Archive of Our Own ^beta

The Gardevoir stared at the ceiling for what seemed like hours. The afternoon sun was already hiding on the horizon, as reflected by the dimming sunlight through the window.

Another day passed, another day without any progress made, another day she spent more in her own thoughts than in reality.

This seemed like a vicious cycle. Could she ever break out of it? She always dreamed of the day she would leave that hellish complex and have a normal life. She’d finally broken free for good this time, but would she be able to do it? Or was she just chasing an unattainable desire?

... What she wouldn’t give for a-

Vruu

At that moment, her cell phone vibrated and turned on, typical of when she had a message incoming.

For a moment, she thought about leaving it alone and seeing what happened tomorrow, it was probably just spam anyway, but... she hadn’t done anything the rest of the day.

Even without motivation, she reached out to telekinetically pull her cell phone over. Who could be wanting anything with-

Val: 1 unread message: Hey...

...

W-...

WHAAAT?!

Mandy jumped out of bed as if she had been shocked. Her skin began to tingle incessantly as she broke out in a cold sweat.

Was it really her?! Valerie?! The same one from the academy?! She thought she had changed her contact details, or phone number, or something.

Why was she there? At that time? Texting? To her above all else?!

Vruu

Another message.

Val: 2 unread messages: Long time...

Mandy took a string of deep breaths. Now was not the time to pass out; someone she’d been so distant from that she might have died had come back to life and was talking to her.

It was now or never!

With frightening speed and precision, Mandy entered the password and went straight to the messaging app.

Val: Hey~ ^^
* Long time no talk, slut.

... O... k...? A really strange message to begin with, but maybe she was still angry at her for what she did. Which was fair, she might do the same.

Whatever, the important thing was Valerie was reaching out to her again! Even if it was starting like this, they could talk again, they could work this out, Mandy could finally take the first step at getting her life back!

But before Mandy could type anything, another message.

* There’s a lot, and believe me when I say A LOT, that I want to say to you, you bitch!
* But speaking via text message doesn’t do it justice that I want to see.

This only confirmed what Mandy already knew: Yes, Valerie still hated her for what she did, but frankly, she had every right to.

After all, Mandy hated herself for what she did, too.

But there was one other thing she said that was true, which the Gardevoir would say herself: She had a lot, A LOT, to say, explain, and above all, apologize for.

* So I’ll be as direct as I can here. Meet me at Phione Beach as soon as you can.
* Tell me the date and time, and I will move heaven and earth to be there on time.
* Or you can simply disappear from our lives once and for all, and never come back.
* Your choice.

... A chance.

Mandy didn’t buy any bullshit like a higher power watching over her, but if she did, she would easily say that it was an answer to her silent prayers!

A chance, a chance was being given to her to put all her unsettling remorse on the table, to say everything she should have said, and to answer appropriately for everything she had done.

The universe was giving her a chance to make amends with those she had wronged the most, like fuck would she throw that chance away!

Without wasting a single second, Mandy typed:

Mandy: Why wait!? Tonight at 9 PM!!
* Believe me, there’s SO MUCH I want to talk about regarding you and Dylan!
* See you there~

And without even waiting for a response, Mandy set down the phone. There was no other word to describe what she felt other than...

Ecstasy.

Just to confirm that she wasn’t dreaming in any way, she created a small Shadow Ball, the size of a golf ball, and brought it close to her own arm. She didn’t even need to actually unleash the attack to know; the mere energy that the Ghost move radiated against her skin was very similar to what she had felt in “Their” hands in the past: Real, immaculate pain.

No, this wasn’t a dream, it was reality, a blessing, an astronomical alignment, the appearance of a shiny Chansey without the use of a Shiny Charm!

... Wait, what time was it now?

“8:40?!” Mandy said, almost shouting. “Holy shit, I need to get ready ASAP!”

Meanwhile, at Valerie’s house.

The Vaporeon stared at her own cell phone with a strange mix of feelings. On one hand, she was happy because she could finally say what was stuck in her throat to that damned woman, all the disgust she felt for what she had done to her and her much-desired love, Dylan.

But on the other hand, it was very strange that said damned woman wanted to see her so soon, not to mention that she didn’t sound at all remorseful about what she did in the messages she sent; maybe that bitch was still one, even after all these years.

Some things just never change, huh?

On top of that, Valerie had expected it would take weeks, if not months, until Mandy faced her. Either Mandy was much closer than she thought (which implied way more bad things than good) or she’d learned Teleport (which was even worse).

Well, the sooner she could give her a piece of her mind to her face, the better.

“... Dyl, darling~?”

“... Hmhhm...?” That was all Dylan managed to say from the bed, in a very groggy tone, not long after the “private fun session” between the two.

“I’ll need to leave at the last minute to... resolve a small problem that has come up,” Val explained, in a very affectionate tone. “You can stay here and rest as much as you want, I’ll try to solve the problem as soon as I can so I can get back to you~ Okay?”

“... Hmm... I don’t want to sound nosy... but do you have to go now?” the young human asked, tilting his head toward his girlfriend. “Can’t you postpone this until another time or... delegate it to someone else?”

“Believe me, I would much rather do that and stay with you than go and solve this myself, but unfortunately I can’t,” the Vaporeon replied, heading towards her dresser. “Don’t worry, I’ll try to finish this as quickly as I can.”

“Was it Sharon who called you?”

“... No, and before you ask, it wasn’t a relative of mine either,” she replied, carefully choosing her words to avoid explicitly revealing who it was. “It’s someone who, for our own good, is better not left unattended.”

“You really don’t want me to come with you?” Dylan insisted.

This made Valerie’s heart clench. Mandy had been a part of their shared teenage history, and leaving her own boyfriend out of it felt simply criminal. But she’d spent too much time longing for him in the past, and missed her chance to be with him before because of her, until Arceus gave her another chance, and here she was.

It was certain that she had a future with him; she even lost her virginity solely to him, for Arceus’ sake! No way in hell was she going to let this beautiful moment he must be experiencing be ruined by stains from the past.

Besides, Dylan made it clear that Mandy had already made her choice.

“I really appreciate your kindness, but I won’t need it,” Val replied. “There’s Pecha Berry cake with chocolate and Pinap Berry juice in the fridge if you want. Please don’t eat or drink it all, because I’ll want some when I get back.”

Even without fully understanding the situation, Dylan gave a somewhat tired nod, which Valerie responded to with a smile. When she finished getting ready, she said a lovestruck, “I love you~” before leaving the room, and eventually, the house.

That was it, whatever hateful things that damn Gardevoir had to say to her face, she would make sure to return the favor twofold, and maybe even use her Surf if necessary.

There was only one thing that had been annoyingly nagging at her memory ever since the two of them had finished talking.

* Believe me, there’s SO MUCH I want to talk about regarding you and Dylan!

Did she... know that she and Dylan were together? Ever since she left Uva Academy, she hadn’t heard from Mandy or Dylan, and when she was on a date with him, Mandy was already his ex; besides, if she lived in her city, she most likely would have found her already.

Well, regardless of whether she knew it or not, it doesn’t change an undeniable truth, that it was about to happen.

Scores would be settled tonight.

Phione Beach was quiet at night.

Not empty, but subdued — the kind of calm that came from people knowing when to leave well enough alone. The tide rolled in with slow, rhythmic certainty, waves brushing the shore like hesitant but steady whispers. Streetlights along the promenade cast long, broken reflections over the wet sand, their glow paling next to the moon hanging low above the sea.

Valerie, because she lived closer and practically worked there, arrived first. 

She stood near the edge of the beach, arms crossed, tail flicking irritably behind her. The salty breeze lightly ruffled her fins and neck frill, and though she tried to remain still, her posture betrayed her impatience. Every passing second fed the knot tightening in her chest.

She impatiently looked at her Roto-phone again. 9:07 PM.

“She’s late. A little, but she is,” the Vaporeon murmured, staring at the screen for a while, before turning it off again and gazing back at the sea. “Her luck is that I love looking at the sea, it’s so... peaceful and calming...”

Too bad you can’t afford to relax right now. Not when you have a bitch to purge from both of your lives once and for all.

This made Val frown. To think that after all these years, she still felt like calling Mandy to talk, as if that slut deserved any attention from them after what happened.

In fact, it occurred to her she should even prepare her attacks, just in case she needed to use them.

With just a few steps along the marked wooden path, she got close to the sea, at least close enough to feel the water receding beneath her feet, leaving only cold, wet sand behind. After taking a short, deep breath, she stretched her hands forward, then brought them back until they were behind the fins on her head, as if she were pulling something.

In response to this, the seawater began to pull in and rise up before her, forming a wave towards the sea that shimmered subtly in deep blue, and with a swift movement of her hands, the newly formed wave surged out to sea, stretching for meters before diminishing until it disappeared completely.

“Hmm... it’s not ‘Oh my Arceus, what a tsunami!’ but it should do its job,” Valerie said, her tail wagging with pride. But her impatience made her look at her phone again. 9:09 PM. “Tch! Where is she?!” she suppressed the urge to scream. “I swear, if she gave me this hope just to run away at the last minute–”

Fiii... fiii...

Even with the sound of waves crashing in the background, she could still hear that familiar sound of footsteps on the sand.

And with that, Valerie turned around.

Not far from her, a Shiny Gardevoir woman stood, wearing a sweatshirt with a hole in the middle to make room for the spike on her chest, staring at her as if she were seeing a legendary Pokémon in person. At first, Valerie didn’t recognize her.

Then she moved a little closer and paid more attention to the individual’s hair, that long, slightly disheveled blue lock that divided her face in the middle.

There was no doubt it was her. Mandy.

For a long time, all that existed between them was silence, filled only by the sound of waves crashing in the background and the sea breeze blowing. They looked at each other in disbelief, as if they couldn’t believe they were actually seeing each other after so long.

Years of friendship, unity, and shared memories, destroyed by betrayals, wounds, guilt, and silence; and all they had to offer immediately was... more silence.

Finally, the Gardevoir spoke, her voice trembling and hesitant, as if she were about to speak to a ghost, “... Valerie?”

And not wanting to be left behind, the only answer the Vaporeon could give now was a short and blunt, “In the flesh. Good evening to you too, Mandy.”

Mandy fidgeted with her fingers; she had so much she wanted to say immediately, but the heavy atmosphere choked her. But she had to continue, no longer trying to run from the past like a coward. “I... I can see that you’ve evolved,” Mandy began, trying to at least start the conversation on a good note. “Vaporeon really suits you. Just like you said it would.”

“... Thank you,” Val replied, not wanting to sound rude. “... I can see that you’ve evolved as well.”

“Yes... I did,” she replied, encountering a sudden and strange obstacle to continuing the conversation given her own evolution was under much unhappier circumstances. But she couldn’t stop. “... You look beautiful, by the way, the years have certainly been good to you.”

After giving a short, humorless laugh at that attempt to be nice, Valerie replied, “Too bad I can’t say the same to you.”

This slightly threw the Gardevoir off balance; that dismissive reply was surely only the first of many far harsher ones yet to come. But she had expected this; nothing new under the moonlight for now.

Mandy opened her mouth to say something else, but Val interrupted her by approaching with long, slow strides. “Before you say anything, there’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

The Gardevoir remained completely still as the Vaporeon drew closer. The tension with each of her steps was suffocatingly deadly.

Finally, she was within arm’s reach, and now that she was so close, Mandy could see her silver piercings in her fins better. Well, whatever she wanted to say to her face, there—

“I wanted to see the look on your face...”

More happened in the next less-than-a-second than Valerie thought.

Her fins fanned out as she took a quick, sharp inhale. Her Mystic Water pendant shone with faint blue light. Her tail straightened. Water energy gathered in her mouth.

And at the end of that second, a torrent of bubbles sprayed at the wide-eyed Mandy, who recognized the threat and brought her arms up to shield herself before the first bit of that Bubble Beam materialized.

“... YOU FUCKING BITCH!” she shouted through the blasts as if her voice made each bubble hit that much harder.

POP BAM POW BOM BOOM!

The tiny but rapid explosions caused her to stagger back, pushing her away and ultimately knocking her off her legs.

Val’s posture only relaxed a bit as her attack ended and her breaths deepened. It wasn’t nearly as harsh as what Mandy deserved... but it would do.

What she didn’t know was that the look on Mandy’s face wasn’t fear of pain or injury; those had been her constant companions for much of her life. It was fear of what would happen if she did what she was molded to do in a fight, and the only thing that stopped her was the fact that Valerie was one of the two people in the world she cared about at all, let alone cared about as much as she did.

But she kept it under control. She didn’t need to show Valerie what she’d become. She didn’t need to leave her ex-friend traumatized and haunted again.

That is, IF Valerie survived Mandy fighting her seriously.

When the brief dizziness passed, she felt a sharp pain all over her arms and stomach and knew she’d be getting plenty of fresh bruises from this.

When she finally managed to look at Valerie again as she got back to her legs, who was staring at her with a look that suggested that she would do it again at any second, the only half-words she could manage were, “Wha... wh-”

“THAT,” she started, emphasizing the sharpness in her voice by pointing at Mandy, “was because of that COWARDLY attack of yours at the academy!” Valerie growled, almost snorting with disgust at her. “I lost the BEST friend I’ve ever had in my LIFE, my chance to be his first girlfriend WAY before THAT, and 2 YEARS OF STUDY at the academy that day, all because of YOU!”

Before Mandy could say anything, Val approached, making the Gardevoir brace herself for a second outburst.

“And as if that wasn’t enough! You did Arceus-knows-what, and broke Dylan’s sweet heart, and I couldn’t do anything to help him for, again, 2 YEARS and—”

Finally getting close enough without planning to blast her point-blank, the Vaporeon consciously noticed it, trembling subtly on Mandy’s throat. A Gardevoirite.

... That bitch could Mega Evolve.

Is that real? No, it can’t be real, she has to be so vain that it’s a fake. Or, worse, it IS real; who’s she using this time?!

“Is that a Mega Stone?” she asked, feeling a mixture of fear and anger. “... HOW do you have a Mega Stone?!”

“Val, I-”

“WHY do you, of all people, have a Mega Stone?!” she continued, pointing her finger right in her face. “Whose feelings and trust are you manipulating to do this?!”

...

To that, Mandy didn’t have a ready answer. This conversation wasn’t going as it should. And those feelings, that fear and sense of helplessness... it was so terrifyingly familiar.

“There was a time when you were in our lives, I gave you my time, my trust, my friendship... hell, I even gave you the benefit of the doubt that you would take care of Dylan when you were with him!” Valerie listed the events, her voice beginning to tremble, as if she were about to cry from anger and frustration. “Then, out of nowhere, you start avoiding us, and when I, your friend, worried about you, go to find out what happened and at least TRY to help you, what do you do?”

... All Mandy could offer in return was silence.

“And then, when ‘Valerie’ was no longer in your life, you simply decide to BETRAY Dylan; a kind man, who I know, I KNOW, would have loved you until the end of his life, but what do you decide to do, in the end?” Valerie didn’t stop lashing out. “And as if that weren’t enough, what else is there? You. Vanish. Evaporate, teleport, simply disappear from his life as if you never existed to begin with; leaving him with the ruins of what was once a relationship that COULD end up in a wedding!”

... Mandy could feel something forming in her eyes, something she thought she would no longer be able to produce.

Tears.

They slipped free despite Mandy’s best efforts, tracing silent paths down her cheeks and catching the moonlight before falling into the sand.

Valerie noticed immediately.

For a fraction of a second, her expression wavered—not softening, not forgiving, but... faltering. Then her jaw tightened again, as if she hated herself for even hesitating, as if showing anything remotely close to caring made her even madder.

“Don’t, stop,” Val snapped. “Don’t you dare cry now.”

“I—” Mandy’s voice broke on the first sound, and she had to swallow hard before trying again, “I’m not doing it to make you feel bad, I swear. It’s just... I can’t hold it in anymore.”

“Hold in what?” Val asked, sounding tired and thirsty from talking so much. “I really don’t want to have to repeat myself at everything you’ve done to us, it’s exhausting.”

“The fact that I could have prevented all of this if I had been stronger... and stood up for myself more firmly when you both were being threatened!” Mandy finally replied, raising her voice, but sounding equally tired.

The waves and wind crashed in the background, leaving a slightly salty taste in her mouth as the Vaporeon stared at the Gardevoir before her as if she had lost her mind forever.

“... You’re not making any sense...” she said. “I really hope you know that.”

“I know,” Mandy replied calmly, so calmly it sounded almost insulting given all the air Val had wasted lashing out on her, “and that’s precisely why I’m here, to reveal every last spark of truth I’ve hidden from you two, and I don’t intend to move a fucking inch out of here until I’ve done exactly that.”

The two remained silent as the many background sounds once again filled the void between them. Valerie thought that she would come here, hear some hateful things, return the favor twofold, perhaps throw her into the sea in the process, and then return home victorious, knowing that she would never have to even think about her again.

But apparently, the problem was much deeper than she expected.

With a step back and a “go ahead” gesture, Valerie let Mandy explain herself, offering to see how many lies and attempts to pull her heartstrings that Gardevoir could manage. 

“Thank you.” Mandy nodded slowly, as if bracing herself for an impact she’d known was coming for years. “I never stopped caring about either of you,” she began. “Not for a single day, not for a single second, and I know how disgusting that must sound, considering everything that happened after.” She exhaled, shaky, then looked away—out at the dark sea, at the moonlit water she knew Valerie could command so easily. “At the academy... I started avoiding you... because things were going terribly wrong. Not between us. Around us.”

Valerie’s brow furrowed. “Wrong how?”

Mandy hesitated, fingers curling into the sleeves of her sweatshirt. “‘They’ found me, they saw how close I was to you and Dylan all the time, and they used that against me.”

Again, the aquatic Pokémon frowned deeper as she asked the question Mandy most feared answering: “‘They?’... ‘They’ who?”

“... I... I genuinely don’t know...” she replied, putting her hand to her head as a storm of horrible memories assailed her. “They could be a secret league, a criminal organization, a terrorist group, a collective of scientists with some extremist ideal... fuck! They could even be some kind of crazy cult! I. Don’t. Know. And I couldn't care less! All I know is that I suffered mountains at their hands.”

Valerie stared at her in stunned silence. For the first time since Mandy arrived, the rage in her chest hesitated—caught between the fury of the past and the uncomfortable possibility that the woman standing before her wasn’t the same “bitch” she’d been cursing for years.

“... WHAT?! You expect me to believe that?” Val said at last. “You vanish, you betray Dylan, you ruin everything—and now it’s some nameless ‘They?’”

Mandy flinched, but she nodded. “I don’t expect you to believe me,” she replied quietly. “I just need you to hear me.” She swallowed, then forced herself to continue. “They came to me when I was alone, and they blackmailed me because I had run away from them before, and now they had found me again.” Mandy ran a hand over her forehead; just thinking about it again made her sweat. “They threatened you, and gave me only two options, with no escape: Either I destroyed everything I had built up until then to return to ‘Them,’ or they destroyed it... destroyed YOU TWO... THEIR way! And I simply couldn’t allow that to happen, not when you two meant so much to me.”

Again, Valerie’s lips moved, but no words came out. For a brief moment, she saw it—not the girl she’d hated for years, not the traitor she’d cursed in her mind—but the exhausted, hollow-eyed Gardevoir standing in front of her now. Someone who looked like she hadn’t known peace in a very long time.

But one thing didn’t add up.

“So why did you leave us hanging? I saw you in despair, I tried to help you, and you attacked me, and I want to understand why,” the Vaporeon commented, still sounding irritated. “Didn’t you want to tell me? Okay, it doesn’t justify the attack, because I had to use an eyepatch after it, by the way, but still...” She paused to catch her breath. “But why leave Dylan out? If I was your best friend, he was your boyfriend. If talking to me wasn’t an option, you could talk to him.” 

“No... I... couldn’t.”

“Why couldn’t you?”

“Because they knew things about you! And apparently, they had ears in the walls. I was always being watched, always being followed. If I said anything to you about this, and you might disappear the next day! Dylan might disappear! Your family might disappear!”

“They. Knew. What?!” Valerie insisted, wanting anything she said to make sense. “What could they possibly know that would be so dangerous? We weren’t celebrities, or wanted criminals, or bearers of hidden secrets of the universe, or any of that crap; we were just students, attending an academy, learning what we could.”

“The PROBLEM is that you knew me, aka their escaped property,” Mandy explained, gesturing to herself, “and they wanted their property back... as just that. THEIR property. No interference, no strings attached, no ties with the outside world, no hope of me EVER having anyone to go back to or have anyone come looking for me.”

“Pff,” the Vaporeon snorted dismissively, “and what would they do, send their ninja assassin squad at us? Or is that the best you can do at making things up?”

This nonsensical back-and-forth between the two was wearing down Mandy’s already fragile patience. She didn’t want to resort to that, but if Val wouldn’t listen to her willingly, she’d have to listen to her unwillingly.

What a surprise.

Fine. If Valerie wanted to unload on her, Mandy would fire back.

“Okay! Okay! You want to know what they had on you?!”

“Yes! Do your worst!”

“So here it is: Valerie Eon, 18 years old at the time, Eevee, member of a family of five, moves at the time: Tackle, Flail, Tail Whip, and Swift...” Mandy listed, each piece of information seemingly tattooed on her memory, until she reached the part that terrified her the most. “Address: Celadon Street, house no. 133, lived with your father, mother, and two sisters, names... I forgot, but they must also have ‘Eon’ as a last name.”

Valerie’s eye and tail twitched. “Okay, so you went stalker on me. Or you just did a little digging online. So? Anyone could find that all out with some time and effort.”

“Would they find out that you saw a therapist for separation anxiety when you were 10?” Mandy asked in the same nervous, yet steady, tone, like it was a natural progression of the talk.

“I don’t know, maybe-” Valerie started to dismiss her before the delayed impact hit her. “The... fuck... did you say?” she asked in shock as all three of her fins flattened against her head in fear.

“Saint Articuno Developmental Center, Doctor Justinian Andrews, or ‘Justin’ he goes by, from when you were 10 and a half until a little after you turned 11,” Mandy went on.

Valerie covered her head, trying to block it out. “You’re reading my mind. You have to be.”

“Take a deep breath and turn your focus inward. If you’ve really hated me this much for this long, you’d train for mind-reading opponents. Look in your head and try to find someone else there...” she paused before continuing, “when I say the cause was bullying you, ‘the shy, quiet girl’ at school.”

...

No. Val felt no vague feeling of being watched. Just her heart starting to hammer in her chest.

“Stop it.”

“Or do I need to tell you that the main documented cause was finding out your parents were discussing divorce, even if they worked it out?” Mandy added.

Val’s head bowed under the weight of the truth suddenly being dropped on her. The number of things Mandy was rattling off that Val never told her, that were supposed to be kept confidential, and that she knew for damn sure Dylan would never breathe to a soul were starting to scare her. “Shut up!”

Mandy hated feeling like she was abusing her telepathy; it was why she kept her mind insulated from others’ when in school, but now she felt like she was taking a scalpel to Valerie’s thoughts without needing her mind’s eye open at all... and she wasn’t being gentle about it. “You were documented in ‘Their’ system,” she said, emphasizing the word “They” so Val knew who she meant, “as *ahem*, ‘Still highly dependent on interpersonal bonds, especially with Target Number 2, aka Dylan.’”

As soon as Dylan’s name left Mandy’s lips, Valerie’s jaw clenched and her pendant glowed again.

“‘Would easily be broken by isolation treatment if captured and-’”

“I SAID SHUT UUUP!” Valerie shouted, and emphasizing every word was a stream of high-intensity bubbles from her mouth that forcefully blasted the sand between them away in a semi-uncontrolled Bubble Beam.

Mandy obeyed her command this time, the point made even if it took a fresh mental wound to do so. She didn’t flinch at the attack, either from seeing that Val wasn’t actively directing it at her or from knowing she’d asked for it.

...

Valerie tried to breathe as she stared at the hole in the sand she’d just created. Even though she hated to admit it, it lent credibility to her words.

Dangerous credibility.

Her breath tried to come back, but it failed. Not in a dramatic gasp—no. It stalled, sharp and shallow, as if her lungs had forgotten what they were supposed to do.

The silence that followed was heavier than any scream.

The waves still rolled in, uncaring. The moon still watched. But Valerie no longer felt like the one in control of the night.

“They... kept an eye on you... after I went back,” Mandy said hesitantly, making Valerie feel paranoid all over again. “I found that in...their computers after I-”

“... Stop, stopstopSTOP!” she said, voice low and sharp. “Don’t say another word.”

Mandy froze instantly, as if an invisible leash had snapped taut around her throat. She lowered her gaze, shoulders curling inward. “I-I... I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I just... really needed you to understand that they weren’t bluffing.”

The Vaporeon massaged her temples for longer than she wanted. “Okay... so they knew a heck of a lot about me... right?”

“As you just saw, yes.”

“... And what about Dylan?”

“Not even one less piece of information,” Mandy revealed, “but I’ll spare you that shock twice.”

“But you still attacked me, I had to change schools and leave Dylan behind because of you,” Val pointed out. “Why?”

... Mandy felt so small. No matter what her reason was, how trapped she was at the moment, how traumatized she was, nothing justified what she did.

Just more burdens to carry to her grave. More lives she destroyed, only this time without ending them.

“... It was pure desperation,” Mandy finally revealed. “Their words were fresh in my memory, echoing like gunshots in a cave,” her voice took on a menacing undertone as she mimicked the words replaying in her head, “‘She’s coming, Number 4096. Either you get rid of that one your way, or we do it our way,’” she went back to her normal voice, “and you had the misfortune of showing up at a terrible time.”

“Are you implying that this was my fault?”

“Not at all, you two are the only victims here,” she replied, shaking her head in denial. “I was the one who used your kindness and trust to stab you in the back, and there isn’t a day or night that I don’t hate myself for it.”

Valerie stared at her for a long time. Really stared. Searching for cracks, for lies, for manipulation. But all she saw was someone bare to the bone, to the marrow, offering her throat and waiting for the blade.

“And Dylan?” she asked curtly. “What did you do with him?”

“... Whatever he told you, it’s the truth-”

“Holy shit, Mandy, don’t joke around!” Val cut her off, stomping her foot. “I’m at a point where I’m starting to doubt even my own name!”

Mandy flinched at Valerie’s outburst, but she didn’t recoil. She didn’t run. If anything, she straightened—just a little—like someone deciding that if the execution was coming, she would at least face it standing. “I’m not joking,” she said softly. “I swear on everything I have left, I’m not.”

Valerie’s fists clenched at her sides, claws digging into her palms. “Then talk. Clearly. Slowly if you need to. Just don’t dance around it.”

Mandy nodded. “I never stopped loving Dylan for a single moment, just as I never stopped loving you.”

“Eh? And look how this ‘unconditional love’ ended for me,” Val snarked.

“... I know, and that was heartbreaking enough on its own.” She nodded. “Not even in my worst nightmares did I want to push him away in the same way.”

“Get. To. The. Point. So? What did you do with him?”

The Gardevoir took a deep breath and, crossing her arms, looked away. “I tried to scare him away, much more gently than I did with you. I tried to just get him to leave on his own. After what I’d done to you, I couldn’t bring myself to use fear and violence again. I ignored him, isolated myself from him, silenced him. If I’m not mistaken, I even hit him for trying to get too close to me at one point. The problem was that...” she felt her voice begin to break, “he was much more devoted and loyal than I expected.”

Val resisted the urge to list Dylan’s numerous good qualities to her face, just to give her a taste of what she’d lost; Mandy had no idea how right she was. The answer she’d been waiting to hear finally arrived. “So, what did you do? Did you cheat on him?”

“‘Cheating’? No. I faked a cheating, not like that hurt him any less,” she explained. “I needed him to distance himself from me, not by force, but of his own free will, so he wouldn’t come after me later. So I got... someone, went to him, said and lied some things that still make me nauseous to this day, and as soon as I was sure the bridge between us was completely destroyed, I walked away.”

“... You got ‘someone',” the Vaporeon repeated, her tail curling tighter. “Who did you use?”

...

Just remembering that she chose “Them,” out of all the options she had at hand, to make up this cheating story... made her want to vomit her guts out. Having to put her hands on “Them” while she said those things to break that huge heart of Dylan’s... it was like touching something poisonous, but instead of the contamination spreading through her blood, it spread through her soul, something she couldn’t get clean.

“And does it even matter now? After all the damage had already been done?”

Valerie opened her mouth, but after a few seconds, she closed it again. In fact, it didn’t matter anymore. “Okay...” she huffed, running her hand over the central fin on her head, “and after that? You disappeared?”

“Yes,” Mandy simply agreed. “I disappeared from the public eye and went back to the hell I fought so hard to escape once, and that’s how that cheerful and confident Kirlia you once knew died. And guess who reappeared in her place?”

“... You, as I see you now?”

And Mandy simply nodded.

The sea breeze silenced the loud snort Val let out upon hearing that response. This conversation was NOT going as she had imagined it would.

For years, she had nurtured her anger, polished it, sharpened it into something clean, sharp and simple: Mandy betrayed us. It was so easy to hate a monster.

It was much harder to hate someone who was broken.

But there was still one point that hadn’t been answered yet.

“And that?” she asked, pointing to the Mega Stone that swayed subtly in the wind. “Where does that fit into the whole story?”

The Gardevoir pointed at the same rock, as if pointing a gun at her own head. “This? This is a perversion of everything you understand about Mega Evolution.” Mandy let her hand fall back to her side, fingers trembling. “This,” she repeated quietly, “there’s nothing born from trust, or love, or mutual resolve here.” She finally looked Valerie straight in the eyes again. “It’s a leash, and a tight one.”

The word landed heavier than any accusation. Valerie’s fins stiffened. “A... leash?”

Mandy nodded. “After the first time I ran away from them, they saw some destructive potential in me, and they started training me. Harder. Nonstop. Combat sessions, lab experiments I wasn’t expected to survive, and training meant to break my mind harder than my body that seemed endless, all just to make me more powerful; a more powerful weapon,” just uttering the word “weapon” made her tremble even more, as if she actually held one in her hand, loaded and ready to use, “... and when I evolved, they made this Gardevoirite, corrupted and twisted it until it became this perversion you see, and gave it to me.”

Then, a new, unsettling question arose in the Vaporeon’s mind. “And... have you used it yet?”

Mandy opened and closed her mouth several times, as if she wanted to answer but couldn’t because of forces beyond her control. Finally: “... Yes, once, and the only time so far.”

The waves crashed in the background, indifferent to the entire structure, built with years of accumulated hatred and anger, crumbling in that place. Val had already expected this answer, but even so, she hoped not to hear it.

“But you still have it.”

“Yes.”

“... Does that mean you’re still under ‘Their’ control?”

“No,” she replied immediately. “Not anymore.”

“... What do you mean?”

“I freed myself from them, definitively.” She replied, then ran a hand through her hair. “But only in the real world; there isn’t a night that that place doesn’t haunt my dreams,” then she ran her fingers over the Gardevoirite, “...and perhaps I’m less free physically than I think, with what it’s done to my health.”

“... What did you do to get rid of them?” Val asked, bracing herself for whatever she might say.

Mandy remained silent for a while, before taking a deep breath and replying, curtly and bluntly, “...I killed them all, down to the last one who worked there.”

... It was difficult to say what was louder: The silence, or the shock of the information.

“... You... killed them...?”

“Every single one on the staff list, every single agent out in the field, dead. Shortly after the first, and only, Mega Evolution experiment they did to me,” the Gardevoir replied, trying to soften her tone. “I used the fear of death they felt as pinpoints to find them and eliminate every last one, and their computer system to recall their field agents and bring them back to walk into their, as painful as it could be, deaths.”

“... So... am I talking to a murderer right now?”

The question hung between them like a blade suspended mid-fall.

“If that’s what you want to call it... you are,” Mandy said, barely louder than the tide, “and while we’re laying things bare, if you didn’t count killing ‘Them’ as an act of murder... you could count the other times I was ordered, ‘Kill or die,’ as a little girl, and later, ‘Kill because we know where Valerie and Dylan live,’ as an adult. Sometimes I don’t know if I count those or not, either.”

Valerie didn’t recoil. She didn’t lash out. She didn’t even raise her voice.

She just... stared.

For a long time.

The moonlight caught in the wet sheen of her eyes; not tears yet, but dangerously close. Her tail had gone still, completely still, like even it was afraid to move.

“... Arceus,” Val breathed at last, voice hoarse, “you have any idea of how messed up all this sounds?”

“I actually do,” she replied quickly, almost sounding desperate. “I don’t expect forgiveness or understanding or absolution. I just really needed you to know what kind of thing I became. What I had to do and become to make sure they would never touch you again. Or Dylan. Or anyone.”

Valerie laughed. A short, broken sound. “So that’s it?” she asked. “That’s the grand reveal? You destroyed the lives of us three to protect us... and then became a walking nightmare in the process?”

Mandy shrugged. “Well, that’s a pretty good summary of everything that happened.”

Valerie began massaging her eyes and temples more vigorously than she intended. This all was so messed up. SHE was so messed up. “The problem...” she said sharply, “is that all this just sounds... how do I put it into words... convenient. Like something you tell yourself so you can sleep somewhat soundly at night.”

... Sleep... soundly?

It was Mandy turn to give her ex-friend a humorless, dry, broken laugh.

Then she approached her, making the Vaporeon feel a terrifying chill down her spine; one that her memory might not clearly recall, but her body remembered, and remembered well.

But before she could make a move to use any attack, Mandy stopped, and pulled her cheeks down slightly, making the areas under her eyes more visible. The dark, baggy areas.

“See this?” Mandy asked coldly. “This is the result of night after night of being unable to sleep properly because I’ve been plagued by nightmares every, single, fucking, night! It torments me so much that I practically had to manipulate an innocent Chansey to get prescription sleeping pills JUST to be able to sleep! Do, you, understand, THIS?! That most of my LIFE has been a nightmare I can’t wake up from?!”

...

Actually, yes. Valerie understood that. But not because it happened to her, but because she’d spent years watching it happen to someone very dear to her, a member of her own family.

Vanessa.

Valerie took an unconscious step back.

All this time, she’d imagined Mandy gaining power somewhere, thriving after the destruction she’d left behind, becoming stronger while everyone else paid the price.

Instead—

“... I’m going to ask you a simple question,” Mandy said, her voice still icy. “Ignoring everything I’ve said so far, do you genuinely believe I would deprive myself of sleep, just to convince you of a lie?”

Valerie didn’t answer right away. She couldn’t. The question wasn’t shouted. It wasn’t theatrical. It was quiet, raw, and it cut far deeper than all the accusations that had come before it.

Do she genuinely think that Mandy would deprive herself of sleep, just to make her lie more convincing?

Val’s throat tightened. Her fingers curled against her forearm, claws pressing into skin—not enough to break it, just enough to anchor herself.

“... No,” she admitted at last, voice barely above the surf. “No, I don’t.”

She exhaled slowly, shakily, like someone defusing a bomb with hands that wouldn’t stop trembling. “I know what I did, I know what I didn’t tell you, and I know you didn’t deserve any of it,” Mandy said immediately. There was no defensiveness in her tone. No bargaining. “I’m not asking for forgiveness or acceptance, much less any free fucking pass. Just... the right to be heard after so many fucking years of silent suffering. For the first time in my life, I need someone who’ll listen when I tell my story, my whole story, and it just happens to be someone I should have faced to tell her the truth sooner.”

Valerie looked at her again—really looked.

Not the monster she’d built in her head. Not the villain that had made hating easy.

Just... someone utterly wrecked. Someone who hadn’t been... WHOLE in a long time... if ever.

Valerie stepped back, dragging her hand down her face. “You know what the worst part is?” she said quietly. “Not the killing. Not even the lies.”

Mandy didn’t speak.

“It’s that part of me believes you,” Val continued, “and I hate that, I hate that it makes sense, I hate that it explains everything I never understood.”

“Well, welcome to the shipwreck that is my life,” Mandy joked. “hahaha, I strongly recommend you don’t get too comfortable.”

Val let out a short laugh but quickly shut up when she realized how fucking disrespectful that was.

But Mandy kept laughing anyway, as if she were already used to laughing at her own misfortune.

Val looked back at the sea, at the dark water she’d bent so easily earlier. For the first time tonight, it didn’t feel like an extension of her will—it felt distant. Unreachable.

But before she could say anything, Mandy did her that favor. “... Well, that’s all, everything that happened, with you, with me... damn, I didn’t know I could yap so much...” she said, placing her hands on her hips, “but if you have any other questions, go ahead; we’re already here anyway.”

“... Since you asked, yes, I do have a few,” Val replied, running her hand behind her head.

“Let’s have it.”

“First of all, you talked and talked and talked about the three of us, but there’s one thing I didn’t hear a single word about.” Val paused, reconsidering whether this question might be too insensitive, but spoke anyway. “... You had nowhere else to go? No one else to turn to? Where were your parents while all this was happening?”

...

...

...

The way the Gardevoir’s face closed up, how she lowered her head, and the unsettling silence that followed made the Vaporeon freeze, realizing she had touched, nah, slapped an open wound with her hand full of salt.

“Oh crap! Holy Arceus! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“No,” Mandy finally replied, making a stop sign with her hand. “... It’s okay, you never realized, and I don’t blame you for that.”

It was hard to tell if she had stopped trying to hide what she really felt or not, but Valerie could tell from her voice that everything was not okay. Not okay at all.

“My parents... disappeared when I was little. That’s all I know,” she replied, shrugging. “That was way long before I met Clavell, who enrolled me in Uva Academy. When I realized they were gone and I was alone, I was just a little child crying in an alley in a world that didn’t even know I existed; that’s the state I was in when ‘They’ first found me, and that’s when I made the second-worst mistake of my life and listened to them.”

Before Val could say anything about it, or try to change the subject, Mandy started laughing. That kind of laugh from someone who was ready to cry soon after. Naturally, she inquired, “Why are you laughing?”

“Hehe... it’s just that... even after my parents disappeared, I explicitly remember how they raised me... with a love I haven’t felt in a long time since then... with a clear distinction between right and wrong.” Then Mandy extended her arm, as if she wanted Valerie to see her whole body. “... Now look at me. Look at what the ‘good girl’ they raised so warmly has become.”

Valerie swallowed hard.

For a moment, she didn’t trust her voice to come out without snapping in half, so she stayed quiet. The sea kept breathing behind them, steady and patient, as if it had all the time in the world—unlike the two of them.

“... Mandy,” she said at last.

Not sharp. Not angry.

Just... her name.

“You don’t get to do that.”

Mandy blinked, sighing with an air of pure defeat. “... Do what?”

“That,” Val replied, gesturing vaguely at her—at the laugh, the shrug, the way she’d turned herself into a punchline. “You don’t get to erase who you were just because some terrible things happened after.”

Mandy scoffed weakly. “Oh please, I’m not erasing anything. I’m simply stating the obvious facts.”

“No, you’re condemning yourself,” Val shot back, sharper now. “There’s a difference.” She took a step closer, cautious but deliberate, stopping just short of invading Mandy’s space. “You say your parents raised you right,” Valerie continued. “With love, morals, and care,” her voice wavered, but she pushed through, “and then they disappeared. You were a kid. Alone, targeted, exploited,” her tail flicked, restless, “and somehow you’re telling me the conclusion of it all, is that everything they gave you meant nothing?”

Mandy opened her mouth—then closed it.

Val exhaled, rubbing at her arm. “I’ve spent years hating you,” she admitted quietly. “Years telling myself you were selfish, cruel, that you threw everything good away because you wanted power or attention or just because that’s what the worst people do,” she looked away, jaw tightening, “and yeah, you did awful things, things that hurt us, things that still hurt, and I don’t intend to forgive you anytime soon.” Then she looked back at Mandy, eyes glossy. “But the ‘good girl’ they raised?” Val said. “I’m... seeing her, standing right there, hating herself for managing, somehow, to survive hell.” She paused. “And then, she went back to hell so people she cared about didn’t have to.”

The words landed heavy.

Mandy’s composure cracked—not dramatically, not all at once. Just a small, sharp inhale, like she’d been punched somewhere deep and unexpected.

“You don’t know that,” she whispered.

“And you’re right, I don’t know. There’s a lot I wasn’t there to see,” Val replied. “But there’s one thing I do know: Monsters don’t blame themselves for becoming monsters, they don’t lose their sleep over it, they don’t dwell on choices that caused pain to others, nor break themselves apart trying to explain it.”

The Gardevoir stared at the sand again, her tears beginning to stain the ground. She sniffed quickly and asked, “What did I do to deserve so much kindness and understanding from you?”

Val she replied with a simple, “... I don’t know either.”

Silence again. But this one was different—less hostile, more... exhausted.

This conversation was NOT what either of them expected. But it was so much needed.

“... I... I’m going to ask another question, okay?” Valerie asked.

Mandy didn’t answer immediately, but nodded.

“It’s about your Mega Stone,” she said, gesturing toward it. “You said that ‘They’ corrupted and distorted it until it became this ‘perversion’ I’m seeing, right?”

Mandy nodded slowly.

“And if you’re being as sincere as I imagine you are... then you never wanted this power, right?”

The Gardevoir took longer to answer this one. But in the end, “At some point in my naiveté, I dreamed that I would find someone who would make this possible, perhaps that 'someone' could even be Dylan.... but this? No, not even for a second.”

That was it, the hook Val needed to ask what she wanted to do. “So why do you still have it?”

Mandy’s fingers curled around the fabric of her sleeve again, knuckles whitening. “Because I don’t know how to get rid of it,” she said plainly.

Val blinked. “... That’s it?”

Mandy let out a breath that sounded dangerously close to a laugh. “You were expecting something more poetic?”

“No,” Val admitted. “Just... more messed up, I guess.”

“It IS messed up,” Mandy replied softly. “Just not in a dramatic way.” She moved the stone to the side and lifted it slightly so she could look at it, letting the moonlight catch its warped facets. For a moment, it looked almost alive. Truly, a terrifying thought. “To me, this is more than just a perversion of Mega Evolution,” she began. “It’s as if all the years of torture, isolation, experimentation, abuse, and terror of what the next day held have been crystallized in this stone. I would KILL AGAIN to be able to rip this wretched shit off my neck, shove it deep into a black hole, and nevermore look back.”

Even though she was a little intimidated by the last statement, Valerie remained standing. And after a deep breath, she asked, “But you don’t want to, or in the best-case scenario, you can’t, because...?”

This made Mandy give a more somber look at the stone, which swayed so innocently that she could practically hear it mocking her. “... Because I feel that if I do that... it will be like I’m making light of everything I’ve been through,” she replied. “Like I’m kicking a poor Kirlia, who I once was, who’s already on the ground, all wounded and full of bruises and trauma and who just wants all the hurting to stop, and then spitting in her face, saying, ‘Well, getting rid of you was easier than I thought! All I had to do was just not care about you, just like everyone else! Have fun in oblivion!’”

Valerie’s expression softened—not into forgiveness, not into approval—but into something quieter. Something heavier. “... That’s the dumbest reason I’ve ever heard,” she said gently.

Mandy stiffened, ready for the blow.

“And also,” Val continued, voice low, steady, “the most painfully you reason imaginable.”

Mandy blinked. “You’re... not angry?”

“Oh, you better not need mind-reading powers to know that I am!” Val replied immediately. “At you. At ‘Them’. At the universe. At how unfair this all is. At how maybe I could have done anything about it, but I didn’t because I didn’t know until now.” She gestured vaguely between them. “But not at that.” She stepped closer again, slowly, deliberately, making sure Mandy didn’t flinch this time. “You think throwing it away would erase what you went through,” Val said. “Like the pain only counts if you keep carrying the proof.”

Mandy swallowed. “... Yes.”

Val shook her head. “That’s not how scars work.” She paused, searching for the right words. “... The bad thing is that I’m not good at talking about this subject. I’m a lifeguard, for Arceus’ sake! Not a psychologist!” the Vaporeon declared, “So to close this matter, I’ll say this: As long as you hold onto that cursed stone, it will be as if you’re locking yourself, and your past self, inside a cell; you can, and have the means, to free yourself and start truly living, but as long as you allow your traumas to dictate how you behave...” she paused briefly, then continued, “... it will be as if you’re facing your past self being abused and doing nothing about it.”

...

For some reason, hearing the word “abused” was more painful than Mandy had imagined it would be.

Mandy let out a shaky breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “... You’re really not supposed to be this kind to me,” she murmured.

Val snorted quietly. “Yeah, well. I was never great at doing what I was ‘supposed’ to.”

Another pause.

Valerie glanced at her Roto-phone a moment later; it was already 9:36 PM. Wow, time really flew by. Dylan would definitely ask why she was taking so long.

But what would she say in response? “Oh, hi again Dylan, I was talking to Mandy. You know, that Kirlia who cheated you in the past? Well, it turns out she’s a victim of abuse and slavery, and she pretended to cheat you to protect you from her abusers, and I spent years hating her for things I never had any idea about! Isn’t that something? By the way, did I tell you the real reason I dropped out of the academy and never spoke to you again? Because guess what? she was behind that, too!”

People tend to look at their own past misfortunes and laugh, make jokes, anything to mitigate what was once a complication. This one certainly wouldn’t be one of them.

Valerie stared at the dark screen of her phone for a few seconds longer than necessary, thumb hovering uselessly above it. Yeah. There was absolutely no way to compress this into something that even resembled a normal explanation. She locked the screen again and slipped the phone back into her pocket, exhaling slowly through her nose.

All these hard questions and harder answers were making her head hurt, and she didn’t know how she would get to sleep tonight, or maybe how she would be able to sleep for a while... and this was just her first meeting with Mandy. It was supposed to end here with their unfinished business resolved and she’d go back to the happy life her ex-bestie had stolen from her and that she herself had thrown away.

It turned out, this was just a transitional period from that story into a new one. Val figured she might as well get as much resolution as she could stay awake for.

“So, this... ‘Them,’” she began, “if they had resources to find you and use us as leverage against you, I can only assume you knew them well enough to know they could follow through on their threats and get away with it.”

Mandy nodded. “A couple of academy students aren’t the hardest targets. Not as easy pickings as homeless, lonely children like me, either, when you’re around people and have friends and families to notice your disappearance,” she explained, “but they knew you were important to me in ways that couldn’t be measured in terms of ‘resources.’”

“Uh huh. The point is, you were one against many,” Val clarified. After Mandy nodded again, she asked, “But if they had the means to put all this together and keep it a secret, you might have had an insider advantage and a ton of personal motivation to fight, but how did you get rid of them all by yourself?”

The pause without an answer made Valerie’s suspicion rise again. The fact that Mandy knew things that should be secret that happened to her long before they’d met did a lot to convince her this wasn’t something Mandy deluded herself into believing, but unless “They” were doing something to turn her into some kind of super soldier, she had to patch up this hole in the explanation.

What she didn’t know, though, was Mandy was struggling to answer not because she didn’t have an explanation, but the problem was she didn’t have an explanation that wouldn’t put her and Valerie’s (and likely Dylan’s) safety at risk again, and she had lost so much to protect their safety already.

The words of the survivors’ pact echoed in her head: “Each of us is on our own. Don’t put anyone’s freedom at risk, because we’ve already killed our way to freedom, and we will kill anyone to keep it.”

Valerie raised an eyebrow at her. “Well? I’m waiting.”

She didn’t understand what kind of corner she’d backed Mandy into. Telling anything close to the truth meant putting them in danger, and this time, she couldn’t destroy that danger from the inside. She came here for the same reason Valerie did: To tell the truth, but while nothing Valerie did was very surprising even though it hit her hard emotionally (and, in the case of the Bubble Beam, physically), she’d been the one to give the Vaporeon way more than she bargained for. Now it was her turn not to know what to say.

And yet...

This also reminded her of that time when Valerie was her best friend. All those times she wanted to confide in Valerie if she promised to keep it a secret, all those times she felt accepted and welcomed while thinking that maybe their bond could survive something as serious as the truth of her past, they came back to her. Ultimately, never telling anyone the truth was what kept Val and Dyl alive when they weren’t considered an immediate threat to “Their” secrecy and all she had to do was keep her friends away. She died inside to do it, but she’d stopped something worse from happening, so she didn’t regret that choice.

No matter what Mandy did here, she knew she’d regret this. She wouldn’t put their safety at risk again. But maybe she could find a middle ground.

She had to pull back the curtain of secrecy just enough to show Valerie there was something very dangerous behind it.

“Valerie... I can answer your question, but first I need to put things in perspective, because this is bigger than both of us,” she began.

Unsure of why Mandy would need to frame her answer before giving it, Val nodded. “Go on,” she said suspiciously.

“Think for a second why ‘They’ only did some digging on your past and kept an eye on you after I went back instead of just dealing with you permanently, just to be sure. Why do you think that is?”

Val blinked, glancing aside for a moment to think before answering, “Because... you convinced them we were in the dark about everything?”

“Yep, and now, let’s say I did have help with killing them. Help that also had an insider advantage.” She leaned in a bit. “Help that wasn’t free until they killed their way to freedom, just like me.”

“Yyyeah?”

“If I told you anything about them... which I haven’t... do you think they might not look at you like I do? That they won’t risk their hard-won freedom with some outsider knowing too much and getting chatty?”

Valerie felt a flutter of fear in her heart but still tried to press Mandy for an answer. “I don’t know if I can believe this or if you’re just trying to keep me quiet because you don’t really have an answer.”

“Then don’t believe me. It might be safer if you don’t.” Mandy hoped Val could see the honesty and pain in her eyes showing that she couldn’t tell Valerie this for her own good. “But if I have to, again, make the choice that broke me, the choice between ‘keep a secret and risk losing your friendship’ or ‘tell you everything and risk losing your life’... my loyalty is still with you.”

The Vaporeon’s tail flicked slowly and rhythmically as she tried to think her way through how she could pry more information from Mandy or get her to confess she was lying, and now another variable had entered that inner debate: The possibility that if Mandy was telling the truth, she might be getting into something bigger than she could handle.

Seeing Valerie was weighing her options, Mandy added the last bit of influence she could muster for now and said, “Years ago, you were put in danger because of me, and ‘They’ finished what they’d started on me when I was a little girl because of it. Please don’t put us back there.”

She didn’t know how to take this. She wanted to believe Mandy was threatening her into silence and she couldn’t find any reason to think otherwise. What she couldn’t fully convince herself of was why Mandy was doing it, and she didn’t rule out that Mandy was putting her former friend’s safety first... and if there were indeed people out there who would come after her for knowing too much, they’d come after Dylan, too, and whether she pushed Mandy on this or not, she needed to talk to Dylan and agree on what to do as a couple. She also couldn’t rule out that Mandy was putting herself at risk again by saying as much as she had, just because she wanted to give an answer that Val could accept at all.

“I...” Val started to say before realizing she didn’t know how to continue.

It was, again, Mandy’s turn to wait and see where this would go from here.

And this wasn’t over, but Valerie was ready to admit this wasn’t something they could resolve. Not yet.

“I’ll... think about it.”

Mandy hoped she’d come to the right decision. She just answered with a nod.

“Now, my final question, at least for now.”

The Gardevoir nodded again, slightly surprised that Val still wanted to hear more from her.

“... What have you been... doing all this time? Now that ‘They’ aren’t a problem you have to worry about? Even if they keep being on your mind anyway.”

For a moment, the sound of the wind and waves seemed to fall silent, as if the world were holding its breath.

Not long after, Mandy shrugged. “I think the most fitting word to describe what I’ve been doing is literally... ‘existing.’ I’m unemployed, saving as much as I can to avoid starving, while searching for any place that will accept someone whose entire resume boils down to ‘2 years of study at Uva Academy (not graduated),’ and to top it all off, all while reliving the worst moments of my life as if they were a movie I have no control over whether I’ll watch or not.” Finally, she put her hands on her hips and said in a self-deprecating tone, “The good life, don’t you think? Hope you like being a lifeguard; 'cause having a job, let alone a job you like, isn’t something all of us are blessed with.”

Valerie didn’t answer right away.

She looked at Mandy—not at the Mega Stone, not at the scars she couldn’t see, but at the way she stood. The way her shoulders sagged when she said “existing,” like even the word weighed too much. The way she joked about it because not joking would mean admitting how close she was to falling apart.

“... Yeah,” Val said quietly. “Sounds absolutely luxurious.” Then, after a beat, she added, “If luxury means barely holding yourself together with duct tape, hopes, dreams and a heck of a lot of spite.”

Mandy let out a weak huff of a laugh, but it died quickly. “Or just existing because, like before I met you and then had something beyond myself to live for, I just don’t want to die... mostly.”

Val shifted her weight, tail swaying slowly now, no longer tense. “You know, for someone who’s ‘just existing,’ you’ve been doing an awful lot of hard things,” she went on. “You escaped something horrific, stayed alive, didn’t become what ‘They’ wanted you to be, even after they tried like hell.” She scoffed, but not cruelly. “That’s not the good life. But it’s not nothing either.”

Mandy let out a breath that trembled on the way out. “It feels like nothing.”

“Of course it does,” Val replied. “You’re exhausted, mentally exhausted. Anyone would be. You lost everything and then somehow kept losing more. And luckily for you, I do know how someone mentally exhausted looks like.” She hesitated, then added, more carefully, “You’re not broken for being stuck. You’re just... injured, heavily. And injuries take time. More time than even I would like to admit.”

The words seemed to land somewhere deep. Mandy’s shoulders sagged, just a fraction, like she’d been holding them up by sheer stubbornness alone. “... I don’t even know what to do anymore,” Mandy admitted. “Every plan I ever had died somewhere along the way.”

Val nodded slowly. “Yeah. That happens when your future gets stolen.”

Another pause. The sea kept breathing. Somewhere far down the beach, someone laughed—distant, harmless, almost surreal. Val rubbed the back of her neck. “Listen. You, NEED, therapy, lots of therapy!” She met Mandy’s eyes again. “The amount of suffering and injustice you endured is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.”

The only response Mandy could give was a dry laugh. “Tell me something I don’t already know.”

“That’s the problem: You know that this isn’t, not even slightly, normal, you know you need help, professional help, desperately, yet you refuse to go after it,” Val pointed out, “so... if you don’t want to do this for yourself... then do it for me, for Dylan, even for your parents, even if they never know about it. If they loved you like you said they did, it’s what they would have wanted: For their ‘good girl’ to reach out when she needs help, not crawl into a hole and die alone.” Then she massaged her tired face. “Just please... don’t keep acting like your only option now is to rot in the same place because you don’t ‘deserve’ better.”

“... Even if I wanted to...” the Gardevoir broke the silence. “That doesn’t solve my main current problem, which is that I, don’t, have, ANYTHING, to support myself. I have no foundation to build on, and as long as that continues to be a problem, therapy will also be unfeasible.”

Valerie exhaled slowly, eyes dropping to the sand between them. “... Yeah,” she said. “That part I can’t argue with.” She kicked at the wet sand with the edge of her foot, watching the water creep in and erase the mark almost immediately. It felt... fitting. “Therapy isn’t cheap, neither is rent, or food, Or, you know—being alive in general,” she added dryly.

“Yes, I learned that the hard way, which is to say, unsurprisingly.” 

Val hesitated—just a second—but then breathed deeply and nodded. “So, we have to find work that can yet you the help you need, and given your current situation, nothing less than professional help will do,” she said carefully. “... I’ll help you look for a job.”

...

The silence that followed made Val fear she might have said something wrong.

But then, Mandy blinked slowly. “You... I'm sorry?”

“You heard me. If there’s one thing I learned in the time I left Uva Academy, it’s that knowing you have someone who cares about you, having your back, is the best feeling in the world,” the Vaporeon explained with a brief sigh. “So... if helping you find a job, however simple, will lift you out of poverty, and FINALLY get you started looking for help the way you should... then I’ll help you with that.”

The Gardevoir blinked slowly, still in disbelief at what she was hearing. “... A-... are you talking seriously?”

“You can bet your ass in it. I actually have some local family in a management position. If her company’s not hiring, she’s the kind of person who knows where to ask about job openings.”

The words hung there, fragile but real.

Mandy’s throat tightened. “Why?” she asked quietly. “After everything I’ve done?”

Val didn’t answer right away.

“... Because,” she said at last, “hating you kept me warm in the past. But it’s cold now, and I’m tired,” she met Mandy’s eyes again, “and because, whether I like it or not, you were important to me once. That doesn’t just... vanish. I thought it did. I was wrong.”

Mandy’s eyes began to tear up again. “... You always were so stubborn,” she murmured faintly.

Val huffed. “Takes one to know one.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

The offer hung between them—fragile, unreal, like a glass bridge stretched over a very deep drop.

Mandy wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt, clearly annoyed at herself for crying again. “... What I wouldn’t give for Dylan be here too... he deserves to know the truth as much as you do.” Before Val could even say anything in agreement, Mandy added, “Would you happen to know where he is?”

... The Vaporeon felt a tightness in her chest. She knew, and she knew well, but should she say it? Maybe she should. Mandy was being so transparent with her, and Valerie got more from this than she could have ever expected, but they both came here to tell the truth, she should be fair and-

“... Wait... I just noticed...” she started before realization dawned on her face and she pointed at Valerie, “I didn’t put it together when we were talking, but... all that stuff you said about Dylan... how did you know what I did to get him to break up with me? Has he been talking to-”

“Actually...” Val interrupted her. “Yes... I know where he is.”

Mandy stared at her, as if she had revealed a secret of the conspiracy, something she really didn’t want to know but was aware that she really needed to hear.

“He’s... in my house... right now...” she answered. “We... are dating now, since last month in fact.”

The words landed softly.

And still hit like a meteor.

Mandy didn’t react at first—not the way Valerie expected. No sharp inhale, no stagger, no flash of anger or devastation. She just... froze. As if her mind had briefly disconnected from the rest of her body.

“... You’re—” Her mouth moved, but no sound came out. She tried again. “You’re dating... Dylan?”

Valerie nodded once. Not proudly. Not apologetically. Just honestly. “Yes.”

The sea rolled in. The moonlight shimmered. The world, infuriatingly, kept going.

“... Since last month,” Val added, quieter now, as if suddenly unsure how much weight Mandy could bear. “It wasn’t planned. In the work group, we got a message that someone new would be joining, without any details. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was him, after so long. Naturally, I approached him, and things happened, intimately as well; that’s how, along the way, I discovered you ‘cheated on’ him.”

Mandy swallowed. Hard. “Oh,” she said.

Just that. Oh.

She looked down at the sand again, fingers curling into her sleeves so tightly her knuckles showed through the fabric. For a long moment, Valerie wondered if this was it—if the fragile bridge they’d built would shatter right here.

“... I see,” Mandy murmured.

There was no bitterness in her voice. No accusation.

That somehow made it worse.

“... Of course you are,” she said softly. “That actually makes... a lot of sense.”

Val blinked. “It does?”

Mandy nodded, eyes still distant. “You always liked him; I realized that shortly after meeting you. You were just... respectful enough to step back when he was with me.” She glanced at Val, a faint, sad smile tugging at her lips. “I remember that. I remember thinking how unfair it was that I had him, when you clearly—”

She stumbled over her words, both surprising and confusing Valerie again that she’d struggle to say this.

“You... you clearly had a history with him. I wanted to think I had a chance to not just have a good life, but a good future. To close that sad book and start a happier one. To maybe find the love I’d heard so much about, that I hadn’t seen since... my parents...” She shivered a little, sniffling loudly as the Vaporeon noticed her breathing not just more heavily but more... urgently.

Trying not to let it show, Val tensed up to be ready for whatever was next, which she hoped were just words, but she came prepared if this got out of hand.

“But I already hurt you, my friend, when I didn’t want to, before my hand was forced, and I... I...” she tried to say before ending it with, “... I need a minute.” She walked closer but stayed away from Valerie and cautiously out of arm’s reach until she stood at the water’s edge and faced the sea. She took a deep, full breath and let it out. “Please, don’t run,” she muttered on the exhale.

Then she took another breath, and as she inhaled, a spread of tiny swirls of pink light popped into the air at her sides, making Val’s muscles reflexively tighten.

Before Val could make a move, Mandy’s arms rose until they were spread at her sides, and then she thrust them and her body forward. As quick as blinks of an eye, the swirls condensed into spheres that rocketed out to sea. As soon as one blast was gone, another took its place, firing at machine gun speed and adding sustained flickers of bright pink to the off-white glow of the moon.

Recognizing the Psyshock, Val stepped back, reaching up to her chest to clasp her Mystic Water pendant. Mandy wasn’t coming after her... at least not yet, but she wasn’t getting caught off guard again. The fact that this was an advanced move was already enough to make her concerned for her safety if the Gardevoir turned her venting onto Valerie, but what made her nerves rise even more was how long Mandy kept it up without showing signs of strain. She wasn’t just doing this in one short but intense outburst; she had a lot of power to channel into it.

When Mandy stopped, she didn’t slump over to catch her breath after that display, either. Wide-eyed and narrow-pupiled, she spun around towards where the sand met the grass and pulled one arm back, which glowed with a bright pink light.

That light sent an instant flood of adrenaline through Valerie’s body and traumatizing memories through her mind. That made her jump back and clench the pendant hard enough that it was a wonder she didn’t break it as the nearby sea whipped up into a Surf at her side.

But she couldn’t move enough to send it at Mandy, not once that light formed a glowing replica of her arm and hand that she thrust towards the far edge of the beach. The phantom pain of what that hand had done to her paralyzed Valerie on the spot.

Mandy’s target wasn’t Valerie, though, and instead her Psychic hand shot out and clamped onto a rock big enough that Valerie knew she couldn’t have moved with both hands, let alone lifted with one. But the Gardevoir swung it back just as effortlessly and flung it over their heads and out to the water.

And while it was still in midair, just in case that wasn’t enough, her free hand crackled with Ghostly energy before she aimed her palm at the flying rock and fired a Shadow Ball that streaked right at it.

The burst of black and purple light that resulted showed Valerie that Mandy had hit her (relatively) small and moving target.

Valerie’s breath came in short, half-panicked panting as the Surf splashed back into the waves and she stared at the now-still Gardevoir after that display, who was only breathing harder but not looking winded at all.

Just to put the finishing touches on it, somewhere in her fragmented thoughts, she realized: That was without Mega Evolving.

She’d come here wanting to talk but ready for a fight, and this time, she wasn’t going to be anyone’s victim. Maybe she would have been an opponent and not a victim, all right, but in any kind of fair fight, if this was what she was up against, she wasn’t anywhere near in Mandy’s league.

“Val.”

The word made her flinch a little.

“I’m sorry.”

“... For... what?”

“Scaring you.” Mandy turned her head just enough to look aside at the wound-up Vaporeon. “I haven’t been reading your mind. I swear I’m not. But I can feel your fear. I can even recognize it: It’s the same fear from...” she looked away again, “back then.”

They didn’t need her to explain what that meant, but what surprised Valerie again was what Mandy said next.

“I felt it then, too. I tried to block my telepathy. But just like shutting your eyes or covering your ears, the strongest feelings are unmissable.” She closed her eyes and raised a hand to her face. “Everything you, my best friend, felt, that I was doing to you... I... felt... EVERYTHING, and it’s been stuck in my head, too, as so much more than just a bad memory.”

That didn’t make Valerie more inclined to let that incident go, but that did make her think about it in a different light. Just a little different. But different, nonetheless.

They stood in silence, the air between them feeling like the atmosphere after a bomb wasn’t defused but it was taken somewhere that it safely detonated: Tense but spent. Finally, Mandy took one more deep breath and stepped away from the water before facing Val again.

“Okay. I’m done now. You don’t have to believe me, but that wasn’t meant for you. I’m mad at... the world, the universe, reality, whatever, at... yet another unfairness being done unto me.” She looked at Val’s hand, still clenching the Mystic Water that Dylan had given her. “Just another time I thought I had a chance at happiness, the forever kind of happiness, and...” She stopped herself and shook her head. “No. That’s not important. Not anymore.”

Val studied her carefully, tension coiling again in her chest. “You’re... okay with this?”

Mandy didn’t answer right away. She took a slow breath. Then another. “Okay?” she echoed. “I don’t think ‘okay’ is the right word.” She paused, choosing her honesty carefully, the same way she’d been doing all night. “It hurts. A little. Maybe way more than just a little.”

Val’s shoulders tensed. “Mandy, if this is too much—”

“But,” Mandy cut in gently, holding up a hand, “it’s not wrong. And it’s not betrayal.” She finally looked Val in the eyes again, and there was no anger there. No resentment. Just something raw and aching—and oddly relieved. “I lost the right to be part of his life the moment I chose silence,” she said. “Even if the reasons were... far too complicated.” Her fingers curled into her sleeve again. “You didn’t steal anything from me. You both just... moved on, something I clearly couldn’t do.”

Val let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “... You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that,” she admitted quietly. “I didn’t want to lie to you. But I also didn’t want to hurt you more than you already are.”

Mandy let out a breath that was almost a laugh. “Yeah. Add it to the pile. We both have experience with losing people we love.”

A sad truth, indeed. “More than we’d like. More than we should,” she agreed.

“I just have... some more, and I can’t get two of them back,” Mandy added, making Valerie shrink a little. “I can at least be glad that this time, I saved two others I wanted to save.”

They shared a fragile, strange half-smile—one that acknowledged the pain without letting it dominate the moment.

“So...” the Gardevoir added, “when should I tell him? I don’t want to just show up at your house out of the blue, but I also don’t want to keep him out of this for too long...”

The Vaporeon kicked the sand a little, thoughtfully. “Let’s focus on the money problem for now,” she replied, “and when you feel ready, come and tell him everything you need to, okay? There’s a lot to do... a lot of a lot... but it’ll be easier to take things one at a time.”

With a nod from Mandy, she glanced one last time at the Roto-phone. 9:54 PM. Okay, it was really getting very late, not to mention the time it would take her to get home.

“Well, I really should get going,” Val announced. “I have to work early tomorrow, you know how it is, right?”

“No job, Valerie. No, I don’t,” Mandy replied, with a somewhat tired smile. “But I can imagine. If it’s anything like that 7:30 AM class we shared back at the academy, I understand enough.”

Val returned the little smile back at that shared memory. “Trust me, being an adult with a job, you’ll long for the days of just being a student and getting up to go to school.” The wind picked up slightly, tugging at Mandy’s hair, at Val’s fins. The night felt different now—less like a battlefield, more like the aftermath of one, one where a lot had happened but somehow nobody died. “... But I want to say one last thing.”

“... That would be?”

Valerie stepped over and rested her palm on Mandy’s shoulder. “We may not be friends, maybe I won’t forgive you for what you did, not today, not tomorrow, maybe not even this decade,” she began. “But there’s one thing I want you to know, and although Dylan isn’t here to speak for himself, I’ll do it for him as well.”

Mandy didn’t even dare breathe too loudly, to make sure she would hear every word spoken.

“Today, I gained a new understanding. The understanding that not only are we where we are today, but that we are also together today, because you were there to rid us of a deadly shadow that no one else knew was there, even if the only one who lost more than she had to give was you.” She continued, “I have the chance to live the romance I’ve always dreamed of because you were willing to sacrifice your dreams for our sake. So, for everything you’ve done for us, for all the sacrifices you’ve made so that we could be here today, and for all the love you’ve shown in every action you’ve taken so far...”

... Even if only for a moment, Mandy no longer saw Valerie as an adult Vaporeon in front of her.

She saw her as the same Eevee she had met at the academy.

“... Thank you. So, so much. May you finally be able to enjoy the rewards you so richly deserve.”

And there was no other way, Mandy started crying again, while hugging her former friend with what little strength she still had. Her lips trembled.

“... You’re giving me more than I deserve,” Mandy whispered between the sobs. “You’re giving me back something I kept telling myself was gone forever... again.”

Valerie stiffened for half a second when Mandy hugged her—pure reflex, old scars flaring before her mind could catch up.

Then she sighed, long and tired, and let herself relax into it, wrapping her arms around Mandy in return.

Val shook her head. “No. I’m giving you what you were denied for far too long: A chance to not be alone anymore.”

The hug was awkward at first—hesitant, unbalanced, like two people unsure whether the ground beneath them would hold.

Then Mandy’s arms tightened, fingers clutching fabric as if letting go would mean losing everything they’d just rebuilt. Her shoulders shook, quiet sobs pressed into Val’s shoulder, years of isolation finally finding somewhere safe to collapse.

They stayed like that for a while. Not long enough for it to feel permanent. Not short enough for it to feel meaningless.

Eventually, Mandy sensed something strange. Valerie seemed to be... trembling? Was she feeling emotional too?

“Uh... Mandy, not that I’m complaining, but...” she said, “could you please stop squeezing so hard? This spike in your chest is really starting to hurt.” 

“Heheh... s-sorry,” she mumbled. “It’s a Gardevoir thing... we’re known for our... 'embraces', after all...”

Despite the discomfort, Val was able to grin. “Mmf... yeah... I guess when one hugs you... you really, really feel it.”