Hi everyone, SK here.

For once I don't have much to say.  What is there to say, other than the book is ending soon?  Anyway, let's just begin already.  I sincerely hope you enjoy this chapter.

August

The dawn is upon us.  

It's time.

The sky is still dark with just the edge of the horizon showing some light as all of us begin to make last-minute preparations.  I'm on edge, who isn't, but I can't show it.  The fairies need someone to look up to, and even if Ver and I are younger than most of them, we need to act like Leaders.  I keep telling myself this, repeating it over and over as if it'll engrave itself into my skull.  Maybe I keep repeating the same over and over again to try and put what Valerie revealed to me yesterday in the back of my mind.  

"Hey," comes a sudden voice behind me, causing me to jump.  Verity snickers as I scowl at her.  "So jumpy," she comments with a smirk.

I swat at her.  "I'm just nervous, that's all," I point out.  "You know that I'm not really big on doing this in the first place."

"Don't worry, think optimistically!" she encourages, giving me a hearty pat on my shoulder.  "I mean, okay, worry a little, but don't let it consume you I mean."

"Yeah..." my voice trails away as I shake my head, trying to return to reality.  "Say, did you need anything?"

She eyes me with one of her signature sarcastic looks.  "You mean I can't just come over here and talk to my amazing brother?"

I roll my eyes as she snickers.  "Yeah, actually I did need to talk to you about something.  This has kind of been eating me up for the past couple days, and I feel like I owe it to you to tell you the truth.  The timing of this is... okay, not the best, but I won't be able to fight properly if my mind isn't focused, and well... it isn't."

Confusion fills me.  "You have a secret?  You know you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."  I bet it's that her and Lin are dating, but she doesn't want anyone to know because of the Leader rule that they can't fall in love.  Right?

"No, I need to tell you.  And you might never talk to me again or look at me the same, but you need to know.  Zagan this is probably going to be one of the biggest mistakes I'll ever make but-"

"Verity," I tell her gently, placing a hand on her shoulder, "just tell me."

Her nose scrunches up as she inhales and exhales deeply.  "Alright.  Dad, he... he wasn't killed by humans."

"What...?" 

Both of her eyes are downcast now.  "It was a lie I told to rally everyone up for the war."

I don't know how to feel, I don't even know what to feel.  "Did you even see how he died then?"  I'm shaking, I may start hyperventilating too.

"Yes."

Fear courses through me, I'm afraid to ask her but I need to know.  He was my dad, he got me through life and I miss him terribly.  I want to know how he died.  "Then...?"

"I... it was me.  I killed him."

"No."  My reply is instant, because this is an obvious lie.  There is no way that Verity would kill the person she spent so many years with, one of the people she's loved the most.  It just doesn't make sense, this isn't a funny joke and even she knows it.  If she's still refusing to tell me the truth, then I need the lie-detector in Layra or Valerie here.  "That's not a funny joke, Ver."

"Am I laughing?"  She looks me dead in the eyes, and silence falls over me like a blanket.  Only this blanket isn't warm or comforting, it's cold and dread-inducing.  

As soon as it hits me that no, she's not lying, I scramble away from her.  "Why," I pour out to her, my voice raw.  Tears threaten to fall, how, why, how... why would she do this?  Kill our dad right after we just lost our mom?  Why... why... why... "Why would you kill him!?"

"Keep your voice down," Verity hisses.  "We don't need an inter-Colony conflict."

"One that you started!" I yell at her, but do keep my voice down as I don't want us to be noticed just yet.  "Why would you do that!?"

"Seeing Mom die like that, I wasn't okay.  In my head it all made sense at the time, either Dad or I had to die, and seeing as how he's already served as Leader and he has Mom waiting for him with the rest of the Spirits, it seemed very clear to me.  I couldn't leave it up to chance, I had to settle it for myself."  She... smiles at me, she has the audacity to smile at me.  "I understand if you never want to talk to me or see me again.  I'll give you your time."

"Just get away from me," I practically spit at her.  "Leave me alone."

Verity doesn't say anything, which she doesn't have a right to do anyway, gets up, and disappears from my field of sight.  I feel the urge to break down here and now, but I don't need to be seen by any of the other fairies.  My feet carry me forward as I try and search for Valerie, wanting her comfort and love after my sister's betrayal.

Valerie

I told my parents I'd help them with preparations this morning, I think I owe them that much for all they've done for me so far.  Right now, they're going through the stronghold boxes.  They've already explained to me the first two, one for the Necklaces and one for the previous rulers' Sapphires (it's a bit jarring to think that one day, my own Sapphire will be in that box).  

"So what are all these Pokeballs for?" I ask curiously, holding them up and turning them over.  They certainly look different than modern Pokeballs, these are almost ancient.  "There's only ten too, shouldn't there be a multiple of six?"

"Ah, to form a full battle team?" Dad inquires, and I nod.  All of us are on our knees sorting through the boxes not far from the other fairies, and he smiles to himself as he continues.  "Well, ten divided by two is five.  That would mean that for two battle teams, there would only be one Pokemon missing."

At this point I know he's trying to get at something, but I can't discern exactly what.  "I'm uh... I'm not sure I follow," I tell him with a nervous chuckle.

"Your Dad and I each have a single Pokemon on us," Mom points out, and that's when it clicks.

I gape at the two.  "Wait, hold up.  These ten are yours!?  How are they still-"

"Alive?"  Dad interrupts, finishing my sentence before I can, and I nod.  "When we were made immortal- hell, when we were made fairies, both your mother and I had full teams of six.  The first Queen, Gardenia, requested that we each have a full team of Pokemon at our ready no matter what; we are the last line of defence after all, we must have tools available to fight.  Henceforth, Her Majesty Gardenia made the rest of our Pokemon immortal as well- although, this was not a part of her Queen's test, and is not bound by the same contract as our own immortality."

"I... I'm not sure how much I got from all that," I admit, "other than the fact you guys have immortal Pokemon that are probably very overpowered."

Mom laughs, her hair wafting around her face.  "Yes, that's basically the gist of it."

"What Pokemon are they?" I ask curiously, excitement covering my face.  What Pokemon would they have had in the past?  Maybe they caught a Legendary and since it was sealed away, no one knows about it?  No no, that's too far, they must've been very young when they became fairies, how would they capture a Legendary Pokemon.  Still though... 

Dad winks at me, which takes me aback because it's very out of character for him.  "You'll see in due time," he promises.  "But we must be sure to bring them with us today, in case of an emergency."

My head nods up and down as I carefully place each Pokeball into the stronghold box.  I feel kind of bad for them, though my parents must take them out some time, they must miss the sun and the feeling of freedom.  "Hey, can I ask you both a question?"

The two exchange a glance.  "What is it?" Mom replies with a question of her own.

"If you can't disclose it it's okay, I just... er, what is the clause for your immortality?  Because I know like Alara, you're both immortal with a catch right?  A death clause.  For Alara and for me in the future, it'll be giving up the Staff, but what's yours?  You guys don't have anything to give up, no one is ever going to come and take your positions."

"That... is true," Dad admits.  "But our 'death clause', or however you may call it, is something that will happen far, far away into the future.  We can only die when Arceus decides that this universe is no more; when the universe fades from existence, we will finally fade from the realm of the living and join the rest of the Spirits."

"... woah," I say in awe, because what else am I supposed to say to that?  "So you guys will outlive me by a long time then."  My voice grows a bit sad near the end.

"Hush up now, don't think such thoughts today," he scolds, looking cross.  "Our minds should be focused on the task at hand, this fight, not something that is set to happen millions of years in the future."

Mom giggles at Dad's tone while I just nod my head thoughtfully.  "Yeah... I suppose you're right," I say as I hear rapid footsteps approach us.

"Valerie!"  It's August, and he sounds so distraught that I immediately turn my head in the direction of the sound.  

"August, what's-" I cut myself off, Gardenia he's shaking!  His expression makes it seem like he just saw a ghost.  Instantly flashes of the future make themselves known to me, it seems that we're veering off onto a side path again but luckily it shouldn't be that hard to return us to the main course.  "What's wrong?" I press.

"V-Verity, she told me," he forces out, as if his very voice is causing him pain.  "She told me that-"

Wait, no, Dad doesn't kn-

"- she was the one who killed my father."

"WHAT!?" Dad erupts, practically shrieking causing all of us to jump.  "She- she- excuse me!?"

August looks so shaken and all he does is nod back at the Minister.  Dad himself is absolutely furious.  "How, how could the past Dark Leaders let her rule after committing such a heinous crime?  She killed her own father.  How- how-"  His eyes light up as he comes to a sudden realization, slowly turning to Mom.  "Layra.  Did you... did you know about this?"

She doesn't say a single thing, and when she glances away from him, it tells him everything he needs to know.

"How could you not tell me!?" Dad bursts out, attracting attention to ourselves.  "How could you not tell me something as big as this, something that could affect what fight we're going into?  How could-" his voice is breaking and he looks utterly defeated, "how could you not tell me that it was not a human that killed Ash, but a fairy!?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Clemont freeze when he says this.  Dad seems to realize that other fairies heard him, colour beginning to drain from his face.  "Is it true?" asks Clemont as he approaches us.  "Did a fairy really end the life of one of my best friends?"  His voice wobbles as he poses the question, probably the very thought of that being true scaring him.  If I were in his position and felt that I was lied to about my best friend's death, I would be absolutely furious- and rightfully so!

There are clearly other fairies that heard, and of course they're running off to spread the rumour.  "Call everyone together for a meeting," I tell him curtly.  "There is something very important we need to discuss."

"A...Alright," replies the Advisor, who then runs off himself.

"Heliux, trust me, I didn't want to hide anything from you," pleads Mom, looking a bit desperate as she gazes at him longingly.  "It was right after Verity came home that I left the Colony and then everything went to hell.  I found you and you weren't in the best mental state, and with Valerie doing her test I didn't want anything else to mess with your head.  To be honest, I forgot you didn't know.  I'm sorry, Love, I didn't mean to keep this from you."

"We... we will talk later," says Dad begrudgingly, much to the dismay of my mom.

August stairs at me frantically.  "Why'd you call a meeting?  How will explaining that Verity k-killed Dad," his voice goes sour when he says this, "do any good?  Won't there be a fight, and isn't that the last thing we want right now?"

"All of you," I say loudly, addressing both my parents and my boyfriend, "just let me do the talking.  I have a plan, and if there is a fight, this should be able to break it up."

"Alright, we'll leave it to you," says Mom uncertainly, probably worried.  "We should go then, August is right in the fact that there will be a fight- they probably all think that the murderer is among them."

She leaves the area without waiting for anyone else.  Dad doesn't follow her away, glancing at her with a hurt expression before skipping after her.  August and I are about to leave ourselves when Verity comes up to this.  "I heard there was going to be a meeting," she says in an expressionless voice.  "Are you going to reveal my crime to the rest of the fairies?"

"In a sense," I tell her mysteriously, about to add more but get interrupted by August.

"Just go away," he spits.  "Leave.  I don't want to see you."

"Well grow up," she fires back, which makes him flinch.  "Because we're about to go into a fight, and this meeting thing is going to make us late.  There are bigger things than Dad, August."

"May I remind you that I literally sacrificed my own life to save all the captured fairies?  If it weren't for Valerie, we wouldn't even be able to have this argument right now.  I highly doubt that I'm the one who needs to grow up here."  August stands his ground, looking absolutely furious at his sister.  Honestly, he looks a little scary.  "You're the one who just went off killing our father, the only family we had left other than each other, for no apparent reason.  Why did you do that!?"

Verity's only response to that is an eye-roll.  "Dad died for multiple reasons.  I wanted him and Mom to be together again.  I wanted to Lead myself.  I wanted to ensure that if he died, he would die a peaceful death.  I wasn't right mentally, I'll say that, but the outcome is that the Balance was fixed and the fairies-"

"were captured because you couldn't protect them!"

"Oh, so it's my fault now?  You were taken first, you didn't even last two seconds without being grabbed!"

"Well at least I was prepared to do something about it, I was prepared and I did sacrifice everything for their freedom.  What were you doing, just huddling up with the Queen who isn't even on our side?"

Now it's Verity's turn to look confused.  "What?"  She cocks her head to the side.  "Alara isn't on our side?"

"No, she isn't," I tell her curtly, grabbing both of their shoulders and pushing them forward.  "But please spare the arguments, like Verity said we're going to be late for an appointment that we made ourselves.  Does that look good?  No.  Let's go, and I will sort everything out.  Verity, you'll hear all about Alara from me, I assure you."

"But-"

"No buts," I retort.  "Just go."

Both twins just hang their heads and walk forward.  I do feel a bit bad for telling August off, but I needed to rapidly put out the fire they started before it turned into a natural disaster.  Luckily the crowd doesn't seem too far-off, and it doesn't take us that long to get there.  However, when we near, we hear yelling.  Accusatory yelling.  Accusatory yelling of fairies yelling at other fairies, almost at the point of attacking their fellow fairy because they might have been the murderer.  

My parents are trying to quench the flames of this conflict, but they're not enough to do it and they're clearly failing.  "It's you Light fairies!" The comment makes my stomach drop.  "You're the ones that hate us Darks!  You murdered our Leader just because you lost yours!"

"That's enough," I order, my voice ringing out loud and clear above all others.  One by one pairs of eyes turn toward me, malice from their looks drilling into my skull.  Malice for each other.  This is a sad consequence of this branch, but luckily I know how to turn it around.  

"It is true that Verity lied about who Ash, the former Dark Leader, was killed by.  He was not indeed killed by humans, and it's time for all of you to learn the truth."  I'm strong on the outside but on the inside I'm shaking like a leaf.  Among the back of the crowd I spot my friends, Leaf specifically giving me a little nod.  I nod back and continue.  "Ash was killed by a fairy- but not just any fairy."

"He was killed by your Queen, Alara."

My voice rings out once again, causing a ring of silence to ripple outward.  Both Leaders and my parents give me skeptical looks, but I continue on.  "Ever since the spell that I cast went rogue on humanity, Alara has been against the fairies, and wanted to see every last bit of this world destroyed.  She was the one that made it so that Serena would have died when she did.  She was the one that killed Ash.  She was the one that showed humans the way to the Colony, using Celebi against us.  She was the one who was conspiring with them since the beginning, a traitor to us all."

"But then why," a small voice belonging to Bonnie rings out, "why did Her Darkness lie about it?"

"She knows that in order for everyone to be full-sprint ahead on this already dangerous fight, she needed to motivate you all.  She knew that if you all knew it was the Queen that did the killing, there would be chaos.  She was just trying to protect you all."  I glance around at the crowd of fairies who is now attentively listening to me.  "However, less than an hour away from the fight of our lives, we decided that it was time for you to know the truth about Alara and what she did to the Colony, to all of you."

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.  "She, fortunately, will be gone soon- one less traitor.  However, until I assume my position as your Queen, do not interact with her.  Do not go near the Castle.  Even powerless, she still has human contact and would have seen far enough ahead in the timeline to know certain things.  Does everybody understand?"

A chorus of nods.  Excellent, just what I like to see.  "Then that's final," I announce with a toss of my hand forward.  "Everyone is to prepare their Mist Pokemon and ready themselves for the fight at the edge of the woods."

The fairies begin to dissipate as I slowly sink to my knees, feeling exhausted from giving that long speech.  "Why did you lie about that-"

"Because if I told them the truth, Verity, there would've been another war."  I look at her squarely, letting her know that I'm dead serious.  "Besides, it's best the fairies know that Alara is not an ally anymore."

"Starshine, you handled that beautifully," Dad compliments me as soon as he comes close, a smile on his face.  "Although I am still very, very disappointed in you," he adds with a frown to the Dark Leader.

She doesn't seem to mind very much at all.  "I know," she responds almost cheerfully.  "I know you are, but that's something I'm willing to live with."

I glance at August, who's been rather quiet throughout all of this.  "Auggie, you okay?" 

"I... I don't know how to feel," he admits, his eyes downcast.  "I just have this gut feeling that something is going to happen today that I won't like, and I don't like it.  I had the same thing the day Mom d-died.  Valerie, can you tell me if you see anything?  Please?"  His please sounds so desperate and I'm tempted, but I have to remember my place.  I cannot give future tidbits randomly like this, and so I shake my head.

"If something major is to happen that is life-or-death, I'll tell you.  Both of you," I add to Verity.  With a little nod at my parents, I ask, "Should we get going?"

Dad hesitates a little but nods.  "Yes, we should.  Layra, please get the stronghold box."  His voice is unusually gruff when speaking to her.  "I will create the portals."

"Understood."  It's like their entire dynamic has shifted.  She runs back in the direction we came from as I head toward the rest of the fairies with the two Leaders and my father.  

August... he has good gut feelings.  Something certainly is going to happen today.

I've formally made up my mind on what my second Queen's test is going to be.  

I'm going to gain the Sapphire Staff today... and by gaining it, I'm going to lose everything.

Well, that's the end of this chapter.  The battle between humans and fairies is next chapter, the third-last chapter in the book holy hell.  Still, I hope you enjoyed this one.  Big chapters (I don't mean in word-count but I haven't written them yet so we'll see) (Edit from future SK: they're not that much longer. XD) are waiting ahead, and I can't wait for you all to read them!

Stay tuned for next week, and enjoy the rest of your day.  Thanks for reading!