SARAH

Sarah and Manectric stood in the rain on a balcony of Mauville's wooden palace. It was a terrible, cold rain. Lightning flashed in the sky. The storm had been raging for a week, never ending. She felt tears in her eyes and she knew that it couldn't get any worse.

It had started three days ago, when soldiers on the city walls had first seen the army approaching from the south. Father's come home, she had thought, then. She was right.

The army had marched up and surrounded the city, not as victors returning from war, but as if they were to lay siege to Mauville. Sarah hadn't understood. The flags she saw flying above the spears and soldiers displayed Dewford's Aggron, Littleroot's Mightyena, and Petalburg's Slaking. These are Slateport armies, she knew. Yet neither the Swampert flag from Slateport, nor the Red Heart of Oldale flew above them all: instead, the coral colored serpent of Sootopolis flew above them all. "They aren't coming to celebrate a victory," she told Manectric, her voice trembling. "They're here as conquered subjects."

Flocks of Pelipper flew high in the air, coming from the army that was camped outside Mauville's walls. One began to fly close to the balcony, and Manectric began sparking its mane defensively. Instead of attacking, the Pelican Pokémon swooped down, and dropped two objects that hit the balcony floor with a thud.

"No," Sarah couldn't even gather the strength to cry. She fell to her knees and vomited. She was right; her father had come home.

A bearded man's head rolled on its ear. Her father's familiar face stared palely and blankly. Confused, shocked. The Pokémon's head, King Marcus' Manectric still emitted sparks when the rain fell on top of it. In his mouth was a parchment. Sarah's hand shook as she took it and unrolled it.

"Girl," she read, sobbing, "My friends tried to negotiate peacefully with you. This is your doing. Surrender now, or there will be more to come." It was signed by Ahab, Empress Glamour's half-brother, and High Commander of all Sootopolis' military strength.

It had all fallen apart, now. Her life, her Kingdom, her family. The Prince she was in love with had left her on a doomed quest, she had never even got to see the body to say good-bye. Thought somewhere, deep in her heart, she held on to the untruth that because she never saw his body, that he was still out there, that someday he would return to her. This was worse. Her father's head stared back at her with open eyes. He was dead. Slaughtered. The finality of it shook her to her core.

She had staggered back to her room, leaning on Manectric for support. Sarah only had a few minutes alone with baby Chris before the commander of the city watch and the captain of the palace guard found her.

"My lady," said the grizzled old commander, "I know this is unfortunate, but you are the Queen of Mauville now."

"The siege is breaking the city," added the captain. "The townspeople can't leave to till their fields. We're all awaiting your command, now."

Sarah Spark didn't want the command. All she wanted was her family back. Her father, to guide her through with his advice, and most of all her betrothed: the strong-willed warrior that looked to her as a partner, an equal in strength.

She held the child that wasn't hers in her arms, and looked down at him thoughtfully. She glanced at Lisa, the child's true mother, waiting patiently by her side. "Go find my mother. See what she has to say on the matter," she said coldly. It pained her to defer judgment.

The two men looked at each other. "We did," said the city watchman. "She would have us surrender."

Sarah looked down at the child again. Tears were in her eyes. She wanted to fight. Sarah remained silent, clutching the baby closer to her shoulder.

"My lady, if I may speak," said the older man. "If we do nothing, we all will die."

"And if we fight?" she asked, tears in her eyes.

The palace guardsman answered. "We die just the same."

Sarah thought. Time passed slowly as she searched her brains for the answer. It's my fault, she thought. I've been a terrible queen. If only she hadn't have insulted the envoy from Sootopolis, her father would still be alive. He would know what to do.

The Queen of Mauville thought about her people. In her anger, she would gladly give the command to send each remaining man, woman, and child that could hold a weapon to march out and fight. For a brief moment, Sarah even thought about leading them.

But when she looked down at the baby in her arms, she reconsidered. "Send the word out to whoever is commanding the enemy," the words came out of her mouth choked and bitter. "I'm ready to negotiate Mauville's surrender."

The two men bowed and left the room. Sarah looked at Lisa. "This isn't justice," she said to her handmaiden.

The woman knelt down and embraced Sarah. The new Queen of Mauville noticed the true mother's face as she felt the baby brush against her breast. "No it's not," she consoled. "But you chose life."

They were still laying on each other's shoulder when the envoy arrived, without warning.

Manectric growled at the man, who came in alone. He had greasy black curtains of hair that framed his face. The whiskers on his face grew in different directions, and his eyes were bloodshot and hungry looking. Sarah smelled him as soon as he entered. He stank of salt water and sweat and alcohol.

He slammed the door behind him, leaving him alone in the room with the two women and the child.

Sarah gathered herself, and handed baby Chris to Lisa. "It's customary to bow when you're in the presence of royalty." She could feel Manectric bristle at the sight of this man.

"Aye, it is," he said. "I am Ahab, the immortal Empress's brother. So then, Queen Spark, bow."

They stared at each other, eyes never moving, each waiting for the other to break. Sarah thought of the child and her people again, and so she bowed.

"That's a good girl," Ahab chuckled. "This has gone easier than I expected. My general from Pacifidlog must have misinformed me about your ferocity." Sarah gathered herself and made to stand up.

This man would have none of that. He pushed her back to the ground. "I didn't say you could get up. Now here's what's going to happen. If you pledge your loyalty to Sootopolis, and my sister, you will be retained as a governor of your people. Say it."

Sarah felt tears began to fall. She could feel the weight of her people's lives on her very shoulders. "I pledge my allegiance to Sootopolis," she said slowly. Every word hurt her that bit more.

"That's a good girl," Ahab said. "Rise."

Sarah stood up. Ahab approached her and wiped a tear away from her eye. He put a hand on her shoulder. "That wasn't so hard." Sarah shuddered and her insides twisted with revulsion at the close up sight of this man. "If you serve us ably, we might even arrange for you a marriage of your liking, so you may have daughters and sons of your own that uphold my sister's glorious Empire."

Sarah didn't know what possessed her. She glanced at Lisa and the baby in her arms. "I've already been married," she said, proud of the lie in this moment. "And he's given me a son. He was a noble King, a true warrior, and a great young man. He was a hero."

The last word seemed to sting Ahab and he took a step back, eyeing the baby with every breath.

Sarah didn't stop. "He was the King of Slateport. I ask only that his son, his namesake, Chris Marsh II, be allowed to govern both Kingdoms when he comes of age."

Ahab stared at the child with wide eyes. "That little one is Marsh's son, then?"

Sarah grew more proud with every word. She didn't know why this mattered to Ahab so much. She looked him dead in the eye. "He is."

The tension in the room was thick. Sarah felt a proud smile begin to creep onto the corners of her mouth underneath the tears. Manectric looked up at its Spirit Human, proud as well.

That was when he struck, quick as a flash. Ahab leapt over towards Lisa, and grabbed the child away from her. Shocked by the sudden jolt, the baby began to cry.

Manectric growled loudly and began to spark its man in defense of baby Chris. "Call your Pokémon off!" He barked at them. Ahab flashed a dagger out of his pants and held it to baby Chris's throat. The child's wails cut through Sarah's heart. She didn't know what was happening. "If you shock me, the child is as good as dead, as well as you. I have thirty guards waiting outside this room as we speak. You'll die, the child dies, and all your people will die. Now, let's just keep the damage to one life, shall we?"

Sarah wanted to scream at him, to hit him, to strangle him. She wanted to ask him why he was doing this.

Lisa interrupted her. "Stop this!" She wailed as she fell to the ground at Ahab's feet. "Stop! It's a lie, it's all a lie." She cried.

Sarah's heart leapt into her throat. It was all unraveling...

"Shut up you insolent handmaiden," Ahab kicked her. He raised the dagger in the air, ready to plunge it into the squealing infant's body.

"HE'S MY SON," the woman wailed at the top of her lungs. "TAKE ME INSTEAD!"

That made Ahab take notice. He looked again at baby Chris, and back to the Lisa. The vile man's eyes pierced Sarah like the dagger still in his hand. A smile fluttered on his face. He laughed. "I've never seen a handmaiden more willing to die... Now that I look, the child does resemble her." Ahab walked the child over to Sarah and handed the baby to her. "We can work with this lie, I suppose. For the good of the people, no? For them to believe they still have a rightful King? It would get rid of much future troubles for my sister."

Sarah embraced the child in her arms. She began to rock him back and forth, to shush his crying. Manectric relaxed its sparking, but still eyed Ahab with apprehension.

"I think this was a productive meeting. This arrangement will work out wonderfully," Ahab said as he turned to leave the room. When he reached for the door, he paused. "But there's just this one tiny complication. Nobody can know, except us." He looked at Lisa and shook his head. "A pity. But we can't be having any more outbursts, now, can we?"

In a flurry of motion, there was a glint of steel, and the shrill of metal piercing through the air. Sarah looked and gasped in shock at where the knife landed: lodged in Lisa's throat. She was gargling blood as life left her body. Her eyes were crying as she gazed at the child she would never know. She reached out a hand, but Sarah was too afraid to do anything.

She looked back to Ahab with revulsion. He's a monster.

He looked like he was trying not to laugh. "Keep the knife I have more."

Lightning flashed outside, and the rain began to pour even harder. Ahab glanced at the ceiling above, listening to the sound. Thunder boomed and an icy wind blew in from the open window.

"This day keeps getting better and better," he said as he left the room. "My sister's arrived at last."