“I-what?”

“I am part of an organization called the Order of Transcendence and I’m offering you a chance to join us,” she explained, not a hint of her usual condescending manner in her voice.

I ran my hand over my head, the short, prickly hair scratching my palm. “I...I don’t know…”

“What’s the hesitation?” she asked, folding her arms. “We’re a group dedicated to stopping and reversing the Dev’s influence preventing Trainers from wrongfully imprisoning innocent Bearmons.”

Swallowing nervously, I scratched the space behind my ear. “That’s a, uh, noble cause and all but I’m not really sure about joining…”

Rebecca sighed. “You still want to fight, don’t you?”

“I mean…”

“That’s understandable,” she said. “Plenty in our organization still find dueling other Trainers acceptable.” She paused, eyeing me. “I don’t, but I can’t stop you from thinking the same.”

You’d try if I joined, though, wouldn’t you?

I didn’t call her out, though, and just listened. It was better to let her talk than argue.

“Have you dueled already, Ronald?” she asked.

“Um…” I didn’t see how lying would benefit me but I was still hesitant to tell her the truth. Would she sic Ghare on me if she knew how messed up Pando was? I shuddered to think of being struck by another one of those energy balls.

I still need to find a way to heal Pando but I can focus on that later when I have some peace and quiet.

I realized she was staring at me expectantly, waiting for an answer. “Yeah, I have.”

Tensing up, I waited for her to demand to see my Bearmon and get royally pissed. I mentally constructed an argument in my defense - I’m new to dueling; I was gonna get it fixed before you came; the game mechanics screwed me over! But all she did was sigh and step back.

“I’d have hoped to catch you before this happened; I should’ve known you wouldn’t be able to resist your first duel with you being so impulsive. Still, though, I wouldn’t have expected someone as dimwitted as Gaylord Perrywinkle managed to bait you into a fight.”

“So you were stalking me with that thing?” I asked, not entirely surprised by still incredulous.

She waved a dismissive hand. “Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I sent her over when I noticed that fat cunt rushing toward your dorm building.”

I made a face, uncomfortable with her unnecessary name-calling. I didn’t particularly like Archibald myself - he did try to fleece me of my only Bearmon, after all - but she seemed overly hostile toward him. I wasn’t going to speak up on his behalf, though, but she noticed my expression anyway.

“Don’t give me that look,” she snapped. “The Perrywinkle family are strong advocates on behalf of the Devs. I can’t stand those idiot ass kissers, what with their-”

She continued to rant and I tuned her out, not wanting an earful of negative opinions about people I hardly knew. I learned most of her squabbles with the rich snobs on campus weren’t worth knowing about; she was always hating on some random schmuck for one reason or another.

Eventually, though, I was starting to get impatient. I wasn’t her personal gossip giver anymore; I had things to do and I couldn’t care less about Archibald and his peeps.

I clapped my hands, regaining her attention. She narrowed her eyes at me and opened her mouth to speak, but I rushed to talk before she could get the words out. “Rebecca, look, I’ve got some stuff on my plate that I need to take care of. You know what that’s like; you always do. So if we could finish up here, that’d be great.”

That was a ballsy declaration, but I was getting tired of this ‘conversation’. I wanted to know what she was offering and get this over with. The longer she stayed here, the thinner my self-control got.

Rebecca frowned. “Fine. I….was going to tell you that the Devs were severely limiting your dueling potential.”

“What?”

“Oh, come on, Ronald,” she sighed, exasperated. “Don’t you think a turn-based fight in real life is kind of detrimental to the whole idea of fighting? How can you get the upper hand if you’re stuck waiting for your opponent to make the next move?”

“I….guess it is weird.”

“Not just weird, restrictive,” she corrected, curling her lips into a snarl. “Under the Devs, imprisoned Bearmon aren’t even allowed to attack the enemy Trainers you face. Wouldn’t it just be simpler to spit a fireball at your opponent and call it a day?”

“That sounds boring,” I quietly disagreed.

She dismissed my opinion easily. “That doesn’t matter! The point is, the Devs are limiting your fighting power, restricting your Bearmon’s combat abilities, and so much more. Did you already get the notification that you have to pay for a Bearbase?” Seeing me nod, she continued. “Did you know that each Bearbase is personally tailored for Trainers? You’re literally paying hardwon money for something that should be given for free!”

“Right,” I murmured. “That sounds bad.”

“That sounds bad, Ronald?”

I shrugged. “What do you want me to do about it? Not get a Bearbase? I mean, I don’t even really know what it does, but it sounds important so I should probably get one. If I’ve gotta pay for it, so what?”

She huffed and grabbed my shirt, yanking me closer. Startled, I stumbled forward. Thinking that she might kiss me - which I wasn’t entirely opposed to - but she halted my momentum before my face could mash into hers. “That is the exact kind of thinking that entraps you in the Devs web of lies! They’re inefficient at their jobs, adding last-minute features that should’ve been prepared ages ago and presenting them to Trainers as ‘upgrades’. The Bearbase is nothing but a physical form of your notification screen, doing little more than map out surroundings and tell you the weather.”

That sounds useful, I thought, but I didn’t see any value in pointing out the obvious when she was too worked up to see it herself.

“You don’t need the Devs when the Order of Ascension can cut your ties and set you free,” she whispered, releasing her tight grip on my shirt in favor of reaching up to gently caress my cheek. The touch nearly fried my brain as my mind went into overdrive trying to process what was happening. “You could be so much more if you’d just let go. You know that, don’t you?”

She leaned closer, touching the tip of my nose with her own. Her breath was hot - like everything else about her - against my lips and it took everything in me not to give in right then. But a part of me thought it wouldn’t be so bad. A worryingly large part of my mind wanted to entertain the fantasy of hooking up with her again. What had gone so wrong the first time, anyway?

“Ronnie,” she breathed, pressing against my chest. She knew just how to get me excited - nicknames and physical intimacy. “I want you to join me. Join me and maybe we could-”

And then a familiar voice called from the hallway, shattering any illusion of getting back together with Rebecca: “Babe, is he with us yet or not? GM wants us back soon.”

Oh. Oh, I was so stupid. So very, very stupid.

I pulled away, feeling as duped as I’d been when I first learned she’d been cheating on me. It was sad, really, that I’d fallen for it again. Proof that I hadn’t learned my lesson the last time: Rebecca Silver was a master at getting what she wanted. And she always did.

But I wasn’t under her thumb anymore. Or, at least, I was trying not to be. She’d used me once and it’s not gonna happen again.

“Ronnie-” she reached for me, trying to grab my arm, but I sidestepped her.

“It was terrible seeing you again, Becca,” I said cheerfully. “And, like I said, I got things I’ve gotta take care of and I don’t need a snake mucking up my business. Kindly take your Bearmon and your wannabe Messi boyfriend and get out of my dorm.”

“This is all just a-”

“Get. Out.”

Sighing, she pulled a black business card out from the purse she’d dropped on the floor and placed it on my desk. “For when you stop being so emotional,” she said, turning on her heel and striding out of my dorm, Ghare following close behind her Trainer.

As soon as the door was closed, I ripped up the card, tossed it in the trash, and took a twenty-minute break to re-evaluate my life choices.