One at a time, Turo’s AI Pokémon turned on and deactivated their sleep modes. They got up, and their eyes glowed cyan and white. Together, they surrounded Arven’s party.

Turo pulled a new Holographic Ball from his coat pocket. Holding it up, he said, “My beautiful AIs will make sure y’all don’t get far. This is what I’ve built them for. Let’s make this the battle of the future.”

“Yes, let’s,” Nemona said, freeing a pokéball of her own. Hopefully, she would actually fight that time. “Hang in there, Meowscarada,” she called to her Pokémon. Her attention moved over to Arven, Kenji, and Miraidon. “Arven, Kenji, Miraidon, Scarlet, Penny, and I will distract Turo. You guys get Sada out of here and keep her safe.”

“Right,” Kenji said. He noticed Turo glaring at him out of the corner of his eye.

“Traitor!” Turo shouted. He was suddenly shaky. It was like he suffered from low blood pressure.

“Sorry, boss,” Kenji said, remaining calm, “but I need to protect Arven and Sada from you. At least until you snap out of it.”

Miraidon joined him and Arven, still carrying Sada.

“Here, Miraidon, I’ve got her.” Kenji reached up and gently took Sada from him. “Easy now. Be careful with her arm.” It wasn’t long until he carried Sada in his own arms.

She whimpered when he bounced her a little. She sounded like a dog who had sprained its paw.

Arven went to Sada’s side and ran his hand across her crystallized cheek. Anger boiled inside him, but he calmed himself by taking a deep breath. That was surely how Miraidon controlled his anger.

“Let’s go, Arven,” Kenji gently said.

Arven removed his hand from Sada and stepped in front of Miraidon. “Miraidon, you’ve been here before. Do you know where we need to go?”

Miraidon nodded. Floating past Kenji and Arven, he knocked a few AI Pokémon back with his tail. A gap appeared, and he, Arven, and Kenji slipped through it.

“Traitor!” Turo again yelled, in a slightly choked voice. “She belongs to me!” He lifted his thumb to press another button on his device, but a small figure jumped him from behind and knocked it out of hand. “No!” Turo cried out. He clutched his wrist.

Celebi held the device in between its little arms. It hugged it to its body and soared away from a few AI Pokémon who started to chase it: AI Paldean Tauros and an AI Iron Treads.

Very well. If this was how Arven’s party wanted to play, then it was time for Turo’s Plan B. It started with him shouting, “Get that Pokémon!” at Iron Treads and Tauros.

“Bi!” Celebi bellowed at Nemona.

“I’m guessing it’s saying, ‘Now’, so let’s go!” Nemona almost threw her pokéball, but she gasped when another flashback of Meowscarada losing overtook her mind. Instantly, she lowered her ball and stepped away from Turo.

Scarlet, who sent out Skeledirge, gave Nemona a stern look. “Nemona, you have to fight. Penny and I can’t take on Turo alone.”

Penny released her Sylveon and said, “The faster we stop Turo, Nemona, the faster we save Meowscarada.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I know, I know.” Nemona inhaled and exhaled. She pushed Meowscarada’s memory out of her head and lifted her pokéball again. “Okay, here I go.” Nemona tossed her pokéball forward. “Go, Goodra!”

***

Kenji and Arven followed Miraidon into a circular room that was next to the base’s barracks, which mostly consisted of charging stations. The area had a single steel staircase that vibrated with Kenji and Arven’s boots while they descended it. Miraidon’s electrical glow guided them and covered them in a violet and yellowish-blue light.

For the whole journey, Arven did not leave his mother’s side. He held her hand and kept talking to her. He hoped that would help her catch up with the human contact she lost when Joy tricked him. “Hold on just a little longer, Mom. We’re going to fix you.”

“Arven…” Sada’s voice trailed. “You don’t understand.”

“Understand? Understand what?” Arven did not like the feeling that tugged at his gut. He remembered Penny’s words, but he didn’t want to believe them.

Sada turned her head to him. Tears sparkled in her eyes, but she stopped them from falling and squeezed Arven’s hand. “You need to let me go.”

“No, no, don’t you dare talk like that.” Arven felt another wave of sadness creeping up on him, but he tried his best to ride over its crest before it swamped him. “We’re going to fix you,” he told Sada, “and once we do—I’ve thought about it a lot—we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together, as mother and son, back at your cabin in the past. There’s nothing left for me in the present.”

“Arven, that’s not true,” Sada argued. “Don’t let your grief overtake you like your father.”

Before Arven could reach too far into his thoughts, Miraidon announced, “Gias!” He just made it to the bottom of the staircase and now hovered over a cluster of large, black cables. A familiar, experimental table was next to him, hidden in the shadows. Tera crystals were on either side of it. Both they and the table were connected to a large, holographic screen and a Terastallized keyboard that had just as many buttons as Turo’s device.

Arven felt like he had stepped into a space shuttle preparing for takeoff. He surveyed the area for a good while, and then his eyes jumped back and forth between the holographic screen and its computer. A small smile replaced his frown, and he concluded, “Infrared. It’s Infrared! We’ve found it!”

“Um, Arven—” Kenji started, but Arven interrupted him.

“I can finally fix my mom.” At once, he jumped into a run and approached the keyboard. Sure enough, it said “Infrared” above it.

Miraidon soared to Arven and tried to boot him away from the computer. He had very bad memories of this place, with both him and Sada, and refused to let Arven fall down the same rabbit hole.

Kenji took Sada over to the lab’s wall and set her down. He propped her back up against it. “Don’t worry, Sada, I’ll tell him.”

“Please hurry,” she begged. “I can’t fight it anymore.” Her eyes started to glitch—switching between their normal color and the familiar, shimmering cyan.

Kenji quickly left her and approached Arven. He held his hands up to him. “Arven, back away from that computer.”

“Why?” Arven glanced at him. His hand hovered over the largest button on the keyboard. It was red and a perfect circle, whereas the others were black and square-shaped. “Miraidon brought us here,” Arven added. “This is where we need to be, Kenji. This is where I’ll fix AI Sada. Trust me.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” said Kenji. “It’s the fact that you’re confused.”

“What am I confused about?” Arven jabbed his fingernails into his sweaty palm. “I’ve traveled through the past and future to find Infrared and save my mom. I know what I’m doing. Tell him, Miraidon.”

Nevertheless, Miraidon had gone to Sada and picked her up again. He brought her to Kenji and Arven. Miraidon tapped the keyboard with his snout and shook his head. He pointed his nose at Sada.

“What Miraidon’s saying is that’s not Infrared,” Kenji translated for Arven. “It’s merely the computer Turo uses to help him control it.”

What? Was he saying that Arven traveled through time and space, watching his mom suffer, for nothing? No, he refused to fall for that. Kenji was surely pulling a prank on him.

He moved closer to Miraidon and Sada. A sudden draft caused him and Arven to shiver.

“Arven,” Kenji ordered, “do not touch that button. You will regret it. Do you want to know the truth? You and your friends have been traveling with Infrared this whole time.” He rested his hand on Sada’s broken arm, right on top of her wound, which housed the largest cluster of infrared Tera crystals.

There was a moment of silence, and then Kenji admitted, “It’s her. Sada is Infrared.”