#twotu

Giving a loud sigh, K continued to follow Taki. He wasn't really sure where he was going, but with all of the other unown currently being held captive, he needed to find a way to save them. After all, without them, he had no subjects to rule over! And what kind of King doesn't have subjects? It just wasn't right.

"Regardless, we have arrived," Taki said, coming to a stop behind a bush at the edge of the forest.

K rushed up beside her. "Really?"

K's eye opened wide at the expansive area. Everything was covered in lush greenery that extended up large hills in the distance. A two-towered building sat on top of the crest.

"So this is the place where our power was used before?" K asked.

Taki nodded, scanning the area.

K began moving forward. “Well, let’s go get some info and --”

Shouts could be heard from the other side of the house nearest to them.

"Em! Emily, wait!"

A glameow and a persian ran from the far side of the building, stopping a couple feet away from a bicycle parked beside the house. A human girl appeared right behind them, grabbing the bike.

"Where are you going!?" the same voice shouted. K couldn't see the owner of the voice, but the girl answered.

"I'm gonna go rescue Jay! Those people she works for aren't gonna do jack to get her out of there!"

"But Em --"

The girl called Em hopped onto her bike, letting one leg hold her up as she continued to talk with the other voice.

"'It's all part of her research,' my ass! Those scientists are lying. This is just like 10 years ago. She's in danger!"

"I'm worried about her too, but we can trust Skyler and his crew to do what's right if the situation calls for it."

Em's eyebrows furrowed. "The situation calls for getting her out of that giant crystal structure. She's not even sending her normal reports. For all we know, there's some Pokemon keeping her captive in there, just like Molly was!"

"This isn't like the time 10 years ago. Jay is much older and knows how to handle the unown."

"If she did, she wouldn't be letting us worry and let us know she's ok. Something is wrong, Mom, and you know it."

After Em said that, the second voice fell silent. Em turned the bike and started riding along the dirt trail.

K watched the three disappear on the forest trail. His eye narrowed.

"What is bothering you?" Taki asked.

K took a moment before answering, not really speaking to Taki specifically.

"That must be her family..."

"Of course we're her family."

K nearly fell into the nearby bush at the sound of an unfamiliar voice behind him. He spun around while Taki remained stationary.

"I see you noticed us," she said, quietly leaning up against a tree. K merely flustered around at the sudden encounter, unable to speak.

K, having finally regained some of his composure, glared at the herdier and stoutland. "How do you..."

"Know all this?" the stoutland finished, smiling at K. "She's part of our family. It's only natural we know about her, and about you lot."

The herdier turned to the stoutland. "Mags, if that unown has O's ball, does that mean Em was right and something terrible has happened to Jay?"

Mags nodded, looking back over at K and Taki as she spoke. "Jay would do anything to protect that ball. If she doesn't have it, she's clearly in trouble."

The herdier jumped up, ready to run. "We should follow Em and help get Jay back!"

K had finally heard enough of this back and forth between these two Pokemon. He floated up higher and shouted at them. "Whoa, wait, why would you want to help that traitor? If anything, she deserves what happened to her."

Mags' fangs were bared immediately. "What did you just say? Did you just call Jay a traitor!?"

Mags snarled as she stepped forward into the underbrush. "Prisoner!? She's been protecting O! If O were a free Pokemon, who knows what kind of disasters could come about!"

K scoffed at her words. "Pff, yeah, right. How is getting captured protecting them? All it does is put a Pokemon under the control of the human."

"It's specifically BECAUSE Jay captured O that they can live a normal life!" The herdier bounded forward, shouting indignantly. "Are you seriously that stupid?

"Did you just call me stupid!?" K snapped back.

"Yeah, 'cause you're STUPID! Jay has been protecting O and all of you unown this whole time!"

K felt like he was going to explode. How could these Pokemon defend her!?

"That's impossible. There's no way capturing a Pokemon like that will protect them!"

The calmness in the stoutland's voice sent shivers throughout K's body. He expected an angry retort, but something told him that Mags knew something he didn't.

"What do you mean...?"

"Have you really not realized it?" Mags asked, eyes digging into him. "Despite being around them for so long?"

"Realized what!?"

"O's true personality."

This caught K off guard. What did this stoutland mean by true personality? And what did it even matter?

Mags closed her eyes and sighed lightly before continuing her thought. "All of you unown develop a personality quirk of sorts after you spend time in this dimension. Animated A, Friendly F, Grumpy G... Kingly K..."

K looked away, unimpressed. "Hmph. So, you're saying O has one of these "personality quirks?" All they do is stare into space. They don't even answer when one of us talks to them."

"Perhaps, but there is one way to get them to do something."

"And that is...?" K turned back.

K gave a small laugh. "Obedient? But I've tried to tell them to do stuff in the past and they completely ignored me."

"Yes, they won't listen to just anyone. They will only listen to Jay," Mags confirmed.

"Why?"

"Because Jay captured them."

"So, you're saying she captured them to make them only listen to her?" K rolled his eye. "If that doesn't sound like someone trying to take control of them, then I don't know what is."

Mags shook her head. "No, you don't understand. She captured them to save them."

Did this stoutland even understand what she was saying? K couldn't believe she was still defending that human. "How would making them listen only to her be good for them!?"

However, Mags' next comment suddenly made everything she had said make sense.

"It stops others from trying to take advantage of them."

Mags continued, "O's power is very strong. Jay even theorized they could force the rest of you unown into a hivemind state. Imagine someone commanding O to start a hivemind, and therefore commanding the rest of you, and causing complete destruction wherever they went. You can see how bad this would be."

"So she captured O," the herdier added. "Now they only listen to Jay, and Jay never commands O to do anything bad. This keeps O safe and the rest of you from being used!"

It made sense. K could see the logic behind it. But that didn't mean it was true. No, it couldn't be true.

"... You're lying. There's no way that's what she's been trying to do. If she was trying to keep us safe, why hide amongst us and pretend to be one of us? And kill another unown to do so!?"

"She never killed the J unown." Mags' voice was just as calm and collected as before. "The other scientists she works for unintentionally killed the unown during their experiments. They never wanted this to happen again, and a plan was formed to research the unown from within their natural habitat by using O's special powers to disguise Jay. This was all before most of you had even come through to this dimension. I believe the only other unown who had come through by that point was the S unown."

K looked down at the ground upon hearing all this news. The way S had acted before the whole event made sense if they were working with that human. But why would S even help her? It's not like they had been captured by her, so...

The herdier started turning. “... Mags, let's go. We're wasting our time with this unown. We'll figure out what happened to Jay when we get there.“

He remembered what happened in the tower. How that human had saved him from that attack. How she had asked if he was alright. The sigh of relief as she realized he was fine.

How she had been so concerned about him that she got captured.

... No. For all he knew, that could have been a ploy to make him believe she was worried about him. She had been lying for this long. Who knows? She could even be working with those dragons!

“Alright, Meish, let’s go,” Mags sighed.

No matter what these Pokemon said, that human could still be lying, but there was no doubt that the rest of the unown were still in trouble. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he needed help to at least set them free. Then, perhaps, he could get the truth straight from the human's mouth.

"Wait, I'll go with you."

Mags stopped, turning to meet K's eye. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

K awkwardly looked away. "Look, I still don't really trust that human or anything you've been telling me, but the rest of my subjects are being held in that giant crystal structure, and they should be released. A bunch of dragons invaded and have taken it over."

"How could they --"

K interrupted Meish before she could finish her thought. "They slapped some armband thing on her, and I don't know what happened after that, but that’s when she started acting differently.”

Mags' expression darkened. "Brainwashing, maybe?"

K shrugged. "Who knows? Anyway, there's nothing that you two can do on your own. There's tons of dragons there. It's an entire army."

"An army?" Meish's eyes widened. "How are we gonna stop an army?"

"We need to get a bunch of help," Mags said.

"Or we need our own army!" Meish suggested.

Mags nodded. "But an army needs a place to gather and organize."

Taki, nearly forgotten about by K and the others, stepped forward. "The temple in Ilex Forest can offer its space to your cause, I am sure."

"Well, then, there's only one other thing we need, but thankfully, we already have one," K began.

Meish tilted her head out of curiosity. "What's that?"