Virgil134
PMD Writer
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The following morning, the Siglo Swellow settled into its normal routine, as her sailors returned to their posts tending the ship. Some crew members with nothing better to do wiled away their time making small amusements on deck, while a few braver souls opted to poke about Canalhouse City's sights. In the darkened interior of the ship, Pladur and Kiran made their way down the ship's corridors for the sleeping quarters, the Fraxure carrying a small tray bearing a breakfast of bread and gummis while Kiran held a lantern in his beak. As the pair neared the door to the sleeping quarters where Trizano was still recovering, Pladur slowed his pace and uneasily turned to Kiran.
"Are we sure he would've recovered this quickly, Kiran?" the Dragon-Type asked. "I know that Immortals are supposed to come back from nasty injuries, but…"
"Well, he was able to feel things around his eyes last night," the Swellow murmured back. "So things are progressing, at least. We might as well see how far he's come along."
Pladur breathed in sharply, before setting forward, Kiran accompanying him with his light as they entered the sleeping quarters. The Swellow raised the lantern, revealing an emptied room that had been vacated within the past few hours, with some still-mussed straw and hammocks lying about along with a few bags belonging to the sailors along the walls and supporting timbers… and little else. Trizano ought to still be in the far left corner of the room, but something about the silence made the pair wonder if perhaps he was still asleep. Pladur hesitated a moment, before raising his voice to call off into the darkness.
"Trizano? Are you up?"
The pair heard sharp jostling coming from Trizano's place in the room, prompting Kiran to turn and raise his light, which caught the glint of metallic feathers in the corner and revealed Trizano was still nesting and settled into his bedding. The Skarmory got up, awkwardly finding his footing and exposing his bandaged eyes as he tried to turn his head towards the sound of his teammates' voices.
"Yeah, I am," Trizano replied. "I… haven't really been able to sleep, even though I've been in the dark since the fight yesterday."
"Well, we brought breakfast for you," Kiran said. "Let's take a look and see your eyes are coming along, and then we'll leave you to eat and rest a bit."
Kiran and Pladur made their way over to the Steel-Type, Pladur setting down the tray of food as Kiran raised the lantern and illuminated the bandages over Trizano's eyes, along with sets of dark reddish-brown blotches on them.
Pladur flinched at the sight, which drew uncomfortable memories of similar bandages that had been removed from his own stitched-up stomach a mere five days ago. After steeling himself, the Fraxure leaned in and started undoing the bandages and pulling them away, quietly dreading whatever ghastly wounds he would find underneath…
"A-Ah!"
Pladur jolted back and fell onto his rump with a start. There in front of him, Trizano's eyes were back to their normal yellow-and-blue selves! Why, even the cross-shaped pupils that he and other Immortals had, had come back without any sign of blemish!
"Travellers above! They really did get better!" the Fraxure exclaimed.
Pladur sat there for a moment and gaped in astonishment, as Kiran set the lantern down and let out a relieved sigh. Strangely though, Trizano continued to appear visibly tense, as the pair watched a grimace spread over the Skarmory's beak.
"Kiran? Pladur? Could you come closer?" he asked. "I'm having trouble seeing you."
Kiran and Pladur caught themselves and traded worried looks, the Fraxure getting back up onto his feet and fidgeting uneasily with his claws.
"Uh… shouldn't you be able to see us fine right now?" the Dragon-Type said. "We're standing right in front of you, and the lantern we brought down's sitting right next to you and your food."
Trizano jumped and batted his wings out with a start as his eyes shrank to pins and his breaths came out tight and shallow, his voice coming out with a panicked squawk.
"C-Cernun's horns! Th-that Noivern really did blind me!" he cried. "I'm gonna be stuck like this forever!"
The Skarmory frantically looked about his body, as if trying to coax his eyes into regaining their damaged sight, prompting Pladur to cut in and wave his claws for calm.
"T-Tranquilo! Your eyes were in worse shape last night!" the Fraxure insisted. "Even if they look healed from the outside to us, maybe they're not all the way there yet! Just take some time and let yourself recover a bit!"
"B-But I'm Trizano the Immortal!" the Steel-Type exclaimed. "I've never had lingering wounds like this before!"
"Trizano, you're not healing yourself any faster by working yourself into a tizzy like this," Kiran said. The Swellow ruffled his feathers sharply, and shook his head with a low sigh.
"Why did you even do this to yourself?"
Trizano spluttered back at the Swellow, shooting his head forward with a sharp scowl.
"'Do this to myself'?! Non dire sciocchezze! Kiran, I didn't ask to get my eyes burned!" the Skarmory snapped back. The Steel-Type's sharp retort made Pladur paw uneasily at the back of his head, before he glanced away.
"I mean, Kiran did say that we needed to retreat since we were outmatched," the Fraxure said. "But you still went off ahead on your own to face that Noivern…"
"I was given this gift by Cernun!" Trizano protested, turning his beak up with a sharp huff. "It's my duty to use it to try and help others!"
"Maybe, but is it really helping to keep charging in headfirst like that?" Kiran pressed. "Like with those mercenaries on Haipheh?"
Trizano fell quiet at the Swellow's questioning and his features eased up. In normal times, his answer would've been a reflexive 'yes', but with his fight with Aldrich… it was hard to say that doing so had really accomplished much beyond putting him on bedrest. Sensing that he'd put the Immortal into a contemplative state, Kiran lowered his head and continued speaking.
"Trizano, you're able to take risks that the rest of us aren't, we get it. But that doesn't mean that you need to constantly be taking them!" the Swellow insisted. "We're a team, and part of being a team is working together. Not charging off on your own to try and make a difference by yourself!"
He shuffled his wings and looked away from the Skarmory, clearly hesitating for a moment over how to continue.
"I suppose it must be cold comfort at this point, but part of that is also picking your battles wisely," Kiran said. "You can't predict how a battle is going to play out, or when there will be consequences to live with afterwards, so it's not a matter to take lightly."
Trizano said nothing for a long silence, before drooping his head and wings and grudgingly raising his voice in reply.
"I… I suppose I'd have done things differently if I didn't have Lord Cernun's blessing," the Skarmory admitted. "Not that I was expecting this to happen to me."
The Steel-Type trailed off for a moment and fidgeted restlessly, before turning back to his teammates with a despairing look.
"B-But how am I supposed to help anyone like this?!" he cried. "I can barely see you two right now!"
"Just worry about helping yourself for now," Kiran said. "There will be plenty of time for you to lend aid after you've recovered."
"Yeah, and I'm sure the kids are doing fine right now in the Academy," Pladur added, seemingly trying to convince himself with his own words. "They've been a bit more careful after they heard what happened to you, and the rest of the team's been keeping a closer eye on them just in case they do get into trouble…"
That same morning, Nida and her fellows from Team Traveller made sure to arrive early at the Academy, starting off at Gerhard's class in the beginning where they dutifully avoided the rear row of seats and got oriented for the other classes that were offered from Filbert and his siblings after claiming to have lost their schedule. After getting walked through an itinerary, the five drifted from class to class, eventually coming to a history classroom on the other side of the central building where the Torterra instructor informed her pupils that they'd be receiving a guest lecture that day.
Much to their astonishment, the lecturers turned out to be none other than Team Taxonomy, who returned in their red-and-white scarves along with a strangely familiar Vaporeon. Team Traveller tried their hardest to remain composed and inconspicuous lest the five guest instructors recognize them and ruin their cover. Fortunately, none of them seemed to pick them out from their fellow students as the amateur researchers took turns going through a lecture about the cultures of different islands in the Cradle, how they'd formed new commonalities after coming into contact with each other after being moved from the Old World, and how other similarities seemed to predate even that. Much to Nida's surprise, the example the Vaporeon of the group focused on when it was his turn was none other than the tale of the Prince of a Thousand Enemies.
"On Tromba he is a Nidorino, on Boisocéan a Diggersby, on Gestirn a Lopunny, and right here on Vollezee, he is a Raboot," the Vaporeon said. "All different Pokémon, yet all have a folktale about them being a 'Prince of a Thousand Enemies' with mostly the same stories shared between them. Sounds impossible, right?"
At the back of the room, Team Traveller's members squirmed and tried to keep their heads low, dutifully trying to avoid the gaze of Team Taxonomy's members at the front of the classroom. All the while, Pleo couldn't help but find the Vaporeon's presence in front of the blackboard to be strange and off-putting.
"Isn't that the same 'Opdahl' Vaporeon we ran into on Buyeom?" he asked. "What's he doing here, and with Team Taxonomy of all Pokémon?"
Somehow, when Opdahl said that he was looking for his companions on Buyeom, it never occurred to Pleo that he might have been looking for Team Taxonomy. The others seemed just as surprised by the development, but kept their mouths firmly shut as Crom whispered back in reassurance.
"Guess they must've been the friends he was talking about," the Druddigon murmured. "Though I don't really get how fairy tales have anything to do with 'monthropology' or whatever this lecture's about."
Pleo gave a puzzled tilt of his head. Was there something wrong about fairy tales being taught in one of these 'history' courses? Pleo considered asking further, only to see Opdahl sway his tail and continue on, prompting the Lugia to train his attention back to the front of the classroom.
"But if you flip your thinking around, it actually suggests the opposite. That all of these stories originated from a common source," the Vaporeon explained. "One that was known and talked about enough to travel the distant corners of the Old World so that when pieces of it were brought here, Pokémon were able to remember their own versions of it."
"And it's not the only bit of folklore that this dynamic has been observed in," the Archen of the group added, as he stepped forward to Opdahl's place.
"The various tales of the Warriors of Light, the stories of Walter's Magical Kingdoms… they are all myths that have variations from island to island while mostly agreeing on their broad strokes in a way that would suggest they as stories share a common origin," Scholls continued. "So then, the question is who came up with that common source? And who else would be a more logical candidate for that other than humans?"
Nida blinked at the Archen's commentary. She'd heard most of those fairy tales growing up, and knew that the stories of Walter's Magical Kingdoms were first told by humans, but somehow the thought never occurred to her whether a human or a Pokémon first told the tales of the Prince of a Thousand Enemies. In that case, how could she be sure the stories hadn't left out important parts of the originals?
… Then again, perhaps it didn't matter if the stories had changed from the way they were told originally. After all, Pokémon rarely kept every detail in the tales they told the same without reading it from a book, but if they were good ones, they still entertained their listeners all the same. So whatever the original version of those stories were like, they had to have enthralled Pokémon back in the Old World every bit as much as the stories of the Prince of a Thousand Enemies had when she was younger for them to stick around in some form for this long.
The sound of heavy footsteps pricked Nida's ears, as she looked off at the front to see the Torterra teacher getting up and clearing her throat from beside the five guest instructors. The Grass-Type cast an impatient glance at an hourglass that had run empty on the desk, before shaking her head back at the group.
"Thank you very much for your presentation, Team Taxonomy," the Torterra said. "But I'm afraid that we'll have to leave things here for now since the next period is about to start."
The students got up from their desks and hurried along for the door, a few grumbling to themselves over losing scarce break time from how long the lecture had dragged on. As Team Traveller neared the desk at the front of the room, their ears caught snippets of Team Taxonomy's members chattering with one another.
"Hrmph, I still don't understand why we couldn't get that slot for a biology lecture," Wally remarked. "We had a lot more material prepared for that!"
"Hey, at least it got our foot in the door!" Machalí insisted. "Mira el lado bueno, we'll be able to use the funds for our next round of research!"
Team Traveller passed just as the Marshtomp of the group gathered up some books he and his teammates had left on the desk. The Water-Type chanced to look up at Team Traveller and furrowed his brow a moment, before raising a paw to point them out to his teammates.
"Hey," Garth murmured. "Didn't we see those kids before-?"
Elty and the others all but bolted out of the classroom after seeing the Marshtomp pointing after them, hurrying out into the hall past the next three classrooms before they slowed their pace. After looking over their shoulders and making sure that Team Taxonomy hadn't come after them, the lot let out sighs of relief and shook their heads.
"Whew, that was a close one," Elty said. "Of all the places to run into Team Taxonomy again, I certainly wasn't expecting to see them here."
"At least they didn't put two and two together," Nida replied. "Here I was worried that they were just going to blurt out who we were-"
"Hey."
The Nidorina and her companions turned around and froze. There behind them was none other than Salvini scowling down at them with her arms folded over each other. The very same Grovyle they'd run into all the way back on Mengir Island… except she didn't look like she was in the mood for a friendly conversation right now.
"We need to talk," the Grass-Type growled, prompting Team Traveller's members to hesitate and trade uneasy looks with each other."
Er… you mean right now?" Guardia asked. "Or-?"
"Yes right now," Salvini snapped. "Though not here. The classroom down the hall's vacant for the next hour, we can talk there."
Guardia tensed up at the gecko's insistence, before looking around and seeing a few of the passing students were starting to stare at them. If Salvini had meant to cause them trouble, she could've done so from the start. So even if the Cubone was a bit worried by how agitated the Grass-Type was, perhaps for now it was for the best to just play along.
"O… kay?"
The five nervously shuffled along as Salvini herded them down the hall and pushed open the door to a classroom on the right. As Elty stepped in, he noted that it seemed much the same as the classroom they'd just left. The same style of blackboard, same style of wooden desks and short seats, with the differences being that this classroom was empty aside from their presence and the agitated Grovyle behind them. Salvini closed the door and waited in front of it, folding her arms with an impatient tap of her foot that made the Growlithe grimace.
Did she still recognize them? With Nida having evolved, Crom now in their group, and Pleo looking completely different from when they'd last met, it was hard to say for sure… Maybe she'd thought that he and Guardia seemed familiar, but could still be convinced that she'd gotten their identities mixed up.
"I… uh… can we help you-?" Elty started, only for Pleo to cut in with a startled squawk.
"S-Salvini?! What are you doing here?! You're supposed to be on Mengir!"
Team Traveller's members stiffened up and turned to Pleo as he batted his wings out in astonishment. The other four blanched and shrank back uneasily as Salvini's face tightened up into a sharp glare.
"Well for one, you can start by telling me what you're up to and why you think it's a good idea to be anywhere near Canalhouse City as wanted 'mons!" the Grovyle cried.
Pleo and his teammates fumbled for words, unsure of where to even begin to try to explain their circumstances in a way that wouldn't endanger their hopes of getting at the Company's volume of the Knight's Ledger. After a moment of hesitation, Crom tapped his claws together uneasily and spoke up in reply.
"I… I know that it probably sounds insane to you, but we're trying to fix that! Honest!" the Druddigon insisted, only for Salvini to keep pressing them with a sharp huff.
"'Fix that' how?"
The youngsters paused and bit their tongues briefly, before Nida pinned her ears back and tried to offer an explanation.
"Er… we have to keep quiet about it? B-But look, you trust us don't you?" Nida stammered. "Do you really still think we're just a bunch of pirates like you were originally told?"
Salvini's face remained fixed in a firm scowl for a lingering moment, only for her features to soften and the gecko to look away and paw at her arm uneasily.
"I mean, I do trust you… but I'm on really thin ice right now," she murmured. "Me and the rest of the team that got sent after you were reassigned out here to babysit students in the Academy. If Administrator Zorn had been less skeptical of Darzin when he dragged me in, or if Hertsog had not trusted me so much, I might not even be alive right now."
Pleo and his companions grimaced. Clearly Trizano hadn't been kidding about Salvini having taken a risk for them on Mengir. Though… did that mean she didn't have any choice here? That she was here to…
"Are… Are you gonna tell on us?" Pleo asked.
Salvini paused at the Lugia's question, before closing her eyes and shaking her head back.
"I'm not planning on it. But I can't exactly cover for you if you get into trouble again," the Grovyle said. "All things considered, I got lucky with my second chance. There's not going to be another one for me after this."
The sound of distant bellchimes rang out from outside the window, making Pleo and his companions turn their heads, realizing that it was a sign that it was the top of the hour and new classes were about to start. Salvini fell quiet as the bells chimed, before backing away with a low sigh.
"Look, I'm not here to get you into trouble, alright? But you really shouldn't be here," she insisted. "Whatever you're up to, either get it done quickly or get out while you can. You're not exactly in a safe place to go off sightseeing."
Team Traveller's members said nothing for a long moment as the chimes finished tolling in the background, Nida breaking the silence and pinning her ears back.
"We'll do what we can, okay?" the Nidorina replied.
The five hurried over for the door, eager to start off for their next classes that they were sure to be late for at this rate. As he neared the door, Pleo slowed his pace briefly, turning his head back to look at the Company Grovyle.
"Salvini?"
"Yeah, what?" the gecko asked, prompting Pleo to shuffle his wings uneasily.
"I… I don't know how much it means to you, but it is nice to see you again."
Salvini remained silent, before lowering her head with a small shake and a quiet, murmuring reply.
"It's nice to see you too, Pleo," she said. "Just… don't get too used to it, alright?"
Pleo nodded back hesitantly before hurrying after his teammates, the lot making their way into the hall where they started heading off for their next class. From the corner of his eye, the young Lugia glimpsed Salvini exiting the vacant classroom, lingering for a moment as she looked after him, before eventually turning and heading down the other direction of the hallway.
After the day's classes, Team Traveller spread out to try and comb the Academy for leads as to where the vault might be. Pleo, Nida, and Crom had dutifully scanned the hallways along the ground and first floors, but failed to turn up anything of note. Before they knew it, the three found themselves retracing their steps on the ground floor towards a familiar set of double doors made of dark hardwood and filed into the library.
"I don't understand why Guardia insisted on coming back here," Crom said. "Didn't we already check the library?"
"I mean, we didn't exactly look through it for very long last time," Nida murmured. "So it's not as if it doesn't make sense to take a closer look."
Nida watched as Pleo cocked a brow back at her answer. He mused to himself that he didn't remember there being that many places in the library that they didn't already go through last time, only for him to abruptly trail off and raise a wing to point off ahead excitedly.
"Oh! There she is!"
Nida followed Pleo's wing and looked to see Guardia and Elty seated at a table crowded with a small pile of books. The three carried along, nearing just in time to find the pair buried snout-deep in a thick green tome that lay open on its spine on the table's surface. Elty's ears flicked at the sound of Nida, Pleo, and Crom's footsteps, the Growlithe turning around and pinning his ears back before hurrying behind his teammates with a low grumble. After noticing her partner had abruptly departed, Guardia looked around, before getting up with a curious tilt of her head.
"Ah, you're already back from searching?" the Cubone asked.
"Bogowie, here I thought you all would never come back!" Elty fumed.
Crom, Nida, and Pleo blinked and looked over at Elty who had an expression on his face much as if he'd just pulled himself out of one of the canals outside, and then back to Guardia and the small mountain of books all about her.
"Wait, what have you been doing with all those books, Guardia?" Pleo asked. "Did you find anything about the Ledger in them?"
The Cubone blinked for a moment, before tugging at the front of her helmet with a sheepish smile.
"Er… well… no, but I did gather quite a bit of lore for my colony!" she insisted. "For someone that also came from a Mystery Dungeon, Eltenios here is really good at reading your hut runes!"
The rest of Team Traveller's members narrowed their eyes and let their mouths crack open with a stunned silence. Nida was the first to speak up, the Nidorina fanning her barbs out in annoyance as she shot a sharp glare at the Ground-Type.
"Can't you do this some other time, Guardia?" Nida growled.
"I mean, isn't this a library?" Pleo added. "Why not take some of these books to read at the ship? Cabot told me that that's how libraries work!"
Guardia blinked puzzledly for a moment, before giving a sheepish smile back.
"… Oh, you can do that?" she asked. "That'd certainly make things a lot easier!"
The Cubone's teammates let out a chorus of groans at her belated realization, as Elty flattened his ears out with an annoyed huff.
"Just saying, I'm not helping her out with reading when we get back to the ship," he grumbled.
"Just… take whatever you can carry that looks interesting, Guardia," Crom said. "If you haven't found anything here, we should hurry up and move on."
The Druddigon and the others helped Guardia gather up her books, the Cubone taking a small stack that she balanced on her free hand and tilted back along her belly. Nida let out a quiet sigh, guessing the Ground-Type hadn't forgotten about the "loregathering" her colony had tasked her with before leaving Kenobi and let the Cubone lead the way. The bone lizard carried along with an awkward gait that made the others think of stopping to offer her help, when she rounded the corner and bumped into a furry black-and-red blur about her height and stumbled back.
"Ack!"
Guardia lost her footing and fell back with her books into Elty, shoving one member of Team Traveller into the other until finally reaching Pleo and knocking him down. The young Lugia let out a sharp squawk and dropped his bag, spilling its contents out onto the floor. The five looked up, where there in front of them was a Zorua beside some of the scattered books, leveling a piercing scowl at them.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!" she yipped.
Nida got up along with her teammates and blanched. Right here before them was none other than Sophie from their classes. The very same Pokémon who were it not for Gerhard's timely intervention the other day, would've probably revealed them to be intruders in front of his entire classroom. The Nidorina shifted her feet uncomfortably, raising her voice back to the Dark-Type in a guarded tone.
"Er… sorry about that," she apologized. "We'll pay closer attention next time."
Nida shuffled over and helped Sophie to gather her belongings, as the rest of Team Traveller tended to Guardia's books and Pleo's belongings that had flopped out onto the floor. In spite of their attempts to make nice, Sophie didn't seem particularly impressed with Team Traveller's gesture, as she shook her head and growled under her breath.
"This day, I swear," the Zorua fumed. "First someone already checked out the copy of 'I Want to be Your Bird' I wanted to borrow, and now-"
Sophie trailed off while reaching for the last of her belongings, when her eyes fell on Pleo's dropped items, including Neil's goggles currently on the floor. The Zorua blinked and stiffened up with a surprised gasp that took Team Traveller's members aback. The five stopped as the Dark-Type stooped down and sniffed at the goggles, giving a curious poke with her forepaws before she looked back at Pleo and his teammates.
"How on earth did you get this?"
Team Traveller's members looked puzzledly at the mesmerized Zorua, wondering if her reaction was some sort of trick. Pleo tilted his head back at the fox, and blinked in surprise as he wondered aloud…
"Huh, do you mean my goggles? Is there something wrong with them?"
"There's nothing wrong with them," Sophie said. "But you can tell from the material that they're made from that it's a human artifact."
Team Traveller stared blankly at the Zorua much as if she'd just done a backflip right in front of them. Neil's goggles were a human artifact? But even if that was the case…
"How… do you know that?" Crom asked. Sophie quietly prodded at the goggles' lenses for a brief moment, before shaking her head and turning to the young Druddigon.
"My dad has a small collection of human artifacts, and a lot of them are made from this same sort of weird material that these goggles are," she explained. "It's something that doesn't shatter when dropped like glass or clay, but is hard to the touch like them."
The Zorua leaned in closer to give a second look at the goggles, seemingly entranced by them, before she spoke up in a voice that betrayed a sense of wonder.
"I don't think he has anything in as good as shape as these though," she murmured. "No scratches… no cracks… no discolorations… why it's like it suddenly fell from the sky brand-new!"
Sophie got up and blinked to herself in a moment of puzzled realization, and turned to Pleo and his companions with a skeptical tilt of her head.
"How did you get these anyways?"
Pleo and the others hemmed and hawed back in reply. After a few moments to make sure he had his cover story straight, Pleo spoke up with what he hoped would satisfy the fox's curiosity.
"A friend of mine gave it to us back on Kenobi," he said. "I didn't know it was so special though."
Sophie quirked a brow back at the young Lugia and said nothing for a noticeable pause. The seabird and his friends began to grow uneasy, thinking that perhaps the Dark-Type was doubting them yet again, only for her to dispel their fears by giving a playful wag of her tail and shooting a small smile back.
"Well you should be a bit more careful with it, since you'll never get another one of these if you break them," the Zorua chided. "Why, if I didn't know any better, I'd have thought you somehow got it from that vault that's supposed to be in the Academy's Archive!"
Guardia perked up at the mention of the Academy having an 'Archive', and judging from a quick glance at her teammates, they must've noticed it as well.
"… The Academy's Archive?" the Cubone asked. "This is the first we've ever heard of there being a vault there."
Sophie gave Guarida a surprised look and tilted an ear back curiously. She'd evidently found something about her response strange, but after a moment's hesitation, Sophie's puzzled expression faded away and she spoke up in reply.
"Right, you're all new here so you wouldn't have heard of it. I mean, I've never seen it myself, but there's supposed to be one there," Sophie explained. "Rumor has it that it's filled with a bunch of old books and artifacts from the Old World that are too valuable to be put on public display."
The Zorua shook her head, pointing a paw at Pleo's goggles on the ground.
"Really, if you ever wanted a chance to see inside it, maybe bring those goggles over to them," she insisted. "If they really do keep artifacts there, it'll certainly be safer to keep them there than just leaving them around in your bag to get scuffed."
Nida put a paw to her chin as she thought over Sophie's explanation. Why that had to be the same vault that Alice said she overheard Darzin talking about! And if the Ledger really was here, what better place would there be to keep it than a place whose inherent purpose was to have precious things tucked away in it? Nida smiled back, thanking the Travellers above that this meeting with Sophie had actually gone their way, and gave a grateful bow in reply.
"Thanks for the tip," the Nidorina said. "We'll look into it, even if we kinda have our paws full at the moment."
The five picked up their belongings and made their way up to the counter, where much to their chagrin, the Metang librarian from the other day was once again on duty. After an askew glance from the Psychic-Type, Team Traveller checked out Guardia's books and sheepishly took their leave from the library, making their way down the right end of the hallway. The group continued on a short ways until Nida spotted a small, empty study room with the door left ajar. A brief inspection revealed the room had long desks and chairs propped up against its walls, and appeared to be set up to be a quiet space of some sort. The Nidorina beckoned her teammates in and closed the door behind them, the five gathering together as Elty tilted his head and murmured to himself in thought.
"So, this vault has to be the same one we heard about, right?" Elty asked. "There's no way that's just a coincidence."
"Well, it's the best lead we've found so far, that's for sure," Nida replied. "We might as well go check it out."
The group continued on mulling over their findings when faint footsteps sounded out from the hallway. Pleo paused and tilted his head at the doorway, when it suddenly creaked and a Sylveon in a Company Second-Rank scarf entered the room. As soon as he saw the Pokémon, the color drained from the young Protector's face as he jumped back with a frightened squawk.
"A-Agh! Nida!"
Nida and her teammates whirled around and froze. There at the doorway was none other than Zelle from Team Sentinel. The Sylveon pushed the door closed behind her, stepping forward as a malicious smirk spread over her face.
"I must say, I certainly wasn't expecting you to come to Vollezee of all places," Zelle said. "So who is your new friend here who totally isn't Pleo walking around in some poor disguise?"
Guardia looked round the room, and saw that beyond the windows, there didn't seem to be any other exits beyond the doorway Zelle stood in. The Cubone tightened her grip around her bone, steeling her nerves as she braced for battle with the Fairy-Type.
"If you think we're gonna go down without a fight, then you've got another thing coming!" Guardia growled.
"Hmph, you can relax. I'm not here to fight," the Sylveon scoffed. "Or to capture Pleo for that matter."
Team Traveller's members blinked and traded confused glances with one another. Pleo craned his head up warily, as he raised his voice in reply.
"You're… not?" he asked.
"That's right. I just wanted a moment to talk," Zelle insisted. "Surely there's no harm in that?"
Almost immediately, the Sylveon's smile vanished, as an icy frown spread over her muzzle.
"Though if I see even a single one of those plates on your back light up, I'll drop you and your friends before you can even think about beating your wings."
Team Traveller reflexively shrank back as they thought back to Trizano's injuries from the day before. They could try to fight Zelle right here and now, but as a member of Team Sentinel they knew that she was not a 'mon to be trifled with. Not to mention that they'd surely blow their cover if they fought her and stirred up a racket in the middle of campus. Satisfied that she'd suitably cowed the youngsters, the Fairy-Type moved her feelers and curled her mouth into a cruel smile.
"Well then, now that we've established that, let's talk about why you're here," Zelle said. "If you wanted to join the Company so badly, you didn't have to go through all the trouble of sneaking into the Academy of all places. We would have happily taken you along back on Buyeom."
"W-We're not interested!" Crom stammered. "We'd never join the Company after everything you guys put us through!"
The Sylveon let out a mocking scoff in reply, as she stepped away from the door and approached with a saunter that felt much like she was a Persian toying with a ball of yarn.
"Sure you aren't," she sneered. "That's why you're here at my old school, right?"
Team Traveller's members instinctively stepped back as Zelle neared. She looked over them for a moment, before turning her attention off to a nearby table. The Sylveon paused for a moment and brushed at its surface with one her feelers, letting out a quiet, wistful sigh.
"Not that I'm complaining. Being here again sure brings back a lot of memories," she said. "Memories of back when I believed the Company and its current course was all we needed to give Anyilla the change it's been waiting for."
Zelle glanced up at Pleo and stared straight into his eyes, making him squirm and shift uncomfortably. The Fairy-Type was completely unfazed by the young Protector's unease, as she brushed the side of her head with a feeler and flicked it out.
"I've moved beyond such fantasies since then, and with a few tweaks to the curriculum, so will the next generation here," Zelle harrumphed. "After all, we have a chance to properly change things now. All that's missing are a few last tools for the job…"
The Sylveon's ears perked up at the sound of a faint clack, where there at the mouth of Pleo's bag, she saw one of the lenses of his goggles poke out. The Fairy-Type stared for a brief moment, before turning back with a skeptical frown.
"And how did you get goggles like those anyway?" she asked. "I certainly doubt Sorge gave them to you."
Nida blinked in confusion at the Sylveon's question. Did she know the goggles were a human artifact too? But then…
"… Huh? What does Sorge have to do with-?"
"Oh, let's just say he's had a few things of that sort lying around for a while," Zelle interrupted.
The Sylveon looked back at Team Traveller's members with an expression that was almost warm and friendly… were it not for the fact that she appeared ready to attack at a moment's notice. The Fairy-Type stepped forward, before craning a feeler out and pointing out at the youngsters.
"But we're getting sidetracked. The real question is why you five are skulking around here as students," she said, curling her muzzle up into a taunting sneer. "Unless you're ready to tell me where Kline is, of course."
"Hrmph, w-we're not just going to tell you any of that!" Guardia exclaimed, drawing mocking, haughty laughter from the Fairy-Type in reply.
"Oh, but you've already given me a few ideas based off what I've seen of you. You weren't exactly hard to miss going between your classes today," Zelle insisted. "And I'm sure Administrator Elilan would love to find out about why you were badgering his daughter for information."
Team Traveller dug their feet in at Zelle's last words. They knew better than to trust that Zelle really just wanted to talk, but was she threatening to drag them before Elilan right here and now? The five tensed up and braced themselves, expecting the Sylveon to lob the likes of a Moonblast at them at any moment as Elty grit his teeth and growled back.
"She told us about the Vault on her own," he snapped. "And what would you know about it when you've been off-island for years?"
Zelle fell silent for a noticeable moment, before a small smirk formed on her face. Team Traveller bristled briefly and wondered if Elty had somehow said something wrong with his reply. The Sylveon swayed her feelers, before throwing her head back with an unimpressed click of her tongue.
"Tch, it's not exactly a new part of the Academy and there was talk of its existence going around about it back when I was a student here," Zelle retorted. "But who knows? Maybe you're right. After all, all I know is that it's in the Academy's Archive on the west edge of campus."
The Growlithe and his companions blinked puzzledly at the Sylveon's reply. Zelle knew where the Archive was? But if she did, why would she just tell them about this? Did she make a mistake? Zelle narrowed her eyes and studied their reactions closely, before turning up her snout with a sharp scoff.
"Not that there's a reason for you to bother going there. It's heavily guarded and it's not like you'll ever make it inside."
The sound of distant bellchimes rang out, prompting Zelle to turn her head and look left out the windows, before training her attention back to the youngsters with a quiet click of her tongue.
"Well, look at how time flies," she said. "Though I think that I've gotten what I've wanted from you."
Team Traveller's members sucked in their breaths sharply and readied themselves for battle, only for Zelle to turn away seemingly completely disinterested with them. The five looked in confusion as the Fairy-Type sauntered over to the door and pulled it open, glancing over her shoulder at them with a derisive scoff.
"What, you think I'm going to fight you here if I don't have to?" Zelle asked. "Where there's hundreds of students and teachers to ask questions about what's happening? Who do you take me for?"
Zelle curled her mouth up into a smile, bared fangs poking out at their ends.
"Besides, we'll be seeing more of each other real soon," she said. "Ta ta."
The Sylveon made her way through the doorway and departed, nonchalantly pushing the door shut with her feelers with an audible thump. Elty and the others stood there staring at the door, panting tensely as their heartbeats raced from their encounter with Team Sentinel's ranged attacker. After a moment to catch his breath, the Growlithe turned to his teammates and pinned his ears back with a low whine.
The Sylveon made her way through the doorway and departed, nonchalantly pushing the door shut with her feelers with an audible thump. Elty and the others stood there staring at the door, panting tensely as their heartbeats raced from their encounter with Team Sentinel's ranged attacker. After a moment to catch his breath, the Growlithe turned to his teammates and pinned his ears back with a low whine.
"… Yeah, forget this. I say let's get back to the ship and get out while we can," he said. "There's no way we'll be able to get the Ledger out if Team Sentinel already knows what we're up to."
A long silence followed after Elty's comment. As loath as the others were to admit it, it was hard to concede that he didn't have a point. Just then, Crom blinked for a moment, as a dawning realization came across his mind.
"Do they, though? Zelle did let the location of that vault slip. Shouldn't we check that out while we're here at least?" the Druddigon asked. "I… know that it's a risk, but if we just go back to the ship without even seeing what's there, won't we have to just go through all of this again later?"
The youngsters hesitated for a moment, before Nida raised her voice and spoke up to her teammates.
"Even if we do wind up retreating after this, we might as well take a look. If the Vault is really there, even if Team Sentinel knows specifically what we're planning, we're best off talking with everyone else back on the ship about whether or not we have a chance at getting it," she insisted. "Just stay on your guard. After all, when has Team Sentinel ever helped us before in some way that didn't have a horrible catch?"
The others nodded back, Elty more grudgingly than his peers, before they crept up to the doorway. Pleo pushed the door open, as he and his friends looked about warily only to find the hallway outside empty. Team Traveller's members set off and turned left down the corridor, making their way off towards where Zelle had said the Archive would be. All the while, the five kept stealing glances over their shoulders, as they couldn't shake the feeling that somehow they were being watched.
As Team Traveller tried to regain their nerves after their run-in with Zelle, on the eastern tip of Canalhouse City's core of islets, Pokémon teemed in a square ringed by canals in front of a castle built in the lagoon's water. Long, long ago, the place had been a keep for Canalhouse when it was still Canalhouse Town, before it had been gifted to the settlement's first guild as a place for it to call home.
Through the ages, the city had grown up around it, especially after the Great Calamity. The entire time, the guild had dutifully serviced the city even after other competitors sprang up and the Mystery Dungeon it originally focused around was cleared and repurposed into a training ground for the Company's recruits. The square in front of the guild was as busy as it always was, and the resident Guildmaster that day made his customary rounds. In this case, a Gliscor visibly past his youthful prime who had just stopped to talk with a team consisting of a Gallade, a Blastoise, and a Goodra.
Unbeknownst to the Gliscor Guildmaster, Percy lingered across one of the nearby canals perched on a round public bulletin column as he looked on. The sight of the older Ground-Type seemed to stir a sense of nostalgia in him, as he let out a quiet sigh while memories of simpler times came flooding back.
"Pierce!"
Percy froze at the sound of a sharp growl and turned to see Kline glaring up at him from the street. The Gliscor paused briefly before grudgingly slipping off, the Zygarde all but dragging his fellow Ground-Type along into a shaded alleyway, where after a quick check to confirm that no one was there to eavesdrop, he whirled around to Percy with a sharp glare.
"Have you gone mad?!" Kline snapped. "What on earth do you think you're doing here?!"
Percy recoiled and stared back at Kline with an expression not wholly unlike that of an Aipom caught trying to use its tail to steal food from a jar. The Gliscor's grimace lingered for a moment, before he hung his head and drooped with a visibly wistful expression.
"I… I just wanted to see my dad," he murmured.
"Pierce, Team Sentinel knows that your dad works here!" Kline cried. "Do you think they aren't having this place watched?! That they won't try to get him involved if they know you've gone back to our old guild?!"
Percy hesitated and fell quiet, as he uncomfortably rubbed his left pincer against his other arm. He avoided the Zygarde's gaze for a moment, before shaking his head back.
"I know that, but… it's been years and so much has happened," the Gliscor said. "Dad's a Guildmaster now, and when we left he was still on a Gold-ranked team…"
"Yes, and you already knew that, because I told you about it," Kline huffed back. "I left a Cell with your father when we fled Vollezee, and since then I've told you how he was doing every time you asked me."
"That's not the same thing as seeing it with my own eyes and you know it, Kline," Percy insisted. "You can't expect me not to miss him or the rest of my family just because you've been telling me how they've been doing."
Kline continued to scowl back at the Gliscor, only to pause and close his eyes, his features softening as he let out a soft sigh.
"I understand that, but everyone on our team has someone that they miss," he reminded. "I myself spent fifteen years growing up with your father and his team after I washed up ashore here. Don't you think that I miss him too?"
Kline stepped out of the alleyway and motioned with his snout along the canal towards a brick building about the width of four canalhouses. There, blue banners bearing designs of a black circle quartered by a tilted cross hung from it. Percy thought back to encounters long past when Team Sentinel had approached them in those very same colors, and reflexively stiffened up at the sight as his Zygarde companion turned back to him with a stern frown.
"Remember that it's not just Team Sentinel that's loyal to Elilan here," Kline said. "He has more Pokémon working for him than just those four, including ones right here in Canalhouse City."
Percy grimaced and looked at the banners in the distance for a while, before he felt a paw being placed on his shoulder, the Gliscor looking down to see Kline peering up at him.
"I know it's not an easy thing to ask of you," the Zygarde murmured. "But remember there's a reason why we're doing this."
"Ja, ik weet het…" Percy sighed back. "I just hope it won't be for much longer."
The pair headed off, vanishing into the crowds amid Canalhouse City's bustling waterways. At the entrance of the guild, the Gliscor Guildmaster looked off at the bulletin column across the canal for a moment, before he shook his head and dismissed the matter as merely his ears' sensitivity playing tricks on him.
After their encounter with Zelle, Team Traveller made their way west along the canals from the main building, where sets of smaller and more nondescript structures had been constructed in matching bricks. Eventually, near the fringe where the campus' buildings gave way to canalhouses and buildings of mismatching styles, they came across a three story building with a gabled roof that had been built surrounding a narrow passage clogged with crates. Some sort of service entrance, it appeared.
After rounding the building, they came across a set of large, wooden doors that had been propped open with a sign reading 'Academy Archive' over the entrance. One after the other, Team Traveller slipped inside into a set of quiet, tiled hallways that didn't seem much different from the ones in the Academy's main building. Zelle hadn't said anything about there being more than one archive in the Academy, so this had to be where the Vault was. Even so, they didn't see any sign there was something here other than what appeared to be offices and study halls, yet the five couldn't shake the sense that something was amiss.
"Are we sure that it's a good idea to be going here?" Elty asked. "This is giving me vibes of when we thought we were going to meet Xerneas on Buyeom all over again."
"Like I said, I don't think Zelle would've just told us where the Vault was," Crom insisted. "It seems more like a slip-up that she made."
"Was it though?" Guardia murmured. "I mean, Team Sentinel did trick us back on Buyeom… how do we know that this isn't another ambush of theirs?"
Guardia's teammates fell uncomfortably silent at the Cubone's question. After a brief moment of uneasy hesitation, Pleo tilted his head and raised a wing to his chin in thought.
"Nida? Are we sure that the Vault's really here?" he asked.
Nida shook her head back in reply. She didn't like the idea of trusting a lead they'd picked up from one of Team Sentinel's members, but they had found the Archive, and it wouldn't do them any good to just turn tail the very moment they entered.
"Just keep your eyes out for something that doesn't belong," Nida insisted. "If this really is the Archive then I'm sure that there's something like-"
"Hey, kid."
Team Traveller turned towards a sharp huff coming from their left, where they saw a Sirfetch'd in a Company scarf and dark blue plates of cloth armor bearing a purple First-Rank insignia on the chest plate glaring down at them from an intersecting hallway. The five froze, expecting the guard to attack them at any second, only for the Sirfetch'd to cut in and motion with his leek off towards the distance.
"This part of the building isn't a public area like your classrooms," he snapped. "Move along if you don't have a reason for being here."
Pleo craned his head past the Sirfetch'd and took a couple steps past the corner. There down the hallway he noticed a pair of cast iron doors with similarly-armored Pokémon standing guard in front of it. That was definitely something that stood out from what they'd seen so far, and the way it guarded certainly made it look important enough to be the Vault. But with the Sirfetch'd scowling down at them and the other scary-looking figures in the background turning to notice them… they probably weren't going to get into it right here and now.
"Er… right, sorry about that," Pleo said.
The group hurried off in a brisk walk, restraining themselves from flatly running away from the Sirfetch'd and the other guards. After they were convinced they were out of earshot, the five paused and caught their breaths, before trading worried looks with one another.
"Well, I think that's as clear a sign as any that that's the Vault," Guardia said. "We haven't seen Pokémon with plates like those since we were in that Tidemill colony!"
"Just how are we supposed to make it into that thing?" Elty asked. "We can't just fight our way past 'mons like those!"
Nida paused in thought for a moment, before flicking her ears and narrowing her eyes in determination.
"Not normally anyways," she remarked, making Crom blink back in surprise.
"Eh? What do you mean, Nida?" the Druddigon pressed.
"This Vault is built into what's essentially a big school. I'm sure there's something that's being overlooked here like a way to sneak in from another part of it," Nida explained. Her teammates looked at the Nidorina expectantly, only for her to trail off and look warily about her surroundings.
"Though I don't exactly know what that something could be," the Poison-Type murmured. "We're better off going back to the ship to let everyone know what we found for now. Maybe one of the others will have an idea of what we should be looking for."
Nida's teammates nodded in agreement, before the five made their way out of the Archive, retracing their steps back toward the central building of the Academy where they ducked into it to cut across the central square. There, resting against the Haxorus statue, they spotted a black Charizard in a Company First-Rank scarf peering down at a book with runes on the cover that Nida could just make out, reading 'I Want to Be Your Bird'. The Fire-Type looked up from his pages, Team Traveller's members tensing as they continued on, only for the Charizard to turn his attention back to the tome quietly wondering himself about 'what's taking Garnet so long today?'
Nida shook her head and carried on with her teammates, making their way for the exit of the Academy complex. All the while, the group continued on unaware of the form of a Dragonite looking them over from the other end of the square and doing a double take as he stared after the departing quintet.
"… Wait a minute, those students are the same species as those runts from Haipheh."
Darzin took to the air, shadowing Team Traveller from the nearby rooftops where the height and obstructing structures would better disguise his sound and scent. He peered down below and sure enough, the party had Team Traveller's same species aside from the strange purple-feathered bird with them that was there in place of Lugia. Darzin blinked after watching the bird stop to preen his wings, realizing that aside from his color, every feature of his body had the same shape as what he remembered Lugia having.
The Dragonite ducked behind the gable of his present rooftop to hide himself and paused with a puzzled frown when his mind turned back to his time stationed on Tromba. He remembered in passing some harebrained tale of their Protector's forebear in the old world having undergone a change of color after he 'lost his heart' or some inane reason like that.
Darzin turned back to the group and narrowed his eyes, realizing that with that story in mind, the last bit that had puzzled him about the group was now made clear. With the Guardian of the Seas here in Vollezee, the fates had granted him another chance to seize the Protector and use him as leverage to reclaim what he and the others who once lived in the lagoon had lost to Inler and his ilk so many years ago.
"Hrmph. Not sure you why you brats came here, much less how you got this far with a simple dye job and change of garb," the Dragonite growled, as a small smirk spread across his face.
"But no matter. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth."
Author's Notes:
- Non dire sciocchezze! - Italian: "Don't talk nonsense!" / "Don't be ridiculous!" / "Don't be silly!", lit. "Don't say silly statements!"
- Mira el lado bueno - Spanish: "Look on the bright side", lit. "Look on the good side"
- Ja, ik weet het… - Dutch: "Yeah, I know (it)…"
