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The World of Arceus

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. Only the idea and OC's.

Author Notes:

-X-This will be used for scene breaks and for when the story switches to another character, but it does not mean that a new section of the story has started.

~xXx~ This will identify where each paragraph breaks.

"Human Speech" 'Character Thought' {Pokémon Speech}

The following is a side story taking place in the same world as the story "Watcher of Arceus".

~xXx~

Side Stories

Dahlia : Part 1

Sinnoh Region, 1970

35 years ago...

Two large men in black striped suits held firm to a gardevoir, hands tightly over their on the gardevoir's arms keeping her still while the elevator moved up. A large harness over her chest, with covers over her chest horn on both sides, a thick collar and a two large gloves.

Made of strong hides and covered in silver words and letters of an older age, as well as a few hazard icons, the men finally let the gardevoir go when the elevator opened up at last into a small room. Of course, the harness and gloves were not the only unusual things about the gardevoir, her silver tinted hair and bright red and yellow eyes easily stood her out enough with them.

Then again, perhaps it wasn't so strange for the gardevoir to look out of place either though as she stepped forward. A small waiting room, with a dozen armed guards, but armed with swords and even a few spears, wearing green and silver tabards, they stood out easily against the fine wood paneling and soft carpet of the room as though times were strangely mixed with each other.

The gardevoir looked over the room carefully before walking forward while all eyes were on her. There was a small desk by the only door and the secretary glanced up, then back to the two men at the door. They both gave a nod and she got up showing that she was armed as well, an old fashioned tactical police belt around her waist despite her old dress, a pair of pistols on her hips.

The gardevoir just nodded to the door and waited, the secretary moved up and began to pat her down, double checking the gardevoir again before finally moving to the door. A few keys and a door was opened up to a second small room, this time guarded by just three men, and three large pokemon.

The secretary walked slowly with the gardevoir and gave a small bow to the guards, voices now picking up beyond the other set of doors now. Two of the large pokemon, a rhydon and aggron seemed to growl, but one motion from the secretary silenced them and they opened the larger door that opened up in a rather fancy office now, the voices loud and clear.

"Profit margins remain a concern Mr. Eve. While we remain profitable from the actions of the company alone, the monetary costs of moving supplies and personal around the entire island of Japan has, at least on paper, taken nearly every last bit of profit the company is making." A voice stated from around the corner as the secretary walked the gardevoir into the room.

"Your lordships, my kings." The secretary stated as she rounded the corner first where seven people were talking around a large overly fancy desk with a wonderful view looking out over the western side of the city showing such a great view of the older parts of the city, still old and unchanging in the modern times and the gardevoir just smiled a bit enjoying that view for now.

"You requested to see our guest. I cannot say if she is talkative today though." The secretary stated looking over the two guards on either side of the room, both who nodded and the secretary returned outside again.

"D... was it?" Another man asked as the man sitting alone behind the desk started to stand.

"Yes. She goes by D right now. We really don't speak her proper name. It makes her very... irritable." The man behind the desk stated, holding out his hand and pointing to a spare chair by the wall. The guard beside quickly moved and brought it closer to the desk, but still kept it a bit to the side and out of immediate arms reach of the others.

"Her name is Dahlia." Another of the man stated, giving her a long look.

"Prince Sharey." Dahlia just stated as she down and focused her attention to a large fish tank for the moment.

"My name is Shannon, and I am a King. You should show more respect for your betters after we have spent so much time trying to save you." The same man replied.

"Queen Sharey, the Short Sighted, They who rule over numbers and the pocket it is. Have you seen some of these fancy new purses that were just released this fall. They'll really accent your eyes and I've kept meaning to tell you, I really do think that a flowering kimono with a autumn theme would be perfect f-" Dahlia continued, only for King Shannon to stand up and draw a knife.

"Enough." He stated, but quickly held the knife out and one of the guards walked up and took it, before stepping back. "If you wish to take up violence against me, then stop hiding behind words. You have already been bested, you are at our mercy, and mercy it is. I can readily remind you of the power we wield, of the will and order that protect."

Dahlia finally turned back towards the group. "If you want me to escape, make a better scene. And stop hiding a spare knife in your boots for me to try and take. I prefer something larger anyway."

"As you can see, she's quite the handful, but she's been cooperative with almost everything we ask, if a bit... vocal about it." Mr. Eve stated.

"Aside from the topic of assisting us." Another of the men stated.

"Give her time. She's been brainwashed for decades before we rescued her. Those are powerful things to overcome to be herself and see the evil she was ai-" They continued, only for Dahlia turn.

"I will have no problem taking those knifes in your boots and cutting out your tongues." Dahlia stated before getting up and taking her chair over to the window, enjoying the view while she could.

"Mr. Ren. I suggest you avoid the topic of her life before our involvement. She's not as harmless as you think even with that harness on her. She prefers hand to hand combat and I would keep anything spear like out of her hands... And seriously, swap out those spears for axes or maces in the main hall." Mr. Eve stated, before picking up another file.

"Back to the subject at hand, our expansion please? It will take D a bit to consider being nice, so let's conduct the matter originally at hand. After D has "warmed" up to our presence, she may be more willing talk about her predicament." Mr. Eve stated handing over a folder to King Shannon.

"Yes, about that. Mr Eve, you assured us that you could increase the profit potential of Master Shippers over the original Exotic Exports. You have continued to meet all prior expectations, as well as manage the financial obligations that we requested originally, but that steam that you had early on, its ... to be frank, slowing down." Mr. Ren stated while King Shannon looked over the folder.

"Competition in the field of shipping for pokemon related goods and services in the Sinnoh region has more then tripled in the past four years alone. As acceptance among the general population continues to expand and demand increases, you've been meeting that demand. The problem is that there are now dozens of others trying to meet the demand as well since the concept has taken root now. Small scale local shops are handling small one off packages, there are dozens of various two man groups trying to mimic the success of larger companies and with the acceptance of more pokemon in the workplace, many people are training flying type pokemon to handle other deliveries as well." Mr. Ren continued.

"Yes yes, they are. The folder I just handed King Shannon is my next expansion plan. I have yet to have a non-profitable month and I intend to keep it that way. I've taken extra measures in this as well to help ensure the purchase of a new warehouse for official use and three more to handle the increase in space we need. Part of the reason that we've seen a drop in business lately has been because we can't handle the total sum of goods we're being asked to transport and have a small back log." Mr Eve continued.

"And I see you're predicting profits again in the first month after purchase and a slow rise in the next two years afterwards. You're taking a careful approach with things, but you always manage to increase and improve." The third man sitting before Mr. Eve stated.

"I put the safety of the knights above my personal gains King Light. Our suits, my extra time spent with my hair, this silly notion that my nails must be well kept, these expenses are for the business yes, but not for my gains. Any risks I for the sake of Master Shippers are always covered by my personal funds. So far, the seven risks I have taken have all paid themselves back, but not right away. I wouldn't dare risk the resources of the knights carelessly."

Dahlia was already getting a bit annoyed though as she just stayed at the window. "I don't seriously have to sit in and listen to all of this again do I?" She grumbled, only for the door behind them around the corner to open up again, Dahlia starting to lick her lips again at the thought of lunch, easily recognizing the sound of wheels on a metal cart.

"Your lunches my lordships and Kings." The voice started behind them, only for a small pause as they walked around the corner and saw the extra guest in the room. "And D is here... Apologies D, but the Dark Denizen Delights has currently come under something of a large, shall we say set of issues. It may be closing its doors for good. It would appear that it may be Henry's work again. I keep saying that we need a knight or two in the police department and these things wouldn't happen, but handling such petty low scale criminals really shouldn't be such a strenuous task for the local police. Just what have they been doing with the donations we provide." The lady in charge of the cart stated going off on a small rant now.

"Seriously, the smell of ash coming off stone can only come from so many pokemon, and given that no one saw anything that caused the fire means it can only be from small enough to not be seen hiding behind the back alley dumpsters. I swear if they spent any time actually analyzing things, they've have legitmate reason to lock up half the low lives in the city and with just a little pressure, you could break anyone of them, without even leaving a mark." She continued as she moved up and the guards came up, looking over the trays.

"Mr Ren, two double bacon cheese burgers from that little port side exotic diner, and two bottles filtered spring water." The woman stated handing the guard the first box as well as two glass bottles.

"King Light, a large curry and rice bowl and black coffee." She continued pulling up another box after checking it.

"And for the rest of you, I thought I would try this little bakery and got you all smoked cheddar on honeyed ham sandwiches and milkshakes since you wanted to try something new." She continued as she tapped the rest of the boxes still on the cart, before reaching under the cart and pulling out a different box.

"As for you D, I tried to find another place that had carried crab fried rice, but the closest I could get today was that little ramen shop over by the port side warehouse. I picked up two servings, shrimp and chicken." She continued as the guard double checked Dahlia's meal to make sure that wasn't anything else added.

"If you're talking about that third rate hack job shack on the public access pier, you can send it back. That's one chef who should be arrest for crimes against nature." Dahlia half snapped waving the guard back.

"You'd better get use to the cook we have then, because I don't see Dark Denizen Delights opening back up again." The woman replied firmly, before giving a bow to others. "I'll send Jones up with some rice balls for our unsavory guest. If you'd like dessert, he'll take your requests while I'm busy cleaning up the kitchens for tomorrow night's ceremony."

With her final words, and glare at Dahlia, she took the cart and went to leave again. "I feel that I must apologize on behalf of D, my kings." Mr. Eve stated.

"I'm not apologizing and you're not allowed to do it for me." Dahlia half snapped, before getting up and walking away, off to the study section of the office where she started to just glance over the display cases and books.

"I'm curious about this section here." Mr. Ren stated as Dahlia left, but was still in sight and earshot, one of the guards following her, or at least keeping her in full view at all times. "It looks like the recent investors meeting that you held last week turned out a bit of success with two new clients. This note about there being some conditions attached to their investments though, its a little vague."

"Oh, why yes. That's part of what I was going to explain more in full tomorrow. The simple explanation is that Mr. Kale is looking for someone to handle his new business venture and his usual partners are not so keen on the adaptations of the rising pokemon trends at the moment." Mr. Eve explained.

"I've arranged an appointment with our finical advisor tomorrow to go over some of the finer points. Its a risk to fulfull some of the conditions that were asked of us, a bit riskier then I would like, but I'm open to hearing additional arguments." He continued.

"Yes, I can see that. He wants us to start up a fairly new part of operations along the coast." King Light stated, giving a small nod, clearly thinking it over himself.

"You can't be serious..." Dahlia stated finally turning around, having had enough.

"I'm sorry?" Mr. Eve stated looking to her. "What are you implying?"

"I'm flat out stating... that you're a damn fool, an overly cautious bastard of a coward, and don't know how to really run a business!" Dahlia snapped. "How can you just so easily accept this? You're supposed to be kings right? With proper advisors and actual experts, and you leave this leech in charge!"

"A leech!" Mr. Eve shouted back now standing up in full and glaring at Dahlia. "I apologize. This is why I argued against keeping her while we discussed business."

Dahlia's solution was simple though as she just firmly walked up completely full slugged Mr. Eve, her punch throwing him back a few feet and toppling over his chair, and into a bookshelf.

"Mr. Kale was prepared to invest five times that amount into the business! He's not looking for someone to just handle a new personal project and business of his, he's looking for someone new, someone part of the new computer age, who will try to be stay on top of things as they come out instead of cowering behind the "steady and safe" way you damned bastard." Dahlia yelled, even as one the guards rushed up and grabbed her, pinning her back against the wall as the other guard helped Mr. Eve up.

"You could have tripled last years profit margin even and been set to double that again this year if you ever pulled your head out of ass! The entirety of his success is that of his advisors, and he turns down over half of their suggestions by default." Dahlia screamed, but with a grin on her face. Between a hungry stomach, all of the other things she had put with in the past week, and now the only good place to eat in the city shutting down as she was concerned, she just needed something to amuse her and blow off some steam.

"And you think that you could do better?" King Light asked, still remaining sitting as Mr. Eve was finally on his feet.

"I know I can do better! I've run two businesses of my own before, I've helped merchant clans gain favor and trust, I know my fucking way around a damn ledger and check book! And here you are trying to take some bumbling clown serious that's he's the best pick for running things! His primary consultant team consists of his brother, two half-assed understudy knights, and a fucking magic eight ball, while the rest of his advisors actually try to clean up his messes behind his back. He's a joke, he won't last another three years at this point before he bankrupts everything! His success so far has purely been because of that single government contract." Dahlia stated, testing the guards grip on her arms for the moment, while the other guard began dusting Mr. Eve off, as well as wiping some blood from his nose and lip.

"If you really think that you can do better, why not show us." King Shannon stated, just watching for the moment, before Mr. Eve rushed back over.

"Show us? No, she needs to be removed. She's clearly not escaping, but she's still a threat." Mr. Eve stated as King Light nodded to the guard who let Dahlia go.

"Move it leech!" Dahlia snapped as she rushed back to the desk, but Mr. Eve clearly had enough too and went to punch Dahlia back. Dahlia just quickly grabbed a large book on his desk and slammed that into his coming fist before twisting around and giving a solid right hook to his jaw knocking him right back onto his ass, and then looking all over the desk, before finding a few files.

"Mr. Kale wants to partner up with a new business. He's not looking for the slow and cautious group, he's looking for someone willing to take risks and try new things. He's not concerned if the immediate risks pay out or not, he wants someone in charge who is willing to try new things. The pokemon trade and new coming age of pokemon interaction in daily everyday city life is only growing, and it won't stop. You'll need larger trucks to handle the larger machines which are best left assembled in factories right now, but a lot of the older companies are not willing to invest in the extra costs that comes from the heavier grade trucks and personal training for handling pokemon. A lot of those machines use thunder stones as capacitors right now and those can attract pokemon, to say nothing of electric type pokemon just being drawn to the new power plants to keep up with the power demand." Dahlia started, handing them a folder now and then looking over the desk, trying to rip over locked drawers.

With her having been called out though, she just grabbed a corner of the desk and flipped it to the side, cracking and breaking it before ripping off a partially dislodged drawer and went for the markers inside it running up the wall.

"And then there is Mrs. Asagi. The Asagi family is ALL about style, grace, and elegance. She could spot this imitation desk a mile away, and that second rate suit the clown wears is a complete insult to her. The entire premise of the Asagi Family Business is to hold themselves to an extremely high standard. They are considering opening their own limited shipping company to handle their products because no one here seems to care about the image that makes them who they are. The entire world looks at them for the the idea of grace, fashion, and high standards. Four trucks, six drivers, and six high class well trained pokemon could impress them enough to sign a single five year contract, which could be improved and brought up to a crew of twenty trucks in three years and almost forty drivers could be an easy long term contract that would practically rebuild Exotic Exports and then some!" Dahlia snapped, quickly writing up dozes of things all over the glass window.

"This clown barely keeps anything he makes, and recycles almost everything back into your pocket book, and tries to use those limited profits to win your favor instead of reinvesting and taking the chance to actually learn anything about the investors who come here. He's right, the suits, the office, food, those are all expenses, but he's doing it all wrong for what actually needs done. He's got this whole one size fits all idea and has no clue about the actual target audience he's trying to impress!" Dahlia screamed as she wrote up half a dozen different names and details about each of them, including the names of Mrs Asagi and Mr Kale.

"His larger joint meetings with investors who clearly aren't on the same page as each other looking for very different things and trying to impress everyone is actually impressing no one. He's also very stingy about loans and only tries to pay for things up front in full with cash. Those four trucks last season that broke down? You all got stuck with the bill and legal fees and more because you did it all on your own. IF you had gotten a large loan and used that to the buy the trucks, then you would have seen results in the week, because Master Shippers is a small scale operation in the large scheme of things, but everyone uses the bank and they've got much better lawyers. If those trucks broke down while they were technically bank assets and still being paid off, it would have cut into their profits and they would have taken a far more direct interest in seeing that sorted out quickly." She continued, before turning back to the men on the other side of the desk.

"Instead, the clown here took the very slow and steady route, wasting time, showing others that maybe he can be walked all over. If he had been aggressive with that case, he would have shown some major initiative and backbone, shown that we are ready to take things up to the next level. This slow and steady wins the race hardly even begins to cover costs for trying to hold down two sets of operations at once! If this was a free running business, without the extra expenses, all might be well, the extra funding could be reused to grow and expand, but he's at his limit! For that matter, he's fucking scared of his own little successes so far. Hell, he can't even do simple stuff." Dahlia continued rummaging around back on the folders again, grabbing a few papers here and there, before reaching around and handing them off.

"Look here, and here. This was easy money, and he tossed it out. He only wants recurring customers, but think of the community relationships." Dahlia stated before rushing over to the bookshelf and throwing book after book down on the ground looking for a specific one, before finding the log book she wanted, quickly reviewing the paper. "Yes, we would lose a little money on small one off shipments, but here's the thing. We've got few relations for smaller shops just starting up. And because this clown can't keep the large fish on the hook, you've got to take a few losses on the little ones. Build up trust and relations with all the little guys, buy out a few of the little companies to give them some better trucks and you double business in a few months. He's so locked onto a specific set of clientele and working only to fulfill the small set of terms of the government contract that he's ignoring everything else!" Dahlia stated circling name after name on the ledger.

"Every name here, they've personally called the head offices. I've heard these names dozens of time and every time, its always the same. Mr. Eve has to sign off this or that, Mr. Eve wants a bigger contract, but we're the only outfit on the south side of Eternia city with trucks to move a few things quickly and he's not even taking that because its all small scale stuff, no steady profit. If Jenkins was around still and running this like he was running Exotics, he'd be appalled at how far this leech has dragged the business down. He needs to make us his mind and actually look to what the customers need, not what he wants." Dahlia continued as Mr. Eve was finally picked up again and conscious.

"Mr. Eve... are there reports true?" Mr. Ren asked looking over the list of names and companies who had called that Dahlia gave him.

"Every last word, talk to anyone on the phones you let come up to my floors! They... whe-where, where is it?" Dahlai started, turning and looking through the mess of papers again, on her hands and knees looking over everything before pulling up a small note pad and flipping through it, before ripping a page out. "Here, here it is. A list of requirements before any one is even allowed to consider thinking about taking shipping information. Now I know that some of these are required, but look at this one, look at number four. Do not take any shipments from east seventh street or further. Do you know whats on eighth street? A small scale money laundering shop and a sub shop that the police have staked out right now. And he only knows that right now because his brother in law gave a tip the police about after he went and picked a fight with the guys there because they wouldn't apologize for using a vulpix in the kitchen and the girl he was trying to impress is scared of fire types! Her fear of fire types and accidentally finding a single small time hideout and he's cut off business to sixteen streets, seven of which have business we could take!" Dahlia screamed.

"You leave Franko and Fiona of out this." Mr Eve shouted now. "Get her out of here!" He snapped at the two guards, but King Light just raised his hand to stop them for the moment.

"And you believe that you can... what? Do better at this? You can do Mr. Eve's job better then can without his extensive schooling and high class upbringing?" Mr. Ren asked.

"Better? Better! Its not much of a competition if he walks himself right off a building! Its almost like he's trying to sabotage himself." Dahlia snapped but Mr. Eve when to strike her again even taking the knife from his belt, only for her to duck under his attack, grabbing his arm, twisting him around and onto his knees, pinning his arm to his back while throwing him to the floor and then letting him go.

"Prove it." Mr. Ren stated and Dahlia quickly looked down thinking it over, a hand on her chin in deep thought before suddenly looking back up. She rushed over, grabbed the permanent markers again and then rushed to the fish tank.

"The Brothers Three Deliveries!" Dahlia quickly stated writing that on the fish tank and circling it several times.

"Make immediate arrangements to buy them out, and be strong about it. They can't handle what they are trying to do, they need big time support to make it work, but the theory is sound. They handle dozens of deliveries for packages and parcels all throughout the eastern side of the city by horse back in addition to the small box trucks they have." Dahlia continued, even drawing a small horse on the tank.

"Buy them out, and make arrangements for them to keep running everything as is, but with our investments, we could get them training another twenty riders, almost three times as many as they have now. There are dozens of older roads all throughout the city that large trucks can't get down and park on without blocking traffic. Those mom and pop shops don't purchase enough stuff to warrant large trucks down there anyway, but they also don't have shipping options, so let's give them one. There are lots of festivals nearby, but people don't always buy things because they can't get what they want home or might be back there in a timely fashion and that deters them from buying some things. If they could have things shipped out from there though, they would see an increase in business and we use those same riders and horses to deliver things in the older historical parts of town." Dahlia started.

"Not only that, but if we had a number of horses with saddle bags, it would impress Mrs Asagi. It won't be enough on its own, but its a start. Secondly, buy out that garage right next door to Brothers Three. We don't have enough mechanics in the city. It won't be good by itself, but that old decaying theater behind it. It needs leveled anyway but no one wants to buy it. We do, but it needs to be now. We buy it, level it, and put a truck depot there. Its a central location with access to three different highways within two city blocks. That section of town is rapidly growing, get it while its cheap and before the city takes it over because they'll jack up the price to cover the demolitions fees." Dahlia explained writing a lot of it down.

"Next, double down on smaller shipments. Find and buy out two more smaller shipping companies and keep them mostly self run. Show the little folks that not every corporate giant is out to take their hard earned money. Build a relationship with the smaller people while impressing the big ones. That's the first step right now. Taking the risks also immediately impresses Mr. Kale and we'll have a contract with him in a month. He doesn't care if they pan out right now, he wants to see someone taking risks like he use to. We need new clients, so start small, less risk and also very little reward, but that's only right now. We want to show the people we can be trusted, that we can handle all sorts of things." Dahlia continued taking a moment to add some bullet points as she wrote out her plan.

"Remember, the shipping business for pokemon related goods and services are still young. But the idea is that it will just be another part of life. Eventually the idea is that there will be dozens of pokemon shops all over the major cities, just look at what's happening in Kanto right now. One in ten shops have a pokemon doing something in the shop itself. And construction crews? All over Japan, more and more constructions crews are bringing fighting types like machamp onto the work site. Which means an increase of safety gear for them, and pokemon safety gear? It needs shipped right, that's a practically untapped line of business and we've got some experience with pokemon where a lot of the other old time shipping companies haven't wanted to invest in. Start now, beat them to it." Dahlia explained, quickly started drawing a very crude face, Mr. Eve's face on the fish tank now, along with a number of arrows and insults as she kept writing all over the tank.

Each arrow specifically pointed out something that Mr. Eve had turned down prior, before at last she stepped back. "Everything that's wrong here all comes back to his self sabotage, his refusal to expand. He keeps trying to set the terms of what people can do business with us, but he's ignoring the fact that in the shipping business, we don't go to people, they come to us. We don't own the market, we didn't invent the idea of shipping things, you are all new to this. You're also way to small and new at this to even pretend to be a giant and you don't have enough of a client base to set the terms and turn away new customers." Dahlia stated turning back and facing them, making sure that Mr. Eve's face, along with the crude mustache and googly mustache was on display.

Mr. Ren, King Light, King Shannon and the other two people who had remained silent all looked at each other before King Light stood up.

"Take D back up to her floor. And put together a list of every place to eat within the city. Perhaps she missed a place that she may enjoy getting something to eat at unless she intends to our cooks manage her meals." King Light stated, the two guards moving for Dahlia who just grumbled and starting walking for the door on her own, where her care takers met her. Waiting a moment for the elevator to start up, King Light turned towards the man on his left who had been silent the entire time, but kept taking notes.

"John, your welcome to speak freely. Please do for that matter." King Light stated.

"I've long has my suspicions about Mr. Eve's ability to handle more then just the accounting books, but you've always been a better judge of character then myself. His devotion to our order is clearly unquestioned, but his recent reveal of flaws should be put under review. You've asked me my opinions on Mr. Eve's capabilities here before and I voiced concerns then. I would like to state now that I would adjust those concerns and now find myself ruling heavily against Mr. Eve's control of Master Shippers." The formerly silent man stated very clearly.

"And your opinions King Marth." King Light asked.

"I find her pride to be her downfall and still mistrust her. She's been very defiant of our generosity from the start. My lack of understanding such operations from a business standpoint also hinder my opinions of this question, but I do know that she speaks the truth of Mrs. Asagi and her family. Mr. Eve was poorly prepared to interact with them." The other formerly silent man stated.

"How is Mr. Eve?" Mr. Ren asked seeing the guard still looking him over.

"Concussion is very likely, but he's still mostly conscious. She also very clearly chose to not inflict real harm against him, even though we told him not to carry a weapon against her." The guard standing over him stated, slowly helping him stand.

"Well, she continues to prove how dangerous she still is resisting us, and how she doesn't need her abilities to inflict harm. She also isn't taking any overt chances to escape, despite the traps we have set hoping that she might lead us to the last demon." King Shannon noted.

"Try as you might... she's not taking any of the bait we present. Mr. Eve clearly took it a bit far, but I don't think she has any intention to escape. I don't know if this means she wants to accept our mercy, or if its just her pride, or if she intends for us to protect her now. Either way, her pride is something that we can use against her perhaps." King Light stated.

"She was rather convincing with this sudden proposal for expansion. And she is right about Mrs. Asagi. A collective of horsemen making deliveries should be enough for them to take notice. If we can indeed train other pokemon to do the same, some thing more regal perhaps, we could make personal deliveries to the Asagi Family itself." King Marth added.

"Yes, her pride did seem to make her put effort into calling out and showing up Mr. Eve... And she did point out his flaws and problems well. She also mentioned merchant clans and owning businesses in the past. How old is she again? She seems to have knowledge of this field of business, but she clearly hasn't obtained such teachings from us, not to learn that much." Mr. Ren noted.

"We know that a gardevoir was at one of the demon's side for generations. It may have shared its youth with her. In any case, I'm curious about this plan. John, you took detailed notes?" King Light asked.

"I always do, but I'll jot down a few more after studying everything she wrote on the windows and fish tank. I assume you would like them organized?" John nodded.

"Yes. We'll talk with an outside finical advisor and ask their opinions on this." King Light stated as he slowly got up, reaching for his little package of food.

"And what of Mr. Eve, King Light." One of the guards asked.

"Help him up and clean him up a bit. He was supposed to antagonize her a bit, but its not our fault that he took this so personally. He's supposed to be keeping track of her, limiting her information, but she seems to be outsmarting him. King Marth, I suppose I shall leave her punishment up to you. Nothing too bad, enough to remind her that we are in charge still, but it may be wise to make arrangements for a new care taker." King Light stated.

"I'll find someone more suited to keeping her line and trying to get her to open up." King Marth stated.

~xXx~

One month later...

Two large men in black striped suits held firm on Dahlia, hands tightly over their on the gardevoir's arms keeping her still while the elevator moved up. "This is really getting dull." Dahlia stated as the elevator stopped, and with the same usual ding, the elevator opened up.

It was the same small waiting room as time, with the same number of guards, armed with swords, maces, and axes and no spears this time. The secretary just looked up slowly as Dahlia walked off the elevator, and stood slowly, in the same exact outfit as last time.

Dahlia just walked up, and spread her arms out, just bored with it as she was patted down again, and then the door was opened up and once more she was met with growls that were called off by the secretary. "Oh stuff it up your ass grumpy." Dahlia just grumbled as she walked in and the door was opened up letting her pass into the office space.

Her actions from last time had been mostly cleaned up, the fish tank replaced entirely, a better desk now resting where the last one was, and Mr. Eve sat there just glaring at her as she rounded the corner. "And to what displeasure am I owed today?" Dahlia started, only to notice five guards instead of the usual two in the room. "If you wanted to beat me on, surely my cell would have been better suited, but that's fine. I'll make sure to get blood on everything."

Before it could go any further though, the doors behind her opened again, and four men were being greeted inside, three that Dahlia recognized. Mr. Ren, King Light, and King Shannon were being escorted to the room as usual.

"Oh, an audience? Did I push a few too many buttons last time?" Dahlia smirked, but quickly lost interest already as she just moved over to a spare seat and fell right back into it. "Can we make this quick. I've got four walls to stare at downstairs and I've almost figured out what color carpet would match the drapes I've decided I want to go with the window I'm going to put in once I can find a pickax."

"King Light, King Shannon." Mr. Eve stated, giving a large bow before motioning to the seats in front of his desk.

"D, you'll be required for this meeting." King Light stated pointing to a seat and one guard came up and moved the chair closer to the desk, but still off to the side, while another guard moved up to where Dahlia was sitting.

"Oh, it is an audience this time." Dahlia stated getting back up and just walking slowly up to the desk and chosen seat now. "Are we going with handcuffs or duct tape this time?"

"Mr Eve, we have a few things to discuss." Mr. Ren stated as he walked up and opened up the briefcase, pulling out a few folders, and then going for one specific paper. "Starting with your resignation."

"I'm sorry. Have I done something improper?" Mr. Eve asked.

"D here has made quite the convincing argument. We've spent the past month reviewing her claims and we've found quite a bit of truth in them. More importantly, it would appear that the financial advisors at The Golden Dawn Bank were rather impressed with her suggestions and ideas. I've taken the liberty of altering the ideas just a bit, but I've also had access to more information." Mr. Ren stated.

"You're firing me. Over her!" Mr. Eve stated, pointing to Dahlia, who now had a very eager grin on her face.

"And what a joy this is! I didn't know I was getting a present today. I would have asked for a shower to be more presentable if I had known this was going to be a party!" Dahlia laughed out rather loudly now.

"You can't be serious my kings. And you approve? I've been nothing but loyal." Mr. Eve stated.

"Indeed you have. And for that, we're asking for your resignation, and have other assignments for you, something more suited to your strengths. D here has shown that you are taking this a bit too cautiously, and a bit too personally. When we started this venture, we asked you to transfer in from some private operations back in the Hoenn Region. We would ask you to return to heading that operation. King Marth is preparing for your return there if you would like to return there." King Light stated.

"What... but my time. My efforts here." Mr. Eve stated.

"A review of your tactics here show that you have reached your limits. We're attempting to be generous with this offer, but the Kings have spoken and decided that for the time being, I will be taking over running Master Shippers, with some unusual help." Mr. Ren stated.

"And just who do you think could possibly help you. Anywhere I go, my team will surely follow me." Mr. Eve stated, still having trouble with everything about this.

This time, King Light pulled out a file from the brief case and looked through a few things. "Juliana Trinity, our new Financial Consultant." King Light stated after flipping through a few pages, and then handing the file up.

"I... don't recognize this woman." Mr. Eve stated.

"Doubtful you would as Juliana Trinity, the human, does not actually exist." King Shannon stated rather bluntly. "But if they are to receive a paycheck, they will need an identity regardless in order to make sure that everything still looks proper on paper."

"I beg your pardon my kings? I'm not sure I understand." Mr. Eve asked rather confused now.

"Juliana Trinity... is the new "human" identity of D." King Light stated, motioning to Dahlia now.

"We Kings have come to a decision at our last meeting. The usual methods of trying to earn her assistance have proved fruitless, so we would try to show her kindness, show her how much better her life could be. As Julia Trinity, D here shall be our new leading financial consultant, and earn a paycheck based on her consultations. The money that she would earn will be hers, and she may spend as she sees fit, within reason." King Light explained.

"A risky venture to be sure, but she's already proven her expertise in this field. Two outside advisors from other banks were impressed with the ideas, and offered a few of their own twists, but they both agreed with buying out The Brothers Three Deliveries. Mr. Kale also offered a very large investment to help with those purchases." King Shannon continued.

"And I shall taking the current role of CEO of Master Shippers until such a time that I choose to keep the job, or we some of the newer recruits we have complete their own business courses and prove more suited to the task." Mr. Ren explained as Dahlia quickly got up.

"Okay, joke's over. Ha ha, I'm going back to my room. When your ready to start punching me, I'll be waiting, but this. You must think I'm some special kind of stupid." Dahlia stated going to leave, but the guards stepped in her way.

"Move it." She stated firmly, but they didn't move.

"This is not a joke D. I have your first paycheck here as a matter of fact." Mr. Ren stated as Mr. Eve just fell back, feinting from the shock and sheer disbelief, Dahlia quickly turning around.

"Okay, that was worth it, but I'm still not buying this sick joke." Dahlia stated as she looked at the unconscious Mr. Eve.

One of the guards was just lightly poking Mr. Eve though, and shook his head when he didn't respond.

"This is not a joke D." King Light stated as he got up and looked back towards D, reaching over and taking the paycheck slipped into the folder holding Juliana's identity. "You've been under our care for almost twenty years now, and you still seem bound by-" King Light started, only for Dahlia lash out.

"You're trending thin ice there. You say his name and I'll cut your tongue out!" She half screamed, the guards blocking the door quickly grabbing her arms.

"Release her... this is supposed to be an exercise in trust." King Light stated, the guards slow to release Dahlia.

"Starting today, you will be one of my advisors. I shall ask your opinions on many things regarding the operations of Master Shippers, and you will be paid the same as any employee. A portion shall be taken out for rent, utilities, and taxes to make sure the identity does not fall under question, but the rest shall be spent as you please, within reason." Mr. Ren stated, nodding for the guards to move Mr. Eve and take him out of the room, while Mr. Ren took his spot behind the desk.

"You shall remain entirely within our custody, and we shall limit what you can buy. Anything that we deem you attack us with, any form of communication to the outside world, anything that would take you outside of our care are all clearly things we won't allow you to purchase. But we'll be ... willing... to allow you many other things. A television, movies, a radio, books, food, entertainment. There will be plenty of things that we will make arrangements for you to spend your paycheck on." King Shannon explain, reaching up and taking another sheet from the folder containing the information on Juliana Trinity.

"This is a more elaborated list of things that we have entirely ruled out and things that will let you purchase, but these lists are always subject to change at any time without your consent or even notice." He added, offering the paper to Dahlia who just threw it down.

"And you seriously expect me to believe any of this? That you're just seriously going to give me some job here, to someone you hate so much." Dahlia demanded.

"We believe that this choice may prove beneficial to us both. We believe that your suffering from something called Stockholm Syndrome. We would like to show you that we are prepared to truly help you." King Light replied.

"Then put your money where your mouths are because I don't believe you. You want me to really believe that you want to do some good, then show me. The pokemon wildlife center is struggling and needs some extra funding this year, AND P.A.R.C.A. could use some funds to get ready to start building some pokemon centers at some key points throughout the Sinnoh Region! If you want my help here, then I'm telling you to make a large, and I mean large, like ten thousand dollar each donations them so that they can do some real good!" Dahlia snapped.

"How does a total of fifty-thousand sound, split between then?" Mr. Ren countered.

"You sure about this?" King Shannon stated.

"Not all at once clearly, it will be hard to justify that when we don't have it right away. But she did tell us to put our money where our mouths are metaphorically speaking. More, she is right about a few things though, including trying to show that we want to build relations with the community, something that Mr. Eve was too mistrusting to do. And we do intend to help with the greater causes of the world. I think we can afford five thousand to each at the moment, and again later, and again after that. They both have a few different fund raising events throughout the year, and it would be easier at the moment to make smaller donations." Mr. Ren offered.

"Your serious..." Dahlia stated, slowly taking a step forward.

"We are. The kings have decided to try a new approach to your situation. No one is coming for you, but we know that one demon still yet remains. We're not asking you to help us find him, not today, but you need to see that you don't need to live in fear of them or under their shadow any longer." King Light explained, Dahlia quickly closing her fists.

"The only shadow I'm living under, is yours." Dahlia snapped, but still took a few steps forward, moving towards the desk and then grabbing the file of Juliana Trinity, looking it over more carefully.

"The offer is open for consideration. If Juliana wishes to come work for Master Shippers, you only need to say so. And you can spend your paycheck however you wish, within reason." King Light stated again.

"I want a new bed, and my own actual shower and bathroom." Dahlia stated, King Light motion for a guard to approach as he reached up and took the notepad off of Mr. Eve's former desk, as well as pen. Writing something down, he quickly handed it to the guard and the nodded to Dahlia.

"I'll have the guards bring up whatever catalogs there are for shops in the city, and we'll come to an arrangement for you to try out some mattresses somehow." King Light stated.

"Then... I might be willing consider this." Dahlia stated, still reading over the folder.