. She must’ve lost her balance by accident.” No I didn’t, but there was no time for me to interject in this heated conversation. “You were there and didn’t help her out of the water. You tried to drown her.” “No, Tania. I didn’t know! I was swimming and didn’t notice she’d fallen in.” “That’s a lie!” The conversation continued a few more seconds in that same vein, but then Amaria noticed that I was awake and listening. “Ah Vanilla, you’re awake! Thank goodness you’re okay,” she said, with a degree of hypocrisy that was almost palpable. “Your mimikyu pulled you out from the water and I gave you CPR. We’re even,” Titania said to me, then turned towards Amaria once more. “Are you really going to keep on like this even now that Vanilla is awake and listening?” “Listen,” Amaria said and tried to take one of Titania’s hands, but she slapped her hand away. Amaria bit her lips and the area around her eyes gradually turned pink. “You don’t understand either,” she said. “You pretend to listen. You pretend to care whether I live or die. But it’s all pretend for you. It hurts me, because my love is not pretend. You wouldn’t know how it feels to have one person be your entire world, and for them to only pretend to care about you.” A tear fell down Amaria’s eye, then another followed. “Tania, you’re all I have. I can’t live without you.” Amaria took a quick couple of steps towards Titania, and surrounded her in her arms. Her long turquoise hair flapped about, which for a second made me think I saw Titania’s head being engulfed by ocean waves. Titania didn’t reciprocate the embrace, but she remained immobile for a while, looking down on Amaria’s head with a look that bordered endearment and disdain. Yet, when I was just beginning to contemplate whether I should leave the room or not, Titania pushed Amaria away. “Why…” Amaria said with her eyes wide open. “For the longest time, I wanted to avoid becoming that person. No matter the cost, I just didn’t want to become her,” Titania responded in a low voice. She looked at nobody or nothing in particular, but the half of her face that wasn’t covered by hair was wrinkled in the angriest expression I had ever seen her in. “But… It’s impossible. I struggled and struggled, but I couldn’t change my fate,” she continued, and looked at Amaria. “You said you only have me, but I also only have myself. This is the end of the fairytale.” Titania said that, impulsively opened the door to their veranda, and shut the door behind her. A very awkward silence remained together with Amaria and me. “I am the worst,” Amaria said. “I am a... but it doesn’t matter what I am. She won’t come back to find out.” Then she looked at me with her bloodshot eyes. “I’m sorry about earlier. I’ll be waiting for you in the Gym.” She went down the stairs and left me alone with Pikachu. Taka’s death and now this. It’s like Arceus doesn’t want me to concentrate on my Gym battles. “I… also once had someone that… I loved dearly, who pretended to reciprocate my feelings. Even if I tried, I couldn’t stop seeing the parallels,” I said to Pikachu. “However, that person wasn’t all that I had. I still had a goal to keep pushing me forward... something that I needed to accomplish however much I suffered. Amaria might be odious, but she has it worse than I did.” I stood up, and was about to go down the stairs, when I stopped and looked at the glass door that led to the terrace. I stared at it for a while before I carried myself over there. Titania was standing outside, looking away into the distance. She heard the door open and close, and quickly turned around. On seeing that I was not Amaria, her shoulders relaxed. “Sorry you had to witness that,” she said. “But for once, I feel… refreshed. I said it, at last. I don’t know if that was the best thing to do, but I finally made a choice.” “She’s hurt, but there was no easy way out. One could say that you shouldn’t have let it get to this point. That you shouldn’t have lied to her about your feelings at all. But I guess you’re already aware of it, and don’t need a third party repeating it to you.” Titania snorted with no enthusiasm. “If one tries to avoid a mistake, one makes a different mistake. That’s the story of my life, it seems.” She sighed and faced the mountains again. We were silent for a moment, until Titania broke it with a seemingly unrelated topic. “I… had an elder brother. This much, you seem to already know, though I don’t know how,” she said. “How, you ask? I mean, I’ve met him.” Titania paused for a moment, and I thought she might get offended again like last time I mentioned her brother’s name, but she didn’t. Instead, she carried on talking. “He was 16 years older than me, and cared more about me than my own parents did. He taught me to read and write before I began to be homeschooled. He taught me pokemon battling too. He was a steel type trainer, a member of the Elite 4 to be exact.” The way she always spoke of him in the past tense was eerie, but Silver had hinted that he and Titania had had a falling-out, and thus perhaps Titania currently considered him equal to a dead person. “As a ten-year-old, he was the hero that excelled in everything he did, and I really admired him for who he was. But…” here, she sighed. “But perhaps that perfectionism and pride of his was too much, and ended up stabbing him in the… front.” “What happened?” I said and was surprised that I did. “He had a fiancée, whom he deeply loved. Yet a month before the wedding, she called it off because she realized she loved a different man. My brother couldn’t get over that and… well… the next day, my mother found him lying in his room with a fatal wound to the stomach, and Aegislash quivering with blood on his blade.” This last bit was especially hard to swallow. I had literally seen this man, the one she just implied killed himself, still moving around in her castle. I most definitely saw him and even talked with him. She and I were close a long time ago. It is not surprising if she still resents me for abandoning her. It is a long story, most of which I cannot tell you due to the nature of my existence. I remembered Silver saying that when I was leaving their castle. What could all this mean? “I deeply despised the woman who, by not making up her mind about her feelings, made my brother make a rash decision. In my mind, she should’ve stayed with my brother and married him. They had been together 3 years already, so how could it be so difficult?” Titania snorted. “But those are things that are easiest said from an outsider’s perspective. I can’t talk like that anymore, since we’re no different now.” So, that had happened. Whatever the truth was concerning Silver’s vitals, I could now understand why Titania had acted the way she did with Amaria. It made me feel a little awkward that I had always openly disdained her whenever the subject of her lie resurfaced, thinking she was the same sort of traitor like Aladdin had been. “I hadn’t told this story to anyone except Amaria, and, in retrospect, I think she was the one person I shouldn’t have told it to. I don’t think she manipulated me with it, but knowing that I wanted to save her from the same fate as my brother, at any cost, was definitely a weakness that she could rely on to keep me close.” Titania sent out a Skarmory and readied herself for flight. “Then why have you told the story to me?” She shrugged. “It’s been a while since I began to feel I was the antagonist of this story. I thought I didn’t mind it, but maybe I actually did want someone, anyone, to know that I wasn’t cruel for the sake of being cruel. That I really did the things I did with misguided compassion,” she said. “And the reason you were fitting to hear it was that… Well, you witnessed everything, and despite that, you’re still here.” Was that… a smile on her face? Yet, I couldn’t ascertain it because Titania immediately took off and looked at me from above. “Take care of the Sapphire bracelets. Or not. Do whatever you want with them. I’m freeing myself from any responsibility regarding those and Amaria.” She gave me no time to contradict her and elevated farther up into the sky. “I am exceedingly sorry you had to hear all that from her mouth and not mine.” Silver appeared right behind me without any precaution, which made me scream. “I also must leave. Wherever Aegislash goes, I must go too, for as long as he lives,” he said. “But let me thank you, Miss Vanilla, for watching over Tania in the manner I would have liked to… and would have, had I not forgotten everything I still wanted to do in that one decisive instant.” “What are you saying? I didn’t-” But before I could finish my sentence, he vanished into thin air right in front of my eyes, confirming that he had really been, all along, a ghost. I stood there in such awe that I forgot to even watch Titania disappear into the horizon. When I looked up to the sky, she had already become nothing but a speck among the clouds. I went back into the house and ran down the stairs to finally get on with the Gym battle. Julia had taken Amaria’s “make yourselves at home” quite literally and was now lying on a bright pink float in the middle of the flooded living room. She had shades and headphones on, so I wasn’t sure she was even awake. All she’d have needed was someone to bring her a pina colada to complete the picture of laid-back carefreeness. I went into the Gym arena without being noticed by Julia. Amaria was standing on the floating board from which she had shaken me off earlier in the day. I wasn’t dumb enough to possibly repeat the same mistake, and opted to stand on a different board from hers. “Sorry again for earlier. I think I let my emotions get out of control, and I almost committed something I would’ve regretted,” she said. “But I did end up cutting the last thread of hope that tied me to Tania in the process. It really is the end, in more ways than one.” “You relied too much on one person to guide your life. That was your mistake.” “For people like me, who inherently don’t have motivation to do anything, relying on her was the only way I could get out of bed every morning, and nourish myself so that I could live one more day alongside her,” she said, looking at her hands. “I’m back to my original self.” How would I describe it… She wasn’t crying or anything, but something about the way that she swayed in the unstable board, or the abundant blue waters that surrounded us, made me feel as though her whole being turned into grief itself. She was above water, but sunk in an all-consuming sadness, just because her purpose of living was snatched away from her. I must, at all costs, prevent that from happening to me, I thought with utmost conviction. “You’re here for a Gym badge, though. Not to hear me crying over spilt water,” Amaria said. “Shall we get on with it?” Amaria sent two pokemon into the water, signaling to me that this would be a double battle. There was a part of me who hesitated to take a pokeball in hand, but I pushed those feelings down and sent my first two fighters into the water as well. This battle was difficult, even though I was prepared to fight on water. Fighting against water pokemon in an arena that was vastly prepared in their favor, felt like an impossible battle to me, and it went without saying that I was in a pretty bad position during the first third of the fight. She supposedly lost her memory, but I didn’t think her fighting skills were harmed in any way. I cannot lose like this, being drowned totally one-sidedly, I thought. I desperately tried to think of a strategy on the spot, because just adding both water types in my team wasn’t cutting it. Realizing that one of the remaining pokemon in my team was Elsa (A-ninetales), I remembered something Archer mentioned in passing during our train ride here. However, now I like the water type due to their versatility. Just like it is both necessary for survival and is potentially deadly, the pokemon can make use of the water’s softness or literally turn it into icicles to attack hard. But what if, instead of turning water into icicles to attack, we froze the water to battle on top of ice? I wasn’t sure that change alone could throw the balance of the match overboard. Even then, I had to try it. I sent out Elsa and ordered her to freeze the water in the arena. Amaria did not give us unlimited time to work on that, but at least she was able to create a thin sheet of ice to cover the area we were fighting in. This prevented Amaria’s pokemon from diving and taking my pokemon with them to the depths of the pool, but it did increase the power of ice-type moves, which wasn’t totally helpful considering I had grass pokemon in my team. Yet, the balance, though not thrown overboard, was at least leveled between the two of us now. In the end, the remaining pokemon in my team managed to pull through when it mattered most, and- not without a lot of struggle and mental math- were able to faint all of Amaria’s pokemon. “Misery loves company just as I love her,” she said when she had lost. “That’s why we’re alone from now on.” She jumped from her white board to the one I was standing on, almost knocking me over again. With quick steps she approached me, and I raised my fists to prepare for a possible fight. I wouldn’t be caught off-guard twice in the same day. Yet, instead of trying to push me overboard, she extended her hand towards me. In it was the Torrent badge. She also gave me the TM Scald, which I thought would be a better move than Surf on some occasions. “Now go,” she said. “I set you free. Both you and her.” I nodded and started to leave the place. “And if anything happens to me, know that I’ll finally be at peace.” I stopped walking and turned around. “I can’t tell you what to do, since I’m nothing but a third party in all of this. Do what you must, to the extent that you’re satisfied,” I said. “But also remember that there was someone willing to jump a waterfall and nearly starve for your sake... to save that life you so under-appreciate.” Amaria said nothing in reply, and I left the arena behind. VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS TEAM RECAP QUICK DIVE TO NEXT EPISODE

There are like a few folkloric tales which are told over and over when you're a Japanese child. Urashimataro's story is just one of them so when stuff happens where things changed drastically while I was away, I instinctively remember that story lol It's not so important but for consistency's sake, Vanilla had a fren who went away when she was young so her remembering this tale should be in-character. Very good point, but Vanilla doesn't know the concept of mental health, really. To her, if she wasn't able to achieve something, it's her fault for not being strong enough. If her mind can't take it, it's because it's weak. That's just one of the examples in which her black-or-white thinking doesn't help her. But she's only like 19, and that's all she's thought so far. Something would have to happen that makes her realize the flaw in her thought process. Strength in Vanilla's mind is very loosely defined. It's like this magical thing that if she obtains, all her problems will go away. Wolfie wouldn't have died, she would've been able to save Taka, and she would be able to defeat the Queen and her allies to emancipate the Underworld citizens. It's also probably true that Vanilla still underestimates the power of strategy (though she's slowly improved from the days when she just punched everything in her way because she is learning to use her brains more through pokemon battling) because she thinks she can overcome the lack of good strategy (her strats buddy, Wolfie is dead after all) with excessive strength. Yep, totally impossible to do, but Vanilla thinks that if she thinks the way you and I are, that's just making excuses when her weakness is actually to blame. She's conflicted because she feels she had enough time to one-up Lin (Taka was standing there while Lin spoke, and Vanilla was there just watching the armor while it "spoke") but also doesn't want to lament the past, and also she knows Lin is "stronger" than her, so she always has the upper hand in the end. Tl;dr she's confused and doesn't know what to think. Silver being a terrible quitter is pretty much why he's a ghost instead of going to the afterlife. He has several regrets, one of which is that he wanted to keep studying his books, and another, well, I don't know if it'll be clear enough in the next episode but at least it's hinted at. At this point, it's great that you've sensed something fishy going on. I love dropping hints that really mess with my readers' minds as they try to piece everything together As for Fiore, it'll be quite dramathicc or at least one can hope it is when reading it lol

Yep lol I tried not to change the fields too much to keep the challenge so far, but I just couldn't win without freezing Amaria's field

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 87 While I told Julia and Archer about all that related to Taka and his demise, Julia gasped a few times, but neither of them spoke a word until I was done. And once I was done, too, they were silent for a minute. “I was here the whole time,” Archer said at last. “He went to sleep, and I helped Stethoscope in mapping the exact location of the cave that contains a water source. That took us shy of half an hour, but when I came back into our train car, he was gone. I thought he might’ve gone for a walk nearby… I never expected…” “I can’t believe it. How could Lin… How could anyone do such a thing,” Julia said. “Next time I see her, I’ll boom her face. No one messes with my friends, and this went way beyond mere messing.” “If we charge without a plan, this’ll happen,” I said, and then remembered Devon. “And if we plan something, she’ll have a strategy to still get the upper hand.” I clenched my skirt and bit my lip. “I couldn’t save… yet another person. When will I ever be strong enough?” We had dinner with the rest of the town. Then, at night, when I thought all our moods were good enough to talk again, I told Julia that Titania indirectly agreed to pay Amaria a visit soon. “Ehh? She’s not gonna join us on the way back then?” “No,” I said, trying to hide my honest relief. “Bummer! But I guess she also needs some alone time. You know, after what she did, albeit accidentally.” I nodded, but didn’t comment on the degree at which Titania regretted Taka’s death. It wasn’t my place to do so. We all went to sleep, and as was always the case, Julia was knocked out in a few seconds after lying on her train seat. I couldn’t sleep as quickly or as peacefully as her, however, so I stayed awake with my eyes closed. An hour must’ve elapsed, when Archer suddenly spoke up. “You can’t sleep?” I couldn’t see in the dark, but I assumed, from the direction his voice was coming, that he was talking while still resting on his seat. “Yeah. You can’t either?” “Sometimes I get insomnia, even on regular nights, but today I have a reason to get it,” he said. “I’m unable to switch my brain off easily, unlike Julia.” Though we were talking in a rather audible volume, Julia didn’t seem bothered by it one bit. “It was a short acquaintance, but it’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that a person who was with us only yesterday, is gone today.” “Yeah.” “But, in your case-” he started, but took a pause too long for me not to inquire after. “In my case, what?” “It’s just a gut feeling so I may be wrong. I think you’re quite easy to read, but even then.” “If you’re going to say something, say it right away.” “My bad,” he said, and took a deep breath before continuing. “I felt there was something more, an additional layer to your mourning. You seemed upset not just because of his death, but by the fact that you couldn’t save him.” “... Yes, what about it?” “This is something that I- as one of the few people who truly know what you are- can tell you,” he said. “You can’t expect to be The Savior all the time. The nature of the path you’ve chosen, both in Everland and Reborn, forbids you from it.” “I already know that.” “You do?” I felt annoyed that he replied as though he expected me to be an ignorant idiot, to whom he had to teach even the most basic of concepts in my own life. “Who do you think I am? You might remember that we killed many of your comrades, but we didn’t always escape unscathed either. Over the years, I’ve lost many whom I esteemed more than I did Taka.” I fell silent. Unsurprisingly, this talk had resurfaced my memory of the person I had esteemed the most, Wolfie. “All their deaths have one thing in common: they died due to my ineptitude.” That was right. When I heard from Wolfie that our base had been raided, my mind went blank. I was the leader. I should’ve foreseen something like that and planned ahead, but I had not. All I could do was blindly run after Wolfie, hoping that she could save my fatal mistake. But even with her quick wits, it had been too fatal a blow for a comeback. The officer did deal her the deadly shot, but really, the one who killed her was I. I killed her, because I wasn’t a strong enough leader. “The present me is no different. Had I reacted faster, had I realized Lin’s trap, Taka would be alive right now. He died in front of my eyes, and all I did was kneel on the ground and watch,” I said. “His death is unfortunate, and I feel it, but it is nothing compared to how angry I feel at my own incompetence.” “I won’t say you shouldn’t feel that way, but really, you shouldn’t forget you’re human in the end. It’s not so much about incompetence, but more the limits of being a mere mortal.” “With what authority do you tell me this? Have you ever even tried to surpass the said limits you think exist?” “Why, of course not, but I don’t need to test its existence. It’s all basic physics,” he said and laughed from his nose. “Say, if two people were about to get killed at the same time in different places, there’s no way you could save both at the same time, since you can’t divide yourself.” “You’re wrong. I could still save them, if I had enough foresight to prevent such a scenario from happening in the first place.” That shut him up for the time being. “I came to Reborn because I had to leave Everland, but I’ve tried to make the most out of it by training every day. The day must come when I’ll become both an unstoppable sword and an impenetrable shield, and if that means breaking through the limits of my humanity, I’ll do it. I will save all who need saving, and defeat all that stand in my way.” Archer said nothing in response, and we both maintained civil silence. Whether he fell asleep soon after the conversation, or took long hours to do so like I did, I couldn’t tell. Yet, at some point we must’ve slept, for, at least in my case, I dreamt. Even in my dream, the events from Titania’s enchanted palace, combined with the events from my last day in the Underworld, flashed in my imagination. Needless to say that they cooperated to nullify any prospect of my feeling refreshed from the few hours of sleep. The next morning, as I expected, I felt so tired that it was as if I hadn’t gotten any sleep at all. I sat on my train seat to let the blood rush down from my head. “You don’t seem to have had a good night’s sleep,” I heard a voice in my mind say sarcastically. “I know the seats aren’t the most comfortable things, but I’d say they’re much softer than the ground.” I looked over my shoulder, to the seat on which Taka used to sleep. It was, of course, empty. I sighed. My mind appeared to still be wishing to drag things from the previous day. “Come on. Forget it,” I said to myself. Pikachu growled softly next to me. I placed a hand on his disguise’s head. “Don’t worry. I’ve lost people that were more important to me before, and this won’t be the last time either, I presume. By now, I should be used to this sort of thing.” I laughed through my nose. “Wishing I could change the past is a waste of time. All I can do is try to become stronger, so that one day I can boast about not having a next time to regret.” Pikachu climbed on my shoulder, I grabbed my bag and left the train car. Outside, Archer and Julia, along with everyone from Train Town, were gathered. “Thanks so much for your hospitality,” Archer said. “The ones who are grateful are us,” Bill said. “Thanks to you, we can live much more comfortably.” “Yeah. Brenda and you guys have all been such a blessing, ain’t that right, Al?” Europa said, and Al nodded next to her. Stethoscope didn’t say anything, but bobbed her head when she locked eyes with me. “And we’re really sorry about… well, ya know, you friend,” Europa added. There was a moment of awkward silence, which Archer then broke. “Well, we should be going now. Thanks again, and best of luck to you.” “The same to you.” “Bye-bye!” Julia waved, as she made her way out. Unlike how it went on the way to Train Town, the way back was rather quiet and uneventful. Julia refused to drink half the amount of coffee she usually drank, and even on the days that we had to spend half of the day in each other’s company due to a sand storm, she didn’t ask us to play games. Archer noticed this, and went out of his way to ask her if she didn’t want to play chopsticks, and her reply was that there were too few players to make it fun. We boarded the train on the way back. When the giant walls that separated the city from the desert became visible, I felt as though I was returning after spending ages in the desert. It was almost surreal that I had lived through so much, and yet nothing in the city really marked the passage of time. I guess it could be called a reverse-Urashima-Taro* experience. I wondered how the Gym leaders were doing. Enough time had passed between when I left Calcenon and now, that I was curious to know whether they had been able to decipher the source of the sleeping signal, or found a way to bypass the barrier between Calcenon and Labradorra. Perhaps the latter was least likely, given that I knew Team Meteor was still operating, and I assumed they wouldn’t be able to if they weren’t so well-guarded by the barrier. In either case, Florinia had joined the group in Calcenon last I was there, and if she really was as great a technician as people said, I hoped she could be of some use in that front. I was set on paying the Fiore Mansion a visit, as I had told Titania I would do, to get a badge from Amaria, but to be honest, I just wanted to return to Calcenon as soon as I could. Sure, I was completing my objective of getting stronger by fighting the Gym leaders, but this was doing very little to help liberate the region from the terrorists. On the contrary, every minute I spent away from the battle front, the enemy could be snatching our allies or whoever they thought held bargaining value. They did us a number by capturing Aya, and, unless things didn’t change dramatically in the last few weeks, it wasn’t farfetched to suppose they also had Charlotte’s sister, who had gone missing for days. Then, they chose him as their next target, which, really, I couldn’t fathom what arts Jasmin could’ve used to sell that one as a useful hostage, but they did take him in. Perhaps their strategy wasn’t to bargain with us using hostages, but instead to cage all of us up one by one, until we had lost everyone who could fight. Maybe even now, as I thought from the comfort of this train car, they were capturing Charlotte, Cain, or even Shelly. I have to hurry up. “What will you do now, when you return to the city?” Archer asked Julia, bringing me back from a nightmarish daydream. “I’ll go check on Amy, and reassure her that Tania’s coming to visit her. Poor thing lost her memory, and all she asks for is her company.” “Must be rough for her.” And for Titania, perhaps. “What about you, Vanilla?” “I’ll head there with Julia. Amaria is the next Gym leader I need to battle.” “Oh, so ‘Amy’ is a Gym leader. Water type, if I understood correctly?” “Yep~ Her gym is a large pool. We went swimming on it often, but I don’t think Vanini would like to swim in there,” she said, surely remembering the time she almost drowned me. “And you should be careful, too, if your pokemon don’t like swimming. If you aren’t careful, Amy could be like one of those mermaids that lure you into the water and drown you.” Julia laughed at this, but the imagery wasn’t all that cheerful to me. “Well, as you know, I’m fond of water. At first, it was because I was chasing and fighting the Magma gang, so having pokemon with type advantage against Ground and Fire was strategic. However, now I like the water type due to their versatility. Just like it is both necessary for survival and is potentially deadly, the pokemon can make use of the water’s softness or literally turn it into icicles to attack hard.” “Well, electric types are also versatile,” Julia argued. “They can both provide light and make things go kaboom!” “There’s no arguing with that, if you qualify that as being versatile,” laughed Archer. “What about you, Archie? Where are you headed to once you return to the city?” Archer glanced at me, for some reason, before answering. “As you know, my gang has been dismantled, and Vanilla and Candy, with your cooperation too, of course, have helped them reintegrate into society,” he said. “I think it’s time I attempted doing that myself.” Archer explained to Julia that when he had come to Reborn City over a year ago, he had struggled to find a job in the profession he had in Everland. As she had overheard, he had been exiled from his hometown, and so didn’t have the cleanest record to apply for a position in law enforcement. “Yet, for better or worse, the situation has dramatically changed since then. A great number of police officers lost their lives due to Team Meteor’s attacks, and I think that means they’ll be recruiting more than usual. Perhaps they’ll be too desperate to care about my background. I’ll return home, and apply to as many positions as I can.” “When you say home, do you refer to…?” I said. “Yes. Hazel’s. It’s the only home I have, now that our base has been renovated into a small park.” Hazel’s home didn’t bring me any pleasant memories. Perhaps my feelings showed on my face, and in a different time, Archer might have teased me about it. Instead, he went ahead and talked at length about Hazel and her family to Julia, who knew nothing of them, but never dropped a hint about the young man and his Articuno, who temporarily stayed at their place. The train finally came to a full stop in Grandview station and the people aboard the train, most of whom had boarded from regions far away, exited with us. Perhaps it was due to word getting out about the renovated city, but there were more visitors and returning citizens than I expected there to be. Since Hazel’s home was at the base of Ametrine mountain and Fiore Mansion was on the way, we walked together until we had to part ways. “This is where we say goodbye,” Archer said. “Even though it was a wild roller coaster ride, from how it started until how it ended, I’m glad I got to go traveling the desert.” “But we’ll keep in touch, right?” Julia asked, and when Archer didn’t reply at once, repeated her question. “Yeah. Sure. You can visit me anytime. I’m unlikely to get a job very quickly. The house is located just through the Celestine Cave, and it’s pretty much the only one in the area.” Archer sent out a Sharpedo into the river and jumped on top of it. “In the end, we couldn’t understand each other completely,” he said looking at me. “But I think, if we compare to where we stood just a couple of weeks ago, we made progress. At least, on my side of things. Farewell.” He waved at us, as his pokemon carried him into the cave. Julia waved her pom-poms until he was out of sight. “It’s such a shame,” she said, still looking where Archer disappeared to. “I felt as though I was a character in an adventure book, exploring the desert with 3 friends. ‘Through hardships and collective effort, they get to know each other better and become closer, and then they finally return to their homes as changed people’. That’s how I thought the story would go, but…” Julia turned around and smiled, but there was a hint of gloom in her expression. “I’m kind of salty that we couldn’t get a happy ending, all four of us together.” “I agree, it’s a shame.” “But! I mustn’t be such a downer for long. It’d be more shameful if a cheerleader couldn’t cheer herself up!” she said and moved her pom-poms up and down. “Being sad when an acquaintance dies… I think that’s normal for anyone,” I said. “Even cheerleaders are human, after all.” Julia stopped her cheer dance, batted her eyes in a way that made me question if she understood what I said, but then nodded deeply. “Yeah. That’s true!” “Now, let’s go up this hill,” I said, bobbing my head in the direction of Fiore Mansion. VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS By this point, y'all shouldn't be surprised when I promise something for next episode and it isn't in the next episode I did finish writing the Gym Battle, but the theme in that part and this part didn't really match, so I opted to upload them as separate episodes lol I do think I'm kinda on a roll here, updating "regularly" in my standards lol *Urashima Taro is a forkloric tale of a man who goes to a kingdom under the sea, passes a night with them, then returns back to the surface, only to find that decades had passed while he was gone. This is a very minor detail, but Vanilla's friend, nicknamed Kame, is a descendant of this dude and is off on a pilgrimage to the kingdom under the sea, and won't be back until decades later. QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

Berry good thinking since it was berry much the case Magearna is like Pikachu pre-catching. She doesn't have a pokeball because she's a family fren/helper rather than a pokemon to be caught and trained. It's not a custom :p When you choose the Reshiram route, the battle sprites are different from when it's Zekrom route. Amaria's afaik is also gonna be different~ No worries, the real reveal in a more direct way was coming prolly in the next episode, for those who missed the passive aggressive hints lol Yep he was immortal, but died because he got slashed... I guess outside of battle? lol uwu melts He's still eccentric, but the parts where he refuses to touch stuff isn't eccentricity and more that he doesn't want to reveal his inability to do so. Vanini would've flipped if she'd understood the hints lmao I actually planned to reveal what he was in the very beginning of their acquaintance, but thought "that ain't fun enough" so I scrapped it. Here you can have another AU bit that got cut (starts when he asks Vanini all these questions about her family to see if she's the princess in the book, but is disappointed, and in the version that made it into the episode, there's an earthquake that prevents Silver from finishing his sentence which doesn't happen in this): No worritos, I don't write stuff without a plan (most of the time xD)

Berry good observation, me fren that was actually a (personally) crucial point so I'm glad it was noticed~ It really gotta be gut-wrenching sometimes I planned to have an epic fight-off where Vanini would lose- actually, why don't I just copy paste it here lol This is in an alternative timeline where I didn't think this was a boring bit that should be cut (it happens instead of Silver pranking Vanini): As for Magearna, she lives in the castle and really takes care of Silver's room, (minor spoilers for Idk next chapter? it was already aggressively implied though, me thinks) Magearna, like all other pokemon in my story, is immortal unless fatally wounded, so she's been living with the Andersens for centuries. The setting which I don't think I'll get to tell in-story is that she moved with the family when they emigrated from Alola (I guess, given her dex entry) to Everland, and has been family since then. Her loyalty has mostly been to the first-born, in this case, Silver. Titania knows Magearna lives with them, but doesn't particularly engage with her since Magearna is slightly terrified of her (due to her resting b*tchface lol).

Even Vanini, who really knew him for like 1 week, is a little hurt by his demise. I really hope he comes back when the world is renewed(?) in E19 I thought I'd reveal it in this episode, but it felt too hasty. Maybe in the next episode, since Amaria will be there too :p

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 86 At some point, we had to exit to a rooftop, and take some colorful floating stairs. “These are also the work of an Everish artisan. They are under the spell to remain in place, so don’t worry about them suddenly falling or anything,” he said cheerily, as always, unbothered the difficult situation I was in. “Do be careful not to lose your balance, though. I would offer you a hand, but… well, let me just say that would not be quite a Helping Hand.” I didn’t understand his meaning, but I only shrugged. I didn’t like him enough to hold his hand anyway. Instead of him, Pikachu jumped off my shoulder and offered me his hand. We began going up the stairs slowly, because the altitude was quite discomforting. When I thought I lost balance, Pikachu would pull me back, and when he lost balance, which wasn’t nearly as often due to how small he was, I pulled on him. At a midpoint, though, I stopped in my tracks because I was called by a familiar, but exceedingly unwelcome, voice. “Vanilla! Up here,” shouted Taka. “Taka? What are you doing here? You should’ve stayed in Train Town,” I shouted back. “I know, I didn’t move from there. I literally went to nap and woke up here,” he said, with hasty breathing. “And Lin-” His voice cracked when he mentioned her, and the rest of the conversation was all said while sniffling on his part. “I’m sorry, Vanilla. I really am sorry,” he said. “I didn’t want her to… I didn’t want this. Please believe me.” “I know that,” I shouted. “But she’s here, and I’ll have to deal with her now.” “I’ll… I’ll find a way down so I can join you.” “Don’t do that. If you can, find a way out of this place,” I said, then I turned to Silver. “Can you get to where he is and guide him out of here?” “Sure thing,” he said. “Or at least, we can try. He entered this space using unknown means, so I’m not quite certain that I’ll have the capacity to get him out. Will you be alright on your own?” “I’ll figure it out. Now, go.” He bowed once, ran down the stairs, entered the castle through the door we exited through, and impossibly soon appeared next to Taka. “Shall we get going, my good sir?” Taka appeared as bewildered as I was that this man had teleported to where he was, but didn’t complain and followed his lead. When I saw that they were both out of my sight, I continued walking with Pikachu. We moved slower than I’d wish, but at least we didn’t fall off the staircase, which was the only thing that could happen to make our situation worse. We were once again halted, when the lady of the house finally showed up. “How in the world did you enter this place?” Titania asked. “And you had to drag these other vermin in too.” She was standing on a piece of Earth that had also been enchanted to float, apparently. However, that piece wasn’t reachable via my staircase. It was only reachable by another, thinner set of stairs that crossed the one I was on at a slightly higher plane. Titania used them to stand right above me. “We’ll need to get rid of them.” “Taka isn’t our enemy,” I said. “Remember how you were insistent that he made a choice? Well, he chose our side. We only have to take care of Lin.” “I will know whether he’s on our side or not, depending on how he acts today. For all I know, he could have called her here, or might get in the way to protect his superior.” I didn’t say anything back. It was pointless to argue at a time like this, when we didn’t know when Lin might reach and slice Taka’s throat. Besides, Titania was right on this. She will know he is on our side anyway, since he won’t get in our way. “I’ll finish that green haired b*tch who’s wandering around my house as if it were hers,” she said. “Vanilla, do you trust me?” “Do I trust you? What kind of question is that?” I laughed. “Have you done anything to deserve my trust?” “Right. I should’ve seen that one coming. But we don’t have time, so just take these regardless.” Titania let something drop from where she stood, and I failed to catch it but Pikachu did on my behalf. He extended his arm so that I could take a better look at whatever she wanted me to hold on to. “The sapphire bracelets?” I said, but by then Titania was already running towards higher ground. I placed the bracelets in my bag, and carried on climbing the unnecessarily long stairs. When we finally reached ground again, we saw that there was an opening that connected this pastel fantasy land to a dark, lava-infested cave. There wasn’t any other way to go, though, so we walked right in. Silver was waiting for us inside. “What on earth are you doing here? Didn’t I tell you to guide Taka to safety?” I said, with no effort to hide my irritation. “That is the interesting part. I thought I was doing just as you said,” he said. “I was guiding him to the exit, but suddenly I looked behind me and he was gone. I have no idea what kind of magic worked on him, despite my- if I say so myself- broad expertise when it comes to magical studies.” “Perhaps it wasn’t a work of magic, of the type that exists in Everland. But that is terrible news, regardless.” That meant that Taka could be anywhere now, and the location he happened to be in, could very well be the same as the one Lin was in. “Sorry about that, m’lady. But let me be your guide from now on,” he said. “That is, until we encounter Tania… It’s complicated.” Perhaps they fought? I thought vaguely but continued my way. Our path was full of lava pools that glowed and helped light up the otherwise dark cave. It wasn’t a straight way, however, so I couldn’t run too quickly in case I might not be able to turn in time. “Do you wonder why we have a Dragon’s Den in our residence?” Silver asked. I had no time to chit chat, so I kept silent. “My generation didn’t get to see it, but our great grandparents used to own a pet dragon. See that? There’s a large statue built in the dragon’s likeness over there.” The statue entered our field of vision soon enough. The dragon had a slender face but quite a large body, and a tail that was almost half the size of the whole beast. Somehow, I felt some familiarity with its tail’s shape, but I couldn’t be sure. My mind was too confused to think deeply about it. When we passed near it, however, it moved toward us and screeched. I was so startled that I fell backwards, only narrowly missing a pool of lava. I thought the statue would keep attacking, much like the statues we’d encountered in Solaris’ secret cave, but once it was done, startling me out of my senses, it returned to the base it had been standing on. “What the f*ck was that?” I screamed. I looked at Silver, who grinned in response. “Are you alright, m’lady?” he asked, and extended a hand to me, which I waved away. “Did you know that thing would move?” I asked, pushing me off the ground. “Of course. You see, that statue was also enchanted so that my great gran-” “You literally just attempted to murder me,” I said. “I almost fell into that pool of lava, all because of you.” “I assure you I had not the slightest intention to do any such thing, but I thought it would improve your foul mood if I pranked you thus. Forgive me, m’lady. I really thought you would appreciate the hilarity.” I couldn’t believe what had just happened, but there was no scenario in which Silver’s conduct could be forgiven. Improve my foul mood by pranking? Please. There was no way that cheap excuse could be taken at face value, and that only left one other possibility: that he had never been my ally to begin with. I took my fighting stance, and before Silver could ask another nonchalant question, I swung my fist from under his chin across his face. Yet, I missed… by a tenth of an inch? Actually, I couldn’t have missed a target so large and unmoving, but I didn’t hit anything so I had to conclude that I missed. Silver appeared to comprehend something in my puzzlement and looked serious for once. Yet, instead of elaborating on the subject, he pointed behind me and said: “Is it time to be fighting me? Look.” I turned around and saw that a person was standing there. They were wearing armor that covered all their body, including their face. “So she gave you the sapphire bracelets voluntarily,” she said, with a voice that confirmed the armored person to be Lin. “Why don’t you do the same for me?” “Tell me one good reason I should give them to you.” Lin was silent. “I thought so.” “Do you really think you can stand up to me? Even after what happened to your precious champion?” Lin asked. Ame’s limp body, followed by Wolfie’s bloodied body, flashed in the back of my mind. I took a deep breath. “The fight in Reborn… It’s also my fight now,” I said. “If I perish here, that only means I wasn’t fated to be a savior.” I adopted a fighting stance. “Bring it on,” I shouted and grabbed a pokeball. Yet, I didn’t end up fighting Lin. Before I even comprehended what happened next, it had happened. Titania fell on top of Lin and made her crumble to the ground. “Die!” she shouted as she flung her Aegislash’s blade down to Lin’s back. The blade penetrated the armor and, I assumed, her flesh. 1 second passed… then 10. Blood started staining the ground underneath the steel armor. “Ha… hahaha!” Titania laughed like a maniac, and my attention shifted from the pile of armor to her. “So that’s all it took. Someone should’ve done that a long time ago.” Titania pulled her sword. The blade’s cusp was crimson and glistened when light reflected on it. Given that the body no longer had a blade blocking the blood loss, the pool of blood underneath it rapidly increased in diameter. I had to look away. Even though Lin’s dismissal was a blessing to all of us, I couldn’t see a puddle of blood forming without getting paralyzed by unpleasant memories. “Our world is in disarray because of you,” I heard Titania say, and a metallic clamor followed it. “Wait, what?” I looked at the limp body again, since her reaction required my attention. And what I saw… I couldn’t believe it. “How can this be?” I said and kneeled on the ground. Titania had kicked the helmet off of the armored body, but the head that was revealed was not Lin’s. It was… Taka’s… “If you keep swinging that thing around like that, sooner or later someone’s going to get hurt,” I heard Lin’s voice from behind me. “Yeah, you!” said Titania, and she passed me and charged towards Lin. I didn’t see what happened, but things didn’t sound like they were going well. Though I would’ve wanted to crawl to where Taka was, to check if there was any small possibility he might still be saved, but I judged I wouldn’t get a chance to do that as long as Titania and Lin were having a one-on-one. So I decided to stand up and deal with my foe. By the time I paid full attention to them, Lin was holding Titania above a pool of lava, while Titania desperately but unsuccessfully struggled to get her hands off her. Yet, I didn’t see Titania surviving a dive in lava if Lin really let her go. “Is this what you really want? Should I let go?” Lin asked her. I briefly considered how ethical it would be if I pushed both of them into the lava. Yet, I reconsidered. I had a feeling that Lin would not die even then, and as much as I disliked Titania, she was still useful as Team Meteor’s enemy. I wouldn’t have been able to push them both, after all, though, because as soon as I took one step towards them, Lin threatened to let go of Titania if I moved. I couldn’t do much but watch, hope the best of luck to Titania, and wait for a chance to counter-attack. The chance did arrive, but not for me. Titania was finally able to get a hold on Lin, so that she wouldn’t move, and then called her Aegislash, who was resting near them. The loyal sword pierced through yet another body, and then Lin wobbled and gasped for air before falling to the ground. I quickly rushed to give Titania a hand, and I watched as she pulled the sword from the body. “For the sake of everything good in this world,” she said. “Just f*cking die already!” She swung the sword down again, making another cut in the body. I looked at Lin’s face. Her eyes were wide open, wider than those of the dead people I’d ever witnessed. Perhaps we were finally able to one-up her. Titania withdrew her sword again and walked over to where Taka still lay. “He shouldn’t have gotten in the way, but… it’s her fault it ended up like this in the first place,” she said and bit her lips. “I feel like shit.” Then, she walked away to another exit to this cave. I didn’t follow her, at least not right away. I kneeled next to Taka’s body. “This is the result of your choice,” I said at him. Pikachu jumped off of my shoulder and pushed Taka’s body back and forth twice. Taka’s head jerked, which jumpscared me, and then coughed blood. I had already thought him to be dead. “Vanilla,” he said, but his eyes wouldn’t focus on me. “Hang in there,” I said, but I didn’t have a way to save him. I glanced around me, but not even Silver was in our vicinity for me to ask him for help. Where did he even go? “This is fine,” he said. “No, it’s not. This can’t be the end.” “It is,” Taka coughed more blood. “Don’t say anymore,” I said, then shouted: “Silver! Titania!” “Listen. I… I was actually dead already,” he coughed here again. “But this past week… I lived. If I’d known I’d truly die because of tha-” He had a fit of coughing and his breathing became rougher. “I chose right.” He soon after took one last look at me. Then, while his eyes were still fixed on me, his expression went blank. I pushed his eyelids down. “Do you... really think so?” I walked to the cave’s exit, and found a large open space surrounded by pillars, even though there was no ceiling for them to support. I wouldn’t have cared about the lack of ceiling, were it not for the snow and occasional bits of hail that fell upon us. Titania was standing with her arms crossed, looking as grim as I’d ever seen her. “That woman is dead, but I don’t feel good about it,” she said. “And that boy… why was he in that armor? It must’ve been something she did.” I said nothing in response. I wasn’t sure I could hide my irrational resentment towards Titania, which her irresponsible use of violence had ignited in me. Yet, that she felt an equal resentment towards herself was evident to me, so I convinced myself to be satisfied with that for now. “But you’re here for the gym battle, aren’t you? Are we doing that now?” “Yes.” Honestly, trying to concentrate after what had happened proved harder than expected. I made some careless mistakes during battle, which if I had been completely on my senses, I probably wouldn’t have. Yet, the same could be said about Titania. Her pokemon were strong attackers, but she didn’t support them with healing at crucial moments, which ended up costing her the gym badge. “This is not a happy ending, but such things never existed to begin with,” she said, as she returned her Aegislash to its pokeball. “What a boring performance.” I turned around in disbelief. “Why… How are you alive?” Titania said, lunging forward toward us. “You should not be alive right now!” Lin took a moment to move her lips from side to side until her face was wrinkled into what I assumed was a, visibly forced, smile. “Do you understand now? Steel will not make me bleed, and your armor is nothing more than tinfoil to the brimstone breath of the New World.” “If steel will not make you bleed, it’s only a question of finding a different way to,” I said. “It will be a spectacle, to see you try and fail countless times, until you lose the will to keep going,” she said. “But that is not important. What is important is that Vanilla leave this place with those Sapphire Bracelets.” “Why would you need Vanilla to keep them?” Titania asked, then gasped and slid away from me. “Are you two working together?” “Aren’t we?” I stepped towards Lin, but halted. Instead, I made a steep curve and walked towards Titania. Then, I shoved the bracelets at her chest. “If you’re that gullible, better not entrust them to me.” I looked back at Lin, whose face was still contorted. “You are always rebelling, like a child does when they believe they can force their wants on their parents,” she said. “That is a common thought among the weak like you, Vanilla. However, in practice, it is never effective against someone that could crush you like the insect you are, whenever it suited their fancy.” “Let me see if your words speak the truth.” I would’ve ran to Lin and engaged her in a physical fight, had Titania not grabbed me and stopped me with all her might. “Are you stupid? Don’t you see she’s just provoking you? Snap out of it,” she said. “You’re weak, not only physically, but mentally too, it appears,” Lin said. “I will not waste another minute with you, but I will only remind you: if you stand in my way, I will not hesitate to kill your friends.” Lin turned around and was about to go back into the cave, but before she did, she left us with these parting words: “Though, perhaps you would prefer that, Titania.” “Prefer that? Don’t be stupid,” Titania said once Lin was gone from our sight. “Nobody wants blood on their hands.” She took a pause here, and I imagined she was perhaps reflecting on her recent kill. “I must go back to Amaria. I will keep protecting her, as long as I live. And you,” she said, looking at me. “You’ll keep the bracelets.” “Why? Didn’t you hear Lin? Don’t play into what she wants.” “Yes, but you won the Gym battle. You are the stronger trainer. I will trust that you’ll keep them safe from Lin’s reach. Besides, she now believes I have the bracelets. Perhaps we can make use of that in the future.” I took the bracelets, though I wasn’t convinced that, at this point, any sort of attempt to one-up Lin would be fruitful. As long as we couldn’t decipher the source of her superhuman powers, we could not surpass her. “Leave the boy’s corpse to me. I will give him a proper burial in this enchanted land. He will be safe here, though I doubt he’d need to be safe anymore,” Titania said. “If you plan to continue your Gym challenge, we’ll cross paths quite soon. Amaria is the next Gym leader, and you know where to find her.” “I will tell Julia that you’ll return to Fiore mansion on your own accord.” Titania appeared surprised to hear Julia’s name mentioned. “Did she come to the desert with you? I did hear two voices, but when I went to pick you up, neither of you were in sight.” “Yeah, that’s because your brother let us in.” This seemingly innocent comment confused Titania for some reason. “My… brother? Hardy isn’t here at the moment. He rarely ever is. If you’re looking for him, I’m not the one you should be asking.” I shook my head. “I meant your elder brother.” “I don’t think you know what you’re talking about,” she replied. “Perhaps your mind is actually weak, and you’ve been so deeply affected by that boy’s death that you can no longer differentiate between fact and fantasy.” “Why are you acting so defensive? I simply explained how Julia and I bypassed the protective spell,” I said, unwilling to hide my displeasure. Titania took a pause to think what to say. “My elder brother, Silver, is no more. There. Have that help you organize your memory,” she said. “I’m heading out. Use the rabbithole located at the end of this field to exit this place.” She pointed to what, from this distance, looked like a bunch of rocks, and then disappeared into the cave. I ran over to the bunch of rocks, which, as I got closer, I realized were just adorning the edges of the rabbithole. Once I was close enough to it, though, I noticed there was someone stuck inside of it. “Is Tania gone?” Silver asked. “Yeah,” I said. I had more to say to him, after he left me alone midway, but Titania’s enigmatic words had discouraged me from talking to him more than what was really necessary. On being told that his sister was out of sight, Silver crawled out of the rabbithole. “I beg your forgiveness, m’lady. In the end, I could not be of much use to you. I am deeply sorry for your friend’s passing.” I shook my head. I didn’t need the condolences of this stranger. “Titania seemed very off-put by the idea that you let Julia and I into this place,” I said. “What do you say to that?” “It is complicated, as I told you before. She and I were close a long time ago. It is not surprising if she still resents me for abandoning her.” “Abandoning her?” “It is a long story, most of which I, unfortunately, cannot tell you due to the nature of my existence,” he said. “Forgive me, again, if I have not explained myself well, but suffice to say that the Andersen family’s story, where it pertains to myself, does not have a happy ending.” If Titania’s words had been difficult to decipher, his were worse. I gave up on understanding. Whatever the deal was with these siblings, it was not my priority to know every bit of it. “I’m going,” I said, taking a peek at the rabbithole, which I could not see the end of at all. “It has been a pleasure meeting you and Julia,” Silver said and bowed. “I wish you the best of luck.” I didn’t look back at him and jumped straight into the rabbithole. The feeling of falling into the unknown felt… somewhat nostalgic. In the blink of an eye, I was standing in a dim space. There was a slide door, and light was creeping in from their crevices. I pulled them open, and found a familiar sight just outside. I was, somehow, already in Train Town. “Vanini!” exclaimed Julia when she saw me walking towards them, from the direction they least expected me to come from. “How did it go?” Archer asked. I didn’t answer right away. What I would have to tell them wasn’t something I could easily explain in a couple of words. Well I guess that means we can leave the desert. But without Tacos :( VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

I think you can format it as you like, but I personally try to make it easier for peepos to read my stuff by: Having the first post list/link all the chapters in spoilers so that they can click on the next one if they don't want to scroll through 15 pages lol Have a "link to the next chapter" thing at the bottom of each chapter so that if peeps comment a lot, other peeps can still quickly skip those to go to the next chapter without scrolling. Having different colors for the dialogue. This isn't so much for easiness to read, but because colors = fun! That's what comes to mind on the top of my head :p happy writing~

Glad you like it lol and although Vanini is a creation of mine, she's very different from what I am irl so it's sometimes hard to predict all her moves and behavior completely accurately All I can do is write her as I "dream" her to be acting, which tends to be 90% in character fortunately. Glad I could translate the creepy atmosphere I feel from Tania's gym into writing. Like in the original game, you get challenged by knight statues, one of which is Lin, kinda like a jump-scare. Then you find yourself in a room that loops until you find a way out, which is something you'd see in horror movies and stuff. I didn't really know I was writing a horror until you pointed it out, though. This will be revealed when "how she bypassed the magical barrier" is revealed, but it's not much that she lost memory but rather, because she woke from "sleep", she thought what happened irl was what happened in a dream. lolol this was not really intentional horror stuff. I was trying to portray a room that's super in-your-face luxurious, and wine red feels regal. I'm not an interior designer at all, so this is the best I can do The reason Julia isn't surprised is that he guided her to the guest room (no introductions were made then, but she would've guessed he was a person who works in the castle or something). But there is a reason no one has hinted at his existence. I listed random stuff including astrology and quantum mechanics to illustrate that Silver/Tania/Hardy's dad was someone with wide range of interests. There's an awful lot of books in Tania's castle, so I gave him that setting so it fits with that lol Not an important point, but I do make an effort to pay attention to small details like that lol She actually used to punch people in the beginning-ish for random stuff because she was in an ill mood (it had been a day or so since Aladdin betrayed her, Wolfie died protecting her, and she lost her whole Defiance group). She's now much less aggressive as a character, so I didn't think she'd punch someone she didn't exactly know was friend or foe. She did snap at the potential that he might've changed her clothes, though lol Silver is uhhh a spectator of sorts, so for the most part, he only watches. There's some hints in the episode as to why that is, but as you realized, there's something weird about him for sure :p I don't really know how Lin works, but so far she's been able to do stuff that would be nearly impossible for a normal, living human to do (even knowing that Taka had changed alliances and was in the desert with protagonist, or making Taka teleport to Tania's gym are already impossible imo), so I also let her surpass the protective spell. How did she do it? Probably the same way that she does things lmaooo

I meant elder bro And also despite the similar name, not Silver from Gold/Silver games. Head canon that might or might not make it to the story is that he was a steel type E4 member but stepped down a whale back. Then El joined E4. Lol you know your edgelord xD

Welcome uwu <3 Their ancestor is from Everland but not Tania's generation. They've been living in Reborn for over 200 years, maybe even in the times when the ruins under Reborn City were out in the open, in my head-canon. I just wanted a reason for them to be so tied to fairytales in a fairytale run lol and why they live in a castle with green pasture in the middle of the desert xD It'd be impossible to build without magic, I'd say. Someone did uwu Lmaooo I knew you'd like the quantum mechanics part. Tania's dad was a studious old boye Yep Tania doesn't have a brother in canon. While I dreamt about these few episodes a whale back, I thought of many things that could happen, but the scenario I liked best was Tania having an elder bro... for reasons that will be revealed next episode :3 In the real route, statues attack you while you go through the castle, and one of them gets behind you and prolly hits you from the back (it's Lin), which transports you to a room (I used the map for Silver's room). But I feel Vanini wouldn't be the type to have her back open to attacks of the sorts so I scrapped that. In canon, Lin actually makes a dramatic(?) entrance. I didn't change that bit. Most of the dialogue for her I took straight from the game :p