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Crystal and Aile both watched the television as Looker came on, declaring his intent for them to be put on trial. Both of them were skeptical about the fairness of the trial, but it was what it was. The information, maybe could work. But it depended on how everyone on there shook out on their opinions of them. At least the others looked relatively alright.

Aile was fairly stone faced, looking down as she thought things through. There was all of this data they collected, and while it might be good, they almost certainly need more. And everyone else was starting to jump on the bandwagon of Sub’s digging them into a deeper hole, it seemed like. Aile… wasn’t sure if she cared as much about that. Maybe he was, as they did have two more members down. But she also wouldn’t have found out about the state of all of her Orre contacts if they hadn’t gone, so… The human shook her head, trying to shove that image away. Instead, she would lock eyes with Sub, walking up to him. “Sub, are you absolutely sure you don’t have anything else? At all? Any other ideas,” the woman practically pleaded. “I need something to do right now, and some way to help with this would be best for me.” Her earthen hand would flex, its form unstable as it continued to attempt to shift into a maybe somewhat familiar blade. “I want to figure out why all of the people I knew in Orre, people I understood to be alive before arriving at the aerial coliseum earlier, were suddenly condemned to death in those chairs, especially when I know I’ve spoken to one of them since Realgam. And to get there, it would be best if we were free, so anything I can do to help. Please.”


Crystal, she would take in everyone’s reactions, sighing. Blizz was now clearly unhappy, and most everyone she could tell seemed to be some level of agitated. “Light…” The hybrid thought about that information Sub gave them initially, tapping her lip. This had a lot of information that certainly contradicted the apparent public information, with Ein’s personal hatred of the team to how he analyzed Blizz, to clearly talking about disposing of Ulla’s mother. There was a decent bit of information, yet it seemed like it was being treated like it was practically nothing. This was info stuck in a labyrinth of hell, how could it have been tampered with? Shaking her head, she would decide to take a leap of faith, so to speak. Moving a few feet from her own position on the wall, she would turn her attention to one certain dragon hybrid again. “So. What’s your take on this, Darts?” As the other one that was showing visible discontent, she was curious how he was feeling about the turn of events.

Ulla's parents being alive and well made absolutely no sense considering what I knew of the past, but I trusted Ulla to tell me the truth, and it wasn't like I was there. I had to take her word on that. When Ulla asked me her question, I wanted to immediately rebuke that allegation. She was no less our daughter than Yuna or Serena, even if she wasn't the fruit of my loins. Though my rational mind couldn't help but see why she would ask in the first place. "If you got this idea because of how worried we are about Yuna and Serena, it's because of the age difference. You're well on your way to becoming a woman, at least mentally, and you have Pokemon to help watch your back. Right now, as young as they are, Yuna and Serena only have Keiko and I to watch over them, and SWIPE has taken that right from us. But that's where the differences end. If you were being held by them alongside your sisters, we would miss you just as much," I said, in what I hoped was a reassuring speech, as my goal was setting Ulla's mind at ease.

'Nnngh..." Keiko moaned behind me, signifying that she was awake. She didn't sound like she was willing to return to the waking world, though. "Did I hear something about Ulla's parents being alive?" she asked. Her sensitive hearing picked up on all the voicees chattering on after that television broadcast, which was why she couldn't stay asleep. Somehow, she'd picked out Ulla's voice among the crowd. "Somehow, yeah. She just asked me if our feelings are different between her and her younger systers, though you already know what I-"

"Mmmove," Keiko insisted, rather impolite thanks to her grogginess, but I didn't take offense. As soon as I was clear from her path, Keiko got on her knees and wrapped her arms around her oldest daughter, though she tried not to apply the strength in her arms, worried that she might hurt Ulla. "It doesn't matter what anybody says. Not that a*****e Looker, not that b***h, LOVRINA, ...not even your biological parents. You will always be my baby girl," Keiko insisted, trying to hug her without smothering her or hurting her. Though what she said had me confused. "I know she permanently changed your life, but nobody's heard from her in years, so I'm suprised-"

Keiko moved an arm to tap my torso with her hand, cutting me off mid-sentence. She was thankfully gentle about it, though - a sign that her grogginess was wearing off. "You remember how Looker described her when we were in HQ?" she asked, her voice a little clearer. "She was in Realgam Tower, and she was weirdly friendly with me. I kind of want to talk to her, figure out how things are different from her perspective. But looking at her face just reminded me of all the ~/~ she was talking when I was locked up in that cell next to her suffering from the drugs she put in my system. I couldn't help but hate her with all that in my head," Keiko sighed. I was a bit surprised with that revelation - Keiko was so worn out the night before that all she could say was 'nothing made sense there'. Before I could come up with a response, Keiko's eyes lit up with realization. "Sub HAD to have cameras in that brig. I wonder if GRAY has footage of Lovrina screaming all matter of expletives at me back then...

After a moment of thought, she shook her head. "Probably not worth asking," sjhe huffed. I could only shake my head in agreement. "No juice is worth THAT squeeze," I concurred.

I felt like I should have known she wasn't trying to see if we favored Yuna and Serena over her, but when she said it, my heart filled with the desire to set that record straight no matter what. Listening to Ulla talk, I couldn't help but feel like what she was trying to grasp was something Keiko would understand more than I would, and yet when I looked at her, she seemed just as concerned as I. "I... don't really know how to explain it. I definitely felt something approaching that when they were nearby, but I don't think it's something I can put into words."

'To be fair, you've only been a parent for a year and some change," I assured Keiko. Just as I was about to throw in the towel, myself, as to any explanation that Ulla was seeking, a memory popped into my head like a lightbulb turning on. "The best reference I can give was when that hybrid idiot tried to catch Yuna a year ago like she was a Pokemon. The second she started crying, I could feel her pain, her fear... thanks to Rala, of course, but my first instinct was to beat that kid ot within an inch of his life. It wasn't just out of anger - I was plenty angry, sure - but there was more to it than that. It was... honestly, more about making sure Yuna didn't get hurt like that again than making him pay for what he did."

"I remember that day," Keiko smiled weakly. "I ran out of my sisters' house before anyone had even told me what happened. When I heard Yuna crying, all I wanted to do was hug her and let her know everything was gonna be okay. It wasn't until after you explained what happened that I got mad," she explained, her weak smile growing until she realized it was there. "Is it weird that I remember that fondly?"

"You probably remember how your connection to Yuna felt fondly. Considering how badly we both miss her and Serena, I can't say I blame you,' I explained, smiling a bit myself as I turned to face Ulla. "I wouldn't be surprised if your abilities as a Fairy Channeler are amplifying that bond you feel - Rala's the only reason I can sense emotions, and she has Fairy as a subtype. That doesn't mean they're not valid, though," I assured her. Sure, I didn't know what she meant by feeling her connection to her biological parents through her body. Like, how would that even work? But it didn't matter. Given how sheltered I was growing up and the fact that Keiko lived with her adoptive parents during her youth, it wasn't a surprise that Keiko and I didn't really know how to help Ulla with what she was going through.

"What else do we have, Blizz? They can't claim it's altered, there is more than enough of Ein's files and data in that tower to tip off anyone over a single file being altered, it would be highly noticeable especially to the world renowned data experts they have working for them." The Dark One replied to Blizzard, only pausing as he looked to Aile and shrugged.

"I don't know. Maybe we can hit up some of our allies and get them to speak on our behalf? I have my doubts about even that though, we saw how Mr. Stone acted. Everyone appears to remember our history different, even our allies. Best case scenario we've seen so far was Mr. Stone himself and that was just him questioning his own memories but even he still had seemingly altered recollection." The man said as he replied to Aile's inquiry before resuming his response to Blizzard.

"Still, I do agree with you, Blizz, that even if they agree the journal is legitimate it doesn't prove without a shadow of a doubt our innocence but what will? Whether or not the trip was worth it is still up for debate but again I ask what else was there? Did we do nothing? Just sit on our hands and hope it blows over? If we-" Sub began to respond to Blizzard, fairly calmly considering the circumstance, however he was cut off by GRAY and immediately shelved this conversation as he paid attention to the television.

As Looker gave his little speech Sub would look to his teammates to gauge their reactions, finding a mix of defiance and despair among them. Sub himself was fairly numb to it all at this point, his stance not changing in spite of this, the Snagem leader remaining defiant. If anything changed it just made him more adamant in fighting back against all this. Once Looker was finished and the normal programming resumed the man let out a heavy sigh, realizing he had been holding his breath the entire time. Looking back to Blizzard he frowned slightly.

"Ironic is right. Then again I suppose the choice of location was just another way of giving us the middle finger." He said to Blizzard, shaking his head. "There is no way they planned all this in just one day, they had this in the works for awhile now, Realgam or not. I have my doubts they will give us a fair trial but we will still go, we have to." Staring at the television he watched a commercial play, an advertisement inviting young trainers to take on the Hoenn gym circuit, using such themes of friendship with Pokemon and becoming stronger to help others with Pokemon. He found himself smiling, the commercial reminding himself of a time when he too would see such a thing and be filled with such hope and inspiration, to become stronger with your friends, to keep safe those you care about and make your world just a little bit better, all with Pokemon. Looking back at his teammates, his friends, his smile only became stronger.

"It'll be okay, Blizz..." He said, giving Blizzard a bit of that smile. "We'll be okay. We've been through a lot worse, right? Worse case scenario you end up having to ice some people and we become hermits living out the rest of our days in the wilderness. Maybe we can join the Clefairy of Mt. Moon and all dance naked together at night! That sounds fun." The man said with a chuckle. It was a serious situation they found themselves in but he still had to laugh and make fun, because that's what Sub did.

"Alright guys, we have ten days to prepare for this circus they want us to attend! We're going to attend alright but we won't go in unprepared! I got a few ideas of how we can do just that." He spoke to the group, immediately turning to Ulla. "Ulla, could you go pay your master a visit in the Fairy Realm? Not only would he be a good character witness for us but I want test the extent of whatever changed occurred with our history if it made it all the way into the Fairy Realm...well, we won't think about that right now. Just go check in on your master." He said to the young girl before turning to Aile. "I think I got a job for you too, Aile..." Sub said as he gave her instruction too, going down the list of members as he gave out tasks for them to complete over the next ten days. It was an all hands on deck kind of deal.

At this point, it was sort of hard to tell if Sub was starting to delude himself, or if he somehow got another card up the sleeve, a string to pull, what have you. Even his announcement of him having a few ideas to tip the proverbial scales in our favor for this didn’t inspire that much hope. As he went off to go talk to Ulla, I stood there thinking for a moment. I kept trying to remind myself that even if I had left the team, I would have been hunted down anyways and that this was bound to happen one way or another and I would still be here right now. But at the moment, I think the thing that is frustrating me is the whole lack of agency over the whole thing. I usually am able to visualize the pieces in front of me as if some sort of game board, and track what I am needing to do, but right now I don’t even realize what the proverbial game is, never mind the pieces or the rules or the win conditions.

Sub was perhaps the only one in the entire group that seemed to try to keep some sort of levity in the situation, while I started to notice everyone else generally unsure of the whole entire thing. Crystal and Aile, especially. Darts is perhaps the most forlorn that I have ever saw him in…well…ever. Even Sol and Cera didn’t seem particularly thrilled. I need to think…I need to…maybe see Freth all I can while I can…

I made my way off out of the lobby and back for the cots where I had left Freth. This was going to be an excruciating ten days…

And there it was. Darts definitely noticed something as well. So, she wasn't just hallucinating back in the tower. "It felt like... I had a shadow. Never noticed that before whenever I... jumped, as it were. You noticed something as well, I assume?" Crystal glanced around as she crossed her arms. Part of her still expected some sort of blowback from using that move herself, despite barely being in Ultra Space. That's how things felt like they shook out with her in general, much less anything regarding Ultra Space. On the absolute immediate, though, she was curious how Darts felt it on his end.

Keeping an eye on everyone as the announcement started, Reno would let out an audible groan as Looker declared that they had prepared a public trial for the Snagems to prove whatever they could in the court of law in front of everyone. "Well, there goes my idea to take the initiative on this! I just needed to know for sure that we had gotten something valuable out of the tower data!" Reno grumbled, staring at the screen as their eventual jury began to streak by. And while the majority meant nothing to him, a few familiar faces began to spark an idea in his head for what the next step would be after this. After all, while there was a lot of things that could potentially be argued back and forth on a lot of their evidence, it would be harder when there was some backing testimony to refute some of the very different ideas that appeared to have infiltrated some of the public's reckoning.

"Well, if we have ten days, I'm going to use them. If you don't see me for a while, don't think anything of it. I just....need to go talk to some people." Reno told the few Snagems still in the room, making sure to give Sub a nod before he would start for the door. It was time to see if some of his connections still actually mattered in this bizzare amalgam or not.

Ulla was a bit more confused by Ter's and Keiko's words by there explanation. Maybe...it was some sort of nature thing? this feeling, was all to new to her. The Fairy Child's ears then perked up as she heard Sub's voice saying they were on a time crunch. She let go of Keiko and walked over to him as he mentioned her master in the Fairy Realm. "I was just thinking the same thing. Maybe he might have some clue of what's happening...Hopefully all is still well." She said as she took out her staff.

The young Fairy Channeler then drew a circle in front of her as traces of her channeling started to come out of her staff. A perfect ring was made as it glittered and shined like a mirror in the sunlight. "Hopefully this won't take long. Would you like to join Dark One? Don't worry, the effects of the Realm won't hurt you as long as you're with me." She said as she stepped through. Leaving it open if Sub or anyone wanted to join.

Once she stepped through, it was like she left it. A field of flowers waiting for her. She looked around as she saw all the different Fairy Pokemon notice her slight return. All of them greeted her and was asking if they could play with them. She merely shook her head. "I'm looking for my Master. Have you seen him?" She asked the Pokemon that were circling her.