Secrets of Mega Evolution

Deep in the forests of the mountains surrounding the kingdom of Aether, a Jigglypuff and a Mawile were walking down the biggest one that held the Celestial Stone, having just left the Pelaruna tribe surrounding it. They were on their way on their usual trail back to their house in the kingdom.

"Well, now that my mom and dad are willing to watch the kids again this time, I should hopefully be able to finish this next one without them messing this one up!" said Amy, stretching her arms as she turned to her husband. "I'm glad you like that portrait I just finished of you, honey~."

The Mawile grinned and rubbed her head playfully. "I'm glad too; it was a very sweet gift to get~." He chuckled. "At least the kids are getting used to hanging out with their grandparents, but... part of me can't wait until they both get old enough to know better than to mess up your work so we can keep them around while you work. I feel bad that we keep passing them around."

"I guess so..." said Amy. "But then again, my family is really happy to take care of them, so it's great to know that they're always ready to help out like this. On the other hand, yeah, it would be great if we could keep them around a bit longer too."

They hadn't gotten in that far through the forest when suddenly, the shadows became a lot darker than usual, and a mysterious clearing opened in front of them, as if by magic.

Amy then grabbed onto Ryoshi's arm, suddenly on guard. "Wh—what's going on? Ryoshi, I think this is a Zoroark illusion or something...we've been through here a million times, and we know this isn't supposed to be here—"

Suddenly, a loud, angry female voice came out from the shadowy clearing. "A Zoroark!? Don't be ridiculous; my powers are far beyond those unrefined creatures'. Here, I'll show you who I really am…"

To prove her point, she then strode forward, and from the light, they could see that it was a Delphox instead of a Zoroark. Though she didn't look any less sinister...

Instinctively, Ryoshi pulled Amy behind him to protect her. He put on a scowl and growled slightly, hoping that he could intimidate her into backing off slightly, but she didn't seem to be phased. Almost as if she could sense the hesitation he had in actually trying to fend off such a powerful Fire-type...

"W—What do you want? I'll have you know I'm a samurai, trained to defend, so don't t—try anything funny!"

"What do I want...? Oh right, I guess I should have mentioned that." She gave a rather sinister-sounding laugh. "I couldn't help but notice that you, sir, have three of those Luvdisc Heart Scales with you. Now normally, I do not allow outsiders into my shop, but since you have three of those artifacts, you are welcome in."

The Delphox then gazed at Amy and narrowed her eyes. "Of course, she doesn't have three Heart Scales, so I would respectfully ask you that you leave her out of—"

"He's not going anywhere without ME!" shouted Amy, rushing up in front of him and trying to guard him as best as she could, but even she felt rather uneasy. "He—he's my husband, after all. I'm not leaving him alone with any random person to—to do anything to him. Just saying." And the possible burns and mental scarring from this particular Delphox lady weren't the only things Amy was worried about.

The Delphox glared at her for a few seconds before finally conceding. "...Fine then. Very well. Since you're his *wife*." She seemed to spit that last word out like it was poison. "But touch one thing in my shop, and I'll do so much more than just give you a scolding."

Ryoshi glanced back to his wife, then to the Delphox. He still felt uneasy, even if he could keep a watchful eye on Amy, and her vice versa. "...What's so special about your shop that you keep it out in the middle of nowhere and refuse to show anyone without 3 scales? What could you have to sell that requires this sort of... shadiness?"

"Oh? I'm glad you asked~." The Delphox then grinned, giving him a secretive look. "You see, I just so happen to be working on—and selling—some of the rarest and most powerful items you will ever lay eyes upon. I myself am one of the few who are brave enough to seek out power and how to improve oneself, and I have dedicated my life to not only doing so for myself, but sharing the results of my labor with those who are worthy!"

She waved a hand, and in an instant, the dark, thick, leafy walls surrounded the two of them and made them hold onto each other even more tightly. With her other hand, she conjured up a ring of orbular stones that glowed of many different colors, but they all had that same black double helix shape inside them.

Amy stared in awe and fear. "Y-y-y-you're a shaman, then?"

"More powerful than even a shaman, my dear," said the Delphox. Then she asked, "Have you two ever heard of a term known as...Mega Evolution?"

"M—Mega Evolution?!" Ryoshi now had found his reason to distrust this... witch, even beyond her creepy personality. "Yeah, we know about Mega Evolution. We also know about how the only two people we've ever seen use that kind of power go insane and rampage out of control! Those... things can't be safe!"

"Go insane? Rampage out of control?" The Delphox looked at him strangely with a strong look of disbelief. "What are you even talking about? Most people in their right minds wouldn't be able to reach out for these fast enough!"

"You mean to tell me you haven't heard how Gawain went nuts when he first touched a Mega Stone last year?" asked Amy. "Or how there's this Gyarados guy who had the same thing happen to him in Sazanami just a few months ago?"

"Oh yes. Those cases~." The Delphox smirked. "From my observations, it seems that both Mega Stones have been tainted with a certain type of energy that I call Dragonforce, and as you can guess, it's the opposite of the energy that Fairy-types emit. But considering how you two are both Fairy types; you often visit a tribe consisting of nothing but Fairy-types, and thanks to them guarding the Celestial Stone up there, this kingdom is protected with the biggest anti-Dragonforce barrier I've ever seen, there would be absolutely no risk of that happening to you."

She then picked up an orb that was gold and silver. "Here. This is a Mawilite, which even has natural Dragonforce resistance in the first place~. It seems to me that, since you are, as you say, a samurai trained to defend, this would only maximize your ability to do so. In exchange for those three Heart Scales of yours, I'll let you have it~."

Amy glared at the witch. "...Why exactly do you need Lauwili's scales, anyway? And three of them, at that?"

"You cannot get something without giving up something equally precious in exchange, my dear~," she replied. "In this case, literally, as three Heart Scales are the primary ingredients that allow me to continue my research!" She gestured to the Mega Stones around her. "And Mega Evolution isn't the only thing I research; I'm also looking into the ability to grant moves and abilities that your species cannot ever learn normally! Of course, that would take much...much...more time..."

The Mawile stared cautiously at the multi-colored marble the Delphox had presented. Yagami had stated that such a mega stone had existed. If what this witch said was true... And there were no chances of going out of control when he used it... Then he could transform into a much bigger, more powerful version of himself like Gawain and Otohime's brother had. But...

He looked down to Amy, and he was reminded of his greatest worry with the stone. "I... I don't know if I can trust you enough to believe you. If something were to happen, then... I have a wife and two kids; I can't go insane and put them in harm's way, or risk getting hurt myself and not being there for them."

He grunted. "If only there was some way to test the stones so I could be sure..."

"Wait..." Amy noticed how the colors on all of the other stones were different. "Did you say 'Mawilite'? So does that mean that...all of these other stones work on other Pokémon?"

"Indeed they do. Unfortunately, there only seems to be stones for Pokémon in their final evolutionary stages, which you're not, my dear, and even if you were, I still do not have one for you. At least, not yet. Instead, I have 26 others."

"Do you, uh...do you know if there are any of them that can be used by anybody else in the kingdom, ma'am?" asked Amy. "I was thinking that maybe we could ask them to test one out, if only to prove that they're not, uh, Dragonforce-infected or whatever you called them..."

The Delphox glared at her, and it looked like she was about to shout another of her tirades, but instead, she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. "...As much as I would *loathe* to allow one of those lazy underachievers into my shop, I see that this is the only way to change your minds, isn't it?" She then turned to Ryoshi. "Since you, sir, are the only one with the amount of scales I seek..."

"I l—like her idea, ma'am. No offense meant to you; I just need proof." The Mawile leaned closer to the bundle of shiny stones, and start looking very closely. They each had their own unique coloration, but there was nothing that outright said for what Pokémon they effected. The only Pokémon he was aware had stones were Mawile, Charizard, and Gyarados. There were no Gyarados around the kingdom as far as he knew, and the only Mawile he knew other than himself was his son and dad. No way he'd put them at risk. He could ask Gawain, but that didn't seem like it'd work...

"So what Pokémon have these stones?" he asked. "So we can try to find someone?"

"Well, I will say that the only other species living in this kingdom that could possibly benefit from my Mega Stones are Abomasnow, Lucario, Absol, Medicham, Blaziken, Houndoom, Ampharos, Gengar, and Alakazam. Not to mention that Charizard, of course, for these two." She pointed to each Mega Stone in turn that corresponded to each of them. "And of course, there are a few more Mawile than just you and your family, young man. If you happen to know any of them..."

"No, not really..." Ryoshi shook his head. "To be honest, I don't really know anyone of those species. Except..."

He snapped his fingers. "Isaac! He's a Lucario! I wonder if he would be willing to help?"

"Oh yeah, I remember him!" Amy nodded. "I sure hope so. Of course, there's also King Jackson, but he fought a Mega Charizard twice already, and I'm not too sure if he'd like to worry about this again..."

"So it's settled then! I shall allow you to bring this 'Isaac' to my shop~." The Delphox then glared harshly. "However, he *must* return the Lucarionite in exchange for your Mawilite after he is finished, understand?"

"I—I'll be sure to tell him that..." stammered Amy.

"Great~. Now away with you both!!"

Before either of them could get in another word, the Delphox had tossed them both out and immediately closed the leafy walls so that they were now looking at just an ordinary clearing, as if she were never there to begin with.

Amy couldn't help but weakly call out, "But how are we supposed to find you again...?"

"Just come back here with him, you idiots! I'm only going to stay here for just this once, you got that!?" shouted the Delphox's voice, sounding pretty muffled, as if it was behind an invisible wall.

"R...right..." Amy then tugged on Ryoshi's arm, trying to get out of there as fast as she could.

"Weird lady..." he muttered softly as he picked Amy up and started the walk to town. "Now the only question is... Where would he hang about..?"

"Last few times I saw him, he hung around the gym a lot," said Amy, thinking back. "Huh. He also said he wanted to be your 'squire' or something. You know, back when King Alaric wanted you to be a knight instead of a samurai. Jeez, I sure hope he's okay with this..."

"Yeah, me too…" Ryoshi nodded.  "Wonder what he's been doing lately…?"

---

The Lucario in question was training in the gym once more, this time with his new tonfa blades, in an effort to expand his arsenal. All the training Agua had given him in regards to the tonfas was really paying off, he reflected, as he brought the blades closer and closer to his practice dummy. A series of rapid jabs, followed by a quick spinning attack, brought the dummy to the floor, falling to pieces as it collapsed to the ground. 

"Hey! Isaac!" Two very different voices called across the gym, emanating from the Mawile and Jigglypuff running inside the building towards him. When they both managed to cross the entire huge area to the other side where Isaac was training, they were both panting slightly.

"There you are!" Ryoshi exclaimed. "Seems we got lucky; you really were here!"

"Wha—hi, Ryoshi, Amy!" Isaac greeted his friends, placing the tonfa blades into a bag Agua had given him. "I got some new weapons and stuff, so that's cool. Anyway, what brings you guys here? Another play?" His face lit up ever so slightly in anticipation. 

"Actually, it's a bit more important than just a play..." said Amy. "We, uh, well...we need you to, uh, test something out for us." 

The Mawile rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Ahaha...Yeah, we could use a big favor from you. Do you know anything about...Mega Stones?" 

The smile quickly faded from Isaac's face, as he replied, "Oh, those things? You mean like the ones that made Mr. Gawain and that Gyarados over in Sazanami go crazy? Yeah, I've heard of 'em." He scratched the back of his head, looking as uncomfortable as he felt. "And you want me to test one of them out? Eh, I dunno...wouldn't want to go all crazy on you guys or anything."

Ryoshi nodded. "Yeah... That's why I said we needed a ​big​ favor from you. See, we found this... woman... in the woods. She has a lot of them, but I'm rather hesitant to try any... She claims they're clean and won't have any downsides, but I can't risk hurting Amy or my kids if it does make me crazy."
He sighed. "I wouldn't be asking anyone to put themselves at risk if I could go around it and test them any other way, but because I can't... Could you help us..?"

Amy nodded. "Yeah. We'd probably ask someone else, but she doesn't have that many Mega Stones for that many species, and Lucario is like one of the few species she has stones for, it's not like we have too many options here..." 

"I—I guess, if there's no one else that can help," Isaac conceded, shrugging. "But if I do end up going crazy on you, just do what you have to do. Knock me out, or whatever, yeah?"

The Lucario tied up his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and added, "Well, let's go see what this lady's all about!"

Amy sighed in relief. "Thanks, Isaac. She seems really insistent that Ryoshi fork over his Heart Scales for his Mega Stone, so this'll really help us out. And not to worry. We're prepared for whatever happens."

Of course, as she was saying this, she was shivering inside, as she knew full well how low the chances were of *her* being able to stand up to a Steel/Fighting-type that was going nuts, and none of her attacks would do too well against him in that case, except maybe for Dazzling Gleam. Ryoshi would be a lot better off, but even that wasn't a guarantee.

But on the other hand, she was willing to bet that Delphox had at least one good Fire attack and could stop Isaac from wrecking her shop in a heartbeat if it ever came to that. So maybe they wouldn't be so screwed after all.

---

​
Amy and Ryoshi led Isaac through the mountain range's forests all the way up to the exact spot where they last saw the witch. For a while, nothing seemed to happen, as it looked just like any ordinary patch of shadowy growth in the forest.

"Uh...hello, ma'am?" Amy called out. "Are you here? We have Isaac now. I'm—I'm afraid we never got your name..."

Within seconds, the shadows became much darker than before, and the trees warped once again to surround them in that same creepy, mysterious space before they saw the Delphox coming towards them. "Yes, yes, I'm here, I'm here," she snapped, looking quite irritable. "And I prefer to keep my name anonymous, if you don't mind. The last few times I tried telling someone that nearly got me killed. Sheesh, people just seem to hate progress, don't they? Especially if it involves stuff they don't even understand. The morons."

However, she also seemed to be slightly happy that at least Ryoshi came back instead of running away permanently, so she put on a smile for him. "So glad to see you're here, sir. I assure you, everything should go smoothly for you and your friend here~."

"Yeah... I hope so." Ryoshi muttered insecurely. He edged a bit closer to Amy just to try to put himself between the two women, then made a motion towards the Delphox. "I—Isaac, the witch we were talking about..." 

"I PREFER the term 'innovator'," said the Delphox, giving Ryoshi a rather cross look, but also looking like she was doing her best not to blow up at him. 

"S—Sorry..."

A bead of sweat dripped down Isaac's forehead, as he raised his paw to greet the so-called "innovator". Just his luck; she just had to be a Fire-type AND a Psychic-type. Why not a fellow Steel-type, or...any other combination of types?

"Hello, miss. I—I heard you had a—a Mega Stone for my species. Is that true? Could I—?"

"Indeed." The Delphox then held out an orange orb with blue and red colors swirling around each other, and held it out to the Lucario. "This is the Lucarionite. Now, you three. Listen closely as to how you can use a Mega Stone." 

Amy stepped back and clung to Ryoshi's shoulder, trying to hide herself behind him and peek out at the Delphox and Isaac at the same time.

The Delphox continued. "Now, the most important thing is that you have to carry it with you at all times, no matter what. While it's true that the effect only lasts for a certain period of time or until you faint in battle, it'll also wear off if you drop it too far from yourself. As to how to activate it, well...all you have to do is apply some pressure to it. Either squeeze it, or just press it down."

She then placed the stone into Isaac's paw. "Well? If you want to test it out, you can right now. And if you're willing to keep it on for more than a few seconds and want to test out how much stronger you've become...well then, be my guest." She gave a rather sinister grin. "But if you try to leave with it, I'll hunt you down faster than you can even blink!"

"...Wait, now?" Isaac blinked, accepting the round stone and looking into it. "Wow, it's...really pretty-looking...and stuff. Let me just—"

He squeezed the Lucarionite in his paw, signaling for Ryoshi and Amy to step back. For a second, nothing happened, and then...a bright flash of light shone from the stone, enveloping him in it. A whooshing sound accompanied it.

"Whoa, hey—!" he cried out, as energy surged into him. The blinding light endured for a few more seconds, before fading as quickly as it had appeared.

Isaac stood for a few seconds, taking in the drastic change in appearance that had come over him. His paws and feet were tipped with red fur and a set of two spikes on each limb. There were also a pair of small spikes on the rings on his shoulder joints, and his chest fur had become longer, now poking out through the neck of his robe. His tail was now bushy and cream-colored, rather than being narrow and blue. The black markings around his face had become spikier in appearance, and several similar markings had appeared on his arms and his now-narrower upper legs. Finally, two of his aura sensors had become elongated and tipped with red. Accompanying all this was a vast increase in his energy levels: Isaac had Mega Evolved.

Ryoshi took a tentative forward to look at the now odd and drastic differences the Lucario had gained with the evolution. He didn't seem to be aggressive... yet at least, which was a good sign.

"I—Isaac? You feeling okay?" he asked calmly, not wanting to set the Mega Lucario off in the chance something was up. "H—How does it feel..?"

"..." Isaac was silent for a moment. Suddenly, he threw his paws up into the air, yelling delightedly. "WHOO, YEAH! That's what I'm talking about!"

He turned towards Ryoshi and Amy, giving them a toothy grin. "Well, I'm not crazy; just pretty freaking excited! Oh, hold on, let me try something..."

He charged up a full-power Aura Sphere, which grew to twice its normal size, and positively crackled with energy, almost threatening to explode. Letting the sphere dissipate, Isaac hopped up in the air, and pointed his paws downward. To his own surprise, a burst of aura energy issued from his paws, keeping him afloat a few inches above the ground.

"Whoa—ah, crap," he muttered, as the jets of energy sputtered out, causing him to collapse onto the ground in exhaustion.

Amy couldn't help but chuckle a bit, not just from how silly it looked, but also in relief at how for one, Isaac didn't seem to be going insane, and for another, he didn't end up breaking anything in the shop, which would have ticked off the Delphox by a lot.

"Ryoshi...I think it seems to be okay!" she said in awe to her husband. "Just like she said it would be!"

Ryoshi laughed along with her, for much the same reasons. "Haha, yeah! I think so!"

He grinned, clapping his hands together excitedly. "Isaac, give the lady her stone back so we can test mine now!"

"Aww, already?" Isaac replied disappointedly. "Well...all right. Let's see what you look like, after the Mega Evolution or whatever it is."

He tossed the Lucarionite into the air, and as he did so, another flash of light shined out, returning him to his normal appearance. Catching the marble, he handed it back to the Delphox, commenting, "You know, I've always wanted to try out the whole 'floating-with-aura-ener​gy' thing, but I've been told that it could kill me if I wasn't careful."

The Delphox chuckled as she took back the Lucarionite and placed it back within the circle of Mega Stones. "It can indeed be a risky thing. But if you are still willing to try it out, it can be yours...provided you have the requisite number of Heart Scales. Which your friend here has~." She then turned to Ryoshi and held out a hand to him expectantly. 

The Mawile reached beneath his tunic, into the small sack of items he kept tucked inside and produced three Heart Scales from within. As he handed them to the Delphox, he nodded. "You said I had to give you three of these scales for a stone, right? Let's see the Mega Stone!" 

One could barely hear a squeal of excitement as the Delphox grinned widely and practically swiped the three Heart Scales from the Mawile's hands before then remembering to replace it with the gold and silver Mawilite stone. "Excellent~. Thank you very much, sir~. Now, that should do it for now, so begone!"

And just like the last time, before anyone could react, the Delphox waved her hand and sent the leaves retreating away from them all as she and her shop magically disappeared into the forest. "Enjoy your stone! That's a really good one, too!"

"Wow..." Amy whistled. "She really was after those Heart Scales after all. Good thing we got Isaac to test his Mega Stone out first, huh?" 

"Ah..." Ryoshi had hoped that he had been able to test his own Mega Evolution in her shop so that he could be sure nothing was wrong with the stone itself, but now it seemed like they weren't going to find the shop again without at least gathering up some more Heart Scales to bribe her out again.

He glanced down at the multi-colored marble in his hand. "...Well, I guess I have this thing now, whether I want it in a minute or not. Who wants me to test it?"

"Well, yeah! I've had my fun; let's see what happens with you!" Isaac smiled, nodding excitedly. "If it's anything like what happened with me, I'm sure you'll love it!"

So excited was the assassin that he found a place to sit down, and turned to observe Ryoshi's Mega Evolution.

Amy stepped back quite a bit and quickly looked back and forth between the two of them, at first a bit worried. "W—well...I...I don't see why not, I guess? At least Isaac will be here to help you test it out, if necessary..." She briefly considered suggesting going back to the gym, but then wondered if it was really necessary to shock a lot of people by transforming in such a public place or not. Might be better to just let her and Isaac know about it for now... 

"Alright, here goes nothing I guess..."

He took a deep breath and flipped his stone about in his palm a few times. What would a Mega Mawile be like? Would it be a drastic change like Gawain, or more subtle? Would he change types like that Gyarados? What kind of powers would he gain, and how would his appearance?

Well, the only way to truly find out was to actually use it...

The Mawile pressed on the stone, and in an instant, he could feel a power rushing from it into his body. As a bright white light surrounded his form, he could feel a pricking heat crawling in his veins as his arms and legs began to stretch out longer and thicker. At the same time, he could feel an odd sensation as if his horn was ripping in half, minus the expected pain that would come from it.

When the light faded away and he could open his eyes, Ryoshi darted his eyes across his new form. But to his surprise, besides what seemed to be a bit of extra height and a second horn that looked crinkled up along with his original horn, the only thing that seemed to be different was... some pink coloring on his arms and legs.

Ryoshi's eye twitched. "Really? Everyone else gets some cool changes to their appearance and all I get is some PINK!? I mean, pink looks fine on people like Amy, but it's not exactly a warrior's color!"

He slapped his forehead and sighed. "If this is the only physical change I get, I hope there's some power behind it..."

However, Amy wasn't exactly paying attention to the pink at the moment. Instead, she just started and pointed at Ryoshi's jaw horns. "You have two horns..." she stuttered. "You have two horns now, honey...! Isn't that a little more important...?" Truth to be told, half of her mind wanted to tell Ryoshi that the pink was okay, but the fact that he now had two horns was reminding her how freaky she found his original horn to begin with back when they first met. 

"Y—yeah, you got...two of those big horn...things," Isaac stuttered. "That's okay; I wasn't gonna sleep tonight anyway."

He did his best to ignore the other significant part of Ryoshi's transformation, being the pink coloration of his legs, focusing instead on the pair of deadly-looking horns that protruded from the back of the Mega Mawile's head.

"Yeah... I guess you’re right." He grunted, pulling them both over his shoulders so he could look at them. The whole crushed look they had was a little odd still, not to mention the odd spines they seemed to have at their top. "Not that I typically battle with them."

He glanced around the surrounding area. "Is there something around that I could try to safely...I don't know, punch? I want to test if this comes with any extra strength."

Amy sighed in relief, and it was a good thing that Ryoshi was taking the whole ‘pink’ thing a lot better than she expected. Nevertheless, she made a mental note to reassure him of that later on.

Instead, she quickly looked around. "Um, w—well...that bunch of rocks never moves, so it can't have any spirits living inside it," she said, pointing to a set of very large rocks buried in the side of a tiny wall of soil that went up the mountain. "Maybe you could test it out on them."

"Guess I can." He nodded. To most Pokémon, punching solid stone would be considered a dumb, and at the very least, not a safe thing they would look for. But as a Steel-type (at least, Ryoshi could only assume he was still a Steel-type), the Mawile knew he could take a few punches at something that hard and not hurt himself.

He cracked his knuckles and took a breath to focus himself before winding back and throwing his all into a punch. In an instant, the rock was pulverized into dust like it had never been there in the first place. Ryoshi pulled his hand back and stared at it in shock and silence.

"...Whoa. Did... Did I do that?"

"Whoa...YEAH! Awesome!" Isaac cheered, throwing his paws upwards again. "What'd I tell you? Doesn't it feel great?!" 

"Yeah... Yeah, it does feel good!" He laughed. He hadn't really noticed it before, but now that his attention was brought to this new strength, he could... almost feel the raw power pulsing through him. "It's like... what this form lacks in appearance changes compared to other Megas, it makes up in raw attack power..." he added quietly.

"That is amazing..." Amy whistled.

Then she turned to the Lucario. "Thanks, Isaac, by the way. For helping to test out these Mega Stones for us. We were worried that, with the last two that we've seen, they might have accidentally make Ryoshi go nuts, and you know, with me and the kids, he has too much to lose if it turned out to be bad. Not that it's any offense against you, but we really needed someone to help us out like you could."

"No problem! I like helping out. If you need anything else, just ask your friendly neighborhood Lucario Assassin!" Isaac pointed a paw spike at himself, smiling. "...That's me, by the way. You probably...knew that."

He glanced up at the sky, and gave a startled grunt. "Whoa, it's getting a bit late! I better get going! Gotta see what my dad's doing—Oh..."

"What?" asked Amy. "Is there something wrong?" 

"You—I didn't tell you yet, did I?" Isaac looked around nervously. "Well, my—my dad, he...I just thought I never even had one, but...he—he came back from who-knows-where about a year ago. I know, I know, it's late."

He opened his mouth to say something else, but decided against it. They didn't need to know what Daryl had done. Not yet, at any rate.

Ryoshi put his hand on Isaac's shoulder, gently as he still wasn't sure about the strength he had. "Well, um... I don't know anything about your dad, but... I'm sure he didn't mean anything by leaving you alone. And it's better to see him now then never, right? So cheer up, and enjoy him, huh?" 

"Yeah...I know my dad didn't come back for six years, but he never meant to hurt me, really," added Amy. "So you should appreciate the fact that he's here for you now, I think..." 

"Well, my dad's been gone for fourteen years. And he's...well, let's just say he's not exactly the best role model. Likes his liquor a bit too much, I'd say." Isaac shrugged. "That's how it goes, I guess!" 

Ryoshi flinched slightly at the mention of liquor, but nodded all the same. "Maybe... you could be his role model then. Either way... good luck." 

"Yeah, I guess," Isaac agreed. "So...I, uh, hope you enjoy using that Mawilite and stuff. Maybe when I get my own Mega Stone thing, we can spar, you know?"

He stood up, turning back towards the city. Maybe he could visit Agua and talk about Mega Evolution...No, Daryl was more important now. He waved goodbye to Amy and Ryoshi, and headed off.

---

Soon, Amy and Ryoshi managed to finally make it back home, just like they had planned ever since that morning. But with everything that had happened and how much running around they had to do, it was already evening by the time they got back and flopped onto their bed.

"Jeez...finally," Amy gasped. "That took waaaaaaaaay longer than we planned. But on the bright side, at least you got something that allows you to get stronger! At least, I think that's a bright side..."

He didn't answer his wife right away, instead looking down to his hand as flipped the Mega Stone several times over. "...I guess so. I can be a better warrior, and do things I've never dreamed possible before just with this, a simple little rock."

He took a seat on the edge of the bed and then looked back up towards Amy. "...You are okay with this, though, right? I know it's not permanent like real evolution is, but if it makes you really nervous or scares you, I don't want to be using it..."

Amy then sat up too. "...I'll admit that at first, I was scared since I didn't know what you would look like, or what would happen to you because of it, but..."

She took ahold of his hand. "...As it turned out, it's not so bad after all. Even if you got taller and had two jaw horns...you still had the same face. You were still you. And if this'll help you protect me and the kids like you wanted it to, then I don't have any problems with it either."

Then she smirked. "Also, don't worry too much about the pink, okay? I think that made you look just fine."

He returned the smirk with a chuckle. "Yeah, alright. I'll just be all matchy-matchy with you then~."

As he went to move his hands from hers though, the stone nearly rolled out of his palm before he made a quick swipe to nab it again. He shook his head. "This thing is really small though; I'm afraid I'm going to drop it somewhere and never find it again..."

"Hmm...well, we could either store it in one of our drawers, or..." Amy then glanced at Ryoshi's Magma Scale necklace. "I could sew it onto your outfit somewhere, or maybe even something around your wrist..."

"My necklace…?" He gently slipped it off his neck and held it in his hands. Wow, it had been so long since this thing had been made, hadn't it? He and Amy weren't even really dating back then. Yet through her fine craftsmanship, it had managed to last for this long without looking worn down at all. It had always served a good purpose since he got it, housing the Ruby Scale that protected him should he run into fire.

...Thing was, he didn't have any real problems with fire around Aether, did he? And he was supposed to have gotten over his fear anyway, right? Amy had helped him with that too.

"Hey, Amy, do you think you could... sew the stone on where this scale is now?"

Amy paused, not quite believing her ears. "What...? Do you want me to...replace the Magma Scale? But...but I thought you..."

"I know, I know, I did need it. At some point." He stopped momentarily to draw her closer. "Back when I had it made, I was always so scared of fire that I needed something around me at all times to make me feel safe. But... now that thing is you. You've helped me so much this winter in learning how to get over my fear, and... I—I'm ready to prove to you that I'm ready to not be afraid."

Amy just stared at him in awe for a bit before shedding a tear. "I...I understand. I...I'm glad you could do this for me..." She then leaned forward to hug him.

"Me too, honey..." he replied as he squeezed her softly. "I just... need to show the both of us that so long as I have you, I can feel safe, and we can get past anything together. I need to show... that you really do mean the world to me."

Amy smiled. "I...I love you too, Ryoshi. I know I don't get to say this as often as I used to, but having someone like you who cares about me this much and will always be here for me is something that I...I just can't take for granted. Ever. And I feel even happier just knowing I can be that person for you too."

She then wiped her tears off on his shirt and pushed herself back up, picking up the Mega Stone from his hands. "...So yeah, I'll sew this on for you, and I'll make it look great, so you can wear it and be proud of me. I know you will be."